Pete and I meet at the Old Red Lion where one of the Strictly judges is having selfies with a fan "for me son". I'm hoping he's looking for dance talent at the Electrowerkz but is going to the play upstairs in the pub. I'm expecting a packed house tonight in the long thin cavernous room upstairs. But when we get in seems that there's a small room downstairs with small stage that has the stage set up. And the next door bar is virtually empty. Soon enough the first band are on...
Ice Cold Slush are two young women on guitar and bass wearing matching outfits, short slit white skirts, They introduce songs and give a bit of chat together in sing song voices which is a bit odd portraying a girly brattishness. And they tell us the drummer is unstable. Musically they are far from fey and hammer us with a heavy poppy fuzz laden set. As Pete says they'd've gone down very well in the early 80s and wouldn't be surprised if they don't get pretty big in these times. Fast songs fast set and tight musically. A great start to the evening for the handful that are watching them. Mainly youngsters who I guess know them. The crowd is a mix of 20's trendy with a fair few single blokes who like musos and a few older types (i.e. 30's). And me and Pete. A quick refreshment break and then it's time for the much anticipated, at least by myself, main act...
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| Cool as ice |
Duchess Says I think come from the Church of the Budgerigar music collective and tonight they are standard four piece with the two guys on guitar swapping lead and bass. Both very proficient at both and sometimes the lead bassist moonlighting on keyboard. Great sound with hammering drummer often sounding like late punk Theatre of Hate type beats. Overall a heavy punky psychedelic vibe sounding like the unholy union of punkier side of The Stranglers and the more psychedelic sides of, well, The Stranglers. So pretty damn good musically. Our front woman is an energetic singer who plays keyboards, albeit very short ones, bringing a modern blippy trippy dimension to the proceedings. And it's the front woman who provides the visual entertainment. By this time we have at least a 100 in the room but it's hardly rammed. Our heroine jumps down into the crowd and sings, or shouts, in people's faces especially if they're not dancing. At one point she leans on Pete's shoulder singing to him and later sings right in my face. During Negative Thoughts (I think) she gets us all to crouch down on the floor for the quieter bit before we all jump up and then the dancing really gets going. OK it's hardly a full on mosh pit but about a dozen dancing around. Including our two singers from the support band which I always like to see that they're not too cool to enjoy the main band, I'm shuffling on the edges but worried that if I go for it I'll send the whole troop of young light types reeling with my weight so forego the mosh. Various odd things are going on either directly initiated by our singer or by what I think are their entourage from Canada. At one time we have white bed sheets and pillow cases being thrown around and we are intermittently covered from head to toe in them. The singer spends a lot of time in the audience now throwing a bunch of flowers over her head behind her into the crowd in a wedding type way. With all this bopping going on Pete and I are very concerned about a heavily pregnant lady next to us and more worryingly next to the mini-mosh. After the sheet fun most of the mosh are gaffer taped together with the singer. All the while a pumping hard punky beat at times full on hard core thrash. Brilliant stuff. Towards the end there's a mini stage invasion with the singer helping people up except for one poor girl who keptsh back on
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| Can never get out of bed in the morning, or evening |
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| Smoking |
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| Where's the bloody singer gone now? |
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| Good moves whilst playing trippy synths - and proper rock guitar stance |
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| Add captionChurch of the Budgerigar at worship |
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| Our slightly geeky high priest of Budgerigar, London Chapter |
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