Another Day and The Ariston at the Spice of Life

I totally got the wrong end of the stick with this gig. I thought I was coming to see the two support acts, but in fact they were the only two acts. What I hadn't appreciated was "Incendiary" was the promoter, not the headliner. So I had looked up "Incendiary" on YouTube and there is indeed a band of that name (American) which I can't say I liked the sound of. 

Astille of Another Day (whom I had met at Sweet Unrest gig the week before) must have thought I was a complete nutter when I greeted him on my arrival and announced that I was probably not going to stay for the headliner (which it transpired was his band, not this American band that I had mixed up with the promoter!)

I had never been to this venue before, but was very impressed by it. It is underneath a pub next to the theatre where the Harry Potter play is being performed. It has two levels, a mix of seating and a bar down there. And a proper stage. The effect of all that is that even without a big audience, it doesn't feel empty. And the wide stage allows the maximum number of people to be at the front. 

This was taken before the gig - it did fill up by the time acts came on. Unusually, but gratifyingly, the tickets did say both when doors opened and when the first act was to start.

As result there was a good atmosphere throughout. It was pretty warm - unlike the Camden Eye that has aircon that could freeze Iceland - which was fine for the audience but the bands looked very sweaty. I was surprised none of the young lads took off their shirts. Apart from the comfort it may have impressed the girls at the front, although at gigs of this size, said girls may in fact be the girlfriends of the bands!

The Ariston

Anyway, opening at 8pm were The Ariston, a band I had seen before at the Dublin Castle. I had chatted to Will, the bass player, at that gig and he and encouraged me to come to their headline gig at Dingwalls. Unfortunately on getting home I discovered that was the same night as I had tickets for the Stereophonics. I am afraid they rather trump The Ariston (and always will)! But I was very pleased to see them appearing on this bill.

So who are the Ariston? Well honestly don't know much about them. A solid indie band, the core seems to be vocalist Luca and bass player Will, both of whom I chatted to again after the gig. Yes their audience is small enough that Will remembered me from previous occasion and they are nice enough to have a few words even with someone who is definitely outside their target demographic!

Will

Luca

Finn on drums

Luca's hairstyle is clearly based on looking cool rather than practicality. Its natural position is over his eyes resulting in perpetual sweeping away of his fringe😃. Yes looks great but would irritate the hell out of me (although I am just jealous of anyone who has hair....)

So that was The Ariston. Nice bunch of lads and I will happily see them again. One thing I would say (and will about the headliners too) is that they could do with more audience interaction. They have personality - they should show it more on stage.

Another Day

The headliners were Another Day. They opened with Astille doing a bit of spoken word (reading a surreal poem of his own composition), and then introducing the band. 

I don't really understand the dynamics of this outfit. Astille could be the mastermind behind the operation or a just a friendly adjunct. Doesn't really matter. His poetry adds an extra dimension without being cringeworthy or excessive. And he then proceeded to move to the back and vigorously play percussion standing on a little platform with a vent above him which meant he couldn't even stand straight. If he ends up with chronic back pain in later life he might look back at this night in Soho....😀

The core of this band seems to be brothers Louis and Jonte Hillier. They appear to have added a new guitarist (in foreground below - I was standing so close in front of him that he nearly clouted me with his guitar a few times) who made me feel ancient just by dint of how young he looked. You know that bit about getting to an age where all the policemen look young? Well this lad looked to me like he should be in school. But that is probably just me. 

They are at their best going up tempo, as is often the case with a band with three guitars, but I guess you can't just go full throttle all the time. They played about an hour. One stand out song (ie one that you properly recognise the hook for) - Merry Go Round - that one could imagine being sung along to by a big crowd one day. If you wanted to sum their music up in a single word I would say "intense".

Possibly even more than The Ariston they missed the opportunity to implant any degree of personality on their audience. They (or rather the new guitarist) had a sound problem (ie he was playing, no sound was forthcoming! so the sound man had to come in with new cables. That would have been a good opportunity to address the crowd a bit, tell us what the problem was, tell us a bit about the band, have a bit of a laugh. But instead the rest of the band just played a few riffs which was fine, but to me a little bit of  wasted opportunity to make themselves memorable. 

Singer Louis Hillier

You can see what I mean about it being a sweaty gig for the performers from this photo

Above and below were taken during break to fix the amp. You can see Astille at the back left hunched under the

 vent.

The two brothers

Astille came to the mic again for a second, rather more impassioned spoken word piece

So that was the gig. Very happy with my night for the princely sum of £8 including booking fee. And as I was leaving I bumped into Dani from Sweet Unrest. Its a small world, this London indie pub scene. The bands know each other and support each other. They clearly aren't in it for the money (although obviously they would all like to make it big!). And obviously I quite enjoy being recognised by these various band members.