Just another manic Monday

[venta]

I trundled down to London last night, and installed myself in the World's End to wait for davefish and keris. Unfortunately, owing to the World's End's apparent policy of employing bar staff who don't speak English, I was still trying to order a drink when they arrived.

Y'see, I'd asked for a shandy gaff. The bloke said "Pardon?". OK, I thought, fair cop, you're not English, and it's a bit of an obscure term anyway. So instead I asked for a ginger beer shandy. "A what?" he asked. I explained. Half a pint of bitter, and a ginger beer, in the same glass. "You want half a bitter?" he hazarded. Yes, and a ginger beer, in the same glass. "You want half a bitter, and what beer?" he asked, gesturing vaguely at the handpumps. No, I explained, ginger beer, it's a soft drink, in a bottle. I peered over the bar, trying to look into the fridge in the hopes I could point at some. I couldn't, the fridges on my side of the bar were all full of beer and alcopops. Could he find out if they stocked ginger beer ? He admitted that they had ginger ale, so I said that yes, it might be with that. He looked confused for a minute then said "So you want half a bitter ?" Yes, with a ginger beer in it. Was Becks what I was after, if I wanted a bottled beer with my bitter ? No, ginger beer was a soft drink. Budweiser ? No, ginger beer was a soft drink. They had Newcastle Brown ? No, ginger beer was a soft drink. Oh, if I was after a soft drink they had all kinds of fruit juices (gesturing at a pile of J2Os)...

At this point I gave in and had a pint of Director's instead before I lost the will to live. Pintwatch can report that it's not bad, and supposes £2.50 is what you expect in London.

Anyway. Four bands at the Underworld.

davefish tells me that Spermwhale are bobbins. More to the point, he tells me that last time I saw them I thought they were bobbins too. So we sat outside and ate slices of pizza instead of braving them again. As such I can't report. Maybe they were great.

We arrived in time to see the American Medical Association Chillburn arriving on stage. And... well, they didn't suck. But neither were they very good. Sort of second rate nu-metal, and without a lot of originality to them. They had a few technical problems with mikes not working and so on, which admittedly they handled pretty well. And they get a moral bonus for having a nearly-real drum kit. I stuck it out for three songs, then retreated to the safety of the bar.

I've never encountered Katscan before, but trotted down to the front, prepared to be impressed. And I was. Just two guys, a singer and a bloke operating a bank of electronicy gadgetry. They go thump a lot, but have the sort of solid chord progressions that mean you don't feel like you're missing out on a melody. And you've got to have respect for a band which manufactures its own ties. Must investigate them some.

And Crüxshadows. I could be heard recently (on smiorgan's journal, I think) claiming that Crüxshadows were just another bloody goth band sounding like all the others, and I wasn't that impressed with them. davefish convinced me to go along to the gig, on the grounds that they put on a good show.

And he's right, they do. Combined goth gig and retelling of the Siege of Troy, featuring the Crüxshadows Vocalist Outreach Project, the invitation-only stage invasion, and new uses for broken furniture.

And while I still maintain their sound isn't that original, I was impressed. Amazing amounts of energy, And while they've got the curse of the drum machine, they get half marks back again for having a real violin on stage.

So. A bit of a pretentious beginning, in which their singer (half man half pineapple) booms out the story of the Golden Apple (without mentioning Discordia, booooo), with the fiddle player and each of the two dancers standing in for the three goddesses. Most of the show followed on, with bits of the story told in between songs. They lose half a mark for the crap American pronunciation of "Ageans" though.

The two dancers dance, and though I know a few people don't like them, I think they're great. The fiddle player alternates between that and keyboards, and the guitar player in the middle of the stage is strangely unobtrusive (both audibly and visually). I couldn't really see the bloke at the back, I'm guessing he was doing synthy things. And the singer. Who, equipped with a radio mike, was mostly wandering about in the audience, clambering about the rails in the Underworld, dancing about with, er, anyone willing, and glowing gently. When you're trying to defend your place in the front row, it's always wise to remember that the person showing you aside may well be the singer trying to get back on stage.

And by the time they wound up with Marilyn, My Bitterness they seemed to have lost their pretentiousness, and just to be bounding around having fun. Complete with half the audience onstage, dancing. So yeah, they rocked. And I may even go so far as to buy an album or two. I'd certainly go and see them again.

