Le Weekend...
Jun. 16th, 2003 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixandreaFriday night: Went to the Rock Soc May Brawl at the Boat Race. Crimson were a bit disappointing it has to be said. They were basically a Metallica cover band who wrote their own lyrics. Now I understand cut-up theory fairly well, although I've never used it myself, but all this band did was remind me of teenage weekends spent down at The Square in Harlow, listening to one metal band after another play the same thing. The singer... Well, he had the potential to have a good voice, and he was a reasonably good guitarist, but he was singing from his throat, fairly quietly, and with very little passion. I get the impression he was nervous. Fair enough, but I think if he'd have let go and sung from his heart (and maybe his stomach) he would have sounded amazing, rather than mediochre. Later I watched him dancing, and the same self-consciousness struck me. I guess during the day he's probably more of a blue jeans and t-shirt kinda guy (short, kid-style haircut included) which is a shame in a way since it looked like he could do with being happy enough to express himself.
Anyway, Kick Back were also like a cover band (Iron Maiden) but when they played covers they sang the right lyrics and when they weren't they really made an impression! Very pretty, very passionate, lots of fun. I'd been flagging just before they came on and thinking of going home, but they cheered me up no end. :-) Danced a little, watched the eye candy, wondered how they were coping up onstage under the lights. I was about to find out...
Saturday: Two gigs in one day, something I may have to get used to in my rock-star status one day... ;-) The first... Well, TBPH I think Richard Brown (who books bands for The Junction and who got us the gig there) was seriously taking the piss. Don't know what Stef did to rattle his chains, but we got to this village hall in the middle of no-where in reasonable time, only to find firstly that we weren't playing at all. Oh no, this band called Skellage were playing, who did stuff somewhere between Rock and Folk... As we brought our kit in, the first band were already having what turned out to be a long sound check. OK, we'll go out in the sun, have a sample of the local beer (cider for me) and have a look at what the place has to offer (one stall and a couple of kids entertainments) while we wait to go on. 5 minutes before the show was about to start they decided to soundcheck us. Apparently they'd thought we'd be a 2 minute job... Umm (thinks about how many different instruments we have in our band...) We got some sort of soundcheck, then they had to start as by this time they were running 20 minutes late.
Went out to chat to the guy running the single stall, warmed up, chatted to the band some and had pork roast just before we went on. The set itself went fairly well, apart from the soundman being a rank amateur who thought it would be interesting to use our slot as an excuse to play with the effects. Hence Sumfin came out sounding like it was being sung in a toilet, and I was very surprised during Asphalt Grave to hear my vocals echoing for some time after I'd stopped singing...
We stayed long enough to watch Flaming June, who are friends of Stef's and like The Levellers with female vox. Very lovely and lots of fun. :-) Then we headed off to The Boat Race, via Shauny's to watch the video his sister had taken of us at Strawberry Fair. Most of the video was of Shauny (and me, as I was in the same line of sight) and was very sun-bleached, but it was OK, and the bit where we messed up No Forgiveness wasn't anywhere near as long on the video as it felt when we were up there...
Sound check went OK at The Boat Race, but then The Rude Mechanicals took far too long doing theirs, so by the time it came to Rome Burns' sound check the doors were already open and people were starting to come in. Still, the soundman got it fairly well, and there was only a little bit of feedback on the lead vocals. Shauny dropped me home to get changed and made up, and I walked back to the gig in my pink wedding dress. Rock n Roll!
Rome Burns were superb, very professional and lots of fun. Everyone was dancing of course, especially when they played the old Calling favourite 'Catharsis'. The Rude Mechanicals were extremely weird cabaret-style stuff, and very much divided people into 'Love' and 'Hate' factions. I wasn't too sure to start with, but by the end I was thoroughly enjoying myself and thinking of Frank Zappa in drag!
Then finally it was our turn. I'd been getting more and more nervous up to this point, but when I got onstage most of this vanished. We'd been told to finish up by ten to 11pm so we rocketed through most of the set, missing out only Sumfin in the end. I lost my lyrics once for half a sentence in 9/11 and everything came out just the way I wanted it. The only major problem was the sheer temperature up there - there's a few ceiling fans in the venue, but nothing onstage to keep us cool under the lights. I should have brought a fan along, especially having noticed it the night before...
I was most weirded out by the congratulations at the end. People who should have walked out the door were still there, saying how much they'd enjoyed themselves. This means one of two things, either they heard what I was singing, understood and forgave me for my POV or (more likely) they sipmly weren't listening to the words... *Sigh* Oh well. Erik wasn't feeling too good by the end, so we went home rather than braving the aftershow party. Hope they all went well, I know the boys certainly stayed up until dawn, although where I don't know... We made lots of money on the door and on CDs as well. :-)
Sunday. Despite entirely expecting a lie-in, I seemed to not be tired at all either Saturday or Sunday morning. It was a few hours till the barbecue, so Erik and I sat down and watched the rest of Laputa, which he finally managed to track down for me for my birthday. Disney have very definitely cut bits of it, and the soundtrack isn't the best in the world, but its so nice to sit down and watch after so long. By the time we'd finished watching it, it was time to go, so we packed up the cool bag and headed over to Tish and Oli's. Got there , had some (very yummy) food and some (even yummier) punch and sunbathed for a bit. I don't think mixing the punch with milkshake was a very good idea, and I felt a little ill for a while, although it could have been sunstroke as I was very dehydrated. Anyway, I went home and sat down for a bit, then headed up to the Blues Jam to see Erik, who had gone up there a little earlier on. Sat, drank water, enjoyed the music until it finishedm then went down to The Fort St. George to watch the sun go down. Ended up meeting some hippy-types Erik knows from the building site he's working on ATM, so sat and chatted with them until hometime.
