Rob Ashton

Saturday, September 08, 2007 8:40:56 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Went to 229 Great Portland Street last night, primarily just to see British Sea Power.

I didn't expect it to be awesome, it's British Sea Power, a band who I started gaining affection for a few months ago, but not to any huge extent.

It was awesome.

There were a lot of other bands on, and I'll cover them first!

The Clik Clik

I don't know if the phrase exists, but "Chav Indie" comes to mind. They didn't sound awful but by the end of their set I wanted to shoot them for the sheer chavness of their performance. Ick!!

Pete and the Pirates

Typical boring indie rock, really nothing memorable either good or bad, I remember being bored.

The Good Books

Ditto, I went next door to the smaller room because I couldn't take much more of this.

Get Shakes

Aah, I loved these guys. Two people, some drums, microphone and synths and an iBook. Nothing particularly awesome about the music, but it was interesting to watch and when the guys playing the music are enthused, you can't help but get a little excited too. That and by this time I'd been drinking for a couple of hours and things were getting mighty peachy!

British Sea Power

So, I went into the main room and sneaked back up to the front and watched as the guys started setting up the stage for British Sea Power, as the flags got brought out you could identify the main fans because a large cheer erupted around me. I noted that the guy next to me had brought his own foliage with him, so I shook his hand for being awesome. It's not the "in thing" to do anymore, but I'm a sucker for these things and you can't fault enthusiasm.

The room started getting packed as the fans who had sensibly gone for a drink together before the gig to avoid the pre-BSP shitfest arrived. BSP came on and the people around me collectively squeed. I don't remember much after this, just lots of WOW and WOO moments as I danced around, hugged people and just generally enjoyed the company of the fans who were obviously into having as good time as much as I am.

Obviously, there were quite a few hardcore fans around me who actually love BSP. I think I might become one of them because last night's performance was so orgasmic. They did some crowd surfing and I manhandled three of the band members. (Read that sentence how you like ;-) ). I've purchased tickets for their gig at the Fez in November, and booked myself a ticket for a gig they're doing on the river Mersey that same week. They've got a boat and we're going to go a-sailing whilst listening to awesome music.