Date: 5th March 05

Venue: Usher Hall Edinburgh

This was my first time going to this particular venue. I can honestly say that this is one of the nicest venues that I have ever seen. But I wasn’t there to admire the scenery, I was there to see Lemon Jelly!

Unlike last time, Lemon Jelly brought a support act with them, some quaint old guy that was a one man band who did a very good cover of ‘Take 5′ but of course the Jelly boys added there own little twist to his set. There were 3 ’stoogies’ in the crowd, Fred from the Jelly would give you a brief description of a stoogie, you then had to find them and identify the song that the old boy was playing and you won a limited addition CD. Now, I was at the gig with the musical encyclopedia know as Ajay, he managed to guess all 3, but unfortunately none of the stoogies were located near us, so we didn’t win. But we weren’t there to win prizes either, we were there see Lemon Jelly.

Fred and Nick took to the stage at 10pm and launched into ‘Come down on Me’, the first track from the new album. This set the tone for the rest of the night as Nick thrashed out some heavy chords on his Guitar while Fred had the fast breakbeat running in the background. The crowd lapped it up and they cheers continued as they slipped flawlessly into the chirpy ‘In the Bath’ from their first E.P.

Now, the Jelly are often placed in that weird made-up musical genre of ‘Chill-Out’, I can safely say that ‘Chill-out’ did not apply tonight, Fred and Nick had but one goal, to make you dance, mission accomplished. Softer, quieter tracks like ‘Ramblin’ Man’ and ‘Nice Weather for Ducks’ had fuel injected overhauls with extra bass added for more groovin’ pleasure, the result, a hall full of people gettin’ down to tracks that you would normally have as background music on a quiet Sunday afternoon. The Edinbugers definately love their Jelly and why shouldn’t they, Fred has run sucessful club nights in our nations capital before Lemon jelly hit the limelight and at one point he yells “this is your fault” to the crowd.

But as usual with Lemon Jelly, you get good music and astounding visuals. The set is so flawless that it could have easily been a DJ set, but when you notice Fred and Nick frantically running about the stage playing guitars, bongos, keyboards, decks etc, you know these boys are working for their money! The stage lights were amazing and were supported by a large projector screen showing various images and animations to accompany each individual track. Despite their hard work, the boys seem to want you to concentate on the visuals and sounds as Fred and Nick both appear to be human out-lines on a stage filled with bright lights and moving images.

All my favorites got played, the ones I mentioned above and others such as “Soft” with the tradition Chicago sample of “If you leave me now…..”, “Make things Right” amongst others and they finished the night off with Nick and his Guitar mellowing the crowd out with “The Staunton Lick”.

Myself, Ajay and Mark were in agreement, Lemon Jelly the alternative dance band that can rock with the best of them!

Great gig, great band.

G.I.