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Here is the review of last Saturday's gig at the new york which I promised I would review:
Despite not breaking even this gig was still a laugh, plenty of skanking going on for all of the bands, and spawned a new in-joke for us.
rid⋅ing the spac-wag⋅on [rahy-ding thee spac wag-uhn]
-verb
1 - a false statement about a ska band, possibly made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
example of use:
1: Hey bro, you'll make it to the party tonight, right?
2: Yeah, 7 o clock, yeah?
1: Nah, 4am dude.
2: What?
1: Nah, I'm riding on the spac-wagon dude. It is at 7
The first band up was The Thieving Beggars, I cannot stress how talented they are enough, and this was only their third gig. Managed to impress every single person there, even though two of their memebers were on holiday, and they had two replacements drafted in to cover. Really glad I managed to find this band at a random gig in the middle of nowhere a few weeks ago, such a great find. I have no doubt at all that these guys are going to be really big one day. It was a bit of a shame to see them playing to such a small crowd, but they made a huge impact on everyone there, including Richie from propa job, which to be fair is probably a good person to impress, and this forum's very own tea addict (Who also has reviewed this gig in video form: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=59994704)
Their ratio of vocals to instrumental bits favours the instrumental by a long way, and it's not a bad thing either, gives the talented sax and trombone players a chance to do their thing with the full attention of the crowd.
Next band up was Señor Billice and the Skalamaties, and you will never get a fair biased review of them from me because I actually am madly in love with all of them. The Thieving Beggars wern't the only band to play short of some members, the replacment keyboard player was only added in two days before the gig, and if you have seen the band before you probably would be able to tell, but in general it was a fine replacement. Also, the missing band member is the banjo player in their most folk song, and the violin on it's own doesn't sound as good without the banjo alongside it in that song, but it's still good for a bit of a Dropkick Murphys style jig about the room.
Next up would have been I ride the spac wagon, if theyexsisted? showed up, but they didn't, along with the possibly made up promise of bringing at least 30 fans with them. What can you do eh?
The Hostiles started off their set with a little game I like to call 'Where the hell has the soundguy gone this time' which I won with the classic 'randonly slide those gray things up and down until noises happen' move. I had to pop out to do something for a bit so unfortunatly I missed their first one or two songs but when I got back I had the lovely sight of just about everyone in the room skanking which totally made up for not many people being there. The Hostiles did a great job of showing everyone what I love about ska: even if you are having a shitty day it just makes you happy and gets you dancing. I don't think there was anyone in the room that didn't enjoy the hostile's set, (in case you were there and didn't look around, the barman was totally loving it.)
So in conclusion a few more people through the door would have been good since the difference came out of my pocket, but hey, it wasn't even that much and the bands were all top notch and by the end of the night I was too busy skanking to care about that. If any promoters are thinking about putting the Hostiles on I say go for it, they are all very lovely people and got everyone skanking, what more do you want?
Probably make some changes to this review some other time, this is all first thing that came to my head, first draft style etc.
Despite not breaking even this gig was still a laugh, plenty of skanking going on for all of the bands, and spawned a new in-joke for us.
rid⋅ing the spac-wag⋅on [rahy-ding thee spac wag-uhn]
-verb
1 - a false statement about a ska band, possibly made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
example of use:
1: Hey bro, you'll make it to the party tonight, right?
2: Yeah, 7 o clock, yeah?
1: Nah, 4am dude.
2: What?
1: Nah, I'm riding on the spac-wagon dude. It is at 7
The first band up was The Thieving Beggars, I cannot stress how talented they are enough, and this was only their third gig. Managed to impress every single person there, even though two of their memebers were on holiday, and they had two replacements drafted in to cover. Really glad I managed to find this band at a random gig in the middle of nowhere a few weeks ago, such a great find. I have no doubt at all that these guys are going to be really big one day. It was a bit of a shame to see them playing to such a small crowd, but they made a huge impact on everyone there, including Richie from propa job, which to be fair is probably a good person to impress, and this forum's very own tea addict (Who also has reviewed this gig in video form: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=59994704)
Their ratio of vocals to instrumental bits favours the instrumental by a long way, and it's not a bad thing either, gives the talented sax and trombone players a chance to do their thing with the full attention of the crowd.
Next band up was Señor Billice and the Skalamaties, and you will never get a fair biased review of them from me because I actually am madly in love with all of them. The Thieving Beggars wern't the only band to play short of some members, the replacment keyboard player was only added in two days before the gig, and if you have seen the band before you probably would be able to tell, but in general it was a fine replacement. Also, the missing band member is the banjo player in their most folk song, and the violin on it's own doesn't sound as good without the banjo alongside it in that song, but it's still good for a bit of a Dropkick Murphys style jig about the room.
Next up would have been I ride the spac wagon, if they
The Hostiles started off their set with a little game I like to call 'Where the hell has the soundguy gone this time' which I won with the classic 'randonly slide those gray things up and down until noises happen' move. I had to pop out to do something for a bit so unfortunatly I missed their first one or two songs but when I got back I had the lovely sight of just about everyone in the room skanking which totally made up for not many people being there. The Hostiles did a great job of showing everyone what I love about ska: even if you are having a shitty day it just makes you happy and gets you dancing. I don't think there was anyone in the room that didn't enjoy the hostile's set, (in case you were there and didn't look around, the barman was totally loving it.)
So in conclusion a few more people through the door would have been good since the difference came out of my pocket, but hey, it wasn't even that much and the bands were all top notch and by the end of the night I was too busy skanking to care about that. If any promoters are thinking about putting the Hostiles on I say go for it, they are all very lovely people and got everyone skanking, what more do you want?
Probably make some changes to this review some other time, this is all first thing that came to my head, first draft style etc.
