SXSW Day Four.

17h March 2012.

Top o' the fuckin' mornin' to ya!!!!
Day four of SXSW fell on Saint Patrick's day, so the crowds were bound to be heavier and even more obnoxious than normal.
The first Wedding Present gig of the day was a bit later than normal and this gave us the opportunity to see the Twilight Sad at a different venue.
I had never really listened much to this band even though friends had raved about them, in fact all I have ever heard from them before this was them covering TWP and The Smiths and those were pretty good efforts.
We got to the venue a bit early but things were running late and unfortunately for us we had to endure the dreadful Andrew WK and an even less talented prat helping him out who happened to be English. These two were as embarrassing as they were annoying and you could see the Twilight Sad getting pissed off onstage while rushing their soundcheck as these two buffoons kept referring to them as Twilight.


Twilight Sad

When they finally were ready to play, singer James Graham announced. "Hello everyone, just to let you know, we are not Irish. We love the Irish and we love Ireland, but we are fucking Scottish." Obviously this was probably down to Saint Patrick's day and perhaps every American they met today asking them if they were Irish. Then it was the turn of Andrew W(an) K (er) and retarded friend to feel his wrath as he added,
"We are not fucking called Twilight, were are not fucking vampires.
We are The Twilight Sad, that's a fucking shite film."


Twilight Sad


The performance was great, it brought the house down. I was really impressed and also dug the fact that he was wearing a cracking pair of Adidas Beckenbauer's. Good music, beer and trainers, it doesn't get much better than that.


James Graham's trainers, Adidas Beckenbauer's


Menu stolen from the Gingerman.

Next up for us was TWP at the Gingerman.
The place was very impressive, it had a 4 page menu for the beer and a single sided menu for the food. I love it when a bar has it's priorities in order.
Sadly though for the band this was a predominantly St. Paddy's day crowd. The beer garden was packed with wannabe Irish party people even older than us, all bedecked in green enjoying some god awful Irish American folk band. I did spot one other person wearing a Bizarro shirt, but that was about it and he was busy sending out texts on his phone. Probably asking friends if he was in the right place no doubt, as we were certainly wondering the same thing ourselves.


Non-Wedding Present crowd at the Gingeman.



The folk band finished and TWP showed up and set up rather quickly. I noticed some scruffy, beardy bloke at the opposite side of the stage from us and instantly recognised him as Joaquin Phoenix, Ian from I&S was a bit skeptical, but I have seen him on Letterman a couple of times in between films and this is an image he always adopts.


Joaquin Phoenix at the Gingerman checking out TWP.

The sun was beating down and I guess the band weren't feeling the love from the majority of the crowd as they skipped one on the songs from the list. At least the barmy army and a few other WP fans in the audience really enjoyed the show.
In fairness to the drinkers, they were very polite about the performance and some tried to get into it, they met each song with mildly warm applause, it just wasn't their thing and wasn't what they had come to see.


Gingerman setlist.


After the show Kellie and I left to get a kebab, while the others went and had a Mexican meal at Carlos Santana's restaurant Maria, Maria. We met then later on for drinks and I have to say that this place was really nice. Beautifully decorated, the service was great and the prices very reasonable for such a swanky joint.


The rather impressive Maria Maria.

The last Wedding Present gig of the week took place in the wonderfully named Beerland. It was a bit of a dump and very small and narrow, but served its purpose and the beer was the cheapest we had seen all week.
We bumped into Andrew Scheps again, said "Hello", had a bit of a chat but he politely declined my invitation to have a bit of a bounce down at the front. Clearly he is smart as well as exceptionally talented.


DLG at Beerland by Mark Venton.