Comments

[nevecat.livejournal.com]

How do you tell the story of the Golden Apple *without* mentioning Eris? :)

(Oh, and I'm intrigued now as to how Americans pronounce Ageans...)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I guess she must logically have been mentioned right at the beginning as having donated the apple, but I didn't hear it...

And *AY*-ge-ans. Sort of like Asians with an extra syllable.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Or indeed, Ageans to rhyme with aliens would be a better description. I misheard him the first few times :)

[nevecat.livejournal.com]

Ah, A-with-a-'u'-on-top, as opposed to A-with-a-'-'-on-top :)

Actually, I suspect I'd say it with a long A too, but with the stress on the G: ie Aage-eean, rather than A-geean [which I think is what you're saying?] or Aa-geean, which I think is what you're saying the americans were saying?

(I'm using 'aa' to try to show 'long a' and 'a' to mean 'short a', ditto for e - unfortunately I don't know the HTML code for the phonetic accents :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Just been having another conversation with someone which got hopelessly confused because he read 'ay' as sounding like 'eye' when I meant 'sounds like the ay in day'.

So. I'd say it with a short A, and the emphasis on the second syllable.
The American said it with a long A, and the emphasis on the first syllable.

It was mostly the emphasis change which threw me. I'm prepared to believe my pronunciation is wrong.

Help, verlaine rescue us and tell us how to say it!

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

I thought ginger ale and ginger beer were the same thing.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Ginger beer is nice, and ginger ale is not. I've always been led to believe they're different.

Anyone know ?

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Ginger Beer:
1. a. An aerated drink made of cream of tartar, lemon juice, sugar, yeast, and water, and flavoured with ginger.

Ginger Ale: Dunno.
But I think it's different.

Thought you'd said you were recovering this week. Oh, how the plans fail contact with a davefish.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I said I was spending any spare time I had recovering. Times during which I have things booked is clearly not spare time.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

D'oh. Should have looked harder:
Ginger: 7. Special comb., as ginger-ale, an effervescing beverage flavoured with ginger.

So specifically, ginger-ale effervesces, and uses god only knows what ingredients, whereas ginger-beer is simply aerated, and has specific ingredients.

[nevecat.livejournal.com]

From a pure taste-viewpoint:

Ginger Ale is usually less sweet, and less fizzy. Also less easy to get hold of. Example: Canadian Extra Dry Ginger Ale etc (green bottles :)

Ginger beer is sweetier, often less subtly gingery, and more fizzy (these last two may be connected - when the ginger is trying to explode in your nose. you notice it more ;). Examples: Idris, Old Jamaician Ginger Beer (red/orange/cream/brown cans/bottles, depending on the most recent branding)

Both are yummy :)

I have a recipe somewhere for ginger beer - you basically soak raisins & sugar to get a fermentation going, then keep added ground ginger & sugar, and then once a week or so, filter off the ginger-sugar-forment-sludge, add lemonjuice, water, and possibly more sugar, bottle (it bulks up by about 1:6 IIRC) & leave to ferment for a couple of weeks longer - the sludge gets split into two & is used as starter for 2 new batches.

I think I may have to start some going, given how stupidly hot the weather is, since it (despite description) is far nicer & more refreshing than commercial stuff. Will just have to drink more wine so we have enough empty wine bottles to make it in (plastic screwcaps tending to be rather explosive ;)

Ginger Beer vs. Ginger Ale

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yep, I agree with you about the sweetness.

Specifically, Ginger Beer is a sweet soft drink the commercial brands of which are typically aimed at the same sort of market as Tango, Fanta etc.

Ginger Ale is more in the same category as Tonic Water, Bitter Lemon etc. and although it's perfectly drinkable neat (esp. in very hot weather) it's more commonly used as a mixer.

Re: Ginger Beer vs. Ginger Ale

[venta.livejournal.com]

When offered ginger ale last night I did consider it, but was unsure if it would work. Has anyone ever tried shandy made with ginger ale ? Is it nice ?

Re: Ginger Beer vs. Ginger Ale

[(Anonymous)]

has anyone ever tried shandy ?

I thought you were a proper Northern Lass ;)

[condign.livejournal.com]

You have that the wrong way around. Ginger ale is nice, particularly with vanilla ice cream in it on a hot summer day.

Ginger beer is an abomination unto the world, one of those foul curses the good Lord has seen fit to burden humanity with, sort of like locusts and Democrats.

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

£2.50 is a bit steep for a pint of Directors, even in London. If my London pub were to sell Directors (which it never will) it would be £2.30, since it's 4.8%. (£2.40 is reserved for beers above 5%).