The Bouncing Souls Rock City

Headliner: The Bouncing Souls
Date: 22/03/2013
Venue: Rock City Basement Nottingham

Line up: Luther / Cheap Girls / The Bouncing Souls

First up a moan....

The Club night culture these days means 10pm curfews on most gigs which means the support bands end up having to go on earlier and earlier.

As a result of this and having to finish work, travel to Nottingham etc I ended up missing the first band on the line up Luther.

Next up Cheap Girls, now I don't know much about the band, but what I do know is that if you google their name you get some errrr interesting results.

Just before they started their set the bass player / singer made them turn his bass up as a result the sound for their gig was terrible, could sense some nice swirly J Mascis style swirly guitars with a Menzingers style sound but everything just got drowned out by the bass and for me kinda ruined it.

Next up The Bouncing Souls

The Bouncing Souls seem to have been around for years and infact they have, with the first album I got of theirs being the self titled album released on Epitaph in 1997, however this was he first time I have seen them live.

Funniest moment of the night was when the bloke standing with his full 2pint beer thing got caught on the edge of the circle pit and got covered in all 2pints!

Gregg Attonito joining in with the crowd.

The Bouncing Souls played loads of great songs Kids and Heroes, Hopeless Romantic, Lean on Sheena, True Believers before ending with Gone.

Not sure if they were going to do an encore at the end but as the Rock City bloke was on stage within about 2seconds of Gone finishing and disconnecting and removing the microphones they didn't really have a choice.

Record Store Day Release Party

Line up: Ghostpoet / Tom Odell / Benga
Date: 21/03/2013
Venue: Rough Trade Records London

I was sat at work on the Tuesday when I got a tweet through from the Record Store Day UK Twitter account saying I was on the guest list for the Record Store Day release party on Thursday. It may have been short notice but these opportunities don't often arise especially when you live in Lincolnshire!  so plans were made, afternoon off work booked and off I went.

Independent record stores are what make music for me, not companies like HMV.  Growing up I spent many an hour and a fair few quid in places like Selectadisc in Nottingham and the local record shop in Grantham.  Getting a relationship with a local record shop where they no what you like, hold things back for you, put promo stuff to onside etc is something you just don't get from the HMV's of the world.

I know the area well around Rough Trade being a fan of Urban and Street art been there many times before, although the art scene around there at the minute seems to be getting a little stale, but that's another story....

The last time I went to an in store at Rough Trade I saw Public Enemy tear the the place apart

Anyway first up was Ghostpoet been a big fan of his since his first album dropped on Giles Petersons Brownswood recordings a couple of years back.

Ghostpoet played a bass heavy set of mainly new material and the new single especially sounded awesome live.

Tom Odell was next up, now Tom is the new next big thing at the minute, boy band looks, snapped with Taylor Swift in the press etc etc etc with his anticipated debut album coming out shortly.  But he can right a song and his new song has a somewhat Arcade Fire feel about at times

Tom is probably making Piano music cool again and although he seemed a little shy played a great set, I just hope he can progress with his music in a natural course and not end up annoying everyone like Ed Sheeran and appearing on The Voice and XFactor etc and in 12 months everyone is sick of him.

I don't think he will I mean looking at this he looks pissed at having his photo taken!

Next up Benga...

Now I will be honest... I can't stick dubstep so the prognosis wasn't great.

I'm a traditionalist at heart and the change from DJ's using a set of Technics SL-1210's to CD players was very much on the lines of the controversy Dylan caused at the Newport folk festival by going electric!

Maybe I am a little biased but I find the fact that this event was about Record Store Day an event supporting local record shops with hundreds of limited edition VINYL ONLY releases having a DJ using Cd's a little odd...

Anyway I had a 2hr journey home so called it a night.

Would like to thank those at Record Store Day UK for giving me the opportunity to go to the event.

Independent  record stores are vital to the music industry past, present and future and I will no doubt be back at Rough Trade come the 20th April

The Internet & Kilo Kish

Headliners: Kilo Kish + The Internet
Date: 14 March 2013
Venue: Bodega Social Nottingham

Line up: Kilo Kish & The Internet

So I guess I might have been a bit eager to get tickets for this one as I got ticket number 1

Kilo Kish has been creating a bit of a buzz this year and when she dropped her new K+ mixtape it basically broke the Internet, not the band the actual internet.  Downloading it was impossible for a few days.

I loved the mixtape and was excited to see here perform live in such a small venue. Kilo didn't disappoint and played a great set although the crowd seemed slightly subdued but hey I loved it! Kilo Kish will be huge it's just a matter of time.

The Internet is Syd tha Kyd and Matt Martians from the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All or OFWGKTA which has spawned the likes of Tyler The Creator, Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats etc

The Internet are more soulful and less beat driven than much of the other output from the OFWGKTA stable, they played for an hour, including Kilo on a few tracks.

This was the end of 3 gigs in 5 days, knackered but worth it!

Willy Mason Rescue Rooms

Headliner: Willy Mason
Date:13 March 2013
Venue: Rescue Rooms Notingham

Line up: Siobhan Wilson, Marinas Children, Willy Mason

Been waiting for this for a while Willy Mason is amazing and I have never got round to seeing him before.

First up Siobhan Wilson seemed a little nervous without the need to be, totally absorbing even with a few mistakes in the set.

Mariners Children I always wonder how bands like this survive, nobody looked that bothered the singer fed up (down to a headache apparently), nobody smiled, music melancholic band practice must be a right laugh...  saying that though I enjoyed their set!!

Time for Willy Mason came on with Just him and his guitar which for me is when he is at his best

Played a mixture of old and new songs including all the ones I wanted to hear including Pick Up Truck, Where the Humans eat which was amazing, save myself and Gotta keep moving.

Mixing up the solo stuff with full band songs

Willy Mason is an amazing songwriter and deserves more acclaim than he has, favourite song of the night had to be We can be strong

Beans on Toast - The Cookie Jar

Headliner: Beans on Toast

Date: 10 March 2013

Venue: The Cookie Jar Leicester

Line up: Nancy Dawkins, A night Under Water, Mark Elliott, Charlotte Carpenter, Beans on Toast

So a new venue for me The Cookie Jar in Leicester, when you enter the venue after getting stamped you head down some stairs to be greeted with a large white door, and to be honest it leaves you unsure if you are heading the right way.  Once you enter the venue although small it's an impressive looking place.

First up Nancy Dawkins, Leicester solo artist with an amazing and haunting voice in the style of Laura Marling, massively cocked up a Nirvana cover on the night but overall pretty impressive.

Next up... A night under water, musically nothing wrong with them just something missing for me.

Mark Elliott acoustic cover versions of R.Kelly, Maroon 5 and Justin Timberlake.... make up you own mind! but that Ed Sheerans got a lot to answer for now!

Charlotte Carpenter was next wow amazing voice, not 100% sure what the backing band added to the sound for many of the songs, although the slide guitar on one was amazing. Will be checking out some of her stuff in the future

Time for the headliner... Beans on Toast

Now most people probably know Beans on Toast as being Frank Turners mate, but he writes some damn catchy songs with great poetic lyrics that will make you laugh and smile.

Beans came on a made everyone smile with a great set The hilarious tale of a litter picker with beatboxing from Mark Eliott being one of the highlights.

Beans on Toast was ace, but the only thing I could think all that was that if Rolo Tomassi are playing here as part of the Handmade festival in May it will be off the hook!