The gig was being broadcast live on local WFMU and was a bit rockier than all the other sets mainly because there was only one microphone stand available so all songs that Pepe sung backing vocals on had to be skipped. This meant that we got Dalliance instead of DDR, which was a bonus in my eyes, as it's in my top ten WP songs.
There was the added bonus of a really drunk WP fan at this gig, and naturally he had to pick me out to stand next to for the show. Harmless enough, but quite annoying. He kept bumping into me, yelping and slapping his hand onto the stage. Patrick and Pepe gave him that "What the fuck do you think you are doing?" look on more than one occasion. In between songs he shouted for "Give my love to Kevin" David said it wasn't on the setlist and the drunkard replied "Play it for my best friend" as he put his arm around me "He's here, my best friend Kevin"
David laughed,(probably at my expense) and said "That's funny, the last time I checked his name was Andy"
I was bit annoyed with this drunk person to be honest, but he clearly didn't really mean any harm and I could hardly give him a dig, that would have been really rude.
Anyway during "Don't talk, just kiss" he gets really over excited and falls onto the stage and did a face plant right into Pepe's pedals. Jessica and Patrick glanced at me with a look of horror, maybe for a split second they thought I had decked him, I didn't.
I helped him up and he had a big red mark right in the middle of his forehead, I guess they called that karma. He probably woke up with an massive head ache the next day, or at least I hope he did.
After the gig, we chatted with the band and made plans for a wild after SXSW party back at our hotel room. Jessica squeezed us all back into the tour van, it was technically illegal, but sometimes even TWP live life on the edge.


Beerland setlist. Dalliance was played last though.

Back at our room, all the couples except for Charlie and Sarah said goodnight and retired to their rooms (lightweights).
So the big after party consisted of Kellie and me, Mark, Sebastian, Patrick, Charlie and Sarah. Our room was a bit of a mess already, so it's not like a party would make any difference. Everyone was starving so we ordered 3 pizzas, and started on the beer and wine. We had a few laughs recalling everyone's take on the Iron Bear and the incidents we all had. Sebastian and Patrick brought some beer from the Ranger Creek brewery, "It was free" they said, and we soon figured out why.
It was described as mesquite porter ale, which basically meant that it smelled and tasted of beef jerky, it was fucking vile. Me and Patrick both tried it and nearly vomited, as a result of this Charlie and Sebastian passed. Mark however was a bit drunker than we were due to the bucket sized margaritas that he drank at Maria, Maria's, so he had a couple of them. The pizzas took forever to arrive, so we called the pizza parlour again in order to bollock them and finally nearly an hour after we placed the order, they showed up, lukewarm. Despite this, I tipped the bloke a fiver and must say that they were really good pizzas. We devoured them until there was only one slice left and I could tell some of the lads were eyeing it up, but were acting too polite to take it, so I spared them the embarrassment and ate the fucker myself.
It's just all part of the considerate service that I offer.


The party room. What happens at SXSW, stays in SXSW.

SXSW Day Three

16th March 2012

Day three was probably my favourite day at SXSW, they were all awesome, but this one just tipped it.
We had three great gigs at three venues that couldn't have been any more different from each other.


Flyer from Flat Top Burger.


First up was at Flat Top Burgers. It was an old converted garage/gas station that was now a classic all American burger joint. The food was amazing as well, I opted for the double cheeseburger, I took one bite before announcing to Kellie "Wow, this is the best burger I have ever had in my life"
I may or may not have been exaggerating, but at that moment, it certainly tasted like it and I've clearly sample a hell of a lot of burger.
Kellie opted for the veggie burger and onion rings. The onion rings looked like an onion bhaji without the spices, they tasted grand as well. Kellie demanded that I tried her veggie burger and it had to be said that it was most definitely by far the best veggie burger I have ever had. The venue also had free pale ale on tap from a local brewery and event sponsors Ranger Creek of San Antonio, so top marks all round to Flat Top Burger.


The barmy army eat while TWP stand in line.


Ian and Steph from I&S arrive in style and fashionably late for the Flat Top Burger gig, with two minutes to spare.


The crowd in attendance was a mixed bunch, there were people actually older than the barmy army and DLG, there were mums with their kids and one couple had a really young baby with them sporting bright pink headphones that appeared to block out all of the deafening music. The place just had a really lovely vibe to it.


TWP's youngest fan at SXSW.


