A spur of the moment gig. Sunday evening and nothing particular to do. Saw this "All Dayer" gig at the Hope & Anchor in Islington and thought it might be up my street. In fact I doubt it was up anyone's street. Not necessarily because it was bad (although I think it was to an extent) but because no one's music taste would be broad enough to encompass this miscellany. Almost to prove my point, I was about the only person there who stayed "All Day" (All day started at 5:30pm. That is just evening surely?). Only others that were there almost all day were a couple of members of one of the bands
Just for starters, Iris KS. A young Spanish woman playing keyboards. Lovely voice (sang in Spanish), charming in slightly broken English, but you could tell she was a classically trained pianist. If this was a tapas bar in Andalusia you would think this nice. But on a rock bill in a pub basement in London? And when she started with a song about a sheep about to be devoured by a wolf, and began making baa noises, well you felt this must be a parody. (Followed by a song from the wolf's viewpoint where the crowd were encouraged to howl like a wolf) She even did an improvised piece where she asked the audience for a key and a theme, and just played something. Clearly very talented, but so out of place
And for one song she asked if anyone could play drums and one of the musicians that had come in for sound check volunteered. (Charlie reappeared at the end of the evening as the guitarist for the headline act!)
If that was an unpromising, but at least novel, start, things didn't take a turn for the better with the next act. I would like to say something positive about Please, but I would have to lie. They looked and sounded awful, with no banter to relieve the position. Lead singer had terrible voice. To make matters worse, this was really my genre. But done so badly.
The two guitarists from Psychic Pollution were the two chaps that I said stayed throughout the day. I am sure they are nice lads. But this was pretty horrible to listen to. Very basic drumming - God those drums took a beating. I often say I like new bands to include at least one cover, so the audience that knows none of their own songs can at least hear them playing something the audience is familiar with in the band's style. We were treated to a thrash metal version of the House of the Rising Sun. Let's just say I never want to repeat the experience.
And then up came Silvercain. This was a heavy metal trio, very much not my type of music. But at least I could appreciate that they were good at it. And then halfway through the lead singer announced that this would be their last ever performance, thanking all the people there that had been following them for coming. I would guess the audience at this point was around twenty to thirty. So they had not accrued much in the way of followers. But certainly a number of the people there had only come to see them and left immediately afterwards. A bit of a mark of the All Day show - most of the audience had only popped in for half an hour to see their friends.
Note the swap of guitars to a super one! This guy could really play a guitar well, even if what he produced with it was not really to my taste.
At this point the audience swelled significantly for the Potato Peelers. They were the act that people had come to see, and I lost my place at the front to youngsters who wanted to dance. Well, bob.
They are sort of a rap act. Well not really, more an indie rock band but instead of singing the lyrics are all spoken. Or shouted. I will leave it at this: I really didn't like them. The crowd did. And at this stage for the first time it was almost a crowd as opposed to a few souls.
Finally the headliners - the Astrocats. I had never heard of them, or any of the bands on this roster. I just think that if I go to one these shows I will find at least one band that I think good. By this stage of the evening I was losing hope. I had pretty much hated everything that had gone before. But finally a band I liked. Strong voice from the lead singer. Three guitars. Proper indie rock. Justly headliners. But....
But the audience had now dwindled to a dozen (yes I counted), two of them members of the Psychic Pollution. I guess because the tickets are only a tenner, people think nothing of just turning up for their band and leaving immediately after. And given the disparate nature of the bands on this bill I could understand it. But felt sad for a good band putting in a lot of effort to play to such a sparse audience. I would see them again anyway.
This lanky lad was Charlie, who had chipped in on drums at the beginning of the gig. The lead singer announced that he had become a new permanent member of the band. And while looking gormless and lugubrious, he also put in most of the effort on stage, bouncing around. I enjoyed the incongruity!
