Twee as Fuck All-dayer

I arrived a wee bit early and at the door they give me a fanzine to read and a cupcake. A warm fuzzy feeling spreads out in my tummy. The cupcake has white gooey sugar icing on top and the word "twee" painstakingly written in blue flowing script.

The weather is fine outside, but before long the first band are onstage.


The Mai 68s

Guitar solos like a rusty stanley knife blade, like on the ground near the bins outside a factory, in the rain. Thunderous guitar and bass, with standy up drumer and slightly bewildered looking singing girl in a stripey top, wearing beret and drinking glasses of red wine.

Ithink I saw them play at The Betsy Trotwood a few months ago. They suit the raised stage that this venue offers and they seem to improved their game. The recorded version of Froth on the Daydream doesn't do justice to its sheer power when played live, it'll make you take a step and a half backwards and wish you'd got wine instead of a Jack Daniels and coke.

Even for the first band of the Twee As Fuck alldayer, the place is filling up and there's friendly banter between the stage and the folk at the front.

Neat set-closing song with members leaving the stage incrementally so all that's left is the guitar chap on his knees, tweaking the dials on his effects pedals to turn up the squelch on the thunder.

The Margarets, they're very young, no drummer, just a portable CD player, the ipod broke, I can empathise. The first number was an instrumental, from where I was stood it sounded a bit New Orderish, especially in the bass end of the scale.


The Margarets

There was a bit of the Swedish jangle pop about them.

CD player cocked up their last song so they had to abandon it halfway through which would have ended the set on a sour note if it wasn't for Camila (from Weepop and Your Heart Still Breaks) demanding they finish the song again without any backing. It caught them off guard a wee bit, but ended up sounding kind of sweet.

There's this art exhibition upstairs Pavla's Twee as Fuck Polaroids and Nicola Probert art exhibition. It pretty neat.

There's also a new smoking bit roof garden thing which overlooks the alley next to The MacBeth. A bit too crowded and cool for me though. I stay downstairs, leaning on the bar trying to stave off narcolepsy.


Mono Taxi

Mono Taxi are just a two piece, drums and guitar, with both folk doing vocals. For the early songs I was thinking they were cast in the White Stripes mould, you know, a little blues, a little garage. But it got more bombastic in the middle, stadium drum mincing.

Lots of healthy feedback and distorted guitar. yay


Little My

18 instruments / microphones
13 camera people

Its the mighty Little My collective again. The bass bunny still looks like Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks, I was discussing t with a chap off of the internet, who pointed out that Laura Palmer never had rabbit ears, and neither did her identical cousin Maddy.

They took forever to get set up and even then, for a seven piece with literally hundreds of instruments, there wasn't as much noise from the stage as you'd expect. Two glocks, stylophone, melodica, egg shakersand all the best of twee paraphernalia, but what you heard was mostly guitar.

Ah well.

It would be interesting to see them play on their home turf in Cardiff with however many extra members as they muster back there.

I saw Esiotrot practising in an alley round the corner during my inbetween band wandering and they sounded prety neat, trombone, ukelele, guitar. It was nice.


Esiotrot

However, on stage, they are atrocious.

They are out of tune, badly mixed, drifting in and out of lucidity. I don't know what to say. Maybe I just don't get them. What I do get is this must be one of their worse performances.

I'm scribbling this in the gallery upstairs and I can see the street outside, I can see Laura Palmer from Little My, she is very cute. A chap called Alexander wanders over and suggests I draw a picture of Esiotrot, and goes on to explain that he's in a band called To Arms Etc. I had a listen on MySpace when I was typing this up, they sound very good, they have a gig on the 31st of July.

Oh thank fuck, I think Esiotrot played a three song set.


The Bobby McGees


Skip Theatre


Hatcham Social


Theoretical Girl


Comet Gain

Acts
The Mai 68s
The Margarets
Mono Taxi
Little My
Esiotrot

Photies
Mine
Dansette's
CraigBoney's

Noughts and Croses, Jay Jay Pistolet, Honeytrap, Pop Up - The Windmill

I saw a rat on my way out tonight, the size of a rabbit, with traditional worm-like tail. It was sneaking up on an elderly asian gentleman when I leapt out and startled it. The beastie ran off into the canal.

Could be a metaphor or like a simile, god know, but I'm in a foul mood, thoughts of fire racing through ma heid.