The bands played their sets in what would have been the old garage work stations by the bathrooms.
The gig saw the first airing of "It's a gas" which I have always loved and sounded superb live, Pepe certainly adds a lot to this fun song with her backing vocals and her and the rest of the band seem to have a laugh while performing it.
The show was being broadcast live on a local college radio station, towards the end of the gig DLG turned around to give them a plug but could read the poster as it had fallen off the wall. You know it's a great show when you blow posters off the wall.


TWP play Flat Top Burger next to the restroom. "The Trouble with Mens" indeed.



Me and the band after the Flat Top show.


Setlist from Flat Top Burger.

Next up was the Paste (magazine) Party at the Stage on 6th. This venue was by far the biggest TWP played while at SXSW and was really quite swanky. It was a country and western bar, but really well done with a lovely mural of country legends on the back wall, unfortunately we didn't spot anyone wearing a stetson, this was strictly an indie and hipster crowd today.


DLG at the Paste Party.


Pepe at the Paste Party.


Kellie and I travelled to the gig with the band and Jessica gave us wristbands and we also were given free drinks tickets by the promoter, nice one!!!
Ian, Steph, Mark and Kia arrived later and unbeknown to us were stuck in the massive line outside. Anyway Kia sent me a text and asked if I could get them in, I wasn't sure, but I walked up to the doorman, showed him my wristband and said "Those four are with me" while pointing at them. He waved them inside, the power of the wristband eh? I don't know who was more chuffed, me or our four fellow barmy army members.


Charlie at the Paste Party


Patrick at the Paste Party.

The gig was a good 'un once again. They must have enjoyed playing "It's a gas" as they did it again, which I personally loved and also played "Suck" and "Blonde" back to back.


Setlist from the Paste Party


Mark and Pinky Piglets at the Paste Party.



After that we went for yet another great meal, this time it was Thai and it was amazing. This was the one and only time that we all sat down and had a meal together as a group while in Austin and it was a very enjoyable one. The food was gorgeous and we all had a good old chat reliving the events of the week so far.


Ian from I&S lookly rather saintly at the Thai place.

Next up was the Iron Bear for the Seamonsters set. All week Jessica and DLG had been telling us that it was going to be near impossible to get into this one, so we had been expecting not to see it. But we chatted Jessica up into at least asking for us. She agreed and we marched up to the venue early with her and to be honest I wasn't really expecting the response I wanted off the doorman. We helped carry some gear into the venue and Jessica said to the head doorman "These are friends of ours who have travelled from England, can you put them on the list for tonight?"
"No problem" he replied "just ask for Alan, that's me and you're in"
Fucking result, we all made a collective sigh of relief.


Flyer from the Iron Bear Seamonsters showcase.

We returned later and our new best buddy Alan smiled and let us in.
All week I had been saying that I would have to buy a venue tee shirt and up to now they had either been too expensive or I just couldn't be arsed.
Anyway this place had shirts available in black for $12, they were quite nice and very cheap.
So I bought one. One thing I noticed about this place was that all the staff were male and really, really friendly. Anyway I walked back to Mark and showed him my shirt. He was looking around at some of the decor on the walls, I noticed a Texas flag with a rainbow on it. Just as the penny was starting to drop Mark said,
"You do realise that this is a gay bar don't you?"
"Err yeah, oh well, it doesn't matter"
Then Mark announced that he didn't care as he had been to loads of gay bars in his time.
Too much information buddy, and there's me thinking that my longtime friend was a family man. Don't worry folks, I will edit that last cheeky comment out before Mark gets a chance to read it.
Today was also Ian's birthday and Jessica bought him the world's biggest chocolate cup cake, which was nice of her.
The setlist was just the whole of Seamonsters, which was amazing even though some of the band members forgot the order of which the songs were to be played (Twice)
Jessica said this was because there was no paper available at the venue. I'm sure it had all been taken by the bar clientele to use while they all swapped phone numbers with fellow patrons who also batted for the same team.
I made sure that I stuck close to Mark tonight, so people would think we were a couple and wouldn't bother us.
Valentina producer Andrew Scheps was in attendance, I popped over to say "Hello", he's a lovely chap to be honest and always happy to chat.
There were three bands on before TWP, two of them were great, while the other one to be perfectly blunt, were shit.
My favourites were Raziki, a Norwegian ska influenced band that kind of reminded me musically of Orange Juice and vocally sounded a bit like Camera Obscura. What's not to like?
After TWP played the crowd thinned out instantly and you could really see the make up (pun intended) of the locals. There were handlebar mustaches a plenty on show and a few tight spandex tee shirts being worn.
Now I am as open minded as the next chap, but the sight of really fat gay blokes standing around after the gig shirtless, snogging and licking each other's breasts "may" haunt me for the rest of my life. I am not objecting to this because they were gay, I am just not into public displays of affection and would feel equally objective if I saw a straight couple doing this in a bar, "Urgh, get a room people".


