Shift-Static and Blank Canvas The Forest Cafe Edinburgh 5 December 2009
Shift-Static took the next step in their career last Saturday with a gig in Scotland. The Forest Cafe is a volunteer run, not-for-profit arts, social and events space masquerading as a groovy veggie café in the heart of Edinburgh. In its own words: “Forest is people. People is Forest. You is people. You is Forest.”
Gordon hails from Scotland’s capital and had lined up this gig, so Laura, Gordon, Charlie, Will and Joe made the trip across the border to take the stage at Edinburgh’s groovy cafe. Marie and I decided to make a weekend of it and followed Lenny Henry’s advice and booked a room in a Premier Inn on the outskirts of the city.
We easily found the Forest Cafe; its not too far from Princes Street. The stage lies at the rear of the cafe, which has a nice laid-back feel to it, with art work all over the walls and comfy settees all over the place. We took a seat near the stage ready for the arrival of the band. A folk band were on stage when we arrived; they reminded me of early Fairport.
Next up came Blank Canvas, a local band which includes Gordon’s brother Douglass on bass. Their set was a set of some originals and some well-chosen covers from Talking Heads and Orange Juice. A great set, which went down well with the crowd. Shift-Static closed the evening with a set which was cut a little short as closing time came upon us. The set was very much the same as their debut Head of Steam gig; tonight they sound much tighter and are really playing well together. Their sounds echo around the cafe and the crowd give them a great reception. A great Scottish debut for the band, in a lovely venue.
website Shift-Static: http://www.myspace.com/shiftstaticmusic
website The Forest Cafe: http://www.theforest.org.uk/
website Blank Canvas: http://www.myspace.com/blankcanvas1
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