Current mood: ENERGISED...
Category: ENERGISED... Music
On Tuesday it was the new look Colossus playing at the Oh Bar! In Camden.
(To read more about Colossus take a look here, here or here or click their name to hear the myspace tracks...)
So, instead of making a phonecall to find out about showtime, I get to this gig well early and spend a lot of the evening chatting with Mr Clinker.
Mr Clinker and Mr Giovanni continue the debates of this blog, and discuss other more pressing concerns. Mr Clinker disagrees with my drinking startegy. Mr Clinker and PG3 disagree about many things - which is one of the many reasons why I like him...
Mr Clinker informs me his strategy for a cheap night out is to not eat - to go out hungry and thereby magnify the boozy effects.
For a pseudo Italian like myself this is all wrong. In fact if you were to pursue such a strategy in Italy you would be deported in disgrace and if I pursued it in England, Mrs Giovanni would nail me to the friggin dining table....
Interlude :: June 2007: A pub on the banks of the River Thames
Mrs Giovannis sister is confused. It's about 5.30pm on a Friday and the pub is full of workfolk who've finished another week of the thlumpy frump and grind.
"Why are all these people in the pub?? Are they here to eat??" She asks
"Hell no, they're here to get drunk as quickly as poissble! It's Friday night!!" I reply, believing I'm stating the bleeding obvious
"But dinner must be had with the family before going to drink!" She suggests..
"Not in this country!" I respond, looking on at my countrymen with rare pride
Mrs G's sis looks ascance as men in suits embarass themselves and talk loudly infront of their workmates..."In Italy, we go home and eat and then return to take a few drinks in the late evening"
I smile. "In England we like to get in the pubs straight after work and drink until completely drunk. Those with families sometimes make it staggering home by 9 or 9.30pm, but the single and the bad family folk stay out until they either puke, embarass themselves or both!!"
Mrs G's sister looked very confused..
And the Colossus gig??
Well, the gig was fine. As I've said many times, Colossus are a band not short of their own belief and they're still brimming with development.
This was the first time I'd seen them play as a 4 piece and I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the addition of the occasional slide guitar was welcome and opened up yet another new angle on their sound.
At other times, it felt like the extra guitar flooded the sound a little...
Now, I'm no expert on live band mixing, so the fault may have lain with the soundman. It might also have been a shared problem as later frontman and guitarist Spider Clay suggested his own guitar playing hadn't been as on the nail as he'd have liked..
I'll report back on this one...
Meanwhile, I end my 8 day 'give the liver a chance' layoff with 5 pints of Guinness and treat the £45 as if it might breed in my pocket. It doesn't and at the end, the £45 looks to be aroundabout £25.
On the way home, I lurch into Sainsburys and after close to half an hours consideration, buy a large bottle of rum and 4 cans of bitter. I figure that will continue me for the night, cover the next next day at a base level, and leave a hip flask for Fridays stars gig...
 | Currently listening :
Trojan Box Set: Jamaican Hits
By Various Artists
Release date: By 20 June, 2000 |
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