The Snape festival in July and August is always a bit more eclectic than its other seasons (i.e. beyond classical) and it always tends to feature the odd folk or folk/rock performance; and so it was that Peatbog Faeries played there last Saturday.
Having seen the band once before at the Cambridge folk festival, knew more or less what to expect – modern ceilidh dance music with a very modern twist. Pipes and violin to the fore but with a fine rock rhythm section and keyboard, guitar and horn flourishes filling out the sound.
They are a great live band but there isn’t much light and shade. There was the occasional slower number but by and large it was a little too one paced. Snape is quite a sedate place so they had to work hard to get the party started! But they managed it and the vast majority of the audience seemed to be thoroughly won over, which was good to see. There were a few departures at the interval – I may be doing the leavers a disservice, but I’m guessing the band was a little too loud and a little too rocky for their sensibilities; not what they were expecting, I guess. But the rest of us had a fine time.
Show of Hands are appearing there in a week or so – never seen them live before so hope the gig is as good as past reviews of their concerts would indicate.