MUSIC

St George’s Bristol (Fri 13-Sun 15 Jan)

Who'da thunk it: some folk are dancing – dancing – at this ostensibly sleepy, bums-on-seats affair. But there they are, a couple at the front, blithely shaking their fundaments. If you guessed the Bristol Acoustic Music Festival was a buttoned-down, sandal-brigade set-up, guess again. Over the weekend we're exposed to a rich vein of Bristolian music, not all mellow: some jazz, blues, folk and even a festival first – rapping.

If the weekend's proceedings are bannered as an acoustic event, nobody told The Trish Brown Band. They're plugged in, saucy, swinging. Frontwoman Trish smoulders in a power-red wrap around, her almost-scatted vox running smooth against the band's kinetic, neo-soul vibrations.

Danielle Celeste sashays on stage and thrums woe-is-me, ex-boyfriend-baiting weepies to snooze to. Her voice is crisp, though, at times soaring with note-nailing falsetto, and imagining how great she'd be in five to ten years is enough to alert your goosebumps.

Meanwhile, Benny Sensus (pictured) are the ultimate ‘Britain's Got Talent’ band. They're fresh-faced, talented, marketable, blending crowd-wowing fret dexterity with rap and white-boy soul melodies. They draw from Ed Sheeran's shtick, except with dazzlingly executed finger-style riffery tempered by pastoral, chamber-music classicism. One highlight: a bouncy, up-stroking cover of The xx's ‘Crystalised’. (Jamie Skey)

Copyright Jamie Skey 2012