Soak: Live at Parlour Skate Shop, Shoreditch, London, February 17th 2015
In a week when Bridie Monds-Watson announced the June release of her debut album on Rough Trade records, ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’, the Derry native was spending her time combining her loves of skateboarding and music for some #SOAKSK9SHOWS, yup, gigs in skate parks and shops.
I caught her set in Parlour Skate Shop in Shoreditch. With an early door time, myself and my bud headed to the venue and slipped through the front part of the shop, with its rows of skate tops and shirts into a room where Bridie was playing DJ.
It wasn’t long before the room filled up and everyone manoeuvred themselves into prime viewing location. I think it’s about eight months since I last saw SOAK perform and since then, she has grown into a confident performer.
SOAK opens with ‘Explosions’ and throughout her set, she eases from acoustic guitar to electric and back. By the second track of the evening, everyone is sitting on the floor, even though, by the time the set is over, we’re all stiff and have pins and needles in our legs, it makes for a far more intimate setting, more like a living room set. Shuvels and Sea Creatures are given an airing and if you’ve seen Soak before, you’ll recognise these songs.
Bridie has a fantastic way with her lyrics and when she tells that ‘Blud’ is about a time she heard her parents fighting, it kicks in what a talented an mysterious wordsmith she is. There’s no doubt that the tracks she played tonight will all appear on ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’ and she ends the evening with the song that will be the last track on the album, ‘Oh Brother’, which she tells us has been shortened on the tour to ‘Oh Bro’.
SOAK is such a talent, with the album release coming up and gigs in New York and Australia announced and selling quickly, this is probably the last time we will see her in a venue of this size. Amazing talent, the world is her oyster.