TARA CLERKIN TRIO

COOL JERKS/TARA CLERKIN TRIO/BEX BURCH AT SOUTH STREET THEATRE, READING – 1/10/22

It’s funny being back in Reading. I lived here for three years while at university and haven’t been back since. To be honest, I never expected to go back at all, not really imagining that there could possibly be any reason to, but then I saw this show that I wanted to go to. I love going to shows and haven’t been to one for months, and I’ve been quite low recently so I thought it might do me some good. Driving through the town earlier, trying to find the venue, it was nice to see the Rising Sun Arts Centre is still there. It was there I experienced free jazz for the first time, which really just blew my mind wide open. I also remember seeing this guy there that made electronic music from the vibrations of plants. He had little microphones attached to all these leaves, I seem to remember, Michael Prime, I think his name was. If I’m not very much mistaken he once made an album with Jim O’Rourke.

I am proud of myself this evening for two main reasons. One: I make a bit of conversation with the guy at the door. Following wife’s advice I feel bold enough to ask him how his day has been going. “How’s the day gone so far?” I say, pride welling up inside me. I’m doing well, I think. I’m making progress. “Have you been here before?” he says. “I think I have but it was about twenty years ago,” I say. “It’s probably changed a lot since then,” says the man at the door. Haven’t we all, I think, but then, no, I think, not really, not all that much. The other thing I’m proud of is that I start a round of applause while watching BEX BURCH. What Bex Burch does is hit, tap and bang a variety of gongs, cymbals and other percussive instruments. It’s mostly very quiet and people mostly listen in reverent silence and in a pause between ‘songs’ no one applauds. I’ve been in this situation before, mainly, or actually exclusively, at Café Oto, and usually, like everyone else, I just stand there not applauding, but this time I actually start a round of applause! I start clapping and then so does everyone else! Bex Burch smiles appreciatively, and so do I.

That’s Bex Burch there, between the heads

I had left Reading firmly in the past but now I find it thrust back into my present and the reason is that at the Green Man Festival recently I had heard TARA CLERKIN TRIO from a distance but hadn’t been able to enjoy the performance because the kids were with me and were in no mood to sit still and listen to some far out music. Selfish, I know. So, when I got home I checked out their dates, saw that they were playing here tonight and promptly bought a ticket. It’s a funny story which I tell to Sunny Joe Paradisos after the show. I’m proud of myself but also feel a bit sorry for Sunny Joe Paradisos. But the point, I guess, insofar as there is a point, which is by no means a given, is that I really like Tara Clerkin Trio. With their ramshackle, amateurish, and slightly psychedelic ways they are just right up my street. They’re a resourceful bunch, making sound out of whatever little scraps of equipment they have to hand; now pressing a button here, now twiddling a knob there, picking up a tambourine here, plucking a little guitar there, and filtering the whole thing through something or other so that it sounds like space. They’re the kind of band who struggle with mic stands and cables and who press the wrong button so that, at one point, the music stops altogether and everyone laughs, and they always seem to be getting in each other’s way. I like bands like that.

Getting in each other’s way

I only really came to see Tara Clerkin Trio but I hang around to see the bands that come after. COOL JERKS terrify me. The lead singer is standing offstage and shouts his way through the gig. “What’s your name?” he shouts. “Where are you from?” I imagine that he’s terribly softly spoken in real life. I can imagine him offering to pass the gravy very politely at a Sunday lunch with a grandma, but somehow that just makes the whole act even more terrifying. I want to leave but I daren’t, so I stay until it’s over. It’s their last gig, for some reason. Thank god for that, I think.

Scary

It’s a funny event. Lots of odd noisy little acts. I like it. It reminds me of a better time.