Gig Review - Little May

LITTLE MAY

Live @ The Foundry (19th September, 2015)

Supported by Jim Lawrie and Gordi

Words by Jo Michelmore

Pics by Matt Bond

It’s been a quiet year for me and gigs. Don’t get me wrong, there’s been plenty I’d have loved to have gone to, but the concept of my everyday 9-5 real life and the idea of my dream life which involves going to gigs every night and writing about them on this blog all day are two very different things. I try to find a balance somewhere in the middle but lots of days those concepts don’t meet at all. Luckily for me, a little voice from my dream life had a very serious chat to real life me last week and both Matt and I decided that some bands are worth leaving real life behind, so we spent a Saturday evening seeing something we like; a little live music, by a band we have both come to love over the last few years. That band is Little May.

Sad to say we missed Jim Lawrie, who was up first, but it doesn’t make me any less of a fan, he’s just one that I must add to the list of ‘must sees’ sometime hopefully very soon. We did manage to catch the set of Gordi and moments of beats and sounds and "hey I really wanna dance" were followed by moments of quiet acoustic reflection, her facebook page describing her as ‘folk- electronica’, which is pretty much exactly what she was. I said to Matt midway through I was kind of confused, but what an awesome confused it was. I also said I’d be doing some research once I got home and I’m so glad I have. What a voice. Gordi will no doubt be featuring somewhere in my personal end of year playlist and what a welcome addition.

Despite the apparent need for people to sit down on the floor on a Saturday night, Matt and I managed to make our way over the legs and arms of said sitting patrons and secured a spot at the stage to take it all in and let's say the minor gymnastic routine and an "excuse me" here and there was well worth it. There have been a lot of things we’ve said to each other and on this blog over the last few years about this incredibly talented trio; the ridiculously good harmonies, the layers of drums that urge each track along, the insanely catchy guitars, they are all things that Little May manage to record so well, but when they bring them to a stage those things become more than songs, they are experiences. Those voices entwined around each other in each and every track; ‘Hide’ and ‘Dust’ and ‘Midnight Hour’ from their debut self-titled EP so powerful; every note demanding attention and the glimpses of magnificence from their soon to be released debut album were truly brilliant. The dramatic tones of ‘Home’ are so very spine-tingling in a live setting, the build of ‘Seven Hours’ is a special kind of something and ‘Sinks’ was a beautiful promise of what is to be heard on For The Company. It's so lovely to listen to a band who clearly belong together; Liz Drummond, Hannah Field and Annie Hamilton all seem to have a real appreciation for each other's talents, as well as the talents of their drummer and keyboardist who join them on the road, every one of them such an important piece of the Little May experience.

So that dream life of mine where I spend all night watching bands and all day writing about them? Sometimes it's not a dream. Sometimes music makes real life go somewhere and that dream life takes over, where everything can be explained in a song, where every moment can be fixed with a lyric and all of time can be told with a chord and a beat. Hannah said something on Saturday night that stuck with me; when chatting about the experience of recording their new album with Aaron Dessner (guitarist with The National) a band she referred to as "kind of like...everything". That's kind of funny, because with every song and every note and every lyric, Little May are becoming exactly "....everything" for so many others and for me, on Saturday night they were also a magnificent reminder that every now and then, my dream life is actually a little bit of my real life and that's a really, really nice thing to be reminded of.


Little May continue their For The Company tour all over the world(!) until November 3 and #ArtForThe Company, an exhibition featuring artworks from 11 artists inspired by their album will run from October 2 to October 4 at Goodspace in Sydney. Tour details over on our gig guide!