Veronica Falls started off the second day of the Winter Sprinter. The crowd was noticeably different to most London indiepop gigs - there are a lot of checked shirts and hipstery glasses - which waas a sign of their growing audience and buzz. I did a post on them yesterday, which outlines my thoughts on the band, and here they played an excellent set, with all the songs I knew and a couple of high-quality covers. Found Love In The Graveyard was the highlight, and this is a band to whom the 'big things are expected' cliche is readily applicable.
The Loft were up next. They've aged less badly than some of the first-wave indiepop bands (Mighty Mighty in particular looked about 90 when I saw them last summer), bar a slight resemblance between the drummer and Geriatrix from the Asterix books. Not knowing much apart form their biggest song, 'How Does The Rain?', I was pleasantly surprised. It's always good to see bands like this from a historical point of view, but quite often (see the aforementioned Mighty Mighty and the Orchids, for example) they really aren't that great live. The Loft seemed like they hadn't changed at all, despite having a 20+ year hiatus. I suppose that means they aren't as tired of it all as some bands that have kept goig right through.
The Loft were up next. They've aged less badly than some of the first-wave indiepop bands (Mighty Mighty in particular looked about 90 when I saw them last summer), bar a slight resemblance between the drummer and Geriatrix from the Asterix books. Not knowing much apart form their biggest song, 'How Does The Rain?', I was pleasantly surprised. It's always good to see bands like this from a historical point of view, but quite often (see the aforementioned Mighty Mighty and the Orchids, for example) they really aren't that great live. The Loft seemed like they hadn't changed at all, despite having a 20+ year hiatus. I suppose that means they aren't as tired of it all as some bands that have kept goig right through.
Comet Gain, with their endearingly shambolic frontman David Feck on hilarious form, had all the ingredients for a terrible gig - sound problems, tuning problems, getting to the stage very late and then overrunning, not playing my favourite song of theirs (You Can Hide Your Love Forever) - but played a brilliant set, interspersed with hilarious 'banter' between songs. The band were obviously drunk, and indeed admitted as much halfway through the set, saying that Sean from Fortuna Pop! had been trying to give them tiny beers but that they'd managed to get drunk anyway. The crowd really loved them as well, which always helps. A few diehard fans were requesting a few fan favourites, the most frequently-heard of which (Movies) was played at the end of the set, despite requiring a couple of restarts and a brief working-out of how to play it. They've gone up in my estimations massively as a band after this gig.
The third and last segment of this gig review is coming soon - hopefully in less time than it took this one to appear!
The third and last segment of this gig review is coming soon - hopefully in less time than it took this one to appear!
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