Kitchens & Bathrooms / Early Day Miners / Rick White / A Northern Chorus

Kitchens & Bathrooms, obviously the leftfield element due to their "math rock" orientation, headlined the bill as ambassadors for Bloomington, Indiana's much celebrated rustic, dynamic, Midwest-meets-the-South, folksy rock band Early Day Miners. For this gig, A Northern Chorus performed in an exclusive stripped-down incarnation consisting only of its two founders (Pete Hall and Stu Livingstone). They succeeded in warming up the cold evening by playing quiet, minimalist renditions. Elevator's Rick White took the stage and performed a seated solo acoustic set stemming from his tasty, bright psychedelic songbook. Proving that the cosmos comes from the soul, his trademark voice and wispy guitar notation was as effective and three-dimensional as having a full band. Early Day Miners stole the show, as expected, playing songs from their varied catalogue, including their latest record, Jefferson At Rest, in which they fuse pop structures, albeit with caution. Much like the linear development of their songwriting, their show progressed in the same manner, going from sparse to an in-unison Southern waltz feel to a powerful, dynamic GY!BE-ish eclipse via a ten minute-plus piece. Kitchens & Bathrooms followed, playing a barely passable set awash with flu-like energy; a reminder of the cold, lonely, drab night outside. But thanks to EDM and Rick White, inside the Underground the boilers gently rose and the privileged left satisfied and so fuelled that they could have walked home feeling like it was a summer night.