It’s been a while since I’ve been to a gig in King Tuts.
The last couple that I went to there were good but lacked that little special spark.
On arriving at Tuts to be given the wrong pass, the same pass as the performers, I was wondering if this one was going to end up as one of those nights.
I really love the idea behind the New Year’s Revolution gigs and it’s a great way to discover new bands.
It’s probably also a good business move for the venue because the few that I’ve been to have all been busy.
First band tonight were the Reverse Cowgirls.
They make a rather pleasant racket in a sort of blue explosion kind of way.
Gruff and strained vocals with a bluesy flavour running through their songs.
One word of warning though, don’t run a Google search for them if you are sitting in an internet cafe. Especially a really busy one, especially if you’re at the window and the world can see your screen!
Baby Strange were interesting.
They have the shapes, the angular guitars and more importantly the tunes.
Reminding me a little of We are the Physics, but a little less tightly wound up, they were great to watch.
They kept doing this sort of guitar/bass duel thing and I do admit that every time they clashed I had the Lightsaber noises from Star Wars going through my head.
At this point I was thinking things were coming along quite nicely but it was the next band Secret Motorbikes who helped bring the little sparkle to the night.
They started quite slowly with some mellower songs before getting progressively heavier with each song and with some nice guitar work.
After a couple of songs they started getting a bit more animated on the stage so at this point I hoped to grab a photo only for them to notice and demand “hey we want a band photo, can you do a band photo of all of us?”
As if they were Bon Jovi or Thin Lizzy somebody.
So, there’s me invited onto the stage, blinded by the lights trying to fit band + crowd into an image.
They’ve probably single handedly ruined any career prospects for me as a photojournalist now, because you’re meant to report on the story and not be in the story (unless you’re Louis Theroux- and obviously I’m not).
Rest assured, the invoice will be in the post folks!
So see…
I should have had the performer stage pass all along!
I originally came across Honeyblood playing at a little secret popup promo gig towards the end of last year.
Only caught a couple of songs that night but it was enough to make me want to see them again.
As a 2 piece band they are very stripped back to the basics.
There’s probably a lot of space in there but I like that.
There’s something quite refreshing and infectious about them.
Actually I don’t know if I’m describing their music or them personally, both are true.
This turned out to be one of those nights after all, one of those special nights, and I vanished off into the dark, stone cold sober yet buzzing like a busted fridge.