Flyer from the Iron Bear bathrooms.


Oh well, just a bit of harmless fun I suppose.
The line for the men's bathrooms were huge, while for a change, there were none outside the ladies room. Patrick later informed me that he was slightly propositioned while changing his shirt in the bathroom and Sarah (Charlie's girlfriend) said that when she went to the ladies room that two blokes were snogging in there.
As a side note, I gave the venue tee shirt to my 15 year old son Liam, he liked it and what he doesn't know can't hurt him.

SXSW Day Two.

15th March 2012


The barmy army take Mellow Johnny's


Today was the much anticipated live KEXP show at Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop. A lovely setting in a bike shop (obviously) owned by Lance Armstrong. The shop had a coffee shop, bikes and bike stuff, a stage and possibly the cleanest bathrooms I have ever seen in my life.
We bought a coffee, but I passed on the tee-shirts because at $30 a pop they were just a tad too expensive for me.


TWP perform at Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop live on KEXP


The set was a corker and David used the opportunity to plug the new Seamonsters cycling shirts, which in true Wedding Present fashion, were not available.
This was the last gig we saw our buddy Derek at, as he had to leave and get back to him family in Boston. We bade him a sad farewell and mourned his loss for about 6 minutes until we started on our plans for the next gig.


Mellow Johnny's setlist.


Flyer for Mellow Johnny's.


After the KEXP gig the band were due to show up for the Valentina listening and record signing party.
Unfortunately the barmy army had to give this one a miss as it might have meant us missing out on the Brooklyn Vegan as it was expected to sell out. No biggie, we all had our copies of the album anyway and could have got them signed if we wanted.
We drove across town and after circling the venue half a dozen times, finally found a parking spot.


Flyer for the Brooklyn Vegan.


The Wedding Present were due to play outside at the back of the venue, and it has to be said I have never been so grateful to remember my sunblock as it was a scorcher.
We watched a few decent bands that once again I fail to remember, but The Drums were on right before TWP, and I have to admit that I enjoyed them a lot.
As usual TWP delivered and we even had the added bonus of the band playing a request (Dalliance) for a young lady in the audience.


Setlist for Brooklyn Vegan.
Dalliance was played via request just before Deer caught in the headlights.



Kia, Mark and Steph from I&S.


Barmy army at the Brooklyn Vegan

Another newsworthy item from this event was that the lads in the band (and Mark) all took advantage of the free haircuts on offer next to the bar. Pepe declined, which was pretty smart of her because "Super Cuts", who were the sponsors, are pretty much the McDonalds of hairdressing in the USA and I wouldn't have trusted them with my head, never mind the lovely Miss Le Moko's.


Don't talk, just snip.


Model, actress, whatever.



Clip, Clip.


