HowWasTheShow Blog

To London

After my EasyJet flight from Copenhagen to London was delayed, and then the train from Stansted to Liverpool Street station, I finally made it to my home away from home in Bayswater, this year at the Garden Court Hotel. Time to unlearn the Danish computer keyboard layout and get used to one pretty similar to the ones back in the US, except for certain things like the £ key handily located over the numeral 4.

Anna Lee's friend Andrew had recommended a couple bands playing upstairs at the Garage last night. The Garage features national acts on the larger main floor, and local bands (mostly) in the smaller, intimate second floor. Andrew has a website (http://www.blacktopstories.co.uk) that I plan to explore more fully when I have some time, but I like the philosophy behind it so far. Check this out:

"There aren't any reviews of albums or shows because people don't need to know what I think and most folks realise the experience of music is indescribable. Blacktop is not about consumption of yet more babble, it is about enjoyment to be had by leaving the house and being part of a shared public experience. That means going to see bands! The point of Blacktop is to get some background to the live experience, not to try and describe it."

Yes, yes! I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly that music is indescribable. But it sure is fun to write about the experience of seeing bands, and one always hopes that doing so will help to get a few more potatoes off their respective couches.

S.Rock Levinson

Andrew's friends' band S.Rock Levinson were headlining last night. S.Rock Levinson are an East London 5 piece rock band (who for some reason chose to name themselves after an American neuroscientist.) Headed up by vocalist Phil Canning, they kind of reminded me of a cross between Joy Division and the Gang of Four with a little Alice Cooper thrown in to keep things interesting. (A. Nunn of drownedinsound.com described them as "the Pixies being poked in the eye by Joy Division.") One song in particular, Wide Eyes, caught my attention with it's diversity and vocal harmonies (and multiple vocal lines) filled out pleasantly by bass player Karen Slavid. The band turns out a fun crowd of good, intelligent fans.