Folk, Funk and Fiddles: The East Pointers & Elephant Sessions tear up the Thekla

It’s been over 20 years since I last walked the gangplank of the Thekla — a 53-metre-long German cargo ship turned floating music venue in Bristol's Harbourside. I was a regular in my twenties, but hadn’t set foot aboard again… until last night.

Back onboard with my wife, we were treated to a thumping evening of electro-folk that I’ll remember for a long time.

Canadian duo the East Pointers got the party started with a barnstorming set including singles 'Wintergreen', 'Misty Morning' and 'Goolaholla', the latter named after the folk festival they hold back home on Prince Edward Island.

There were also a few bittersweet moments amid the fiddling and foot-stomping, as Tim and Jake spoke about losing their third band member, Tim's cousin Koady Chaisson, who died suddenly in 2022 of heart failure. The band had originally formed after Koady achieved sobriety after years of struggling with addiction and mental health, taking their name from the small island community where Koady worked as a lobster fisherman for 11 years. But his presence was very much felt as they played 'Stronger Than You Know', written with Koady shortly before his passing, and 'Anniversary', a celebration of both his birthday on 4th December and the day he became sober.

Make no mistake, these weren't sombre tunes. They were joyful, fast-paced and utterly life-affirming. Tim and Jake had us joining in with the choruses, punching the air as the duo brilliantly set the stage for the rest of the night.

With the crowd buzzing, the Elephant Sessions launched into their set, rattling the Thekla's bulkheads with their electrifying mix of folk, funk, rock and dance.

Hailing from the Highlands of Scotland, the quartet got the crowd jumping from the first bars of 'FM' to the storming encore of 'Bloom' and '1990', both co-written with Isle of Skye natives Valtos, sending us back onto dry land on a high.

The music was fast, furious and intricately timed, mandolin player Alasdair Taylor and bassist Calum MacQuarrie taking a well-earned breather as fiddler Euan Smillie took the spotlight with drummer Greg Barry for the beautiful 'Riverview.'

Then the band regrouped for the second half of the song and the boat rocked, hands in the air and feet stomping.

There were smiles everywhere you looked; on the stage, in the audience – the energy in the room building with every pounding track. When Euan shouted for Bristol to “make some noise,” we did. Loudly. And the grin on Alasdair’s face said it all.

Belting out one instrumental banger after another, the Elephant Sessions were living their best life – and so were we!