On Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th December, The Jericho Tavern hosted a weekend full to the brim with Oxford’s finest young talent. Stewart Garden of Back And To The Left Promotions showcased a fine-up of acts from Oxford music scene newbies, old(ish) favourites and a few acts outside of the local area. With music from 13:00 to 23:00 each night, it was certainly a mini-festival for those with plenty of stamina and enthusiasm.

Saturday

So to begin, Above Us The Waves played a tight and intriguing set of post-rock instrumentals and part-folk/part-shoegaze which sounded fantastic. It was just a shame that, being the first band of the day on at 1pm, the Jericho Tavern was virtually empty. Credit to AUTW, they didn’t let their heads drop, and played as they would any other gig.

ToLiesel, who have changed up their line-up since their last set of gigs, switched their live sound from Jack and Rob’s acoustic balladry to a full band set-up including Message To Bears’ Jerome Alexander on percussion. Again, with not many present, it was a good chance for the newly put together band to get to grips with each other in a live setting.

Sonny Liston revelled in a more lively setting with more and more people having entered the Jericho throughout the day. Their intense nautical-inspired folk was powerfully delivered and Michael belted out each song with admirable cathartic passion.  The sound is pretty rough around the edges, but that may well be part of their charm.

By the time The Scholars took to the stage at 8pm, it was clear that the audience were getting into the swing of things. Someone got involved with the Radiohead-eoke, and there was some astounding dancing from a bloke at the front. The Scholars once again proved why they recently got picked up by Incremental Music with another tight set.

Borderville provided the best set on Saturday with theatrical punk full of quirky synths, furious guitar playing and off-kilter lyricism. Joe Swarbick is such a charismatic frontman that the guy who was busting those wonderful moves during The Scholars set was joined by another eager dancer, almost turning the set into some weird avant-garde dance-off (I think the first guy won the battle in all honesty). Borderville are a band of true eccentricity and extravagance, a real pleasure to see live and an honour to be part of our already vibrant and varied music scene.

Headlining  the first day of The Common Room was the mighty Dead Jerichos. I can’t really think of another band who deserves top-billing more than these guys at the moment. The set was slightly delayed due to a member of The Scholars stealing a guitar pedal (naughty boys!) and Dead Jerichos began with uncharacteristically shakiness. However, a few songs in, they gathered more and more momentum and finished the night on a high, with new single ‘Mountains’ and fan favourite ‘She Says The Word’ sounding better than ever before.

Sunday

Oh dear. Thanks to Mr. Erol Alkan playing at The Bullingdon Arms on Saturday night, I didn’t get to sleep until 7am! Feeling a little worse for wear I stumbled through the doors of the Jericho Tavern at 17:30. So apologies to The Deputees, Message To Bears, The Yarns, Spring Offensive and Band Of Hope for missing all of your sets.

Luckily, I arrived just in time to hear a quite fascinating set from Samuel Zasada. With Tom back on bass, the band was a full line-up once more and based on tonight’s performance we can only hope that Tom is tempted to stick around a while longer. But what made tonight’s performance really standout was the supreme quality of the set as a whole. Each song complimented the next and the sparseness of ‘Pursuit’ towards the end was a breathtaking change of energy and really highlighted the exquisite beauty lurking within this band.

Quite rightly, the line-up on Sunday was a far more relaxed affair than the day before (I don’t think my frazzled mind could have comprehended the splendour of a band like Borderville on a day like this) and Huck & The Handsome Fee thankfully continued the theme of tranquillity. Predominantly soothing with the occasional inflection of distorted guitars, the real highlight of their set is the back and forth between Tamara’s impressively immaculate vocals and Huck’s oddly schizophrenic delivery.

Treecreeper may not be a local act, but – by gum – they would fit into Oxford’s music scene like a trusty old pair of boots. At times they are slow and unassumingly brilliant, surely taking influence from Mark Kozelek. Then when they turned up the tempo, the three-piece who had previously seemed so content to get into the lo-fi groove, became some Crazy Horse/Wilco hybrid full of stabbing guitar solos. Brilliant stuff.

Anyone who didn’t know The Moulettes before the gig and managed to stumble across their set tonight will certainly remember this live performance for a long time. Armed with strings, percussion, a bassoon and dressed like German pirates, The Moulettes give gipsy-folk a pop twist with undeniably catchy results. The harmonies between cellist Hannah, the bassoon wielding front-lady Ruth and violinist Georgina are as accomplished as any Fleet Fox or Grizzly Bear and the influence of dance and jazz makes it impossible to keep your feet from a-stomping and your hand from a-slapping (your thigh). The best performance of the weekend, hands down.

With The Epstein pulling out at short notice, Charly Coombes And The New Breed were bumped up to the top of the bill as Sunday night headliners. The Jericho Taern was packed out and, despite suffering from flu, Charly gave a reliably energetic performance worthy to end the bill on what was a fantastic weekend.

Photography courtesy of Johnny Moto – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Johnny-Moto-Photographer/126769317369660

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