How dare you go round telling me my grandfather's an ape?

[venta]

This is the last of the Gigvember volley, promise.

We haven't been to a gig in Camden in ages, measured by the fact we haven't been to The Canonical Japanese in ages. TCJ is our default pre-gig food-solution; it's next to the Jazz Cafe, and serves good food extremely quickly. Neither of us can ever remember what it's actually called.

I also think that I've never been to The Underworld before, which is most surprising. It didn't look in the least familiar. On the beer front, because the World's End (the world under which the Underworld is) serves decent beer, I had high hopes. They did have one (electric pump) draught bitter, an own label affair, but it was served too cold and too fizzy. Still, better than Tuborg, I suppose.

We arrived in time to see Andrew O'Neill onstage, singing a highly variegated version of If You're Happy And You Know It as part of his intro for support band Fat Goth.

Fat Goth seemed to have all the bits - good guitar, great bass, gurning drummer - but somehow I couldn't quite get the hang of them. They made a decent racket, but vanished from my consciousness almost immediately on stopping.

They don't appear to be particularly goth, by the way. Or fat. Maybe Rock Band of Average Size didn't really cut it as a name.

If you're not keeping up, TMTWNBBFN stands for The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, the world's only actual steam actual punk steampunk band. All The Men were puttering about the venue listening to the support (and in one case hugging a slightly out of place-looking couple whom we guessed at being his parents).

The Men are an odd band - two comedians (guitar and bass), the former singer of Creaming Jesus (saw) and an ex Lord of the New Church (drums). And they all sing. Together, they have highly entertaining lyrics (which sometimes even make a point, albeit frequently one which is relevant to the burning political issue of upwards of a century ago) and good tunes. Songs you can yell along to, and jump up and down to, and a bunch of fans willing to do just those things.

I admire their stage presence, and their ability to take anything in their stride, from random heckling to set-list confusion to improvised extra lyrics. Are they actually as shambolic as they appear? Who knows but the results are hilarious.

It felt like a very short set. Sixteen songs, including two encores, so setlist.fmtells me - which gives you an idea how long most of the songs aren't.

Anyone who doesn't mind occasional bouts of swearing should try this band. Anyone who does should ask me for recommendations of clean songs. Some of them are genuinely educational :)

Comments

[zotz]

At least one of Fat Goth was previously in a band called Alamos, that I was quite fond of, but I can't really get into the new bunch either. I should probably try again.

I've vaguely assumed it might be a Count Zero reference - "a short Gothick was trouble, a fat Gothick homicidal" - but I've no real idea.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Given how much I loved Neuromancer, it's a bit of a surprise I haven't read the other two. I should remedy that. The quotation looks familiar - I think someone used it as a .sig on ukpg, once upon a time.

[zotz]

His 2nd and 3rd are also very good. The three after that - the Bridge novels - I liked too, but not as much. The three Hubertus Bigend books I thought were excellent, and I really liked his recent one as well.

And don't forget The Difference Engine, or to read up on the somewhat tense relationship (answer number 4, there) between Neal Stephenson, Gibson and Bruce Sterling.

someone

Hatchetman.

[kauket.livejournal.com]

Charlie.

Also it's the Bento Cafe, because it's where I go before any gigs / comedy in Camden :)