It's a late one tonight. I get sucked into other things and as a result arrive just before ten in time to see four girls in nighties banging out some heavy chords at the end of their last song. All I have to judge them on is the reaction, which involves whoops and cheers so I guess I've just missed something good as T.I.T.S. leave the stage. Only two bands to go and I try to stay excited about it as everyone tells me about the great band just gone.
I've seen them a few times, often remaining uninspired but Big Joan really hammer out the rock tonight and even though I secretly think their new song is their best yet, it's a great set and the first time something has sounded really good through my earplugs.
It is definitely a Big Joan crowd tonight, since it gets noticably thinner for A Suitable Case for Treatment's vicious cabaret. Yes, it's heavy metal, yes, the singer is stranger than a very strange and clever journalist's analogy but the parts gel together so well you find yourself sucked into the storytelling, the fear, pain, anger, laughter.
On the way home the music reverberates around my head creating a wall of sternness that gets me down City Road without incident, save for the obligatory lady of the night asking if I have a light/cigarette/custard cream. I don't hear her, but I nod and smile. After a while, she stops following me.
