Aaaaah Brixton. The High St is always an entertaining place. As we walked up Brixton Hill towards The Windmill we were accosted by a nice man who wanted to tell us that all white boys smoke crack. A quick detour into the post office to shake him and we arrived at the venue about 8:30. The Windmill is an interesting place, described by TimeOut as a 'gloriously lowdown, coolfuck venue'. The one and only Davey Macmanus was hanging around the bar and he and his sister found it amusing I was wearing a t-shirt bearing a photo of their parents - the Lottery Winners on Acid cover photo (available via the fan site www.inaudible.co.uk/crimea). Davey kindly signed the cover of a Baby Boom CD single I'd brought along (thanks!). The Gemma Ray Ritual took to the stage around 9 and the place started to liven up. GRR had a great sound and the blokes were all sporting porn star moustaches - a guaranteed winner! Worth checking out. Soon after, The Crimea started setting up and I managed to complete the set of autographs on my Baby Boom single in the process. I had a stupid grin on my face for the rest of the night :-) |
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The set opened with the rejuvanated Opposite Ends. The Regina Spektor voice over intro compliments the track well, sort of like another side to the story. The band took to the stage in perfect time to retort with Davey's usual passion that always seems to take this track to another level when played live. Baby Boom was next followed by White Russian Galaxy. I never get bored of hearing these two tracks, especially the opening rif of the former. That's probably why my LWOA EP is worn out heh. Allah Was Wrong is not a song I've heard much of, and never before live. Losing My Hair however made me smile at the Kill All Hippies gig, especially since I've lost most of mine - doh! Weird was next and this is a track that grows and grows the more I hear it. As Davey said, it's traditional for the band to play a new track, and that was Close Your Eyes. I'm not sure if Andy N's guitar being unplugged mid-track affected this too much and he handled it like a pro. "Though we seldom get annoyed" never sounded better as the band launched into my favourite Howling At The Moon followed by Girl Just Died. The set was wrapped up with LWOA and Someone's Crying. I guess the band's decision to play an encore was a reflect ion of how well they were going down. This was a new track or demo, which is called Send In The Light Brigade. Apparently Andy N's handy work, sounds promising. |
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Above is a pic of Joe's set list which I was able to grab at the end. Davey was enjoying the fresh air outside as we left and was kind enough to sign it for me.
Our adventure didn't end there. My girlfriend decided to keep the night going by leaving her car lights on all afternoon. I was still grinning as I pushed the bloody thing up and down the station car park in the pouring rain, even though the Baby Boom single is looking decidedly the worse for wear as a result.
Next up (for me anyway) is Reading where The Crimea will play a 30 minute set at around 1:30pm on Sunday. Day tickets are still available (I guess they must be playing Leeds too - check the website).
October 17th is going to be a long time coming. The remixed, re-recorded, kind of completely remade Tragedy Rocks promises much.
PS if anyone wants hi-res version of these pics drop me a mail.
andy_parker@mac.com |
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