So, a third gig! Feels like Aberdeen is going to be much more like home that Edinburgh is musically. Woke up with a disgusting hangover at 10.30 or so after having been out until 3am with old school friends that I hadn’t seen since the start of the year. It was a very great time as always but I don’t think I could do it that often. There seemed to be slightly less nostalgia based conversations which was refreshing as well… maybe we’re all growing up a little. Anyway, after that, went to meet Kirsten as she came in from Edinburgh at around 12ish; by this time I had Lucozade and crisps so was feeling on the road to recovery, the pizza in the Bridge of Motherfuckin’ Don helped as well. We gathered together at 4pm on the Saturday for a brief hour-long practice before the show, which seemed to be on the verge of selling out… or at least whatever selling out Cellar 35 is anyway. Regardless, practice went very well and we all left feeling confident about how the new song would sound. When we first started playing it in practice a couple of months back it sounded like a direct rip from Japandroids’ album Celebration Rock, but it has taken on a bit of a life of its own, which I’m very happy about. We went down to Cellar 35 and waited for Craig, my friend who was putting the gig on, to arrive. He got there around 6 and brought CHOCOLATE COOKIES WHICH WERE AMAZING, SO AMAZING THAT I HAD TWO AND THAT WAS MY DINNER.
Other bands gradually showed up, along with other people, and sooner or later Lord Leper, the first act, came on around 9pm or so. He was visibly nervous but he shouldn’t have been as his songs were very enjoyable – I normally can’t really abide “man with acoustic guitar” but he kept me interested for thirty minutes which is a hell of a lot longer than most of these types of people do. I’d like to see him with a full band as well as many parts from his songs seemed to require that. Next up were Pinact, who were excellent. Saw them about three months ago at Jekyll and Hyde in Edinburgh and I think it was just a combination of bad sound/ tiredness but I didn’t really get the fuss at all. However Cellar seemed to suit them just fine and they were on fire, despite the disgustingly loud guitar, they clearly know how to write really good pop songs. Definite highlight was watching the guitarist/vocalist during the last song, as a drunk fuckhead decided it would be a great idea to jump on his back – massive respect for not chinning him and kicking the fuck out of him – anyway they were great.
Third on was tom, a wonderfully talented multi-instrumentalist from Stonehaven. I was at the very back with my parents when he was on, but I knew from soundcheck that he had a laptop and a couple of keyboards with him, as well as an acoustic guitar. Sadly there were a lot of people talking around us (we definitely weren’t!) but the sound carried throughout the venue regardless and he has obviously written some wonderfully accomplished songs. I need to listen to him at home more, and hopefully he’ll continue with what he’s doing!
We were on next and were fine, I think. I had the usual problems with sound and with a lead or two, but on the whole we had a lot of fun, beyond me making my usual 1928709183 mistakes on bass! People seemed to dig it too but I can never tell in who is actually being sincere with their praise/unpraise. Well I know some people do genuinely enjoy it but others always just seem to be polite, I wish there was more honesty but I guess it seems to be a difficult thing to do at 11.30pm when we came off stage… on a Saturday night! After that, the final band came on, Farewell Singapore, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of them. To be honest I don’t know why the kind of music they do is particularly popular, but they all seemed to really get into it, which I suppose is what matters really. By this point I was too tired/hungry to pay attention to anything that was on, let alone a band I wouldn’t have been too interested in whilst in my best mental frame of my mind. So that was that.
Overall – we had 140 people through the door throughout the night, not including the bands. Craig did an outstanding job, and we had a radio 1 DJ through at some point? as well as the gig of the week in the Daily Record. A sweaty, intimate, but unarousing experience.
