Gig report: Fred's House @ Tudor Thai Restaurant, Fenstanton

Band: Fred's House
Venue: Fringe In The Fen - Tudor Thai Restaurant, Fenstanton
Date: 08/07/13
Audience: Packed, lovely
Set: Looking Glass, I'm Not Saying, Wrong Time, Face In The Water, Marz (no drums), Last Thing I Wanted, Take A Ride, Closer, Fine Life, Too Late To Go Home, Marathon Man, Beautiful You, Twist And Shout (encore)
Notes: Fresh (okay, still rather knackered) from the Dowsing show on Saturday - which was still a remarkable feat in retrospect, I was back on stage last night, this time with Fred's House for the Fringe In The Fen festival raising money for the MacMillan Cancer Support. A band I've admired for a long while now since first seeing them a couple years ago, I've been in the studio with them recently and was very pleased to be asked to join them for a run of live dates. Alongside being the loveliest people you could ever wish to work/hang out with, these guys write simply brilliant songs - big melodies, strong choruses, they're a joy to play. They also work incredibly hard too - you can just feel the effort that has gone into the harmonies, they perform like a finished product. Which is why suddenly having a drummer on stage with them must have felt strange - but it worked, it really worked, we were all buzzing off each other. My main priority was to not disrupt too much from the very polished sound the band have, to add a groove but not intrude...you could just feel it working during the gig, it was a lovely thing. It probably helped that it was a brilliant setting for a show - outdoors of a very nice Thai restaurant, decent-sized stage, great professional soundmen, really enthusiastic and cheery audience, good support act...the encore - an unrehearsed and unplanned cover of Twist & Shout was understandably a little ragged but played with energy and a smile on our faces, a nice end to a cracking little gig. I keep stressing how important July is to me, but it's started rather well. Already looking forward to my next Fred's House adventures - that will be two festivals this Saturday (Peterborough and Buckden) and back in the studio on Sunday morning. Happy times.