Let's be honest. It's Jo and Danny is a fantastic name for a band, conjuring up images of quirky pop, bittersweet folk and everything in between. Sadly, Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan (for it is they) never quite live up to the billing their choice of moniker has provided.
Tonight's performance is allegedly sold out but I'm not convinced. It's certainly not empty, but the fact that most of the audience has parked themselves on chairs tend to indicate space isn't exactly at a premium.
Initially, things look interesting when It's Jo and Danny (accompanied by drummer and additional guitarist arrive onto a stage packed with keyboards, turntable and what seems like at least half a dozen guitars. It's when they start playing that it becomes instantly apparent that instead of relishing the live performance, It's Jo and Danny are determined to recreate the sound they made in the studio on their debut album 'Lank Haired Girl to Bearded Boy'.
It all starts off pretty well, with the lone turntable spinning a steady beat as Jo strums the chords of 'Solar Plexus' over the stumbling rhythm. And when she switches mid-song from acoustic to electric guitar and the band kicks into life, heads around Dingwalls begin nodding and a lone pogoer starts hopping about frenziedly.
For 'Pilgrim's Prayer' the band is joined by a nervy looking cornet player who betrays his anxiety with a sequence of wrong notes. But that's not the problem. Jo's lyrics seem more suited to Woodstock than January 2001 and as she croons that, "You're the ground beneath my feet," there's a noticeable dawning that the majority of the expectant crowd has heard this all before.
There's something quite exciting about a band insistent on using two chords when most would consider three a bare minimum. But when memorable melodies are so thin on the ground and cliches like "One's with open hearts are the first to bleed" are flying about, no amount of low grade turntablism or human beatbox can disguise that this is surprisingly poor entertainment. Hippy-hop? Not for me, thanks.
IMAGES: DEBBIE SMYTH
