I saw Male once, I'm sure. When I arrive at the Croft they're still bashing away in the back room. I don't go in, which says a lot for giving people a chance but after the last time I really don't feel like putting myself through it again. Instead I get myself a drink and wait patiently for something more exciting to arrive.
After a brief period of standing in a corner like a lonely man with no friends but his beer later, it is time to see what Shooting at Unarmed Men do. Simple guitar riffs over strong bass-lines with great tight drums, hilarious lyrics, usually of a format: quiet, funny - play the riff LOUD, screamy shouting then do it again. This is a coming together of tongue in cheek 'punk' and elements of mid-nineties lo-fi grunge mixed with noisey rock and metal noise. Buit it's not all funny, some of it is quite serious. Does this make sense? At the gig, it makes sense. This band are great.
Where Shooting at Unarmed Men have lifted us up and shown us that new music is still interesting, Team Brick reminds us that music is everything and nothing, all sounds and no sounds, black and white at the same time. As if you were listening to long wave radio while driving down a long, dark road and just when you're really getting into the music you go through a tunnel and your car is filled with white noise, a rhythmic interference that starts you looking for the alien spaceships and the remains of your eardrums... Then back in the car. A chaotic drumming session is recorded, looped, sung over, fedback and looped again with a side order of gobbledook that is looped then tremolo'd with distortion and ultimately fedback and you enter another tunnel. As the noise techno party peaks you suddenly find yourself out in a damp field somewhere and Team Brick is there with his guitar, a lost little boy singing about loneliness to the void in your soul. It's all over and you have to wonder what just happened, knowing you'll never be able to satifactorily explain it to anybody without appearing insane.
I had been looking forward to War Against Sleep, but today they perform with backing-track drums and no frontman-on-the-piano goodness and it rapidly becomes frustrating. I know, there are probably reasons for this the drummer couldn't make it, they're playing for free so why should they pay to carry all their stuff around etcetera so I won't make too big a deal out of it. I still like the songs, the avante-cabaret style, the lounge singer vocals but tonight it just doesn't really pull together.
Still, it's all for charidee and I have a good night, spending the last of my gig-going money until the end of the month. Good job I already have tickets for Gemma Hayes, Susheela Raman, Amadou and Mariam / Souad Massi and The Mighty Boosh...
