Nurse with Wound – Tusk Festival

Venue: Sage 2, Gateshead

Ticket Price: £21.80

I hadn’t heard of the Tusk Festival before but it would seem to be right up my street. It runs over three evenings at the Sage in Gateshead but with everything I had going on it was clear that I wasn’t going to be able to go to all three nights so I was glad to see that they did day tickets so I bought one for the Sunday.

The band I wanted to see was Nurse with Wound who I have been listening to for a while but I especially wanted to go as Jim Hill who I used to go and see in Hand of Stabs in Kent was also appearing with them. The gig was part of a larger event called Tusk Festival which had been running all weekend and seemed to have lots of music that I would quite like. In many ways it seems like the sort of music scene that I have been looking for since moving up here and it felt quite ironic that I should find it because of someone who was involved in that sort of scene back down in Kent.

As soon as I got there I bumped straight into Jim who was talking to Stephen Stapleton from Nurse with Wound and I got introduced and asked how I knew Jim!! I chatted for a few minutes and then wandered off to find a drink as I knew the Wylam Brewery had a pop up bar there. I then wandered into the auditorium to see the first act which was Brigid Mae Power who sang some lovely songs accompanied by herself on guitar and piano.


The next act was Beatrice Dillon who when she started I thought “no this isn’t for me” and was seriously considering going and getting another beer but in the end I gave it a few minutes and slowly found myself getting drawn into the music especially the rhythms. I stayed and watched it all the way through in the end and was disappointed to find the pop up bar had gone by the time I came out!

Nurse with Wound were excellent – I thoroughly enjoyed it, a sonic feast for the senses as they say! Probably the best gig I’ve been to this year! There were three of them underneath a big projection screen and Jim was standing out front with his drum and a microphone for his Worsicles and flute. The performance started off slowly but built and built until it was really rocking by the end! It finished about 12:30 and then I had to walk back to the car and drive home again. I got in at about half one, dirty stop out and on a school night as well!

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