We love you, Martin

[venta]

Last Tuesday I shamelessly bunked off rapper practice, and scooted down the Central Line to Bethnal Green working men's club. I'm not sure I've ever been to a working men's club before, and yet it managed to be somehow familiar. Small, faintly ramshackle, smelling very faintly of damp, and run by a right old motley crew of people.

Upstairs, there was a remarkably opulent red velvet heart backing the stage, and little tables dotted around. I went to the bar. Panic! No handpumps! No, wait, it's OK, there's three distinctive-lookingg grey cardboard boxes on the end of the bar that clearly contain barrels. Armed with a pint, and surprised by the number of people I kept falling over that I knew, I went back to the table. markbanang and sesquipedality[*] came and joined us and we waited expectantly.

In front front of the shabby red velvet heart, the stage was a mess. Why? Because someone had laid it out for the MFMO, some of whom were mic'd up. There were chairs, music stands and green cables everywhere. And even then, they didn't really fit. The concert harp was on the floor, the flautist was sitting on the edge of the stage, the brass section had spilled over onto the floor in several directions. Pretty much everything I said about the MFMO last time I saw them still holds - huge fun, very creative, mildly shambolic.

Martin White, the band leader, is currently writing a concept album with one track for each of Joseph Campbell's Stages of the Monomyth. So we got The Road of Trials (Bruce Springsteen pastiche, "I'll try and do the voice"), Supernatural Aid (disco-pop epic) and The Belly of the Whale (prog-rock sea shanty), and so on. Interspersed with songs about tea. And rhubarb. And waltzing.

I wouldn't recommend MFMO to everyone (in fact, ChrisC actively dis-recommended them to a colleague of his, who is German and long-haired and dresses in black, and apparently has exactly the musical taste that implies). But if the above sounded appealing, you should definitely check them out (<- link to FaceAche).

It's a while since I've banged on about the Indelicates on here, isn't it? It's a while since I've seen them, in fact. They remain a ridiculously hardworking band, churning out albums left and right, and a rambly music podcast which will introduce you to some great unheard-of bands if you can cope with its extremely low fidelity. Also they make puppets. And fudge. And run a record label.

Anyway, they seem to have got a funky new bassist, and a drummer who doesn't look like a drummer. And they're still awesome. And they still hate everything, and still manage to be extremely entertaining and self-deprecating while doing so. You've all heard me describe the Indelicates a million times, so if anyone hasn't (or has forgotten), just go to their website and have a listen, ok?

Then the MFMO stormed the Alamo, by which I mean got themselves back on stage during the Indelicates' rendition of Something Going Down in Waco. I really, really wish I'd been able to get my camera out in time to snap one of the French horn players striding up the room, horn held fist-pumpingly aloft and two bottles of cider in his free hand. And they finished the rest of the set in tandem, Simon and Julia Indelicate (who always sound like they're composing for an orchestra anyway) backed by the might of the MFMO. And I have to say, it was very strange watching the MFMO's drummer playing by reading off sheet music. You don't see rock drummers do that often.



[*] I think. I'm getting surprisingly rusty on LJ handles these days.

Comments

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

It was an excellent gig. I'm not sure MFMO are for me. The arrangements are interesting, but I don't think there's much staying power in the humour, sadly. I'm really glad I finally got to see The Indelicates live though. It was awesome.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Possibly I am just very easily amused ;)

[shermarama]

That does sound pretty awesome, especially the triumphant horn-and-booze moment. (Um, just looking up the MFMO, that does sound like the sort of thing I'd be a sucker for live...)