As with the Fringe, the International Festival has found it's way into different venues this year, using fresh air and social distancing to keep everyone safe, and feeling safe. The centre of the Old College Quad, usually clad in billiard table lawn, has been boarded over, a high stage erected at one end, the the whole covered by, as Mr Amini put it, a giant polytunnel. It might perhaps have little more elegance than that description suggests, but with side opening open it was fresh and dry, and with seats arranged in bubbles, it was a comfortable experience for the audience. With enough of us in there to make the noise that the band deserved.
Talisk. Hayley Keenan on fiddle, Graeme Armstrong on guitar and stomp, and the hyperactive energy mine that is Mohsen Amini on concertina. Their backgrounds are in the Scottish folk scene, but their music is totally contemporary, and largely self penned. And they knew exactly what everyone wanted - live music, and a chance to clap, sing and whoop along for that sense of shared energy and involvement we've all missed so much. Talisk deliver.
There are plenty of memorable melodies, but it's the orchestration that impresses most, such a strong sound from just three instruments (with Armstrong adding occasional vocals, and plenty of percussion from the wired up board under his left foot), played with virtuosity and joy. Mohsen talks fast between numbers, or not at all, so it's almost all music. A few times he says they're going to slow things down a bit. And they do. For a few minutes, but soon the tempo picks up, Armstrong's boot is pounding down, and the audience are clapping and whooping again. It's glorious stuff, and Talisk remain one of the finest and most grin-inducing bands around. Long may they continue.
Oh, and did I mention the energy?
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