Gig Review: 26th August - Solfest

During the day we bumped into a few friends from our two previous gigs in Carlisle. "We'll be there and we'll bring mates". That didn't allay our fears by much.

The tent was buzzing slightly at around 9pm as we started to set up an hour before we were scheduled to play. Due to everything running late, we ended up getting on the stage around 11, and further technical difficulties gave me a chance to talk to the familiar faces in the front row as the crowd anticipation grew further and further. Then we kicked off with the first song, and then I don't remember too much else as the performance frenzy took over. The thing about the great shows is that it never seems like an hour and after that hour, there are only a few particular moments I can ever remember.. such as the one where this photo was shot. I couldn't make out the people towards the back of the tent, and the hands seemed to go on forever. The crowd was going hard at it (confirmed by video footage afterwards), and definitely helped to make it our best show so far. We were told afterwards that there were a load of people who couldn't squeeze into the tent standing outside and listening/peering in.

If and when we do make it to be as successful as we're aiming for, it'll be shows like this that I'll miss... where the majority of people have turned up not really expecting much, and us being able to pleasantly surprise people.

We owe a huge thanks to the Solfest organisers, the Urban Natives crew and other friends who made it down to see us from previous Carlisle gigs. We'll be due back at the Brickyard soon - It has been rumoured that it could be as early as October. Pics and video footage from the weekend will be posted on our main site within the next week.

Random quotes I heard/found:
"That's the most energy I've ever seen in a set. And I've been doing this 25 years."
"My two mates never dance, but they were jumping like monkeys to you guys last night"
"Saw you guys at Solfest, you kicked the ass out of every other act there!"
"Just arrived back from the excellent Solfest, my highlight of the weekend was by far a band by the name of Subsource. Heavy, tight as fuck and original"
"Shit, I'm so gutted I missed you, my friend told me it was amazing, but I got really really stoned and didn't know what time it was."

 

Pre-Gig Review: Solfest (Friday)

After an 8 hour ordeal being thrown around in the back of the van, we made it to Solfest in the nick of time before one of our tyres gave up on us. Surprisingly, we'd been prepared for the situation and had a working spare in the back which sorted us out.

It was late by the time we'd pitched up our tents and had a chance to wander around the Solfest grounds - the peaceful, care-free vibes of this relatively small non-commerical festival (5000 tickets) way out north make a nice change from attending the expensive, overcrowded larger festivals where people demand to be entertained by 'household' names for every intense minute they are awake. As a result of the organisers' attitude to what constitutes a great festival, and the almost-giveaway ticket price of £49 for a weekend ticket, there is no pressure to be anywhere or do anything other than enjoy yourself in any way you wish.

We made it down to the dance tent to see the brilliant Dreadzone work their set later on. The front of the tent was absolutely rammed and the crowd was bouncing for the duration. We'd be taking to the same stage just under 24 hours after they came off and the concern about not being received as well as an act that's established themselves solidly over 13 years was increasing steadily. I'd barely had my first piano lesson 13 years ago. 

The other side at Rhythm Factory. It's good to see Subsource inspiring those two guys on the couch to have a bit of a cuddle. 

Gig Review: Friday 18th July - The Rhythm Factory

For the first time in a while, we're breaking out into new venues - and this always feels like progress, a chance to impress new fans and promoters. With 7 bands on the bill, it was going to be a long night, but made less harsh down to the sheer quality and variety of the acts. Was especially feeling Parka, Imbeciles & The Poison Umbrella, Miss Roberts & The Flying Mechanicals, and the drummer from The Remedial Nymph.

Neil and Stu shot off straight after the gig for The Secret Garden Party festy in Cambridge and felt a bit worse for wear over the weekend having been sapped of their energy over the previous two nights with two consecutive Subsource shows... but there's a week now to recover before hitting Solfest, and if you're in Cumbria with your ticket ready, you'll be pleased to know we'll be on at Saturday 10pm, looking to absolutely annihilate the stage, put on our best performance yet. 

