Rowena+Slow+Gala Band, 7th April

Café Kino is a fairly new place on the famous Nine Tree Hill off Stokes Croft. The performance is downstairs, in a tiny cellar of a back room. There are about eight chairs and about ten people, most of whom are in the bands. This is my first visit and I leave my bike outside, all chained up with some trepidation. Not for the café, but for the bike - I don't want to have to walk home.

Robin Allender is halfway through his last song, so I can't say much about him, it is a direct rip-off of Pink Floyd's C-G acoustic stuff a la Mother from The Wall or Pigs off Animals. I'm sure if I heard the song in full there would be more to it, next time I'll have to be more punctual!

The Gala Band are a duo of acoustic guitar and piano - or at least they are tonight. They play lovely sensual bluesy songs with finger-picked guitar and gentle piano sounds. There are rumours that they also have a drummer, it would be interesting to see what happens when they are in a less intimate situation.

I saw Slow at Ashton Court briefly last year, tonight they are a trio and very, very relaxed. The songs are incredibly soothing and gentle, close harmonies and the minimum of notes and chord changes. When they crescendo, you feel the emotion in every breath and even the loudness of the little mirrorball in the corner somehow fades out of my senses as I listen.

Rowena is the singer from a band called Santa Dog, of whom I have written on other occasions. Tonight she plays SD songs alone with an acoustic guitar, which is a true test of one's songs. It's nice to be able to make out the words for a change and also to hear Rowena's voice so much more clearly than when it's behind the pop music of her band.

There are Ashton Court benefit CD's and a slow EP that I take home to keep the acoustic music flowing, although it's a shame that the place wasn't rammed, I'm sure everyone feels that little bit more special because of the intimacy. My bike is still outside, the guy at the bar has been watching it for me, between polishing glasses I presume.

Scarlatti Tilt, 21st April

After a lovely meal at a fantastic restaurant, I arrive at the Folk House somewhat tardy to witness Roger Tarry packing up and leaving the stage. I first saw Mr Tarry back in 2004 so if you want to know what I think of him, go back and read that review!

When The Superkings start, their first song is shambolic, confusing and I wonder what I've let myself in for. It seems as though it could be a great pop song, but they think it's 'cool' to play it raggedly. I worry that arriving early was a bad decision but my fears are quickly assuaged. Within a couple of songs I am hooked, the singer has a tremendous, jazz-crooning storytelling voice and that is what this band does, they are troubadours imparting dramatic, emotional stories occasionally punctuated by more straightforward piano pop songs.

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to catch Scarlatti Tilt playing a promotional gig in Virgin Megastores in town. So this is the second time I see the band as a trio, sans guitarist. I'd always thought they were a bit too over-dramatic, out of proportion but now the songs are more spacious, the listener has room to breathe and the most important part of them is now Daisy Chapman's lovely vocals.

A lot of people say that Scarlatti Tilt are 'melancholy' for some reason. It's not melancholy, it's uplifting, sometimes a little bit aggressive and highly descriptive music. Song of the night is 'The Insect Party', which remains in my head for about a week.

Barr, 25th April

When I get to The Junction at about 8:30 there is a very strange euro-techno vibe going on for this time on a Wednesday evening. The place is filling up already, people obviously knew something special was going to happen and there it is, sharing a pair of gloves (imagine THAT argument in the dressing room - no I want the left hand!) and pumping out the tunes is Dj Antoni Maiovvi Feat. Fortuna (aka singer from Hunting Lodge, Papa Molasses), presenting the Miami Beach Workout - apparently. According to the flyer anyway.

The music emanating from the laptop is slimmed down funkin techno trance electro beats and Fortuna provides occasionally rhythmical shouting that somehow seems to work. Certainly they have the ethos of the music down to a tee. It has you torn between laughing at the obviousness of it all, or banging your head to the beats and the bassline. A strange feeling, to say the least - especially as this is the first act on.

Zun Zun Egui give us psychedelic wigouts that develop into furious rock with a thin layer of jazz noodling over the top. There are strange time signatures and high pitched faux-Indian screaming. A member of the audience nearly gets a bass in the face for standing at the front. This is a great band and although the music itself is all over the place it manages to gel together nicely.

I'm not so enthused by Elliot Whale Boy, a band that seem so caught up by one particular rhythm (as heard in several Placebo songs) that they forget to vary their songs enough. Sure, it's all very complicated and tight and the fact that the singer's the only one who isn't in time or even in tune really gives them an off-kilter perspective, but there's only so long you can listen so overly-complex songs in 5/4 without yawning a little.

Barr are something quite different. A keyboard/bass/drums trio and a camp frontman who looks disturbingly like Torchwood's Captain Jack. The arrangements are sparse, and driving punk, over which the singer shouts and talks furiously, telling stories seemingly lacking in any sort of rhythm or lyrical ambition. He stalks around the stage, sticking his foot in my face at one point and taking my picture as I photograph his band-mates. It is prose with incidental music and somehow it works, strangely.

Night at the Piano, 27th April

Curse these stupid First buses being an hour late, Oh no mate, I don't know where the other bus is, maybe the pixies stole it away but I'm on time, honest guv. So after all that and a quick trip to the cash machine I find that The Heath Robinson is already going strong, everybody looks very entertained and happy and I am assured that I've already missed the best song of the night, something to do with violence in Clifton. When he runs out of songs to play, he is persuaded to do The Jukebox Will Tear Us Apart, a song by the great band Angel Tech which works very well with just the piano.

Jar has some highly complex music, so complex in fact that she stumbles over her hands quite a bit. It's like running water, all modern mathematical sequences generating soundscapes a la Glass or other such maths musicians. It gets a little bit too avant garde for me at times but it doesn't last long and when she sings... Jar has a strong alto voice which clashes wonderfully with her childlike attitude and lyrics. Her shy charm more than makes up for the post-modernism, especially when singing her silly, funny and sometimes scary songs (friends friends friends, friends are all you need...).

Lady Nade has an amazing deep soul / jazz voice, and that's what she sings, accompanied on the piano by her friend, she kicks off with Nina Simone's My baby just cares for me and does a few original numbers. It's quite something to hear such an accomplished singer in such a small intimate setting and it's a shame that we don't get to hear more. Jim Moray, quite a force in the modern folk world, plays some folky troubadour-like slightly traditional songs, about cavaliers and maidens. I don't know what to say about this sort of thing but I get completely sucked in to each one, he really is a great storyteller and a brilliant pianist.

3 Men and a Baby Grand kick off their set with the theme music from Film 1999 or whatever the first one was that had that music. You know - the Billy Taylor Trio's I wish I knew (how it felt to be free) - unforgettable and since it's a piano-themed evening, what else would you expect? They play a few trad. Blues-by-numbers songs which are marred only slightly by the fact that the musicians are reading the music, even for the solos! Apparently this is a scratch band, cobbled together just for this gig and it is a very impressive, professional sound they have. The Klezmer they do is fantastic though, and soon has everyone clapping along and shouting hoi!