4 – Newcastle @ Head Of Steam (with Ruth Campbell & Cat Calton)
Setlist: For Us For Me / Teenage Eyes / (Dis&Re)charge / There’s Still Room For Love / I Am Home
As we drove past signs for Lancashire, Cumbria, Pennines & Newcastle a familiar feeling took over; our 3rd time to Newcastle in the last 2 years it almost felt like we were about to play a home territory.
4pm and nerves kick in as 2 people walk through a rehearsal room door; Cat (violin) & Ruth (cello) from Glasgow. Ruth recorded the cello parts on our ‘Cut(s)’ EP back in July. With an hour to go we run through the EP and I can’t help but smile as excited shivers dance up and down my spine…
SIDE NOTE: Sometimes, somewhere, somehow, dreams do come true. I remember talking to Kieran before Ex Libras was an even a set of words to pass through our lips about how we both wanted to write & play music accompanied by a live string section. If you look to the right hand side of this blog you can see (as soon as we started the band) that we were after ‘outside-the-box’ string players. Sometimes, somewhere, somehow, dreams do come true.
… 10pm and the few trickle into the twenties. And unlike the last two gigs everyone is respectful and attentive (for all of the bands). There is no loud talking, there are people closing their eyes and sitting in the sound, there are a few gently rocking side to side with confused smiles across their faces, there is a blonde girl in a scarf standing near the back and once we finish she turns to her friends as tears glide down her face ad she says “that was beautiful” – all of this we‘re told afterwards and I’m now ecstatically in disbelief as part of me wishes I didn’t know that.
After the show we speak to as many people as we can. We are blown over by the responses we are getting. I guess thats the power of a string section.
And all night I quietly smile – hoping to get a drink in me, to give me enough courage to smile louder.
3LX
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