Reviews

Beans on Toast at The Fleece in Bristol gig review

Posted on: 2014-12-07

Beans on Toast is a living legend, a monument to the undeniable, indefatigable power of folk. Forever uniting people, forever partying, forever loving life. Pure folk, pure fun, pure legend.

---

 

When it comes to entertaining the crowds in an intimate venue, few artists can truly do it better than Beans on Toast. The drunk folk singer - and now unquestionably fair to say, cult hero - had the exuberant masses in the palm of his hand when he played The Fleece in Bristol on Friday night, 5 December 2014.

He's had a pretty awesome year too, conquering the States with his first American tour, playing a series of shows with Flogging Molly in the US performing to over 100,000 people in a single week, and opening other folk legend Frank Turner's UK stadium tour. 

Which brings us quite neatly to the Fleece, with the affable and charming troubadour's three-part set kicking off with Lori Campbell, a Bristol-based folk singer. Guitar poised and confident, blending soul, jazz, traditional folk and a hint of Spanish salsa in the final tune, it was an inspiring opener to the gig, made even more enjoyable by her neat and rather unique voice trick that uncannily mimics the sounds of the saxophone and trumpet. 

Will Varley was up next, bearded and tousle-haired, spinning his funny, quirky, honest tales with a catchy pluckiness and spirit that fused his own style with the occasional hint of Billy Bailey and Beans on Toast. 

And then there was the man himself. Ambling on stage in his trademark baseball cap and baggy shirt, the enthusiastic multitudes hit the roof to welcome this folk singing wunderkind back to Bristol. This was more than just a promo for the release of his latest album, The Grand Scheme of Things - this was a Beans on Toast EVENT. 

The raucous crowd lapped up his renditions of his touching love song Lizzy's Cooking, Things, Harry in a Helicopter, and arguably his biggest hit, the pill-poppingly poignant yet tender drug anthem MDMA-zing. Don't Believe the Bulls**t and Can't Get a Gig at Glastonbury whipped the crowd into an apoplectic frenzy, while The Chicken Shop lamented the proliferation of cheap chicken burger emporiums in a comi-tragic fashion. 

And when he noticed the Bristol music scene legend, Big Jeff, in the crowd, he invited him up on stage and sang his affectionate tribute 'Who is Big Jeff?'. The partying hordes went ballistic with a deafening sea of claps and cheers. 

Between the songs he imparted a few stories too, acknowledging before he kicked off that anecdotes usually don't go down too well with rowdy audiences. He needn't have worried though; one tale of a chap adapting his MDMA song for his own girl-winning, knicker-dropping advantage went down a storm. He also has a real affection for Bristol and seemed genuinely gobsmacked at how the venue was packed to the rafters (it was, in fact, sold out). 

And that's the thing about Beans on Toast. His songs are filled with an honest, intoxicating whimsy, brimming with warmth, humour, heart, love and a perpetually refreshing rebellious fire. But he's also a genuinely nice bloke; down-to-earth, affable, engaging and totally endearing. The man and the music uniquely mix melancholy and mirth, the inanities and insanities of life, the horrors and the heart of what it's like to live and love and to just exist on this perplexing, wonderful Earth. His lyrics might be simple, but they pack a direct immediacy and sucker punch to the soul like very few artists can do. 

Beans on Toast is a living legend, a monument to the undeniable, indefatigable power of folk. And as the set finished and some of the elated, inebriated crowd disappeared into the darkened night, a few of them hung on for his invitation to meet outside and carry on the celebrations in town. Forever uniting people, forever partying, forever loving life. 

Pure folk, pure fun, pure legend. 

5/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol

---