Luke Paulo and Maija Päivikki
I really haven’t been to enough of these nights, in truth this is only the second time, but to be honest nothing had previously tempted me enough to get me away from any one of the other nights that run on a Wednesday in Reading Town.
But tonight is different, tonight BBC Introducing seems to have moved on from the usual ‘indie pop sets’, I rightly or wrongly associate with their night, and have invited Luke Paulo to play, a surprise move, but a good one I have to say.
Luke has emerged on the Berkshire music scene over the last year in particular with a distinctive soft baritone voice conveyed on slices of Eastern European inspired folkness. He writes and delivers lyrics that are heartfelt, steeped in the imagery of slightly dark tails, and is one of a number of growing artists in the area who’s song writing is lyrically led. Tonight, on stage Luke is joined by Maija Päivikki, adding her prodigious piano talents to beautifully compliment his acoustic meanderings, also adding a light counterpoint to his deep tones with a sensitive sprinkling of backing vocals.
There’s a good crowd in the house tonight, although the main band on is a rock band in the vein of Foo Fighters, which seems an incongruous mix, the audience though are very appreciative as the set gets underway with the poignantly sad ‘Beads on the floor’ one of my favourites, with the great line “As she scatters loves beads upon the floor”. This is music for dark smokey bars with shady characters hidden in booths drinking deep red wine and demands a hushed reverence. Other regulars Crazy Like You and Clear Water make an appearance in the set along with several new numbers, unfortunately tonight Luke isn’t in a very talkative mood and there are no introductions to the songs.
The 30 minute set is shorter than I’d have liked but it was packed full of the best songs and the audience is certainly responding well as the set finishes off with another new one… Next time I’ll remember to grab a set list.
If you’d like to hear more by Luke Paulo then head on over to his ReverbNation page where he has three of the tracks up
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