Joe Driscoll at YoYo - Notting Hill Arts Club
The basement venue and tiny corner stage were the perfect setting for Joe Driscoll's talents. While I have no doubt he could hold a bigger crowd and perform on a bigger stage there are real advantages to an intimate setting. Driscoll performs beatboxing and "live looping" so he will lay down a vocal hook, guitar line or beat and use foot pedals to record and loop back to create the songs - everything you hear is live. In this setting there is no question of this - you can see him doing it, nudging on and off buttons with his feet. It's very impressive to watch and requires perfect timing as well as musicianship, although I thought he probably needed more practice on the didge. He held a varied crowd mostly by himself for the full set and it wasn't the technical achievements that the crowd was most into, it was the funky beats and energy that he puts into the show that made it a real treat. I've seen Imogen Heap do similar looping and it really wasn't the same, not as cool.