It's a trim


Later that evening TWP were due to play at a mini festival in San Antonio called The Big Spill.
Kellie decided that she was pretty knackered and would give it a miss and take the opportunity to relax, have a shower and catch up on some beauty sleep.
Ian and Steph from Ian and Steph hitched a ride with the band while Kia, Mark and myself were to follow them in Kia's rental car, easy peasy huh?
Well not exactly, I have previously had to follow Jessica "lead foot" MacMillan when I transported the band gear to the rehearsal studio in L.A. She was driving a swanky town car that time, while I had a mini van full of gear. She wove in and out of traffic without a care in the world while I struggled to keep up. She eventually lost us on the way to the Cat and Fiddle, luckily I knew where I was going.
Anyway as we set off for San Antonio I half jokingly asked David to keep an eye on Jessica and her habit of speeding and weaving so we didn't get left behind.
Kia assured me that he'd keep up and Mark put the address to the venue into his i-phone sat-nav, so surely nothing could go wrong, right?
Well you'd certainly think so, but alas, Jessica was up to her old tricks, Kia was too busy serenading me with Wedding Present songs on his ipod and Mark fell asleep in the back of the car.
"Has she lost us Kia?"
"I don't think so Andy, isn't that her up ahead?"
"No Kia, it's a mini van"
"Mark, Mark, wake up, we're lost"

Mark woke up looking all dazed and confused, like a deer caught in the headlights... DING!!! Sorry about that, it's an old scopitones inside joke.
Anyway Mark finally came around and I asked him to find us the directions with his phone. Unfortunately his phone battery had died while he slept, so we were officially lost.
I called DLG and got the address again, Kia looked it up and we were on our way again. We found the venue, checked in with Jessica, got our wristbands and then set off in a quest to find somewhere to eat. That shouldn't be too hard in a city the size of San Antonio right?
Wrong!!! It was a Thursday night and only just after 8pm, yet pretty much everything was shut. It reminded me of a Sunday night in Manchester in 1978. We just wandered around aimlessly, walking miles and miles for nearly an hour. I finally spied a deli and devoured a sandwich while the others went for a posh Mexican meal.
I left them to it and headed back to the venue. I grabbed a couple of beers while I waited and chatted to Jessica who said she was off to find the promoter in order to get paid before they played.
This turned out to be the master stoke of the week as 15 minutes after she bagged the cash about 20 undercover and uniformed police officers showed up, started putting handcuffs on various members of the venue staff, arrested a few and then announced that the place was closing for the night which obviously meant that the gig was off. The word I got was that the police had showed up for noise complaints as the venue was next to a posh hotel. Then some of the bar staff didn't have the right credentials to tend a bar, which is a big no-no in Texas.
Charlie showed me the setlist that they were going to play and it was a cracker, we were gutted.
Looks like Kellie made the right decision after all.


The "missing" setlist.

SXSW Day One.

14th March 2012

Despite not getting to bed until nearly 4am, I was up and downstairs for breakfast by 8.30-ish.
I ran into Ian and Steph, grabbed some food and sat with them while catching up with all the scopitones forum gossip. Then I retrieved our luggage and took it back to our room. Phew!! That was a huge relief, I had visions of having to wear the same outfit all week or having to go to somewhere like Target or Walmart and having to buy inexpensive clothes and look like a redneck for our entire stay.

Note to self: Next time pack at least one change of clothes into my carry on bag.


IODA poster.

Once everyone was up and about, Kia arrived and we set off to the first gig.
This was officially called the "IODA at SXSW" and was located at a place called The Red Eyed Fly.
The venue was a bit scruffy, but it was outside, with a roof and a lovely breeze blowing through, which was a bonus as it was really hot and muggy weather. We discovered that the venue was selling Boddingtons and Kia, Mark, Derek, Ian and myself proceeded to attempt to drink the place dry. The ladies, Kellie and Steph sensibly abstained.

Kia, Mark and Me on the Boddingtons at the Red Eyed Fly



Me and Ian and Steph from Ian and Steph.

