Oxjam Takes Over The City

Mon 25th October, 2010 @ 8:43pm by raeganoates

Last night the Oxjam takeover was in full effect at the uber-hip Braunstone Gate, involving all the familiar venues that populate one of Leicester’s best loved streets with each one hosting a day and night long programme of music, covering all styles and genres.

Having been promised 24 hours of partying with fantastic music, people and atmosphere FD2D made our way into the brisk winter weather to see if this event could bring back a taste of the summer, and we’re pleased to report Oxjam got top marks for this year’s offering.

Closing off the street for the event and with the festivities spilling out on the cities pavements, Oxjam transformed the area giving it a welcome cosmopolitan feel with a mix of good vibes and music. With over 85 bands on offer there was something for everyone, from Hub Bars, Roots and Reggae to the Burlesque dancers over at Sumo.

Top Picks:

O Bar - The Twist, a five-piece Indie-Pop-Rock band hailing from Dundee delivering a set full of all the passion and effortless swagger that you’d expect from Scotland’s energetic youth. We salute the bands valiant, hedonistic, everyman attitude reflected in this evenings set. With a combination of their lyrics conveyed with passion, a cacophony of drums and edgy riffs they gave us every rock and roll staple going, all with a robust charm of their own.

Loaf Bar – Free Control with their meticulously crafted offerings and new material they provided a deep, dark ocean of sound, raging violently one minute, spookily becalmed the next and Sally Hossacks ethereal delivery, haunting and emotion-gripped voice supplied the beating heart of this band.

O Bar – The Poetry Brothel providing us the chance to recharge and relax. Loosely based on bordellos of early 20^th Century France, the Poetry Brothel appeared to the untrained eye a drink-fuelled burlesque event, but delving below the candlelight to peruse this latest offering, its true purpose became startlingly apparent: for a small fee, punters were filling their literary lust with personal, one-on-one readings from the “poetry whores” and as ever they didn’t disappoint.

We know our top picks barely scratch the surface of what was available, so we’d like to thank the organisers, all of the acts that performed, the musicians and you.... the people that made it happen. We’d love to list everyone here that we saw but frankly we just don’t have the time or space. You know who you are...Thanks for having us Oxjam. Same time next year, yeah?

[source facebook.com]