In which the end of October was mostly rather good
This will mostly be a slightly longer write-up of Friday night's gig, as F***book isn't really the place for proper reviews. Also, nezumi_sama isn't on there, so I should put at least that one photo up here.
The Memepunks opened the evening. For those who don't know them, they do slightly gothed-up cover versions and mash-ups. They weren't quite as fun as when I've seen them previously, possibly because of a line-up change (I'd only actually be able to pick one of them out from an actual line-up, but the change of instruments this time around - no violin, but a real drum kit - suggests to me that it's a bit of a rotating cast). They were all fine musically, but the singing let it down somewhat. Still, I have to give them credit for what I suppose might be called 'Don't Stop Believin' in a Thing Called Love', a mash-up of Journey and The Darkness.
Gladstone took the midddle slot. They seemed to be the darker end of Steampunk, a bit Victorian, with songs about murder, insanity and (I quote) 'poor career choices'. Not necessarily quite my kind of thing, but very well done and entertaining enough.
Voltaire was the headline act, and he did his usual thing of almost being more a stand-up comedian than a musician, and including a fair bit of audience participation. Standout track for me was be-yourself anthem 'Raised by Bats'.
The one (major) downside of the evening was all the drunk non-goths out for Halloween. One guy made a massive nuisance of himself for large chunks of Voltaire's set, dancing about and waving his arms about with no concern for how many times he elbowed me and Nezumi (even after I lost my temper with him and told him to watch himself). The whole thing was running late and a ridiculous number of badly-costumed straights started piling in from outside once the 'club' time started. It got so badly crowded that we moved towards the back of the venue so as not to get squashed, but then we could hardly hear for people talking as they weren't there for the music. And then dancing pillock showed up in my line of sight again and started bear hugging women who clearly hadn't expected/wanted it, so I had to go and speak to security to get them to have a word with him before he did something even worse. Uggh! People...
In other news, I had my performance review meeting for Job 2, in which my line manager said (and subsequently wrote) some very positive things, and in which we discussed the possibility of my taking on a third school on a permanent basis, depending on how I get on with its Chair of Governors when we meet next week and how the first couple of meetings go. I'd have to quit School Job 1, because some of the dates in the Spring term would clash and I wouldn't be able to cope with the workload anyway, but it seems pretty likely to be the best call, for a whole bunch of reasons. I have until the end of November to make my mind up...
The Memepunks opened the evening. For those who don't know them, they do slightly gothed-up cover versions and mash-ups. They weren't quite as fun as when I've seen them previously, possibly because of a line-up change (I'd only actually be able to pick one of them out from an actual line-up, but the change of instruments this time around - no violin, but a real drum kit - suggests to me that it's a bit of a rotating cast). They were all fine musically, but the singing let it down somewhat. Still, I have to give them credit for what I suppose might be called 'Don't Stop Believin' in a Thing Called Love', a mash-up of Journey and The Darkness.
Gladstone took the midddle slot. They seemed to be the darker end of Steampunk, a bit Victorian, with songs about murder, insanity and (I quote) 'poor career choices'. Not necessarily quite my kind of thing, but very well done and entertaining enough.
Voltaire was the headline act, and he did his usual thing of almost being more a stand-up comedian than a musician, and including a fair bit of audience participation. Standout track for me was be-yourself anthem 'Raised by Bats'.
The one (major) downside of the evening was all the drunk non-goths out for Halloween. One guy made a massive nuisance of himself for large chunks of Voltaire's set, dancing about and waving his arms about with no concern for how many times he elbowed me and Nezumi (even after I lost my temper with him and told him to watch himself). The whole thing was running late and a ridiculous number of badly-costumed straights started piling in from outside once the 'club' time started. It got so badly crowded that we moved towards the back of the venue so as not to get squashed, but then we could hardly hear for people talking as they weren't there for the music. And then dancing pillock showed up in my line of sight again and started bear hugging women who clearly hadn't expected/wanted it, so I had to go and speak to security to get them to have a word with him before he did something even worse. Uggh! People...
In other news, I had my performance review meeting for Job 2, in which my line manager said (and subsequently wrote) some very positive things, and in which we discussed the possibility of my taking on a third school on a permanent basis, depending on how I get on with its Chair of Governors when we meet next week and how the first couple of meetings go. I'd have to quit School Job 1, because some of the dates in the Spring term would clash and I wouldn't be able to cope with the workload anyway, but it seems pretty likely to be the best call, for a whole bunch of reasons. I have until the end of November to make my mind up...