Come Strut Your Stuff

Egg Café, Newington Street
7th June 2008

Reviewed by Dominic Murphy

It was the first Monday evening of the month which meant it was Come Strut Your Stuff at The Egg Café. Once again I sat myself down in the friendly atmosphere. I got out my pencil and pad ready for the first act. Stan the Harper once again added to this most unique atmosphere, filling the room with the wonderful sound of the harp. Keith Ainsworth was on hand to take quality pictures of the evening’s acts and readied himself in position. His work is displayed on the Come Strut Your Stuff website.

Stan stopped his playing to signal the start of the evening’s entertainment. The first act was Paul Clark, who looked the part. His performance was solid and confident and his playing was as good as any I have seen. There were several guitarists tonight and a couple from the previous event; Tony Kehoe and Jake Decasy, who are both imposing performers. Decasy improvised after being inspired by the poetry of the impressive and eloquent Amanda, the previous performer and I found this most impressive. Matt Reekie and Macarena gave strong performers which I enjoyed, Macarena singing in Spanish. One particular guitarist caught my attention and imagination though and this was Chris. His soulful performance, his excellent lyrics and his mastery of both guitar and harmonica blew me away. Chris’s performance of his own two songs ‘Rubix Cube’ and ‘All You Need To Know’ alone made my long journey here worth while.

The poetry was as strong as ever. Throughout the night I was blessed by poets such as Tom George who painted pictures with his words and never fails to impress me. Gregg, Spike and Ron Entwistle all performed good, strong and thoughtful poetry. Tom Goodale enlightened us with his storytelling.

However, the best performance of the night was from the most theatrical performer I have seen so far at this event. Ian started with a poem called 'Fame'; a humorous poem about a man who wants to lose his innocence and falls for the village bike, but fails to perform and is ridiculed. This poem was amazing and had the whole audience in rapture. I thought this could not be beaten, yet I was wrong. His next work was even better. 'Amsterdam' was a theatrically performed song, that was full of emotion, expression, comical timing and sung note perfect. This performance had everything a audience needed. I felt privileged to witness this performance in particular, breathtaking stuff!

Even if you didn’t want to go for the entertainment, the food menu should be enough to entice through the door. The wide selection of freshly baked cakes and extensive vegetarian menu makes your mouth water. The Egg Café is a feast for the senses!

Printer friendly page

Sorry Comments Closed