- The idea of watching bands and DJs play different venues across Bristol, one of Britain's most musically diverse cities, has a lot of natural appeal. Simple Things is not alone in doing this, but it has always stood out from the crowd for one reason: a booking policy that favors quality over quantity. Where many comparable events cram as much as possible onto the agenda, here artists are given a commendable amount of time to play, with a host of live shows extending well beyond 60 minutes and some DJs going for a full three hours. Even still, I was left with far too much to see in the festival's two-day runtime.
Walking into Colston Hall for the opening night's performance from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, it was immediately clear what kind of crowd the organisers had lured in. The historic home for symphony orchestras was packed with people intent on discussing the finer points of booming, nine-piece harmonies, the nuances of this act or the genius arrangements of another. Cast in the changing lights of subtly dystopian video footage and searing with emotion and intrigue, the Montreal post-rock troupe were a near-perfect way to kickstart the festival.
12 hours or so later and revellers were out in full force, despite Saturday's dreary rain. A key benefit of Bristol's size is that almost all venues are a short walk from one another. This meant you could stay relatively dry between the lo-fi folktronica of Oliver Wilde at Colston Hall and Mike Skinner's somewhat tasteless everything-and-the-kitchen-sink urbanism in the Firestation (formerly a fire station).
Personal taste aside, by this point (4 PM-ish) the festival was going off, and the determination for that to continue was truly infectious. Cue a stint watching local-heroes Maximum Joy, and then it was time for one of the day's personal highlights: Texas three-piece Khruangbin. Their sound is a heady brew of dub, funk and bass-filled psychedelia, which onstage evoked feelings of intoxication greater than the effects of Gem, a local ale that by now was rapidly becoming dinner for most attendees. As evening descended into night, that debauchery became more prominent. Warp Records group Battles gave everyone something to think about and to dance to, filling a huge room with relentlessly compelling rhythm sections that refused to let go.
The final calling point, seemingly for half the town's hedonists, was the labyrinthine Lakota, which had the kind of billing that leaves you wondering where to begin. From midnight onwards, Untold delivered a typically brooding selection of 4/4 beats with glitchy, off-tempo noises, wrapped in a forward motion that could convince even the most avid traditionalists to stay locked in. Objekt's three-hour set emphasised why he's one the most vital men in the booth at the moment. Running the gamut from atmospheric, broken electro through dirty, fist-clenched techno and onto unifying house groovers (if only to prepare us for more darkness), it was a lesson in variation that was fun and serious in equal measure. That Hodge and Randomer's chugging back-to-back, Galcher Lustwerk's exceptional deep house, or the after-party that ran until 9 AM almost missed this review is a case in point for how much was on offer at Simple Things.
Photo credit: Cameron Sweeny