I’m still recovering from two nights out in a row last week - getting too old for this kind of nonsense.
Wednesday was Wet Leg at the Kentish Town Forum. Enjoyed it but it wasn’t the best night out. We had decided to drive up to London to avoid risking missing the last train home and got caught in the aftermath of an accident in the M2 - complete standstill for an hour. Eventually made it to the venue but had missed the support acts by then. Wet Leg were great fun but they aren’t the most accomplished live act and they don’t yet have enough songs, so were only on stage for 45 minutes (so finished early enough that we’d have had no trouble getting the train). Also the venue felt massively overcrowded, so even standing at the back you could hardly move.
I’d parked the car in Greenwich and on the way home we discovered that there had also been a big event on at the O2 the same night - the N-Dubz comeback, apparently. We arrived back at the car just at the same time as several thousands of drunk and lairy N-Dubz fans were swarming out and got caught in the gridlock trying to escape the car park. Also got fleeced £25 for the car park - could have sworn it was £12.50 when I checked in advance.
Ended up being a long, tiring, expensive night out for not the greatest reward. Glad I’ve seen Wet Leg but even more gutted in retrospect that I missed the opportunity when they were in Margate earlier this year at the 150-capacity Elsewhere. Unfortunately, tickets for that sold out in minutes and I was too slow off the mark.
Thursday night was *much* better. That was Nation of Language at the Electric in Brixton.
Got the train for that one, arrived early enough to have a drink in a nice local pub with a friend before the gig, got to the venue just as the support band were taking the stage, and they were excellent - Deep Tan, a spiky, funky post-punk trio with strong Slits vibes - the comparison is obvious but doesn’t really do them justice, to be fair - they’ve got far more about them than just being a pastiche/tribute act. Read more about them here:
https://thequietus.com/articles/31409-deep-tan-band-interview-wafah-celeste-lucyThat got me nicely warmed up for Nation of Language, who are one of my favourite bands right now anyway. And they were superb. The crowd were really into it so it was a great atmosphere, the sound quality was excellent, and Ian Devaney is a proper front man - charismatic, engaging, expensive, and he used the full extent of the big stage to perform in (touch of the Samuel T Herring about him).
Their sound is heavily influenced by early 80s synth pop - specifically OMD. Great if you like that kind of thing. Which I do.
Damn, that was a *great* gig. I’ll definitely be making an effort to see them again. Superb.