The first act was a trio of dreadlocked African American ladies playing proper gospel and blues, not really my type of thing, but still quite good.
Next was Canadian Dan Mangan, he was very good, I bought his CD but haven't listened to it yet. Then we had the excellent Polica, followed by Tychio, the hilarious Thee Oh Sees and an "old skool" rapper called Oddisee. They were all pretty good, but obviously we were here to see The Wedding Present and were basically just counting down the acts and their songs until our heroes took to the stage.
Finally everyone was done and TWP took the stage, David introduced them as "The semi legendary Wedding Present" They kicked off with "Back a bit... Stop" and blew through a 7 song set.


Setlist from the Red Eyed Fly


We had a chat with the band afterwards and Jessica told us that the next gig at the Swan Dive wasn't a freebie and she'd add us all to the guest list.
We decided on having a wander around and attempt to find something decent and cheap to eat. Unfortunately this proved rather difficult so after scoffing at a Mexican restaurant that informed us we would have to wait an hour for a table and thee cheapest item on the menu was $15, we thought, "Fuck that" and ended up eating pizza by the slice.
SXSW appeared to be mainly populated by freaks and knobends, there was plenty of eye candy, but to be honest this was no compensation for the plethora of twats wandering around.
The Swan Dive was a rather small place, sparsely decorated, but pretty cool.
First up were The Pinky Piglet aka Toquiwa and my thoughts that they couldn't possibly live up to the hype from fellow scopitoners and DLG and Jessica were instantly dispelled as the tiny Japanese rock quartet literally blew the roof off.
The next two bands were decent enough, but I really can't recall their names and just wanted them to hurry up so we could see TWP again.
This time they played a pretty awesome nine song set ending with a bang with "Drive" and "Brassneck"


Setlist from the Swan Dive

The new songs were sounding great live and certainly a lot more rockier, while everyone agreed that the new line up was kicking some serious ass.
After the show ended our plans for drink meant that we stopped at a gas station and loaded up with Boddingtons, Sam Adams, wine and ready made sarnies. Rock and roll guys, rock and roll.
Day one was exhausting, but it was well worth it.



Me and a Pinky Piglet outside The Red Eyed Fly.

Our trip to SXSW aka The day from Hell.

13th March 2012.


United my arse.


We were supposed to fly out from Burbank at 9am, but unfortunately Mark received a text, yeah a fucking text, from United Airlines just before midnight informing him that our flight was cancelled and we were now due to fly to Austin on Thursday instead.
The normally very placid Mark spent the next hour or so screaming down the phone and as a result we were switched to a flight at LAX at 9am which now meant we had to leave at 6.30am in order to beat the traffic as LAX is much more of a pain in the arse and a lot further than Burbank.
We arrived at LAX, checked in and then not long after were informed that our flight was cancelled again due to weather conditions in San Francisco, where we were connecting onto a flight for Austin.
Again we got to abuse a United employee, only this time it wasn't so great. We were given the option to fly to SF and then get a later connecting flight to San Antonio or wait until 6pm that night and be on stand by for a direct flight to Austin. (no thanks)

The band also were having similar problems and were being put on a later direct flight to San Antonio. We looked into renting a car in SA, driving to Austin and picking up the band's van and driving back to SA to pick them up. Unfortunately this plan was also thwarted due to the fact that every car rental in SA had been booked up weeks ago.
Plus by this point we were already in San Francisco waiting for our connecting flight. by the way the horrendous weather conditions that had caused countless cancellations was a bit of rain and some light fog. Or in other words, a typical day in Seattle or Manchester.
At this point I had a bit of a brainwave (it can happen on rare occasions) and remembered that our buddy Derek was already in Austin so I put it to him and Jessica that he could pick up the van, drive to SA and pick up us, (Me, Kellie and Mark) we would hang out for a while and then come back and pick up the band. It was agreed that this was the best, and probably the only option, so it was officially a plan.

