Smoke Fairies
The Lexington, London
02/02/2010

On this freezing, recession-gripped Monday night in London, it’s a strange sensation to be welcomed into the hot, hushed upstairs of The Lexington.
Mostly, it’s strange because it’s packed – every other pub we passed on our way here was shut – but also, the clientele are a bizarre mix.
You see, sultry Sussex maidens Smoke Fairies are both wistful contemporary folkstrels and full-on 70s throwbacks. Fronted by the blonde and brunette pairing of Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire, new single ‘Gastown’ features Jack White behind the drum kit, and although he’s not here tonight, that’s endorsement enough to coerce the moustachioed dapper dandies along. Yet they’ve such svelte seventies style – think Fairport Convention twirls, melded with the folkier strands of ‘III’-era Led Zeppelin – that they’ve attracted their fair share of fat old men with bald pates and ponytails too.
As for the music, at their best – on the swamp-blues lurch of ‘Gastown’, and the captivating ‘Morning Light’ for instance – they’re a mesh of serene harmonies and reverb, yet tonight’s show is, for the most part, stubbornly one-paced. It’s a shame, but on this evidence, Smoke Fairies lack the sprinkling of magic their name suggests…

Smoke Fairies setlist:

‘Frozen Heart’
‘Gastown’
‘Henry 8th’
‘Storm Song’
‘Summer Fades’
‘Goodman’
‘Living With Ghosts’
‘Troubles’
‘Morning Light’
‘River Song’
‘Sunshine’
‘Devil In My Mind’

JJ Dunning