The Dead Rat Society, Sweet Unrest, Helen King and To the Dogs at the Finsbury

Given I had only heard of one of the acts on the bill, this gig was a bit of a journey into the unknown for me. But well worth the trip. An excellent evening.

To start with the venue was the Finsbury, a pub which is literally down the road from me. A very long road I will admit. Like an hour's walk each way. But a straightforward route and a nice enough walk on  a warm September evening.

Secondly it was a free gig. I like value for money! And thirdly it was a nice venue when I found it, although the room is between the main bar area and the beer garden, which on the plus side allowed one to move easily to either but on the minus side meant a few people just used it as a corridor.

But the main thing was that the acts were far better than one might expect for free!

Opening were To The Dogs whose lead singer proudly proclaimed that this was their debut at a proper gig. And it did feel a proper gig as in contrast to some low level gigs I had been to recently, the room was tolerably full even when the openers came on rather than them starting to play to a handful of uninterested souls. New they might be as a band, but they were very decent indeed. Lead singer had a good strong voice. Fair amount of their own material plus some covers, notably Blur's Song 2 (which is about the only Blur song that would have suited their style) and the Hives classic Hate to Say I Told You So. The latter was particularly neat as the venue had only just played a recording of the original on the loop played over the system to keep us entertained before they came on.

Second act was Helen King, a young singer songwriter. She had a powerful voice and very good repertoire of her own material. Proper rock chick style as I would describe her. I thought she was very good, and said so to her as bumped into her at the end of the evening as I opened the door to the bar to exit and she was coming through the other way. The artists at this level are rather more accessible than the stars!

Now what had attracted me to to this gig in the first place was finding Sweet Unrest, who I enjoy following with much of the diligence, but not the fervour, of a stalker. As always a nice set, much along the lines of sets I had seen them play many times but now with a cover of Dizzee Rascal's Bonkers added. (Rather better than the original in my opinion.)

Their other new twist is to end the gig in a pile on the floor😀

I had absolutely no idea what sort of music I would get from the headliners, The Dead Rat Society. Going off nothing but the name I expected post-punk, so my sort of thing. But they were not that at all. More a rap act along the lines of the Beastie Boys. Live guitarist and drummer as one might expect of an alt rock band, but lead singer rapping and another guy, similarly attired in a sort of jump suit jumping around in the distance, but whose main role was operating the computer that was producing the rest of the musical sound. Generally I am not a fan of rap, but this was actually quite listenable to in my view. Even to the extent that I might see them again if I saw they were playing in London. Which is more than I would say for an other rap act, so high praise from me!

Not sure what the streaked black make up under the eyes was in aid of....

But all in all the Dead Rat Society were entertaining. And that is the aim of the game.

 

Bones Ate Arfa, Really Big Really Clever and The Yacht Club at the Sebright Arms

Normally when I title these reviews I start with the headline act. But for this one, for reasons I shall come onto, I have started with Bones Ate Arfa who actually took the middle section.

When I originally tried to booked this gig it only offered me the waiting list, so I assumed it had been sold out. But later I got notification that I had one hour to book, so I did, and hey presto I was in. Although I had never heard of Really Big Really Clever, I assumed they must have a fair underground following. And they had a physical vinyl album out so they must be something, if not strictly speaking big. (If you are big, you don't perform at the Sebright Arms!)

On a wet Sunday night I trekked across London. Ticket said 7:30 start, I arrived, slightly damp, a little later only to find I was the first person there. Well somebody has to be first. But if I had known nothing would happen before 8pm I wouldn't have bothered.  

So, the Sebright Arms. What can I say? If you wanted to design a dungeon in 21st century London this would pretty much be it. Underground (well under the Sebright Arms pub, which is quite a nice pub in truth). Deepest Hackney. Black painted bare walls, lit in the seediest shade of red. All that is missing is a fat bloke in leather ready to interrogate you for offences against the State.

Ready for a crowd of 150, or when I arrived, 0. As you can see.

First act up were a group of obviously seasoned veterans from the London music scene, currently called the Yacht Club. By the time they got going the audience had dribbled into double figures. But lets just say that they struggled to set the place on fire. Well anyone would, but they didn't really try. It felt like they were playing for their own entertainment, and they weren't really enjoying even that.  Not awful, but just nothing to write home about.

Now to be fair, I had only come along to see the middle act that I had seen a couple of times before and really liked : Bones Ate Arfa. So clearly I am going to be biased towards them in terms of the balance of entertainment during the night. They also faced a small crowd, but by the time they got properly into their set the audience was probably about 50 which is decent enough to give a comfortable feeling. And they were predictably good. 

Thinking about it, what really made them stand out in the evening (and so why I put them first in the billing) was their enthusiasm. Whatever the size of the crowd, they gave it all. And the crowd did respond, by far the most positive response of the night. I have included more photos below than the picture quality deserves. This is not a great place for photography. Gloomy lighting (well you wouldn't want to spoil that Soviet torture chamber vibe would you?) for a start. I also found I had to move stage left from starting stage right because of a truly vicious air conditioning unit on the right wall. So that meant I hadn't got much to aim at, and in particular got no shots of poor Bones on the guitar at the far side behind Arfa. But Arfa is the front man and lead vocalist, so he gets the limelight here.

This is the best shot I got of Ate on drums as he was either drowned in darkness or the light behind him would flash brightly and bleach out everything like an atomic bomb. A pity as his frenetic drum style is fun to watch

See what I mean about the light flashing and bleaching out my photos of the drummer!

So all in all a good set, and the atmosphere had definitely gone up several notches. Now after each act there is a decent gap and the audience almost all vacates the dungeon for the bright lights and convivial atmosphere of the bar above, and then reassembles in a slightly desultory manner for the next act. So I assumed, given my difficulty in getting a ticket, that there would be a late "surge" to see Really Big Really Clever. But there was not. Really not. I would say the audience was about half of what Bones Ate Arfa had attracted half an hour before.

Now while I have mocked the idea that they were big in success terms, physically I could see where they were coming from. The lead singer was incredibly tall, which was a bad combination with the stage at the Sebright. While Arfa before had the freedom of the stage to run around (and took the opportunity to jump about), this guy, while just able to stand upright where he was, couldn't have come towards me without braining himself on the beam across the stage ceiling!

However, he didn't look like the leaping type. This was just so, so low energy, which for their grungy style of music was a bad fit. As I say, the yawning gap between them and Bones Ate Arfa was the enthusiasm, or lack of it. This extended into the limited banter with the audience which was so miserable and half hearted. 

The low point, well for me, the end point, was after a few songs when the drummer urged people to move forward as there was no one centre front. A few people did grudgingly move forward, but a few more people at the back simply exited. As did I needing a loo break. And frankly, while in the sort of toilet one might expect in a third world prison, I just didn't feel the need to go back.

So I exited maybe half way through the set, to bump into the boys from Bones Ate Arfa at the bar above. And that more than vindicated my decision to evacuate early, as I had a lovely chat with Bones, who seemed an absolutely top bloke. Talked about their music, and touring and performing. There is all the difference in the world between interviews with bands, which are always horribly stilted as everyone is trying to promote the band or show how zany they are, and actually just talking to these lads which is vastly more interesting. A short chat with Bones was far more rewarding than listening to Really Big Really Clever. I am afraid the audience had voted with their feet. Bones Ate Arfa outplayed and outshone the headliners, and clearly not just in my eyes!