Yell and Yell

From now on Goodbye Blue Monday should have gigs on weeknights. I haven’t felt such good vibes at a GBM gig since maybe… Je Suis Animal. Everyone there knew each other and everyone was into the music. DO IT!

I still haven’t got my card reader sorted so no bootlegs yet… but I’ll get around to it. Maybe new years resolution?

Erasmus Eli started their set with just a few solo songs from “front man” Tim Moore. Who I’m sure you all know. I haven’t actually seen Tim play often. A few times with von klap, a few times with cowboy machine and a few times at Monday Machine. But every time it’s different and always awesome. He opened with a song which he sometimes plays with Monday Machine called Dark Child (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVNHKh-QA8) and it is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time. I had it stuck in my head for weeks and had it in my head all night last night. Listen out for it. After the 3 solo tunes band mates Mikey and Sam got up. What was great about this is that instead of a bass Mikey used his viola through a few pedals, notably an octave pedal. This gave an authentic “Viola Bass” which would make Paul McKartney turn in his grave. The songs were great and the viola bass gave a really interesting layer. Still had the rich tones of the viola but with a real grunty fuzz to fill out the bass lines. The drums were cool, Sam’s a very creative drummer and manages to always pull off this kind of messy yet mechanical style. I really enjoyed Erasmus Eli and hope they keep playing in that format. It was only their second gig.

I’ve heard the Leper Ballet albums a few times at parties and at friends houses. And I have mixed feelings about it. It starts off really well and gets progressively worse. This set was quite the opposite. Not that it started bad. It was great. Opening with a kind of noisy build up and into their kind of circus-y surf-y instrumental. Good start. But after that I got a little bit bored. I wasn’t sure what to think of the singer. I though maybe he was putting it on a bit much.

As the set went on every part of the band grew on me. Especially the singer. I realised he wasn’t putting on at all. He was just crazy. I guess because they were playing to all their old friends who knew them well and knew all their songs the band and the crowd felt really comfortable. But it took me a while to “get it.” Once I got it I loved it. The guitarist and the drummer have really great stage presence. Like they are in a completely different world and their bodies are just left their going through the motions. They’re like zombies, really cool zombies. The whole set was like a perfect soundtrack to one of my favourite movies, Metropolis. The rhythm section was like a really cluttered factory. With a lot of different parts. All working together perfectly but never quite the same. They have so many different changes and rhythms in every song and pull it off perfectly. If you know me very well you still probably won’t know that I’m a sucker for a scary waltz. And The Leper Ballet are the lords of the scary waltz. They’re not hard to do but they’re hard to do well… and scarily..

So The Leper Ballet exceeded my expectations. I expected them to be crazy but didn’t know if I’d particularly like it. I can now see what all the hyped nostalgia is about. I hope they get inspired and make some more music.