Psicle: I wandered lonely as a cloud

I’ve two nights at the Scala in KX and first up is Waxahatchee who I’ve sort of stumbled upon and really like the sound of. Gig buddy Pete calls me last minute to bail out due to some nefarious reason and so I’m on my tod. As I will be the next night as I managed to buy the very last ticket for Jagwar Ma. I know this cos the only site that wasn’t sold out wouldn’t let met buy 4, nor 2 and I managed to buy 1 and when went back in to buy another they were sold out. So after a delicious cabbage curry at home I head off into the rain and Northern Line to KX where I fail to sell the spare and go into the Scala. The place is like a labyrinth with three bars none at stage level with a crazy amount of doors and a smoking area which seems to be about 5 stories down but still in the open. It’s always busy with folk either trying to find a bar, a toilet, have a smoke or simply completely lost. I head up to the topmost bar cos it’s nice up there with plush seating but no one in it bar the bar maid and so I get a can of Red Stripe and head downstairs as I’ve never been one for chatting up bar staff. The crowd is pretty old at the moment and as it later fills up with young ones I guess people of my age cram in all the music they can whilst we’re still able to traverse the slippery steps of night clubs. A few on their own as well which in a weird way makes me feel less lonely.

COLOUR ME WEDNESDAY take the stage and obviously very happy to be here with us. Quite a few bother to hang around the dance floor too. The first wave of the evening hits us punters with a lush laid back sound morphing stoner grunge of the west coast, laid back bliss of further south punctuated by a hard assed New York punkier edge. I’m surprised when the singer chats with us in an English accent but I guess we always were great at taking American sounds and retuning them (Stones, Pistols et al). The front three are women with a smiley bloke drumming. Hard rock guitar big bass driving drums with a whimsical yet strong voice soaring over the top. Sounds great and the price of a tenner seems well worthwhile as this is the first of three bands. If you force me to compare it would be to Kate Nash and her current band with feisty singing and dirty rock backing if you recorded a live single and played at 33 instead of 45. Go down well with the crowd too.

Happy band Colour Me Wednesday

Next up are SWEARIN’ and for some reason I was expecting a laid back angst ridden mid west indie guitar band but instead got a much fuller barrage of big lush rock guitar getting folk down the front and nearly dancing. Well some were jigging about. Including myself. Sort of similar to the first band but genuinely American this time. Hard hitting from all on stage including the singer and thoroughly enjoyable. As I think the front woman is the sister of and used to play with the front woman from Waxahatchee I’m switching my expectations from angsty yanks to below the belt punches. I’m happy with that.

Swearin' at the camera focus

Turning my expectations around the aforementioned WAXAHATCHEE take the stage at least the main woman who starts us off with a few mesmerizing songs even though her brilliant voice has a right hard edge to it whilst being full and soulful. She’s a great guitarist too with understated indie guitar blues. Lovely. Then the band come on to join her and hit us with a full on rock set that would go down great at a festival and does so in our increasingly sweaty club. Each musician holds their own which compared to our heroine is no mean feat. The band go off and for an encore we’re treated to a few more from just the hero of the hour and she ends with a self proclaimed sad indie balled that trails off at the end leaving a stunned audience who take a good few seconds before we come out of our collective trance and wildly applaud. A great act and ferocious talent. A four letter word for tonight. LUSH.

Katie Crutchfield in mesmerising form - sorry rest of band your photo was just a blur...

... this may be Waxahatchee

Wednesday morning looking out over east London - beaming Jagwar Ma onto planet earth

The next night I’m straight from work with black suit trousers counterpointed by black and white converses and black Harrington. Only when I get home does darling Debbie ask me “you didn’t go dressed like that did you?” and collapsed with laughter when I tell her I’ve been dancing like a fiend. But more of that later. The weather’s kinder tonight and the moon is out. I fight past the touts wondering where the hell were they last night when I needed them but it’s always the way innit. We’re blasted by a named DJ tonight with a full on banging sound (DJ Richard Norris) including a great mix for us of a certain age of Blue Monday. Sets us right up although the crowd tonight has decidedly less oldies and I’d be surprised if most recognised it.

JOHN WIZARDS take the stage. Five shabbily dressed guys who play an enjoyable set of rock, African guitar rhythms, techno and just about any other genre from the 50s thrown into the mix. It sounds great and one of the guitarists is finger picking classical Spanish type good. A sort of OMD for all seasons. Although good they don’t quite get me to the right spot but a very acceptable start to the night. They’re sweet boys too the lead singer giving a shout out for his Aunty Doris who’s in the audience tonight. Felt sorry for the drummer cos most of the stage is filled with the main act’s equipment so the drummer is in a hole stage left. Is that as you look at the stage from the dance floor? Anyway you couldn’t really see him.

John Wizards from above

After a few more discs thrown by our resident DJ for the night he fades out and expectation is heightened. One guy who I don’t recognise as being in the band comes on stage to take up synth duties and as no one claps him I think we’ve a pretty unappreciative crowd tonight. I assume he is in the band but that my memory is worse than usual. But then the tall one appears to massive adulation which is doubled as the shorter guy in a felt beany hat takes the stage. JAGWAR MA go straight into the hits of their brilliant album which gets a lot of the floor moving about which is a relief cos we’re all squashed up like peas in so many pods. A great mix of modern synth anthemic dance build ups and bagginess I close my eyes and dance like fury imagining the Happy Mondays progressing over the years and morphing into a techno club act. And what could beat that? Towards the end they hit the level and everyone’s up for dancing, well a good part of the crowd on the dance floor, and they leave us panting breathlessly for more. Or maybe that’s my age and not having cycled or played footie for a month. Anyways they come back for an encore which sounds like a ballad compared to the rest and then the last song which is slowish building up to their forte of big baggy dancing just teasing us really as it seems to last only a minute or so before they bring us back down to the end of the set. A little bit of me wishes they’d finished with a bang but I guess it would’ve been heartless to leave us at a peak and as they say what goes up. So letting us down themselves is probably preferable than being brought back down to earth by the customary exiting shuffle around the labyrinth and being ejected into the clear night air that is Kings Cross. So I survive my two nights of loneliness without being arrested for stalking angsted indie dance kids the only psychological scars being those inflicted by Debbie laughing at the thought of me dancing on my own in front of trendy kids wearing a nicely creased pair of black slacks and baseball boots. I really must get a new wardrobe and find more friends to go out with...