The sweet little goth with her ears of cloth

[venta]

On Thursday night, I took the highroad with the intention of being in Whitby for last orders. I made it, too, though only because the Elsinore had a late licence. No thanks at all to the utterly impenetrable fog over Fylingdales moor; I didn't enjoy playing dot-to-dot with the catseyes and was thoroughly glad it wasn't the first time I'd driven that road. In view of the late arrival, once Pintwatch had inspected the Els' Strongarm (up to scratch) I cleared off home to bed.

By Friday morning, davefish, keris and I had settled into our customary routine of laziness, fry-ups, tea and cheese. They remain lovely people to share a flat with, and have good taste in cake. Also in fruit juice - Keris remains about the only person on the planet who habitually remembers I don't drink orange juice, so had filled our fridge with comedy pomegranate juice instead.

However, they are pipped at the post for being nominated Designated Hero of Whitby - kneeshooter walks off with that award for his remarkable generosity in lending me a digital SLR for the weekend. He (and indeed Davefish) put up with my "what does that button do?" questions with remarkable patience. Also with my whinging about how heavy big, gnarly, autofocussing lenses are.

Now I just have to wade through around 500 photos of bands. Many of which are, previewing on the camera would suggest, awfully bad.

Other than that, I ate fish and chips, had a poundsworth of fun on the tuppenny falls and met some new people. And, er, was incredibly lazy quite a lot of the time. When you meet up with someone at around four in the afternoon, and they tell you they've been up and hard at work since 7am, it's rather difficult to admit that you've only been significantly out of bed for about an hour. snow_leopard took it remarkably well in the circumstances :)

As ever, in Whitby, I contraversially listen to the bands. It was a bit of a mixed bag:

History of Guns Things looked promising as they came on stage - they had a real drummer and they had their name on the bass drum (which always gets you smartie points with me). Sadly, they turned out to be in all other ways utterly rubbish. Very generic-sounding metalish-rock with vocals which wanted to be in Bauhaus but hadn't got the style. Someone else described them as having "lots of energy", but I thought they seemed incredibly lifeless and apathetic. Plus I wasn't interested in the singer telling me after each song how very pissed he was.

History of Guns, went the refrain of their opening track, we'll blow your brains out. They didn't. I don't think they were capable of blowing so much as a nose.

Swarf I've not seen Swarf since, er, since they last played Whitby. Their line-up remains the same (one keyboard, one box o' twiddly knobs and one singer with a cracking voice). I'm never sure how to describe their sound - it's a bit poppy, a bit ambient, and a bit bouncy. Big swooshy synth-sounds, and hummable melodies. I like Swarf.

Misty Woods and GDM Copying the previous band, we had here two blokes playing with variants on the box o' twiddly knobs/keyboard theme, and a female singer. Sadly, they did it much worse.

The two blokes were two of the most banal stage performers I've ever seen, and the singer looked (and sounded) bored out of her skull. They went for very repetative beats, very repetative lyrics, and didn't seem to have a lot to recommend them.

The singer seemed to have made her own Barbarella-goes-Blue-Peter outfit, which was odd, but not enough to redeem them.

They did, however, provide me with a very entertaining overhearing. One of the banal blokes was ex-Soft Cell, and they trotted out a version of Sex Dwarf. The teenage-looking couple beside me were muttering "it sounds like she's singing about a sex dwarf". "No, really, it does sound like sex dwarf". "She is, she's actually singing about a sex dwarf!".

You can kind of see their point, really.

Manuskript were somewhat reduced by having mislaid Tim-the-Synths in Iceland, but slightly augmented by Twinkle Lemora and Lizzie Swarf on intermittent extra vocals. It wasn't the best set I've ever seen from Manuskript, but it was a laugh. (In particular, the songs which they did with Mike and Twinkle sharing vocals actually worked really well).

Fundamentally, Manuskript are a bit like a pot noodle. Cheap, cheerful and all right for when you can't be bothered to do things properly. I like them. I even bought their new album and everything.

Points for a comedy cover: It's a Sin.

The Spares I have no idea. I was in the flat eating my tea at the time. I couldn't hear them from there. I might have had tea earlier, but Davefish, Keris, Kneeshooter and I were too busy hiding behind the sofa because we were scared of the werewolf.

Zombina and the Skeletones As people may remember, I'm a big fan of this band. Sadly, they were having drummer issues and had had to resort to a drum machine - which led to a slightly lacklustre set by their usual standards. Even Zombina herself seeemed a little subdued. In the manner of the proper 60s throwbacks they are, all their songs clock in at around two and a half minutes and they all look like they're enjoying it. Well, except the bassist, and even he looks like he's enjoying not enjoying it. I was disappointed, though, because Doc Horror didn't have his smoking hat on.

On the plus side, see anecdote below for why they are utterly lovely people.

Frankenstein These guys had been advertised to me as American death rock, which didn't really incline me in their favour. However, they turned out to have more of a sense of humour than that, and to be fairly cheerful, tuneful and cheesy death rock'n'roll. Not quite to the same extent as Zombina, but enough to make me stay and listen. Plus their singer did a great line in gurning.

Points for a comedy cover: Paint It Black

Breath of Life On paper, this band were pretty good. No drums, sadly, but guitar, bass, and a bloke alternating between box o' twiddly knobs and a fiddle. The singer had an impressive voice, and the sound was a coherent ethereal wail over rocky backing. It was nice. I liked it.

Sadly, it proved to be merely "nice" and after a while became quite dull. I think it'd make good background music, or good music for use in films, or something. Maybe it was better if you like that kind of thing. I'm not very pro waily women.

So, why are Zombina (and her Skeletones) lovely people ? Well... after their set, I trundled to the merchandise stall to purchase their new compact disc, which is quite a limited print-run. Or pressing. Or burning. Or whatever the hell the word is for these new fangled discs. The chap behind the merch stall had no change, so we agreed he'd save two CDs for me (I was under instructions to bring one back for ChrisC) while I went to the bar and split a note.

I did. I queued many. I eventually fought my way back across a crowded room with two pints (difficult in squashy plastic glasses) (they weren't both for me by the way) (and Pintwatch was disgusted to find all the handpumps off). I paid for my CDs, which were by then the last two available. I blathered mercilessly at the merchandise guy, and finally I went away.

On Sunday I noticed that I hadn't actually picked up the CDs. In my drinks-, bag-, wallet- and camera-juggling I'd left them lying about on the stall. Yesterday, I sent a mail to the address given on the ZATS website, and received a very swift reply from the merchandise chap, who turns out to be called Chris. Yes, he had my CDs. Yes, he'd get them in the post ASAP. And he didn't even point out I was an idiot. What a thoroughly splendid chap.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

I thought some of those things, but figured it'd get better with practice and/or reading the manual.

Like, for example, why does the autofocussing have three modes - one which focuses on the thing you're looking at, and two which zoom in and out at random making you feel dizzy ? No idea what that was all about.

I've given the shiny toy back now, and returned to the trusty manual-everythings I know and love ;)