We arrived at SA at 7.30pm and were informed that our luggage was still in San Francisco and would (hopefully) be at our hotel by 9am the next morning. While we were processing this information a familiar sight came approaching on the luggage carousel, it was the Wedding Present's guitars. Somebody (not me) had the bright idea of walking out with them and putting them in the van. But I surmised that in the unlikely event we were challenged by airport security, they wouldn't say politely to us

"Hey guys, those instruments don't belong to you, could you please put them back on the carousel?"
It would be more like with guns drawn and trained on us
"Freeze motherfuckers, step away from the guitars, you're under arrest. Hey Cletus, get the rubbers gloves and vaseline, we're having a strip search and probe party"

So we asked the kind lady behind the luggage claim desk to hold them for our friends and she graciously agreed.
We went and had a bite to eat, I had fish and chips with scrapings, we sank a few pitchers of Samuel Adams and then returned to the airport a few hours later.




TWP finally got off their plane at 1.30am, then they had to deal with the baggage claim, filling out various forms just like we had to hours earlier.
Then we finally set off for Austin. Derek was driving with DLG riding shotgun, with me, Kellie, Mark, Pepe, Charlie, Patrick, Sebastian and Jessica crammed into the back.
We finally arrived at the hotel at 3.45am, which made for a 19 hour day of travel.
It really was as bad as it sounds, actually it was much, much worse.
Fuck off United Airlines!!!!!

TWP @ The Mill, Culver City, CA.

Monday March 12th 2012.

This was supposed to be a small "invitation only" secret and intimate gig. I asked DLG if I could invite a small group of friends, he said "Yes" and apparently others had the same idea as close to a hundred people showed up.
The Mill is not yet another new L.A. music venue, but a rather swanky Media/Entertainment production office. It was decorated in that posh minimalist style, you know the one where people pay a small fortune to make it look like the place isn't close to being finished. I'm not pointing that out as a criticism, as it really was lovely, I guess one could refer to it as shabby urban chic.
Anyway, the performance area was set up across the room from a bunch of office cubicles just in front of the main entrance. We got there about 30 minutes before the show and our charming host Phil Crowe graciously directed us to the free hotdog cart and then the free open bar.
RESULT!!!!!!


Me upon hearing about the free hotdogs and beer at The Mill by Catherine Wygal

I had a few friends in attendance, Paul and Dolly, Catherine and Don, Lori and Ed, Carrie McNinch, Karl from work, plus my very good mate Mark and my 9 year old son Owen who came along for his first ever gig.
To kill time we indulged in a hotdog and took advantage of the free bar while Owen charmed the attractive young ladies of the office with his mohawk. One asked him if he was a big fan of The Wedding Present. "Yeah, I guess" he said, before adding "I let them keep their guitars in my bedroom"
The girls were besotted, and I must admit that I was as proud as Punch.



Owen and his mohawk.


The band came out and sheepish looking DLG explained how this was the final rehearsal before the band set off for SXSW, and how they normally would do this in front of a handful of friends and he hoped that everyone would enjoy the show and forgive the bands rustiness.



DLG at The Mill by Catherine Wygal


He really shouldn't have fretted, the gig was fine.
The set consisted of songs from The Wedding Present's new album Valentina and the whole of Seamonsters aka "The greatest album ever made" TM.
The new songs sounded great live, I had been listening to an advance copy for a week and loved it, but there is no real substitute for live (and loud) music. A few people did leave work for home during the performance, it was an office after all. This left me feeling a bit bemused, "Are these people crazy?" I thought.
"This is the first time Seamonsters has ever been performed in it's entirety in the USA and these people are rushing off to catch their bus. Indie music history is clearly being made and little Brad and Britney are going home to their microwaved vegan meatloaf and organic mac and cheese or whatever it is these fuckers eat"
Oh well, more beer for me I suppose.



The Wedding Present play The Mill by Catherine Wygal


The performance was top notch apart from one or two minor hiccups including the "semi legendary" Mr. Gedge forgetting the final verse to Octopussy.
We stayed and chatted with our friends and the band for a short while, but had to leave quite sharpish as it was a school night for Owen, we finally got him home by 10.45 which is quite rock and roll for a 9 year old.
He had a blast (as did Mark and me) and requested that I photocopied his signed setlist so he could have a copy at his (mom's) house and mine.



Owen's signed setlist