Starting with a change to the billing were Bristol electronic duo The Crisis Project, although tonight they were joined by Harri Parish, who provides vocals on their new track ‘My Only Muse’. Nestling amongst a sea of MacBooks, Keyboards and Guitars the duo/trio performed a gapless set, which blended dance and techno beats, glitchy synths and Andy Russell’s vocal into an ambient chilled-out sound. All performed to an ever changing backdrop of ephemeral imagery. The duo did well to warm up the audience both metaphorically and literally.
After a very short set up, Chad Valley appeared on stage with a greeting of ‘How you doing Bristol’ which received whoops from the small assembled crowd. Kicking off things with an amazing performance of ‘Tell All Your Friends’. By the time Hugo had moved on to a belting rendition of ‘I Owe You This’ which featured vocals from his backing singers, the crowd although small in number were dancing and bopping along like a writhing mass. And when I say belting I actually mean belting because Hugo Manuel sure knows how to belt out a tune.
Finishing the spectacular set with ‘My Girl’ the crowd were left chanting for an encore and more which is certainly understandable as I myself could sit and watch/listen to Chad Valley perform all day, and here’s hoping it won’t be long before I get another chance to see him live again very soon.