Vinyl Frontier
I went to see my brother's band for the first time last night.
The venue was in London - therefore Andy decided to invite his sister, parents and general London contingent friends to turn up.
The venue was the Bug Bar in Brixton, about which I have to say that the attached restaurant (free entry to the bar if you eat at the restaurant) was really, surprisingly good. I ate the lamb tagine and Mum had the fish, however I noted that literally everyone else in the restaurant was eating a dish called "mock duck" (together with pancakes, sauce and cucumber). This was clearly their speciality.
Vinyl Frontier was initially due to go on at 10pm, following a band called Second Sense, about which there isn't much to say other than the female singer's voice is good and tuneful. They eventually started their set just after 11.30pm. And they were excellent! The first few tracks were a sort of jazz/funk mixture, soulful and atmospheric, with the area around the stage absolutely packed. Just after midnight they segued into a sort of funk/hip hop mixture, less to my taste but clearly welcomed by the dancing contingent at the Bug Bar.
Their bass guitar player also plays with a band called Ozric Tentacles and another Tentacle guest starred on the flute for one track, which was pretty cool but somewhat inaudible.
Andy tells me that his drumming would have been improved if he'd been using his own kit - he borrowed the use of the kit from the female drummer with the previous band - and it was a shame that the crowd started thinning out after midnight as the last tubes and trains beckoned. My parents looked a bit out of place, and I could have done without the weird economics student being quite so enthusiastic in his attempts to touch my bottom and get my phone number (he tried to get my phone number by asking my mother as well, which is just embarrassing).
Nevertheless, it was good fun and I'm looking forward to the next gig of theirs I attend.
The venue was in London - therefore Andy decided to invite his sister, parents and general London contingent friends to turn up.
The venue was the Bug Bar in Brixton, about which I have to say that the attached restaurant (free entry to the bar if you eat at the restaurant) was really, surprisingly good. I ate the lamb tagine and Mum had the fish, however I noted that literally everyone else in the restaurant was eating a dish called "mock duck" (together with pancakes, sauce and cucumber). This was clearly their speciality.
Vinyl Frontier was initially due to go on at 10pm, following a band called Second Sense, about which there isn't much to say other than the female singer's voice is good and tuneful. They eventually started their set just after 11.30pm. And they were excellent! The first few tracks were a sort of jazz/funk mixture, soulful and atmospheric, with the area around the stage absolutely packed. Just after midnight they segued into a sort of funk/hip hop mixture, less to my taste but clearly welcomed by the dancing contingent at the Bug Bar.
Their bass guitar player also plays with a band called Ozric Tentacles and another Tentacle guest starred on the flute for one track, which was pretty cool but somewhat inaudible.
Andy tells me that his drumming would have been improved if he'd been using his own kit - he borrowed the use of the kit from the female drummer with the previous band - and it was a shame that the crowd started thinning out after midnight as the last tubes and trains beckoned. My parents looked a bit out of place, and I could have done without the weird economics student being quite so enthusiastic in his attempts to touch my bottom and get my phone number (he tried to get my phone number by asking my mother as well, which is just embarrassing).
Nevertheless, it was good fun and I'm looking forward to the next gig of theirs I attend.