London baby!!!

it's been a considerable amount of time since any of us have played in london, my last being in 2008 with this is my honesty, so understandably the day was filled with a mixture of both excitement and apprehension.

we started out at about half 3, doing the rounds to collect everyone. we thought that i would be easier to load the truck and go down together than to try and park 3 cars, so we piled the gear in and began the drive.

the drive itself was a laugh, a relaxed jovial atmosphere filled the car as we headed towards town, arriving early enough to load everything in before sound checks began. as is usually the case when you are on first, there was much waiting round while everyone else sorted out their gear.

after a straight forward soundcheck (which made us realise we have too much equipment) we chilled upstairs for 20 minutes before heading down to start our set.

despite the room being pretty low on the head count, we hammered into "sleepy eyes" and immediatly into "take me out". the ever increasing crowd approved, and so we moved into the more poppy "over me" which due to our ever growing confidence included tomfoolery at the front of the stage.

we hit into "coffee is warming", the heavy riff sounding tight and thunderous in the small underground venue. we took it down a notch for "burn forever" before finishing with the epic "right where i belong" which in its surroundings sounded absolutly huge. the ending note was greeted with much applause and cheering.

the performance was a great performance for a band doing only its 2nd gig together, there were the odd bum notes, but there always is, the crowd enjoyed, we enjoyed it, and that's the key. we ended up leaving with a list of emails from the crowd so we couldn't have been that bad.

we spent the rest of the evening chilling with the other bands and just enjoying the atmosphere and generally having a laugh as a band.

the trip back was out of control.... a simple word of advice.. don't let a drunk drummer ring a radio station at half 12 in the morning...

overall this was a good night for me and the band. we had fun, we met new people, played to new people. the set is getting tighter, our ability to play together is increasing, and we are starting to feel more like a band on stage. from this point things can only get better... see you at the portland on the 31st.

line up:

paper soldiers
grey matter
the tall tales
stickman cartel

set:

sleepy eyes
take me out
over me
coffee is warming
burn forever
right where i belong