Punt Rocking
Oxford Punt 2006
The Cellar, Purple Turtle & various, 10 May
For the uninitiated, Punt has nothing to do with the more traditional Oxford pastime with which it shares its name. Situated in six venues simultaneously, it is Oxford’s most diverse local music festival: acts play in Borders, The Wheatsheaf, Jongleurs, The Cellar, Purple Turtle and City Tavern, with not a boater in sight.
What this does mean, though, is that for a handsome seven pounds you have to chose carefully, as there will invariably be clashes between venues which are just too far apart. Purple Turtle and The Cellar are conveniently next door off Cornmarket Street, and with something of a metal-fest going on at The Wheatsheaf, I lurked between the two and made some choices. First on at PTs is Daniel Crozer, who, I am assured by the guide, will provide a relaxing acoustic opening to the evening.
Young singer-songwriter type Crozer does not seem comfortable with his vocals or his playing, often painfully missing the higher notes he aims for. Dull, predictable acoustic ballads are unfortuantely the order of the evening, and when you can guess what the rhyming word for each couplet will be before he sings it, you know that the lyrics need work.
Taking the same stage a little later are Dusty Sound System, who do not initially improve things much with a couple of competent but uninteresting indie strum-a-longs. The trilbied frontman then invites a grizzled-looking audience member to the stage, and he begins to play the as yet unused bass. Simultaneously, the singer switches from guitar to play the likewise dormant keyboards, and things happen.
Fast, ragged and glorious, these new songs contrast so much with the first two that you cannot help but wonder whether they only played them in order to surprise people with what they can really do. After all that ramshackle indie-rock excitement it is time to head all of a couple of feet next door to The Cellar for some variety. Zuby, posturing hiphopper and ex-public school and Oxford student, certainly provides that.
His stage presence is impressive, but without playing up to too many rap stereotypes. Lyrically, he is pleasingly aware of the incongruity of his background, with such gems as “just ‘cause I got a bod card don’t mean I ain’t got flow”. Barring a few technical difficulties with the beat and an unfortunately sparse turnout, it is a thoroughly enjoyable break from the indie.
100 Bullets Back follow, a couple of eighties throwbacks with a love of synthesisers, megaphones and battered sets of keyboards. They feel original despite their obvious drawing on bands like The Faint. Lots of energy, a guitar style closer to ¡Forward, Russia! than much else around and keyboards that are given a good hammering are combined with fauxrevolutionary lyrical exhortations on modern culture and how rubbish it is.
And it makes something that is somehow beautiful, even before the megaphone is unleashed. Lastly, The Cellar headliners are retro-merchants Jaberwock, with an impressive array of blues guitar that your dad would approve of, married with keyboards and songs generally indistinguishable from each other.
Although talented, it is too easy to drift off by this point in the evening, and the band’s sprawling solos and lack of much interest in things like song structure or words made them somewhat difficult to follow. All the same, they sound great, and soon get the now packed Cellar dancing and sweating in about equal proportion.
There were many other bands playing tonight all over city, but that is the joy of Punt: your pass allows you to come and go at will, and to sample all sorts of different music that you would not consider seeing at an ordinary gig.
18th May 2006