The Lemon Tree was a SWEAT BOX of ecstatic Trad fans on Saturday night as Elephant Sessions and the East Pointers set the roof on fire in the granite city.
Aberdeen’s iconic venue The Lemon Tree hosted an incredible night of anything but ‘traditional’ music on Saturday on what was probably the hottest day of the year to date…. you could say The Lemon Tree is cherished by those in Aberdeen as the Barrowlands is to the people of Glasgow (and the world). The beloved venue has captured some incredible events previously and continues to do so, with the venue playing host to the likes of Jake Bugg, Fatherson, The View, Foy Vance and Pete Docherty.
The East Pointers
Compeling Canadian duo Tim Chaisson and Jake Charro brought so much beauty to Aberdeen. The pair have a lot of chemistry on stage, which was lovely to watch throughout their set. It appeared there were many fans in the crowd excited to see them back in Scotland, however it didn’t take long for Tim and Jake to win over the rest of the room. Opening their set with wintergreen they had the whole room bopping their heads and some even singing along.
Tim switches between guitar and fiddle while Jake switches it up between keys and guitar as the set progresses, both taking on some joyous vocal lines and some stunning harmonies. Their set offered a moment of reflective as they dedicated ‘stronger than you know’ to their brother Koady Chaisson who they unfortunatly lost in 2022. It seemed a fitting tribute to their friend and it easily got the biggest round of applause of their set.
The music The East Pointers produce is just feel good folk, if it doesn’t make you smile there may be something wrong with you… I enjoyed their set so much I bought a vinyl and had a chat with the band after who explained they absolutely love Scotland and can’t wait to come back. Watching the East Pointers, it never felt like the ‘support band’, you know that feeling when often you know (or believe) better is to come? However, they held their own, the crowd were engrossed and had a lot of love for the boys. They set the crowd up perfectly for the trad party that was about to commence.
Free from desire comes on over the PA, the crowd all wait for the drop and the energy in the room is HYPED as echoes of ‘na na na na na na na’ filters through The Lemon Tree. The crowd waiting in anticipation for Elephant Sessions to walk on to the stage.
Elephant Sessions
The lights dim dark, pulsing colour of blue lights fill the room switching to red, heavily influenced by their album artwork ‘For The Night’. The first notes of ‘After Hours’ are struck as Euan Smillie (fiddle) greets a very excited Aberdeen crowd. Elephant Sessions bring an energy to the stage that I haven’t yet seen matched at live shows. I first saw the band in a muddy field at a small Inverness music festival back in 2015 and I remember being blown away, since then the band have been working tiredlessly perfecting their craft into the more eletriconica trad outfit they are now.
Elephant Sessions redfine the limits of folk and traditional Scottish music with their choice of tempos and dynamics, pushing the boundary song after song. We heard a lot of great tracks from their most recent album ‘For the night’ ; tingles, rebirth and is this a vibe but we also got to hear Colours (a personal favourite) and the title track What makes you from their 2019 album.
The band teamed up with Valtos at the tail end of last year to create a masterpiece trad dance anthem 1990 they performed this live at The Lemon Tree and it got such a massive response. The song itself starts as a slow beautiful fiddle track, the mandalin soon kicks in and increases the tempo as the electronic beats give the punching edge. It was great to experience seeing this track played out live, the audience were all going wild!
Aberdeen certainly had their dancing shoes on and from the first opening notes the roof was raised and the energy set, for what can only be described as an electrifying trad rave!
Euan Smillie (fiddle), Alasdair Taylor (mandolin), Calum MacQuarrie (bass) and Greg Barry (drums & samples) aka Elephant Sessions have built up something extraordinary, they have found a gap in the scene and stamped their mark. It is undisputable why they are an award winning band. If you are yet to see them live I’d highly recommend giving them a chance as you will not be disappointed.
You can catch them at The Reeling in June, their own festival Black Isle calling in September.
