We returned to the north east for an evening of yet to be revealed emerging artists at a cosy coffee shop in the middle of Newcastle city centre. We were welcomed by a sign revealing three artists of which two had travelled from over the Scottish border! We started the evening with mesmerising genre-blending indie blues rock artist Inkfields.
When you are looking for the definition of a modern hipster slash musician, you will most certainly find a photo of this long blond-haired musician with his beanie and casual chic outfit next to the word. Edinburgh-based musician and singer songwriter Sam, better known as Inkfields voice is strong and confident and his guitar-play free and intuitive. His songs went straight to our hearts, with a passionate and soulful delivery being the most memorable of his performance. He also brought physical copies of his album ‘The Third Side of the Coin’ on sustainably sourced vinyl and on CD. Sofar MC Eilish crowned him Sustainability King and nowadays that is nearly as important a title as any other.
Second act of the evening is Alannah Moar who performed together with guitarist Matthew. The two were clearly well-rehearsed and brought beautifully natural folk pop songs shining a light on Alannah’s incredible vocal range. Matthew’s guitar play complemented her voice perfectly, and their songs shine most brightly when performed in this acoustic setting. In this setting their lyrics and short stories come out best and are today still echoing in our heads. She writes, sings, and also produces her own music and is a true powerhouse, the Glasgow-based songstress is besides a musician also a part of the Sofar Sounds Glasgow team and has now seen both sides of the organisation of a Sofar show!
We ended the evening with a powerful dream-gaze meets rock set by local artist India Arkin who performed together with guitarist Adam. Stripped back or not, her songs clearly hold their own, driven by her powerful vocals and subtle yet pervasive guitar-driven soundscapes. She performed some new yet to be released tracks with the announcement of an upcoming UK tour and ended the night with her debut single ‘Dashboard Dancing’ which left us with a smile on our faces, still humming along to India’s driving guitar rock tracks. She brought some physical music as well as merchandise she’d designed herself, showing that the evening’s line-up is filled with female powerhouses taking matters into their own hands.
The magic of these Sofar Sounds evenings lies with attentive audiences, and throughout the evening everyone shows respect for the venue, the artists, and the Sofar Sounds organisation. No drunken conversations on how so and so’s weekends have been, just pure adoration for music and musicians in their most bare forms. Sofar Sounds Newcastle takes place once a month, and have been selling out regularly, a similar thing can be said for Sofar Sounds Edinburgh and Sofar Sounds Glasgow, so it is certainly worth keeping an eye on their respective pages because you never know if you might just discover your new favourite artist!