Almost an all-dayer!

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 11:06:17AM +0000, Colin Allen typed out:
> The following rather splendid event is being held at the Grosvenor (17
> Sidney Road, Stockwell, London, W9 0TP) on Saturday, 11th October:
> 
> 15:00-15:45: Xoo (www.myspace.com/xoospace)
> 16:15-17:00: Peyote Guru (Chris Cambridge & Peyote Lee
> www.myspace.com/peyoteguru)
> 17:30-18:15: Kev and Trev (www.myspace.com/trevandkev)
> 18:45-19:30: Bruise (www.myspace.com/bruiseuk)
> 20:00-20:45: The Red Fishes (www.myspace.com/theredfishes)
> 21:15-23:00: Litmus (www.myspace.com/litmusspacerock)

	I made it to this, although later than I'd hoped--apparently 
Trev had just stepped off the stage when I finally rolled up, which was 
not what I'd meant to manage; sorry, Trev. Anyway, I can tell you about 
the rest of it. The Grosvenor is not a bad little venue, an actual 
pub out front with real ale albeit not in brilliant condition, and a 
biggish and well-separated function room behind. Sound was OK, lights 
excellent (though sometimes strangely familiar, Colin?) and it was easy 
to have good time. Shame then how few people there were doing so; even 
once Litmus were on, there were probably only thirty people in, which is 
more than a bit crap; it's not hard to get to and it was good value for 
the money. I don't know.

	One of the reasons it was good value was because I really liked 
Bruise. I've always managed to miss them supporting Hawkwind, and had 
lazily assumed they'd be as forgettable as most HW support bands. Of 
course, the first time I saw Litmus was supporting HW so I should know 
better. Anyway, Bruise are a three-piece, a very deft beard-and-sandals 
looking drummer in a straw trilby who also sang loud, a bass-player 
about whom no complaint could be made who also harmonised occasionally, 
and tall frontwoman who sang very well and also played what I believe is 
known as `a mean guitar', running the gamut from semi-acoustic 
steel-string-sounding to full-on fuzz wah attack, and all with perfect 
rhythm too. Given that there was very little they could do wrong as even 
a dull song would have sounded good; as it was the material was also 
pretty good, the stage banter endearing and I enjoyed them a great deal. 
I may only have started dancing at the semi-acoustic cover of `Silver 
Machine' with two-part harmomny vocals, but that I put down to not 
having had enough beer-drinking time when they started. Then afterwards, 
they sold me both their albums for a tenner, so I can't say fairer than 
that really.

	Red Fishes need more practice. Or, potentially, to stop. They 
took about twenty minutes of faff setting up, I gather they hadn't had a 
soundcheck and when they set up the soundman couldn't get the vocals 
high enough. They blamed the mics, I privately blamed the fact that they 
sang like mice, quieter even than they talked. Once they had got 
going, the main singer (and guitarist) wrenched his face into emo 
contortions but still missed his high notes and the girl bass-player was 
more interesting to listen to but didn't seem at all happy on stage or 
with her instrument. Drummer was OK I suppose, and they had the help of 
Martin from Litmus on keyboards, but that didn't save them alas. After 
the fifth false start turned out to be the actual beginning of the set, 
I gave them three numbers then politely went and got more beer and 
chatted with Hawkfans out front. They were just not much cop.

	Litmus... are back. A five-piece again, which meant that some 
songs that really needed the keyboard part, most of all `Sonic Light', 
had it back again and sounded all the better for it. The first few 
numbers were Litmus at very nearly their best, I thought, and though 
they struggled in the middle with weaker songs and a couple of horrible 
fumbles, they were back at killing strength by the end. A few people 
who'd never seen them before, including one man in a Cathedral shirt 
whose efforts to turn the front into a mosh-pit were persistently 
thwarted by my being actually dancing in my own private world (I still 
ache today), but who along with his girlfriend asked me, "why is there 
no-one here? This is excellent! They're gonna be really big!" I doubt 
it, but that's surely no fault of the band; they were making converts 
this night.

	Setlist was, I think:

Intro -> Infinity Drive
Destroy the Mothership -> Tempest
Under the Sign
[one of the new ones, might be called `Something to Say' or `Nothing to 
	Say', sounded very very Gong tonight possibly because of 
	ladlefuls of glissando from Simon]
Astronomy Domine
Infinite Space [may not be its real name]
Sonic Light
Evil
Get Back [or so Olly the keyboardist told me; its refrain suggested to 
	me that it was called `Fly too Far' but I guess they're too 
	clever to be that predictable...]
*
Right Stuff -> Hero with a Wing
Ejection

	I'm afraid I used `Infinite Space' for a beer-break, I think it 
should be shorter if done live. `?Thing to Say' is good, but sounds a 
lot like `(Theta Wave) Idductor' if you're being cruel. `Get Back' has 
been persistently confusing me ever since they started playing it, 
because the initial riff makes me think it's `Right Stuff', then there's 
a turn-around into the chorus which makes me go, "Wait! That's 
Motörhead's `Killed by Death'!" and then they're through into jamming 
space and I realise it's that song that confuses me again. It ends with 
a marvellous rotating mantra of a chorus though and by the end of the 
song I've always decided I love it.

	Of the older stuff, they stumbled briefly in `Sonic Light' 
(perhaps just surprise at its having its tune back...) and things went 
badly wrong during `Evil' when Marek took off on a drum excursion and 
Martin followed him leaving Simon without rhythmic support and 
floundering within a few bars. Martin recovered it but the ball had 
definitely dropped. On the other hand, the `Hero with a Wing' was the 
most drama I've ever seen Martin sing, the `Right Stuff' and `Ejection' 
were excellent (but the latter missing its answering vocals in the 
chorus, `"eight times my weight!" and so on, come on people you've got 
three vocalists :-) ) and the first three pieces were monster-standard.

        Olly is a good addition, too; he was joining in with the jams, 
diluting the sometimes arid three-piece jamming that forms a lot of the 
breaks, and had added several new fillips to pieces that had sounded the 
same for a while and some quality sonar pinging during `Hero' that made 
me think of Carl. So yes. Litmus are back: lock up anything that might 
be broken by excessive volume! I look forward to the Standard gig next 
month when I imagine they'll be even better and in any case are 
supporting Gunslinger, so satisfaction pretty much guaranteed I reckon. 
Yours,
	Jon



-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk