On the 25th of October Altercation did a charity gig to help raising funds for children. Our drummer Veronnique had been selected in a draw by the company she works for and her price was to ask for anything she wants (pretty cool isn't it ?)...
So she decided to organize those two charity gigs with Altercation and other bands we met along the way.
The first bill on the 25th was After the Ice who played at the O2 recently, then Thunderbird 13 who apparently appeared in the sitcom Eastenders, then Rubinger, we met them at the Comedy Pub and us.
Ko, bass player in Altercation
The first time I went to The Spice of Life was to see The Duel doing a gig to support The Skuzzies. It's a very intimate venue very different from any others in London. The atmosphere is so warm, maybe because of the orange lights and sofas. The stage is also non-existent, not even a step, so it's on the same level than the audience that you find yourself performing.
Tiny place then but with plenty of advantages like the sound system; everything was so clear, you could hear the slightest thing on stage.
Vince guitarist of Altercation
We apparently sounded like a well rehearsed band, I'm waiting for some video to be sent, will post one here asap.
We had an encore and we did Silence, it sounded very cool, not having done this one for so long.
I think we raised about 400 pounds that night for the cause and I found it very inspiring to actually play for a reason, thinking your performance will actually help someone. You're not doing it just for yourself then.
They put some open mike nights at The Spice of Life every wenesdays, that's how Vero got the idea to do the gig here. That'd be more than great to play at The Spice of Life again on a saturday night. This venue is also very well placed.
Thunderbird 13 are a glam band with strong riffs and melodic choruses. The singer has long viking style blond hair and his drummer is literaly a beast on the drum, the bass player add a nice groove in all that male boyish element, very good band with inspiring lyrics too.
After the Ice is led by the french frontman Paul Lisak.
He is an incredible songwritter guitar player. You have to like that kind of mellow style but even so you can't deny they are great players.
You sometimes get lost in his dreamy solos melodies...
Second date on the board was The Dublin Castle on the 11th of November.
There is a nice vibe to this venue, on parkway road, a bit retired from the camden heart's craziness, there is a nice pub part and in the back room is the venue. The sound system was once again excellent, the sound engineer has been working there for 20 years so he knows his sound very well.
On the line up that night was HiroshAmour headlining, Thunderbird 13 again, The Figurines and Stolen Car.
Quite a big line up then and in conscequence of that there were more people than at the Spice of Life and we raised more money that night for the charity.
It was also quite stressful to get the band to play just 30 minutes each as we started with a bit of late but it all went well in the end.
We started our set very well, I got delays and reverb put on my voice, it really worked, specially when after the second song which was Sick Of You Vince broke a string. So he had a back up guitar which wasn't tuned. While Vince was sorting out his situation on stage I had a jam with Ko and Vero on Insomnia and with the delay on my voice it just worked perfectly.
But then it was taking a bit of time to get the guitar right so Ko started telling jokes to the audiance, winding me up a bit by the same occasion which was funny...
I told Ko when I saw him play his last gig with his other band Tuggy Tugs to take control of the mike for the talking on stage just because he's so good at it.
After that little situation which was actually a good experience of improvisation we finally carried on with the set and I absolutely loved the sound on stage, the lights were good too because you actually couldn't see anyone from the audience.
Paranoia is coming out so well, better and better every time.
Pictures were taken by Brigitte who also did a film of the two gigs. Thanks a lot for that ;)
The Figurines were very good, they're a kind of mixture between Nirvana and Cure with Tom's violent guitar riffs and Steevo's evasive vocals.
HiroshAmour gave an impressive set, they did this long song jam of 20 minutes that they never played before, it was completely on the moment and it had a grungy psychedelic raw sound...
They played Jack and Sacrifice as well. They ended the night superbly.
So now those two gigs are done the next one on the list is our launch release party of the Dress Up E.P, as well as the HiroshAmour debut album One.
It's at The Purple Turtle on the 19th of November and Bubblegum Screw will be on the bill too.
They will also be a grunge band which are the english Nirvana in my humble opinion and they're called Burma Guns.
Always wanted to see them live and never had the occasion too so as my guests I finally will experiment a new musical experience with their set.
If you want to check them out : www.myspace.com/burmaguns
for more infos check the banana website : www.bananacastle.co.uk
We also got our band t-shirt. I choose the Love Suicide theme for those. Here it is :
There will be some at the launch as well as cds of the E.P.
We got a new song in the set as well as Paranoia, this new one is called Ego, will be performed during The Christmas Itch Festival.
Healthy Junkies will also be playing a short set on one of the Xmas date at The Purple Turtle once again, I'm looking forward to this gig.
Enough promotion and gig talk, I'm going to stop the writting now and go meditating about ageing rockers trying to seduce young aspiring vocalists with their industry contacts..... ;)
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Here is a video of a jam we did at The Dublin Castle just before to start the song Insomnia...
