We'll start backwards, it suits my memory better. Having been the purveyor of lifts home Sunday night, Monday morning began with a trip to Philly Phil's work to return a debit card carelessly discarded in my car, but unfortunately without PIN. Seriously, half a present is just no fun...
A week or so ago, Joincey had alluded to the idea of beers via one form of social intertubing or another, and a tentative arrangement was made for pubs on Sunday, before I, in my infinite wisdom, said "Ooooh, gigs." Just like that. It was a choice of two,Conquering Animal Sound at The Castle, with support from Shield Patterns and Tekla, or Roro + Nacht Und Nebel + Lumbers + Suk Ninmyo put on by David Birchall at Thomas Restaurant and Bar. Joincey wasn't getting into town much before 8ish, so I had a beer with Corky in the Castle before deciding which gig to go to. Philly Phil and his new squeeze arrived, and nice times and chats were had before I decided that, except for Conquering Animal Sound, the acts on the line up are local, and so the chance to see them play will occur again soon... And skipped off to the experimental noise gig instead.
I didn't arrive in time for Suk Ninmyo, but walked in during the Lumbers set instead, and a beautiful set it was. When I walked in, guitar strings yielded to fingers lightly, quickly, slowly, lightly, more intensely, music making love to your senses, before being taking over by noise so brutal it murdered you, and buried you, in a hole, on a building site, with hammer drills and loud everywhere, and poured concrete on top of you, and danced a little stampy jig on your newly concreted grave, then a beautiful sense of calm, the world afresh, anew, and gradually folding into the busy of the continuation of the world. Lumbers creates incredible immersive soundscapes, and this was no exception.
A brief break followed, during which I chatted/moaned about nothing in particular to Joincey, before the next set which was Nacht Und Nebel, a chap based in Nottingham, a set of minidisc manipulations a set of cello sounds/processings. It was an interesting set, and felt dark and dense, though it didn't move me significantly, and I will confess to having spent a fair amount of this set examining how the light fittings fit into the beams in the ceiling, and most of the rest of the time looking around the room identifying who I knew/knew of. Interesting, but not captivating.
Last on the set list was Roro. Joincey left as the set started, not wanting to get into something that he couldn't stay out for (I'd would've offered a lift home, but I think he needed to be home early for work). This guy is awesome. And hilarious. A seemingly haphazard percussion set, infused with a fantastic sense of humour. Seemingly accidentally knocking a jingly thing onto the floor and rolling it around a little, this turned into a sequence of laying out coffee stirrers into the words "cup of tea". Back to the percussion, then David Birchall came across and joined Roro with his guitar, wrapping his arms around it and scratching the surface, and up the lengths of the strings, reminiscient of how my mum's cat wraps herself around my arm and scratches it when she's playing.
After the gig it was time to head back to the Castle to see the last five minutes of Conquering Animal Sound , quite fun interesting pop that made me want to hear more, despite the brevity of time I heard them play (thanks Mr Knox for the free gigness), and a brief chat with Lex before meeting back up with Corky and Philly Phil for final beers. I'd sent some messages out to see if anyone else was out to play also, as when you go out less than the average bear it's nice to try to see as many people as you can when you get out to play, but sadly all said it was late and tiredness won out. Corky and Philly Phil were on fine form, and ace company. After a while tiredness took a hold of Corky too, and Philly and I had one last drink propping up the bar, and chatting to Tekla and her boyfriend Jim. I've not yet seen Tekla play, and this was the first time we met, but she is a lovely lady, interesting and open to talk to. Somehow we managed to embarrass Jim and Philly Phil a little by discussing all sorts of lady things, as well as music and life and Kittencat and all manner of things inbetween.
Eventually it was time to leave, as always inevitably comes around, so I gave Philly Phil a lift home, and when I got myself home, retrieved the monitor from Cattenberg in the spare room so he could sleep the remainder of the night undisturbed, and got myself into bed, ten minutes later a bleary eyed Kittencat had a coughing fit and wandered sleepily into my room to have the remainder of the nights sleep pressed up against my face, coughing into my eyes, nose, mouth, and grinning with a beauteous expression bordering on rapture as she snuggled up with her arms tightly round my neck, murmured "I've got you Mummy" and fell asleep, as the coughing gently subsided.
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