Uptight Presents: The Stan Sermons, Electrophonvintage, Joe Gideon and the Shark - The Albany

Again, on all the flyers and posters and spam it said doors 7pm, so I arrived at 8pm and it looks very much like they're still sound checking, I could be wrong. Anyhoo, I'm Hank Marvin' so I head across the way to Cafe Meze for a lamb cheeseburger and swift Efes.

Service is a little slow, and the vibe of the ever present traffic outside is oppressive.

In a shameless attempt to draw more traffic to the site, I'm going to give the bands overwealmingly positive reviews, so they'll quote and back link me.

It occurred to me that one of the things that sets this site apart from other Indiepop blogs is that here we also give coverage to bands I don't like, gigs I thought were crap.

I'd been dreaming of chips all day and when they came they hit the mark, the cheese on the cheeseburger was suspiciously runny.

Down in The Albany's Lowdown, down tiny steps, its almost too dark to write. Folk off of the internet sat to the back, I lurk nearby.

I've missed a good half of the first guy's set, but what I caught was the very best seated troubadour playing steel string serious acoustic vaguely blues that I've ever heard. Image-wise he seemed to be taking cues from gods of the mid-90's baggy scene Liam and Tim. The guy was faultless.

If this were Glasgow, Tom Snowball would have signed him up in seconds and the Tchai Ovna would be packed.

Internet folk move to the front to catch the next act, so I steal a seat near a candle in exchange for eye-contact and a wave.

A french mob on stage, I see a melodica. Technical problems, but they have amusingly accented banter... "I do habe one jock, it is not very funny, I am saving it for later..."

When they start I melt under the wee snippets of lush pop perfection, like bite-sized Hidden Cameras you could fit in your pocket, almost every song clocking in under a minute.

Bloke singing like a Gallic version of Simon Love. Melodica girl did vocal duties on a couple of the songs which was a bit refreshing.

Next up are Joe Gideon and the Shark, the girl looks affy familiar, behind her drum kit with a keyboard and possibly some kind of sampler, bloke on guitar.

Cool song titles "Johan was a painter and an arsonist" and "Anything you love that much you'll see again". Deep rolling blues, maybe swamp blues over delta, good stomping music to begin with.

My chums off of the internet left, but they're missing a treat. Its a bit of a mixed bag, a potato sack of broken glass.

The drumming keyboard sampler girl plays like a cartoon precision engineer, mybe about 38% art schooly too.

Not that it'd work in real life, but imagine if you put The Fall, Death in Vegas and Ball Boy in yer potato sack of broken glass and pureeed it and you'd be there then.

A bunch of hipster kids turn up, blocking my view along with the tie-less office workers so I leave before the headline act, somewhat satisfied by the evening.