Indie-er than Thou & 'Tits of Death' and Firearms

Hello,

It seems I'm starting every post with an apology of lack of content. I'm still in the process of moving house stuff and sorting my office move out. It's been tough.

I also got surrounded by armed police this weekend, that was great fun. I was on a friend's roof when police appeared everywhere all of a sudden. Every roof top, including the one I was on. "Did you see a bloke run up and down this passage?!?"
"No" We replied.
"Can you see a white bag up there"
"Yep"
"Don't touch it!!! You got a ladder?"
"Yep".

The bag turned out to be some kind of firearm discarded by a nogooder chased down the passage sometime earlier. All exciting stuff.

I've been wandering around the venues near my flat and found that I'm starting to become an inverted snob as regards the clientelle.

I was at a gig recently where there was a stunningly brilliant band playing. I can't say which as it will give away where it was. But no one moved, everyone was immaculately dressed in the latest scenester fashion and at any one time, one third of the crowd wasn't watching the gig. They were looking around to see who else was there. The one person who did start dancing stopped periodically to make sure others were watching. I don't want to sound like some pureist w**ker but I was getting all high and mighty about it. My friend summed it up with "Well it's a room full of +1's innit?". Yep, all guestlist and no enthusiasm. I wont be going back to that one anytime soon. Really sad as it used to be a really good night.

Anyways, moving on. I woke this morning with a ringing in my ears, Tinitus. Again.

I had it for a couple of years when I was in a band and thought it was girly to wear earplugs until my hearing started to suffer and I had to go to a specialist about it. Luckily it went away and my hearing was left uneffected. I had to do wierd tests of pushing buttons when I could or couldn't hear different pitches. Was relived to hear there was no damage after a couple of months.

Bang Bang

The Tinitus was because I went to the loudest gig I have been to in years last night. It was at the Rock n Roll Caberet night at The Dublin Castle. I went there to see Bang Bangs, not Kitty Bang Bang who was on the same bill. Very confusing. Rock n Roll Caberet is quickly establishing itself as a little pocket of top talent on a Sunday.

On the initial hearing, before my ears started to bleed, I was getting a real late 60's garage rock feel to what was going on. There was enough gain and top end to the guitars for me to feel like I was in a washing machine full of broken glass. As the set developed it went really post-punk with delay on the vocals and a performance-art feel to the set. I really enjoyed Matt Smith going angrily mental whilst singing. Veins popping out on the forehead and everything. As a front man he sits somewhere between Edward Tudor-Pole (in his prime, sorry Ed) and Alan Donohoe as I find it a bit theatrical rather than a genuine hissyfit. But a great spectacle nonetheless.

It would be really unfair for me to give a detailed appraisal of the songs as I really couldn't hear what was going on after a while. So I've turned to the myspace to recap and found a much neater, not-what-I-expected-on-the-myspace, sound. 'In Arms' is my personal highlight and I'd like to see it at a larger venue or somewhere my eyes don't feel like they're going to fall out due to the hemorage-inducing volume of the PA.

Tits of Death

Have to mention this band simply because of the name TITS OF DEATH. Even writing the name now I'm giggling childishly to myself. I don't think they're any good, just love the name. Well. That's mean I guess. It's not my thing, see what you think. Discuss. 'Iron Nipples' is particularly good.

Hope all is well with you.

IB