I know a bit late for "new year" but it's the first gig of the year for me. Also a new year for Pete and to celebrate his birthday we home in on The Lexington as convenient for all to get to. By all I mean myself and Debbie and Pete and Wendy. We have missed the first band and when Pete and Wendy arrive we give Pete his present, card and a pint then Garry and Kris arrive and we're off upstairs to a packed gig room. Unlike the Windmill the age group is surprisingly of our generation indeed quite a few are sitting down with no chance of seeing the band. New Starts are an energetic band with the front man seemingly a bit older than the rest. See later for that. I'm not sure the others are that impressed but I like them a lot. A strange mix of great new wave in an East Coast (USA not UK) style, post punk jangliness, out and out rockiness and some slower quieter tunes not out of place on the NME C81 roll call. If you don't know the C81 cassette then find the original version now and listen to it. Anyway, the New Starts were great in my humble opinion and most of the audience thought so too. The front man gave a fair bit of self deprecating banter which made me think that he was known to the audience. Afterwards I bump into him and say that he seems very familiar and maybe as he used to be in a short lived John Peel favourite Hefner. Which explains the ageing population. The rest of the band were great too. Excellent bassist who was very jumpy in a physical way, driving drums and second guitarist who picked up a lot of the lead stuff. I liked the lyrics, what I could hear, which mostly seemed to be about relationships and breakups. A bit teenage angst so, again, maybe written a few years ago by the front man? So a thumbs up from me and most others there. After nipping downstairs for drinks we're up to see Fightmilk who are also energetic in a punky shouty way. They go down well and have a great post punk punk sound with, again, energetic band members especially the front woman. So very good as that genre goes but maybe I was spoilt by the oddness of New Starts and not quite ready for a pure punk onslaught. It's a fairly early finish as they have to get rid of the punters and make way for the disco. Downstairs the average age has dropped a generation, or possibly two, and it's packed. We get drinks and get some space in a corner to chat and have a half hearted attempt at dancing which is what most of the bar seem to be doing as there's a DJ revving them up before, I assume, most go upstairs for a late one. To celebrate Pete's birthday someone unwisely suggests tequilas. Possibly me but I blame Pete and Wendy as the last time we had them was at the Windmill with them so a strong causal connection there. Gary and Kris chat about how they get into gigs by being blogging reviewers and I slightly embarrassingly send them a link to my efforts. I did warn them that most is about travelling to gigs and very dodgy photos. Talking of which... see below for dodgy photos and Debbie and I got the Northern line home. A great night all in all... same time next year Pete?
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| And this was before the tequilas! There's meant to be 6 of us? |
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| Fightmilk |
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| Fightmilk and audience |
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| New Starts |
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| What else I did over the weekend - replace broken rear mech. It's meant to be one unit and not twisted. |
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