Things Involving an Evening of Music

It's gig review time! Last night I left work, leapt onto the bus and made my way up to London and into the sticky-floored rabbit warren of Slimelight once more as the club was hosting a frankly rather eclectic night of music, headlined by the Beauty of Gemina, a band you may remember me raving about catching them at last year's M'era Luna. Unfortunately there are no pictures for this one, I forgot to take my camera and sadly my shiny new purple phone (which has a camera on it, look at me with my future technology witchery! I'm practically a cyborg now!) doesn't have a flash on it so it doesn't like dark spooky nightclubs.

Since M'era Luna I've bought a fair few of their records and quite a few tracks have wheedled their way onto my mp3 player (which is my little badge of approval for any track: if it ends up on my mp3 player, it's awesome. If it ends up on my mp3 player and I tend to replay it twice every time it comes up, it's one of my absolute favourites, and there aren't too many of those.) Annnnnyway, I really them and I was really looking forward to 1) seeing them without the haze of (dark) rain and umbrellas and 2) hearing some stuff from the new album Iscariot Blues which I hadn't gotten around to buying yet. Plus there were three support bands, none of which I had seen before. So whooohooo a chance to find new bands!

Unfortuntely, I missed the first support act, Release the Bats, but I'd heard them before and well let's just say they're not my thing. They're fun and all, but not really to my tastes. I wouldn't have minded catching a couple of songs just for the sake of seeing what they're like live, but I wasn't exactly beating myself up for not sneaking off work early or anything like that. I reached Slimes in time to catch up with some friends between acts, then trot upstairs for a drink and to catch the second band, Last July, who were fabulous: a female fronted dark wave trio with industrial overtones and powerful vocals. Their website has loads of sample tracks to listen to and buy, so check it out.

Next up were Cryogenica who...eh... weren't brilliant. Industrial rock with Siouxsie/Xmal Deutschland style vocals... strange combination and it didn't work for me. I don't know whether Slimes' notoriously awful sound system was partially to blame, but the sound quality was pretty muddy throughout their set. Their singer had pretty groovy hair, though, and I did appreciate their Gary Numan cover.

The Beauty of Gemina also suffered slightly from the horrible sound system, poor Michael Seele's improbably deep vocals were rendered largely unintelligible, which is a shame because lyrically there's some interesting stuff going on in their songs. Still, it was a great set with a good mix of older songs and a few choice cuts from the new album, showing quite how versatile and talented they really are. It was also fantastic to see them in a (non-rainy, non-daylight) intimate setting, I'd say they're better suited to dramatic lighting and small clubs than bigger venues or festivals. They're one of those bands that just needs moody lighting and dry ice. So, yes, their set at M'era Luna may have sounded better, but this set felt better, as pretensious as that sounds. Pretty lights, smoke, being close enough to the band to watch their facial expressions, and actually being able to dance without splashing anyone's gothy festival finery definitely made for a fun evening.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and danced through the entire set (and now my obliques ache, I really need to find some gig-friendly dance moves that don't involve hip-wiggly-chest-slidey-oblique-achey actions. Honestly, it feels like I'd been wearing a corset too tight or something...) And now I have a copy of Iscariot Blues which I'm thoroughly looking forward to listening to (today was largely spent sleeping and playing on the internet, as it was about 4 in the morning by the time I got home).

I might even have to put some more tracks on my mp3 player...

One sleepy pixie, signing off!