Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou – Kino-Teatr, St. Leonards-On-Sea
Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou – Kino-Teatr, St. Leonards-On-Sea, Sussex. April 22nd.
By: The Indie Dad.
It’s a massively overdue attendance at a TM & HL gig for me after 3 delightful albums but they don’t disappoint – and if anything it brings a greater understanding of just how top class they are.
A hometown crowd (which this is) is an easier job so they have made it a little more interesting for themselves by using a tombola song choice system as an old school random “number” generator. An ice bucket full of song titles is passed around the audience, with the titles called out to provide the next song to be performed. It doesn’t much effect the audience experience but keeps Trevor and Hannah on their toes. Although possibly I would have preferred a complete run through of the latest- outstanding – Ex Patriot album, they deliver a universally strong performance. Songs from English flats or French farmhouses make easy bedfellows as the evening plays out.
‘Ruth Drink My Whiskey’ and ‘Cheap Wine’ appropriately appear from the “silver bucket of dreams”, ‘Silver Dagger’ gets a cover, ‘Sweet Mary Jane’ is faux dedicated to the street the venue is in (the half we are on hipster, the other half robustly “fragrant” at all times of day) though it is about an old boat rather than the stuff of Rick James’ dreams. And so it goes. Sometimes very Bob Dylan – they would have wowed the Village Gate -although the most English take on Bob imaginable, often faithful-without-being-old-fashioned Folk from our side of the Pond. It’s unlikely it will endear me to them but I notice a James Blunt accent to Trevor’s singing solo and speaking voice, so I’m guessing they might share a home town. This odd comparison leads me to realise what I had taken as largely Hannah vocals are in fact a tingle inducing mingling of their voices due to Trevor’s relatively high register. Their voices fit together beautifully, producing something beyond the already strong solo elements they bring to the table. It must be honed by their close proximity as not only performers but partners – it’s hard not to imagine an initial epiphany when they sang together and realised just how compatible and glorious vocal union they have. Their strength as songwriters is topped by one of the great harmonious pairings in modern music.