Gig Review: Thursday 17th July - The Watershed

Back in Wimbledon for something like the 5th or 6th time.. you'd have thought we'd have built a following by now, but as it happens, it's a Thursday night and it's a fact of life that people don't go out to get wrecked on a Thursday. This guy was a proper trooper though... we bumped into him in the toilet (not literally obviously, that would be kinda awkward) and he was trying to convince us to stick around for the last band who were absolutely freaking awesome last time he saw them. It was only after he managed to find the photo of three sweaty red-shirt-clad sweaty blobs on his phone from that last show that he believed it was us.

So a fairly empty crowd (and thus hard work for us), which gathered a few more bodies by the end, but it's a good grounding call for us. After shows like Planet Angel where it's totally effortless, it's far too easy to think we're bigger than we are and more important than we are, and that's what musicians do best. We've got a long way to go in all respects. 

The damage done..

 

Gig Review: Friday 11th August - Planet Angel

 
We'd all been looking forward to this one for a while, and were especially curious as to whether the set-up on a flight of stairs was going to work out or whether the drumkit would avalanche from the top during the set and take out the rest of the band on the way down. We were glad it didn't.

The Planet Angel crowd was always going to be an amazing one... and they were.. the best we've had so far I believe. The room packed out and the fact that we turned the air-conditioning off because the unit was dripping on our electronic equipment only added to the atmosphere (and the disgusting state of shirts afterwards). It may be a while before we top this one, and I'm beaming just thinking about the vibe in there.

A fantastic gig was matched by an eventful journey home. We weren't sure whether the police pulled us over because Paul kept clipping every other kerb or because our vehicle looks like it's violating the Highway Code in at least 3 ways at any given time. Perhaps it was the van itself trying to get their attention - exacting karmic revenge due to Paul having backed it into a gate earlier in the trip (making a nice new scratch/dent and ripping off a handle). We certainly weren't speeding anyway, our van doesn't do that.

During a pleasant chit-chat with the police officers in which they correctly identified a couple (but not all) of the less-than-legal issues with our vehicle, we got to know them a bit better, but unfortunately, not enough to get asked back to the station for coffee by the cute one. Sigh. We had to make do with pointing them to our website for details of our upcoming shows. 

Things My Drummer Broke (part two)

 

This was our fourth attempt at finding a sequencing solution and turned out to be our own Anne of Cleves: it looked really quite shit compared to how it did in the pictures and it barely lasted at all. Nelly turned up to that rehearsal bouncing like an excited kid, then before we could decide whether it actually did what we wanted it to do, he'd dropped it and broken it. We could see the hurt in his eyes, but we did the decent thing and only laughed behind his back 

Things My Drummer Broke (part one)

This got trashed in the tragic Beatherder incident of 2006, where we'd been playing for all of 90 seconds before Nelly managed to throw his laptop and this minidisc player across the stage, leaving us to fizzle out on a groove that really wasn't working. 

New toys

This is our 6th attempt at finding in a solution for our sequencer track and I sincerely hope this one turns out to be drummer-proof. For all the times you've been at a Subsource show and heard something glitch out of time, it was probably our sequencer track going wrong due to some piece of machinery being shaken or kicked over. The other time, it was near Stu's birthday at 93 Feet East and he'd had a few beers too many.

Thanks to the behemoth in the pic above, which is worth as much as our van (and weighs just a little less than it too), we are even better prepared to continue turning up to unsuspecting venues all over the country and scaring the holy mothering bejeezus out of soundguys with the ridiculously excessive amount of equipment we have. 

Gig Review: Thursday 27th July - Ditch Bar

 

We met the other act for the night, Sangeeta, in the car park just around the corner from the venue. After admiring their wheels for half an hour or so, (a disused taxi, complete with an advertisement on the side for some show featuring Simon Cowell) we all headed in and we were all pretty bemused to find that the reason nobody had heard of the Ditch Bar as a live venue before was because the place did not resemble a live venue and had more in common with somebody's living room.

Still - unexpected friends and guests turned up to say hi and have a bit of a dance which was more than we could ask for, and the Shoreditch crowd did their thing and sat on the sofa less than a metre in front of me and stroked their chins hard.

I forgot to thank Eric for the genius picture I used in the last blog entry - so here it is: cheers Eric!