Far Out takeover The Old Blue Last: Live photos of Getner, Femur, and Jeanie and The White Boys
Excitement was in the air last Saturday as Far Out Magazine joined forces with inFireworks’ The Season programme, taking over London’s The Old Blue Last as part of its month-long championing of new music and independent venues.
Couldn’t have picked a better spot for it. There’s always an intriguing clash of heritage and the contemporary at Shoreditch’s Victorian era boozer, its centuries bouncing off the walls in both its roomy downstairs bar and pokey venue above.
Long having enjoyed venerable stature as an essential venue for the last 20-odd years, The Old Blue Last buzzed as ever with throngs of the intrepid and curious, eager to catch the fuss on the curated night.
Closing The Season’s multi-venue series of gigs, Far Out managed to pull in some homegrown talent for the evening’s headliner, plus two up-and-comers outside the city to boot.
First off was Manchester via Derry lads Getner. Corralling a simmering brew of bluesy garage stomp packed with lyrical craic that can only come from Ireland, balancing precariously with humour and wrath, prickling with their live swagger. Reeling through their set with effortless aplomb, Getner’s eschewing of studio material to master their live act all revealed itself for confident support.
Up next were Femur. Never before in rock and pop has a gang of Sheffielders pulled off cowboy clobber, albeit toned down a little when taking the stage after Getner. While singer and guitarist Felix Renshaw was still sporting a bolo tie, the otherwise casual Femur ripped through an electric set of heady garage attack and cavernous psych, all held together by a tough and stolid groove at its centre. The spirit of Nuggets hung in the air, Femur unveiling an authentic window to a rock yesteryear that didn’t feel retro in any way.
By this point, the Old Blue Last’s upstairs venue had seriously heaved with more and more footfall filling out the room. With appetites whet, the city’s own Jeanie and The White Boys brought their raw summoning of good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll in all its bluesy dissidence. Three guitarists, primal strut, frequent band bickering, and Captain Jeanie Crystal leading the White Boys with her charged charisma, able to veer between seductive coo and howling rage with the flick of an internal switch.
Strangely, The Old Blue Last’s clash of tradition and the shock of the new manifested itself right there on stage, Jeanie and The White Boys’ worship of rock’s rich canon, imbued with their foot in the edges of the queer art scene, wielded an alchemic plume of rock and roll’s bite while actively kicking into touch its many stodgy orthodoxies.
A top night then. Reaching across the country for the evening’s line-up, the Far Out and The Season double-up was the perfect chance to put our money where our mouth is and champion the depth and breadth of what UK independent music has to offer, despite all the political and economic odds that stand in the way. Take a look at our photos and share what will certainly stand as the first night under the Far Out banner of many.
