This is probably to be the last ever loud gig at Caf?? Bar Unlimited. Apparently there is a man upstairs who hasn't taken kindly to the noise. When Hunting Lodge played there - possible the most insane thing I've ever heard of - he apparently stormed downstairs and threatened the lives of those within. This reaction is fair enough really, the place isn't at all built for containing loud music, so it's likely that future gigs here will be mainly acoustic.
There are bursts of noise and rock from the basement as the hoard gathers. A *hilarious* failure to bother looking upstairs means I wait for the GF for about ten minutes before realising she's here already. Downstairs, we sit on the floor and wait to see what happens, I've heard Snakes On A Plane's track on myspace and have Expectations. Each track they do features one riff, which is created, explored, developed, exulted and eventually destroyed before being reborn, full circle. All this band's members are in other groups and solo musicians but this is the most cohesive, the most impressive combination I've seen any of them in.
Pirate Ship Quintet are like Godspeed, but more impatient and with a trumpet. He struggles to stay in tune and struggles to play four beats on a drum in time during a fantastic percussive section in one of the songs.There are times when I wish the guitars were heavier, they are trying to be loud but the trumpet is in the way. Still, the tunes and the band are solid enough to make for something that remains interesting without being particularly groundbreaking. More good stuff.
Perhaps Contraption are perhaps trying a little too hard to be clever, funny, wacky. Anyone who knows about the history of rock music knows that when Gong (and of course many others) did it everyone was fscked on drugs and didn't really care about the silly music. If the silly singing isn't enough, the random piddling about and short breaks of nearly-tunes that get screwed up and shat out again in unconnected time signatures is. Without anything musical left for us to grab onto we realise that we certainly don't care and they help us to get home for an early-ish night.
Oh well, two out of three ain't bad and for the time at the Bar gig, it was an extremely enjoyable one.