All in all, quite a successful weekend I think...
Anyway, Kick Back were also like a cover band (Iron Maiden) but when they played covers they sang the right lyrics and when they weren't they really made an impression! Very pretty, very passionate, lots of fun. I'd been flagging just before they came on and thinking of going home, but they cheered me up no end. :-) Danced a little, watched the eye candy, wondered how they were coping up onstage under the lights. I was about to find out...
Saturday: Two gigs in one day, something I may have to get used to in my rock-star status one day... ;-) The first... Well, TBPH I think Richard Brown (who books bands for The Junction and who got us the gig there) was seriously taking the piss. Don't know what Stef did to rattle his chains, but we got to this village hall in the middle of no-where in reasonable time, only to find firstly that we weren't playing at all. Oh no, this band called Skellage were playing, who did stuff somewhere between Rock and Folk... As we brought our kit in, the first band were already having what turned out to be a long sound check. OK, we'll go out in the sun, have a sample of the local beer (cider for me) and have a look at what the place has to offer (one stall and a couple of kids entertainments) while we wait to go on. 5 minutes before the show was about to start they decided to soundcheck us. Apparently they'd thought we'd be a 2 minute job... Umm (thinks about how many different instruments we have in our band...) We got some sort of soundcheck, then they had to start as by this time they were running 20 minutes late.
Went out to chat to the guy running the single stall, warmed up, chatted to the band some and had pork roast just before we went on. The set itself went fairly well, apart from the soundman being a rank amateur who thought it would be interesting to use our slot as an excuse to play with the effects. Hence Sumfin came out sounding like it was being sung in a toilet, and I was very surprised during Asphalt Grave to hear my vocals echoing for some time after I'd stopped singing...
We stayed long enough to watch Flaming June, who are friends of Stef's and like The Levellers with female vox. Very lovely and lots of fun. :-) Then we headed off to The Boat Race, via Shauny's to watch the video his sister had taken of us at Strawberry Fair. Most of the video was of Shauny (and me, as I was in the same line of sight) and was very sun-bleached, but it was OK, and the bit where we messed up No Forgiveness wasn't anywhere near as long on the video as it felt when we were up there...
Sound check went OK at The Boat Race, but then The Rude Mechanicals took far too long doing theirs, so by the time it came to Rome Burns' sound check the doors were already open and people were starting to come in. Still, the soundman got it fairly well, and there was only a little bit of feedback on the lead vocals. Shauny dropped me home to get changed and made up, and I walked back to the gig in my pink wedding dress. Rock n Roll!
Rome Burns were superb, very professional and lots of fun. Everyone was dancing of course, especially when they played the old Calling favourite 'Catharsis'. The Rude Mechanicals were extremely weird cabaret-style stuff, and very much divided people into 'Love' and 'Hate' factions. I wasn't too sure to start with, but by the end I was thoroughly enjoying myself and thinking of Frank Zappa in drag!
Then finally it was our turn. I'd been getting more and more nervous up to this point, but when I got onstage most of this vanished. We'd been told to finish up by ten to 11pm so we rocketed through most of the set, missing out only Sumfin in the end. I lost my lyrics once for half a sentence in 9/11 and everything came out just the way I wanted it. The only major problem was the sheer temperature up there - there's a few ceiling fans in the venue, but nothing onstage to keep us cool under the lights. I should have brought a fan along, especially having noticed it the night before...
I was most weirded out by the congratulations at the end. People who should have walked out the door were still there, saying how much they'd enjoyed themselves. This means one of two things, either they heard what I was singing, understood and forgave me for my POV or (more likely) they sipmly weren't listening to the words... *Sigh* Oh well. Erik wasn't feeling too good by the end, so we went home rather than braving the aftershow party. Hope they all went well, I know the boys certainly stayed up until dawn, although where I don't know... We made lots of money on the door and on CDs as well. :-)
Sunday. Despite entirely expecting a lie-in, I seemed to not be tired at all either Saturday or Sunday morning. It was a few hours till the barbecue, so Erik and I sat down and watched the rest of Laputa, which he finally managed to track down for me for my birthday. Disney have very definitely cut bits of it, and the soundtrack isn't the best in the world, but its so nice to sit down and watch after so long. By the time we'd finished watching it, it was time to go, so we packed up the cool bag and headed over to Tish and Oli's. Got there , had some (very yummy) food and some (even yummier) punch and sunbathed for a bit. I don't think mixing the punch with milkshake was a very good idea, and I felt a little ill for a while, although it could have been sunstroke as I was very dehydrated. Anyway, I went home and sat down for a bit, then headed up to the Blues Jam to see Erik, who had gone up there a little earlier on. Sat, drank water, enjoyed the music until it finishedm then went down to The Fort St. George to watch the sun go down. Ended up meeting some hippy-types Erik knows from the building site he's working on ATM, so sat and chatted with them until hometime.
All in all, quite a successful weekend I think...
