Music / Cabaret
Review: Snowapple/Daisy Chapman, Old Bookshop
It was good to catch Daisy Chapman before she embarks on her epic European tour in March and even in the short set played at The Old Bookshop it was evident what a treat they’re in for. The richly written Madame Geneva was a deft history lesson, as was Once I Had an Empire, and both benefitted from the full-toned clarity of her vocals and intricate contemporary piano arrangements. An unlikely (but highly successful) cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella capped the set with another example of her deftly disciplined use of harmonising vocal loops making an enriched but uncomplicated sound.
There was discipline, too, in Snowapple’s remarkable performance, albeit buried in a welter of creative chaos that so absolutely matched the surreal kitsch of the Old Bookshop’s anarchic décor it was hard to imagine they hadn’t commissioned it themselves. Since first visiting Bristol from Holland three years ago the band have evolved from acapella trio to a 6-piece multi-instrumental band but, while the instrumental music is a smart and intricate context it is still the vocals of the three women at the band’s core that conjure their uniqueness. That, and their look – a kind of adult version of 8 year old girls who raided the dressing-up box and plundered the net curtains in a strange parody of glamour.
When they exploded into the jaunty cynicism of We Will Marry A Man their whooping glee almost convinced they really were capable of the song’s Gothic violence, with the statuesque Laurien Schreuder rocking out on guitar, her ultra-mobile features seemingly created by Pixar on their best ever day. And yet the bitter, once-bitten post-love song Evil Wizard seemed just as suited, its cow-punk lope typically at odds with the sour lyrics. Especially nice was their adaptation of Vagabond, a poem by Bristol writer Rina Vergano (present in the packed and rapt audience) with its falling vocal cannons and abrupt rhythmic shifts.
This was ‘happening’ musical theatre of a fine Dutch kind: as when they covered Jolie Holland’s inspiring Old Time Morphine and the vocal passed from woman to woman in a panoply of styles ranging from gut-bucket blues to Wagnerian coloratura, before finishing with the acapella simplicity of Virginia, a moving song of anti-mourning. Snowapple are – literally – phenomenal and it’s to Bristol’s credit that they seem to like us, too.
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