Laura Macfarlane/Hong Kong In The 60s/Hissing At Swans
Last night, I made a return to putting gigs on. So far, a once-off, though there may well be more gigs in the future.
I put on a gig by Laura Macfarlane (of Ninetynine), as well as Hong Kong In The 60s and Hissing At Swans, at the Betsey Trotwood in Clerkenwell. It went splendidly, despite getting off to an inauspicious start.
We had a sound engineer, a woman named Cynthia, whose presence had been organised by the venue. Whilst setting up, she noticed that the cables were dusty, and having heard that the pub had had asbestos taken out of a wall elsewhere in the building, refused to go on just in case the dust was asbestos. (Which was unlikely, as that had been elsewhere in the building, and furthermore had been completed by professionals.) So we found ourselves without a sound engineer. Luckily, the venue owner was able to get the guy who fitted the sound system to come down and set things up, after which Laura (who has done sound engineering in studios) and Tim from HK60s took turns at the mixing deck.
The bands all played excellently. Hissing At Swans had ukuleles, a drum and video projections, as well as a few new songs, and were lots of fun. Hong Kong In The 60s played what may have been their best set so far (the rendition of the intricate instrumental Garma off their free Places EP was breathtaking). And Laura was brilliant; playing a borrowed guitar, glockenspiel and Casio keyboard, she put on an amazing show, playing songs from throughout Ninetynine's career, from Super 8 and Wöekenender to the new album over beats from her iPhone. Seeing her play The Process was one of the highlights of the year for me; it instantly took me back to the Punters' Club in 2002.
Between sets, I DJed, spinning a choice of tunes falling in the spaces between indiepop, exotica, understated electropop and similar. In the middle of the set, the girl who works behind the bar asked me what my night was called; she said that she liked the sort of "twee electronica" (her words, though I'm not disputing them) I was playing. Which led me to start thinking that perhaps I should make a regular night of this.
- Os Mutantes - Panis et Circenses
- Minimum Chips - Bouncing Boy With A Bubble
- Bachelorette - Mindwarp
- The Motifs - Tell Me More
- Dent May And His Magnificent Ukulele - You Can't Force A Dance Party
- Julian Nation - All The Capital Cities' Names
- Lucy Van Pelt - Sunny (Alternate Take)
- Kuryakin - Rain
- Remington Super 60 - Always Trust The Samba
- Momus - The Charm Song
- Twin Sister - All Around And Away We Go
- B.C. Camplight - Hide And Run Away
- Mid-State Orange - Losing Time
- Betty And The Werewolves - Good As Gold
- Still Corners - Endless Summer
- The Deirdres - Milk Is Politics
- Minimum Chips - Walkman
- Girlsareshort - Karate Ninjas
- Dom - Jesus
- The Field Mice - Of The Perfect Kind
- The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - This Love Is Fucking Right
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