Cavetown came to the Toon and wowed the crowd
On Wednesday the 11th of March, Robin Skinner, professionally known as Cavetown, performed the 14th show of their ‘Running With Scissors’ world tour at The Boiler Shop in Newcastle.
The Boiler Shop has around a 1000 capacity and can feel like quite a large venue, but on this particular night, the crowd didn’t quite fill the room. While there was a tightly packed group standing around the stage, the back of the space didn’t seem very full. In some ways though, the small crowd worked in the artist’s favour, creating a much more intimate environment for the audience.
The evening began with a set from support act Dreamer Isioma, Nigerian-American singer-songwriter. While their performance was energetic, it felt quite out of place compared to the atmosphere that Cavetown’s music typically creates – their overall style and sound didn’t quite match the tone that the audience were probably expecting. The set was also cut short due to a technical issue, meaning they only played a few songs and the support slot ended fairly quickly.
However, once Cavetown took the stage, the whole room came alive. They started the set with ‘Skip’ – the first track on their most recent album, which effortlessly transitioned into ‘Cryptid’. By this point I was already immensely impressed by the musicianship between Robin and their band. They were joined by Nick Johnson on bass/keys, Willaby Morse on drums and James Rapp on guitar, all of which also provided strong harmonies during some of the songs. Another thing to note was the impressive lighting design of the whole show – throughout the night, it enhanced every song perfectly.
Towards the end of the set, Skinner spoke about how he wanted to create “a space where we can forget about everything for a second”, after reflecting on the issues of the world we live in today. He ‘ended’ the set with ‘Boys Will Be Bugs’, an obvious crowd favourite, and then left the stage before coming back with an encore consisting of ‘Home’ and another clearly popular song ‘Devil Town’. It was a fitting end to the performance, with Robin on his back, his legs in the air and playing his guitar, and the whole crowd jumping and singing along.
Going into the gig, I was only vaguely familiar with a few of Cavetown’s songs, and wasn’t entirely sure of what to expect from a live show. However, by the end of the show it was clear that Robin and the band had created something that really engaged and connected with the audience, making it a very enjoyable night.