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Keeping up with posting about every gig is feeling tedious right now but I'll be grateful for it later, or something.
Last night was Popaganda, the Live Music Society's gig/club night at the UCL union. The room used for it was only turned into a gig venue over the summer and they didn't do as good a job as they could have done; it's a perfectly good PA for DJs but it's a bit pants at dealing with live bands, and the awkward shape and completely sheer-walled room don't help much. The soundmen know what they're doing, though, and do the best they can, but it's still basically down to the band not to be rubbish when playing in slightly adverse circumstances.
The first band, the Sleep Wells, were aiming for something quite interesting but not quite pulling it off. They had a technically good but rather tentative drummer. No-one was really taking responsibility for the beat - the drummer followed the others, but the others didn't really have hold of it either, so although they reached a reasonable working consensus on where the beat was it had no drive in it at all. Then again that didn't hamper them as much as it could given the style; they were aiming for building something out of carefully balanced fragile parts, complete with two female singers, and coming close to managing it. I think I'd be interested to hear those songs done by a more confident band. Getting over the habit of faffing for ages between songs would help - the bass and rhythm guitar swap jobs between songs and it's all very cosy and domestic somehow, but of no interest to the audience at all.
The Young Sensations were just rubbish. I told the LMS's president so without realising that they're friends of his, and he was trying to defend them on the basis of them being newly formed, but I can't see that more practice will help. They just had no redeeming features, not the forgettable drummer or the uninspired songs or the pointless keyboard or the predictable guitar or their own personal smoke machine and especially not the singer, who can't sing but thinks he can, and thus doesn't bother coming up with something more interesting in the style of singers who can't sing and know it. Don't bother.
Modernaire, though, you should bother with. Possibly I should bother with again too. It was just a lad with a Korg and a laptop, and a girl with a sort of wistful Goth wedding look going on, but apparently on other nights there are two girls, and given the way the one girl there last night was working with a pre-recorded second vocal, I should like to see both voices done live. The girl could sing, unquestionably, but she wasn't trying to stun us with it as I tend to fear from these sorts of arrangements, just to provide an interesting counterpoint to the thoughtful electronic stuff, with original lyrics about mythical things. And yet, the whole thing was very danceable and several people did. I can't think exactly who to recommend them to because they're neither goth nor electro nor drum & bass, exactly, but something of their own, which is surely a good thing. I didn't buy a CD but I did consider it, you know?
An odd evening, overall. I polished the hideously tarnished house cymbals but I don't think it made as much difference as I was hoping. I chatted to the soundmen, and I did the soundcheck on the drums, and the bass amp head was mine, and all those cues put me in pre-gig calm mode, which I never got to switch out of by playing. I broke down the drum kit when the bands were done and went home; not a lot else to do.
Last night was Popaganda, the Live Music Society's gig/club night at the UCL union. The room used for it was only turned into a gig venue over the summer and they didn't do as good a job as they could have done; it's a perfectly good PA for DJs but it's a bit pants at dealing with live bands, and the awkward shape and completely sheer-walled room don't help much. The soundmen know what they're doing, though, and do the best they can, but it's still basically down to the band not to be rubbish when playing in slightly adverse circumstances.
The first band, the Sleep Wells, were aiming for something quite interesting but not quite pulling it off. They had a technically good but rather tentative drummer. No-one was really taking responsibility for the beat - the drummer followed the others, but the others didn't really have hold of it either, so although they reached a reasonable working consensus on where the beat was it had no drive in it at all. Then again that didn't hamper them as much as it could given the style; they were aiming for building something out of carefully balanced fragile parts, complete with two female singers, and coming close to managing it. I think I'd be interested to hear those songs done by a more confident band. Getting over the habit of faffing for ages between songs would help - the bass and rhythm guitar swap jobs between songs and it's all very cosy and domestic somehow, but of no interest to the audience at all.
The Young Sensations were just rubbish. I told the LMS's president so without realising that they're friends of his, and he was trying to defend them on the basis of them being newly formed, but I can't see that more practice will help. They just had no redeeming features, not the forgettable drummer or the uninspired songs or the pointless keyboard or the predictable guitar or their own personal smoke machine and especially not the singer, who can't sing but thinks he can, and thus doesn't bother coming up with something more interesting in the style of singers who can't sing and know it. Don't bother.
Modernaire, though, you should bother with. Possibly I should bother with again too. It was just a lad with a Korg and a laptop, and a girl with a sort of wistful Goth wedding look going on, but apparently on other nights there are two girls, and given the way the one girl there last night was working with a pre-recorded second vocal, I should like to see both voices done live. The girl could sing, unquestionably, but she wasn't trying to stun us with it as I tend to fear from these sorts of arrangements, just to provide an interesting counterpoint to the thoughtful electronic stuff, with original lyrics about mythical things. And yet, the whole thing was very danceable and several people did. I can't think exactly who to recommend them to because they're neither goth nor electro nor drum & bass, exactly, but something of their own, which is surely a good thing. I didn't buy a CD but I did consider it, you know?
An odd evening, overall. I polished the hideously tarnished house cymbals but I don't think it made as much difference as I was hoping. I chatted to the soundmen, and I did the soundcheck on the drums, and the bass amp head was mine, and all those cues put me in pre-gig calm mode, which I never got to switch out of by playing. I broke down the drum kit when the bands were done and went home; not a lot else to do.