Fenster zum Hof-Open Air, Kim Churchill, The Franklin Electric, and Luke Noa

Seth Lakeman usually has good warm-up acts. And Kim Churchill was the best. He's a one-man show. He plays the guitar, plays snare and bass drum with his left foot, tambourine with his right, harmonica round his neck and tinkly percussion bells with his right elbow. He also sings and has an effects peddle. He was so delighted to play at the Oxford Town Hall. Usually he plays in small pubs. His enthusiasm really came across. The intro to one of his songs - in memory of his grandfather - made me cry. He handled a broken guitar string with admirable poise. And he got a bit carried away with the effects pedal towards the end. But that was forgiveable.

The concert featured a lot of new songs for their upcoming album, so many of the early songs were ones no one would have heard before which makes it a challenge for the band to get an audience totally engaged. The new songs sound good, but will likely take a few listens to really get into them.

One thing that was noticeable was the lack of trumpet in the new material. The show was at its best when he played the horn, and I will be disappointed if the horn is going the way of the Mumford & Sons banjo. It is a unique feature that makes their sound so special.

The sound at the Horseshoe was poor. Relative to recent live shoes I have seen at other venues, it was clearly an issue there. I have seen Franklin Electric before, and they are such good musicians, but you just didn't get to appreciate it with the sound as muffled as it was.

Noisy conversations at the back of the room were distracting as well but perhaps more evidence that the audience was just not engaged with so much new material early in the set. The audience was far more engaged for the last 3 or 4 recognized songs.

In short, love the band, lots of energy, not the venue, sound was poor, and as Chirstopher Walken might say, "I need more trumpet".