Wire and WoolThe LoggerheadsFriday 30th January

And... we're back. For the more attentive of you out there, you may have noticed the relatively hushed nature of the website for the past few weeks - unfortunately exams, illness and the typically quiet January gig calendar conspired against us meaning that, in what is now rapidly approaching February, we at TC Towers are finally able to offer you a belated Happy Christmas and New Years wishes. Resolutions still being kept on the back of a postage stamp to the usual address, if you will.

We return to you on the last Friday of the month and the very first of (hopefully) many Wire and Wool mini-festivals, in the cavernous surroundings of Cliff Road's Loggerheads Pub; we're not usually ones for wiling away bitter Friday evenings in inner-city caves, but with a bill as extensive and, perhaps more importantly, local as tonight's, it was a chance not to be missed.

On account of massively over-egging the time it'd take to get from one side of town to the other, your trusty scribe arrives at tonight's watering hole with two hours to spare. A goob job then, that erstwhile troubadour and tonight's opener Paul Walker is early himself, taking to the now comfortably patio-heated main cave almost half an hour before he's due. Interspersed with tales of Portuguese busking trips and Boys from the Black Stuff style hardships, it's a varied yet scintillating affair and Walker's inimitably husky delivery threatens to shake the rustic venue to its core. When he returns on the 14th, he'll doubtless be the much deserved centre of attention and you can bet we'll be down the front for the entirety.

Curtis Whitefinger's folk-blues formula strays little from that of the countless singer-songwriters like him, but his uniquely irrevent humour sets him in good stead for an entertaining half-hour. Backed only by bassist John Russell, Whitefinger's stripped-down setup does him favours, with his subtle witticisms and observations - the likes of which could so easily go unnoticed - coming to the fore in a Bilge Pump/Art Brut style poetic swagger. Meanwhile, back outdoors The Amber Herd take to the erm... cave for a slow-burning set of dense and atmospheric post-rock, at times hushed, at others fist-clenchingly anthemic. Far from the Fly-era U2 it evokes on record, 'Stage Fright' here becomes a scene of almost Nick Drake-esque storytelling, ditching the soulless drum machine for a pair of well-worn bongos, while the sprawling Smashing Pumpkins likes of 'Magnolia' and 'Bonfires' fill the sandy room.

The night, at least for us, ends with the brutal reverb of Apparatus of Sleep, whose arresting IDM/shoegaze fusion and reverb-heavy sound veers from a laptop-wielding My Bloody Valentine to a dub Fields, via Broken Social Scene and Glasvegas. Their set consists of them knocking seven shades out of the main room while somewhere precariously balancing saccharine acoustics on top, and concludes with singer Stoney launching oranges at his stood-up, overdriven guitar from the other end of the room. It's a fitting end to a varied and exciting evening, and we're already looking forward to this time next month.

http://www.wireandwool.com/