#starrover

So this was a day that I had been looking forward to for what seemed like a stupid length of time, and then it arrived out of nowhere. Woke up at half 10 or so in my parents' house in Alford and had a couple of cups of terrible coffee for breakfast, followed by half of a leftover lamb biryani for my lunch, forgetting that I was going to Kirsten's parents' house in the Bridge of Motherfuckin' Don and that they would give me too much food as well. Journey to Aberdeen went quickly and sure enough, after another two bacon rolls I went to our hour long rehearsal we had booked at Captain Tom's studio at 3pm. I hadn't been there for at least two years for any kind of practice and sure enough it hadn't changed a single bit, although I did have an Ampeg stack for our hour – heaven! The same posters and bits of graffiti daubed around the place, it's nice to know that it will be there for another good length of time.

Practice went well and nerves were eased! We even had time to run through some ideas for new songs, one in particular is really great... sounds like a heavier version of something from Thee Oh Sees' 2011 album “Carrion Crawler”... although maybe the other guys wouldn't necessarily agree with that. Anyway it wrapped up well, we went down to Cellar 35 to drop off our gear and saw the greatest power couple in the universe, Jan and Claire, who were putting on the gig itself. I used to play in a shoegaze band called Seas, Starry, with them, and the world's most handsome man, Mike Blair. I always felt lucky getting to play bass as they are all far more talented than I could ever hope to be. That ended when I moved to Edinbro for University though. But yeah, we all got to catch up and talk about everything from Thatcher's death to weddings.

We had a quick line-check, and after some difficulties, Liam, the sound man and Claire's wee brother, fixed it all. After running through a couple of other bits and pieces, we decided to go upstairs to the Noose and Monkey for a quick pint to calm our nerves... first gigs are always terrifying and when you add the fact that none of us had played live for two years at least it was a big thing... well certainly for myself anyway! Came downstairs to find the venue filling up as hoped. We went on just before 9.

I think it went quite well from what I can remember anyway. The fucking rush of playing a gig again meant that I sort of lost knowledge and awareness of what I was doing, but we seemed to go down relatively well. We all made wee mistakes and I remember thinking “I can barely hear myself therefore nobody else can, so it doesn't really matter”... forgetting that the mix was totally different out front than where we were. Despite that it was a great atmosphere and playing to friends is always fun regardless of mistakes, which really helped us pull through.

The three other bands were all great too. Das McManus have improved considerably since I saw them at a sparsely packed Cafe Drummonds a good few months ago. There's a lot going on with them, but they seem to have settled on a good little Husker Du/Replacements/Mission of Burma type vibe. First song, a new one, was a particular highlight. It's worth the entrance money alone to see their drummer Woods's face when they play. Never have I seen a happier person in any other band. The almighty Shithawks from Dundee were up next and they fucking rule. A hyper-charismatic mix of the best parts of the Descendents, Ty Segall and Coachwhips, it is impossible to watch them and not have a great time. Despite it apparently being touch-and-go on whether or not they'd make it, they arrived and put a smile on almost everyone's faces. Sidca finished off the line up, and it was the first time I'd seen them in a few years. Although I really enjoyed them too, I think they'd have done better with a bass player, despite this being seemingly out of their control as well. Still, it was a suitably shambolic end to what was a great night... hopefully I'll get to see them with the full line up at some point soon!