Not 100% sure where I'm heading to, my net connection was down so I couldn't check, The Grosvenor in Brixton, never been there before, nearest underground station was Stockwell as far as I can remember. Maybe the London Paper/Lite/Metro can help...

Hmm, decisions, there's also a gig at the Windmill tonight and I know how to get there. So the choice is:- indiepop band I missed at Indietracks off of Bowlie or Glasgow band I missed in Glasgow. Hmm, which is more likely to draw traffic to this site? Cos really it's dying off and I can't really be arsed if no one else can.

No one at Stockwell had heard of the Grosvenor, in my best saaf Landan accent:-

“Here, mate, d'ya knah a 'pab called the Grosvenor?”
“Nevr 'eard of it,guv'”

So I headed south to Brixton, stopping to pick up a Time Out on the way..

Christ, the MonoTaxi and Horowitz gig is so low on the radar they're not even in Time Out's listings, even I got into the listings and I haven't told anyone the name of the band.

My eyes glaze over, I drifted to 2005 and let l'espirit d'Agoona guide me to the Windmill, a photo of Magic Tea, a wrong turn and I'm there.

The place hasn't changed much, maybe just a lick of paint and through the crowd a familiar face, its '97 again and I'm doing guard duty with Cathouse Dave, I spy Alec from Nemis, a smile spreading across his face as he sees me, and I know I've come to the right gig.

On stage is an angry young man, busker rather than troubador, out of tune guitar, not very musical, but there's a rare passion in his songs. If only he wasn't so nervous. I reckon he could be Noughts and Crosses.

Okay dear readers, a short note on my history with the Windmill. After my success in the sell-out debut Bowlie AllDayer in '04 I was subsequently banned from that internet messageboard in March '05 for calling Twitch a pain in the neck, such horrendous personal abuse isn't tolerated thre, so I headed to the second Bowlie Alldayer in August '05 as an outcast, mightily pissed with with the girl for being a pain in the neck, with David Kitchen the messageboard admin, and the whole Bowlie community for their disloyal silence on the injustice. By the end of the night, I'd missed the Flyers and was sat out back chatting with Twitch, buying each other drinks and really pissing off her boyfriend.

2007: David Kitchen was told my secret re-registered internet alias and booted me off the messageboard about nine hours ago. Bunch of cunz the lot of them. If only Jockrock was international.

So I'm sat at the bar, where Kattparaden and her boyf were last time and on stage is a wonderful chap, with an uncertain confidence, sings melodic stuff, love-ish songs, slurring slightly and a kind of Damon Albarn look in his eyes. Jay Jay Pistolet

People talking loudly all around me, I wish they'd hear the beauty in this guy's songs.

Crikey, third act on stage have brought their friends and family along. I hope they stay around for the headliners. A lanky speccy lead singer with guitar, wearing a white vest. The nu-punky sound is a little refreshing, as is the “wah-ooh, wah-hoo” backing vocals and its always a pleasure to see violin on stage. There's a little Fratellis to their sound and The Kaiser Chiefs too,

Hmm, they're from Coventry, called Honeytrap.

There's a chap at the front of the crowd taking some rather neat looking photies, I hope he knows that they don't count unless they're on Flickr within 12 hours.

Hmm Honeytrap sound a little too much like The Levellers, I sense them bringing on a digereedoo soon. There's only one way of life and thats your own.

The rest of the crowd realy liked them, and some fellow scribbler called Tom or possibly Mark.

Pop Up take to the stage, female drummer who I swear a friend of a friend used to go out with, lead singer in a green hoodie with the hood up. They start off quiet and BallBoysy, folk in the crowd to the left talking amongst themselves.

The band soon rock out and some cun with his bleached bird squeeze in front of me and start waving his hands in the air, oblivious to the vacant space in front of the band. I retreat to further back, hiding behind a pillar where I saw Thom Flyer stood once.

The singer chap reminds me of the guy who played the eighth doctor.

Crikey this crowd are noisy amongst themselves.

Nice fast paced songs, sound like Ballboy, Akira and some others.

Some refreshing swearing at the crowd. You know, just before they came on I heard a girl on the table behind me say “... Glasgow – eww” Bunch of cunz, the lot of them Londoners. Decent tunes from the band, how could I have missed them for so long? Same way I missed Miss The Occupier I guess.

Oh dear god, its 23:40, I'm in Brixton, the underground's shut, I'm 10 miles from home and I'm mighty hungry. Could this be the end of your eager gig reviewer?

I need a wee.