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.