Thursday, February 19, 2015

Gig Review: Cadence + Bad Names + Web Sheldon @ The Workshop, 18th Feb 2015

Cadence + Bad Names + Web Sheldon @ The Workshop.

Stage @ The Workshop (+ the very attractive and alluring guitar Dahlia. She is looking at you seductively. Yes.)

As my grandma would have said, I am 'in the wars' this week.  I had a 2 day hangover (my fault, I know!) and since I got over that, I've been on the sofa wrapped in blankets with a ManCold.  I'm using the term 'ManCold' without actually *really* knowing what it is though.  Is a ManCold inferior to regular human colds? Or are they equal? Hmmm.

I was worried how I was going to play the gig last night and was planning to sing the songs an octave lower or do it Phoebe from Friends style...my sticky shooooes...why you stick on me...ba-a-beee.. but thankfully my vocals chords had got their shiz together by yesterday afternoon.  I should have had an emergency Hot Toddy in a hip flask prepared for the occasion though...just in case.

Web Sheldon

There were 5 minutes to go and I was due to start playing at 8pm, and there was still only me, the bar man, and another guy sat at the bar..(hiii 'guy sat at the bar' if you're reading this and sorry I didn't talk to you... did you pick up a flyer I left near you? :-/ ) so yeah, I was starting to get worried! I had been stood outside the venue till the last few minutes before the gig having a rollie and trying to get a few people in. In the space of 5 minutes though, friends arrived, people started to come downstairs and I had a pretty decent audience to play to.

Correction - the audience last night were not decent, they were awesome! Chatting to me on stage (even if that did involve talks of sexual acts with my guitar Dahlia *and* a possible threesome with a mic stand.. lol), dancing and shouts of an encore! And in the last few lines of my Yoko Ono cover (in celebration of her 82nd birthday yesterday), there wasn't a sound in the bar other than my a capella. Big thank you to everyone for listening with such attention last night.  It was a gig to remember :)

Next gigs:


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Web Sheldon @ Roadtrip & The Workshop. Weds 18th Feb 2015.



Bad Names

Bad Names are a 4 x piece rock'n roll band from London. First of all, I need to say that I think their song 'Mary' is pretty awesome. It reminds me a bit of early Radiohead (circa Pablo Honey) with the reverb of the lead guitar, and the playful weaving of melodies between the bass and vocal in the verses.  Before the chorus starts, the band stop and the vocal goes 'baby don't you worry cos...' and then the chorus kicks in with the full band and the lead vocal goes into his head voice to sing 'I couldn't leave you if I tried'.  The way its done, those elements make it sound sincere to me - and thats important for me in music; to have the link between the lyrics, the melody, the delivery and the band.  I want to hear that all the elements are working in unison - a song should be a single unit of delivery for me.  I think these guys are good at this; their individual parts work well together.  Great to see these guys on stage, the music works well recorded as it does live.

Next gigs:


Bad Names @ Roadtrip & The Workshop. Weds 18th Feb 2015.


Cadence

Cadence were the headliners for the night; a 4 piece alternative rock band from Greenwich with influences such as Muse and Placebo.  I'd agree with the influences there but I'd also throw in Mew as well - there were some stacatto rhythms played by the guitars and bass with the vocal layering over the top that took me back to 'Frengers'.  My favourite song from the set was 'Sweet Asphyxiaton' - with an amusing introduction as different members of the band and the audience attempted to pronounce 'asphyxiation' - some more successfully than others.  There was a friendly and lighthearted atmosphere at this gig and I must give an honourable mention to Kuba's T-shirt with the words 'I'D RATHER BE AT A ONE DIRECTION CONCERT'.  I want one! haha

We had some nice harmonies going on in many of the songs (Rozâ is a classical singer) and you could tell Micah was really feeling the words as he was singing - this is a big plus for me, being a vocalist myself.  A nice touch in the middle of the set, was a quick 1 minute break to say thanks to the audience for coming, for the other bands playing and for the promoters for putting on the night. This is what playing unsigned gigs should be about; having fun, supporting each other, and trying to pronounce difficult words together when slightly tipsy. These guys had a lovely set of fans too!


Next Gigs:

Cadence @ Roadtrip & The Workshop. Weds 18th Feb 2015. (L to R: Kuba, Alessandro, Micah, Rozâ)

For more pictures from the night, head over to the album on my Facebook page.

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