I went to see Justin Currie do a gig at a local comedy club last night. He used to be, or still is depending on your view point, the lead singer of a band called Del Amitri. I’m not a fan of him or the band, but I went with a couple of friends, one of which is.
The support act was a guy and a guitar. I can can’t remember his name, but I remember that he was a complete freak. By the end of the performance we decided that he had probably been signed out of a local institution for the night!
Anyway, the main band came on and they were pretty cool. Kind of middle of the road rock/pop. Nothing too heavy and challenging, but not wishy-washy either. It turned out I know three songs by Del Amitri, those being “Nothing Ever Happens”, “Last To Know” and “Don’t Come Home Too Soon”. The latter was used as the Scottish World Cup song a few years ago. When somebody requested it, the fans murmured anxiously and Justin gave a dirty look to the guy and said, “C*nt!”. Now I don’t think that song is so bad, but I get the feeling it is not well regarded by the band or the fans. Needless to say he didn’t sing it. I can only assume that Scotland did exceptionally badly in the competition the year that was their official tune. Pity.
In all it was a pretty good gig. I’m still not a fan, but it was worth going to see. I do have a few observations about the gig-going public though:
- Don’t sit next to me and smoke a pipe! You don’t look cool! You look like an idiot 30 something trying to look cool and failing. Roll on the smoking ban in public places that starts in July. That’s one civil liberties violation I don’t mind.
- If you are the girlfriend/wife of said pipe smoker, do your other half a favor and explain to them that the guy sitting next to him, the one giving him dirty looks all night, is getting close to shoving that repugnant device down his throat and kicking the sh*t out of him!
- When your a 40 something woman, it really doesn’t look cool when you act like a teenage girl experiencing Beetle Mania!
- Male fans, it’s really not cool to try and out-sing the band. If I wanted to hear a bunch of beer-swilling idiots sing out of tune, I would have gone to a football match.
I drove home to the sound of Amy Winehouse (Back to Black). Imagine someone raiding the back catalog of Phil Spectre and Nina Simone, then jumbling the whole lot up. That’s what Amy Winehouse reminds be of. I grew up listening to Mowtown, and I’m quite partial to a bit of Nina Simone, so the combination works quite well for me.
Just a quick name and shame…
Lee Burrows – Give me back my Evanescence CD! You’ve had it since I went to Oracle Open World in October, and I still haven’t got it back!
Cheers
Tim…
Update: Lee has now returned my CD. 🙂