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shermaramaThe Hobgoblin is noisy and cramped and has terrible acoustics. The beleagured door staff are turning ever more hostile due to having to enforce draconian capacity limits in a big rambling pub full of devious-minded regulars who know the place too well. Still, the atmosphere's usually great and the beer is some of the best in Brighton outside of the most hardcore Real Ale gaffs, and you can't say fairer than that.
My mate Tim, who used to be my guitarist, and is now my bass player's bass player, and is about to become also my ex-drummer's next-door-neighbour's guitarist, (band incest is such fun) reckons that Amateur Ninja Club's bass player is crap. I contest this. He wasn't playing in time; I submit that there was precious little point him doing so, as a machine-like bass player would be totally out of place in this band. He came on stage before everyone else, dressed in tennis whites and sweatbands and looking remarkably like a 70's Jimmy Connors, and proceeded to smash up an old wooden racket. He clearly knows what he's doing with the instrument, including some fabulous widdly bits and high speed punk and a gratuitous Sabbath rip in the middle of something else entirely just because it fitted well, and what he's doing is having a lot of fun. This is what the whole band are doing. The drummer's a converting bass player and hasn't great speed or regularity at the minute but has enthusiasm and imagination and is clearly loving it. One of the guitarists sports a long black robe and straw stetson. The man with the other guitar and doing the main vocals is Deacon, and he's just being himself, but that'll do fine. I'm not going to bother trying to assert that Deacon sings well, but I am going to claim that it's very effective for the sound of the band. The sound is hard-edged, riotous, silly indie-punk-rock. The Butthole Surfers might be the closest reference point. There's helpings of darkness and loom inamongst the foolery. They have strong ideas of what they're trying to do and are doing it without reserve, and I think that's worth a lot.
My mate Tim, who used to be my guitarist, and is now my bass player's bass player, and is about to become also my ex-drummer's next-door-neighbour's guitarist, (band incest is such fun) reckons that Amateur Ninja Club's bass player is crap. I contest this. He wasn't playing in time; I submit that there was precious little point him doing so, as a machine-like bass player would be totally out of place in this band. He came on stage before everyone else, dressed in tennis whites and sweatbands and looking remarkably like a 70's Jimmy Connors, and proceeded to smash up an old wooden racket. He clearly knows what he's doing with the instrument, including some fabulous widdly bits and high speed punk and a gratuitous Sabbath rip in the middle of something else entirely just because it fitted well, and what he's doing is having a lot of fun. This is what the whole band are doing. The drummer's a converting bass player and hasn't great speed or regularity at the minute but has enthusiasm and imagination and is clearly loving it. One of the guitarists sports a long black robe and straw stetson. The man with the other guitar and doing the main vocals is Deacon, and he's just being himself, but that'll do fine. I'm not going to bother trying to assert that Deacon sings well, but I am going to claim that it's very effective for the sound of the band. The sound is hard-edged, riotous, silly indie-punk-rock. The Butthole Surfers might be the closest reference point. There's helpings of darkness and loom inamongst the foolery. They have strong ideas of what they're trying to do and are doing it without reserve, and I think that's worth a lot.
bass playing