The Dawn Chorus / The Retrospective Soundtrack Players - Blogging all over the World
My name is Kyle. I am a happily failing indie/punk/folk/country/rock musician from Hampshire, UK. I have been singing and songwriting in The Dawn Chorus since 2005, and The Retrospective Soundtrack Players since 2010. I love these two bands like my brother/wife rolled into one. This blog details the shows I have played with both bands, in chronological order.Sunday, June 29, 2008
XCVI - The Slaughtered Lamb, Farringdon - 26/06/08
The Slaughtered Lamb, Farringdon
Thursday 26th June 2008
The Dawn Chorus (acoustic)
Straylings
Emit Bloch
thoughts since the show:
...not the worst show ever but certainly not the best, don't like acoustic gigs, too many people chatting, maybe that's our fault for not being well rehearsed enough, botched up the start of Big Adventure pt. 2, but how many people were listening?, sweets on the tables, someone dressed as a lion, someone dressed as a gypsy (i think), a slide show, apple mac dj who seemed to be surprised by his own song selections, bordering-on-suicidally-depressed soundman, japanese beer on tap, nice, what's wrinkly and hangs out grandad's pants? grandma, emit bloch - interesting man, read a poem about his grandad on stage, "that's the way to my cabin home", "you p-p-probabubbly want somebody new", stopped a song midway through to tell us that he was wearing sunglasses, had to wear ben's spare work trousers for the show since i forgot mine and i refuse to play in shorts, left just before midnight, tom tom battery ran out in hackney, got lost in shoreditch, no amount of singing "lost in shoreditch" to the tune of 'we're lost in music' could seem to sort the situation, got into bed at half three, up for work at half six, not the greatest show ever, but probably just about worth doing, etc...
Thursday 26th June 2008
The Dawn Chorus (acoustic)
Straylings
Emit Bloch
thoughts since the show:
...not the worst show ever but certainly not the best, don't like acoustic gigs, too many people chatting, maybe that's our fault for not being well rehearsed enough, botched up the start of Big Adventure pt. 2, but how many people were listening?, sweets on the tables, someone dressed as a lion, someone dressed as a gypsy (i think), a slide show, apple mac dj who seemed to be surprised by his own song selections, bordering-on-suicidally-depressed soundman, japanese beer on tap, nice, what's wrinkly and hangs out grandad's pants? grandma, emit bloch - interesting man, read a poem about his grandad on stage, "that's the way to my cabin home", "you p-p-probabubbly want somebody new", stopped a song midway through to tell us that he was wearing sunglasses, had to wear ben's spare work trousers for the show since i forgot mine and i refuse to play in shorts, left just before midnight, tom tom battery ran out in hackney, got lost in shoreditch, no amount of singing "lost in shoreditch" to the tune of 'we're lost in music' could seem to sort the situation, got into bed at half three, up for work at half six, not the greatest show ever, but probably just about worth doing, etc...
XCV - Camden Enterprise - 15/06/08
Camden Enterprise, London
Sunday June 15th 2008
Alex from the Retards (?!)
Winners
The Dawn Chorus
The Steve Bland Assembly
The Boicotts
My favourite type of venue - pokey, bit smelly, easy to fill with a few bodies. Large asian crowd, presumably because of the promoter Taka - legend - and the first band on The Boicotts, who may well have been great, but one of the guitarists' amps was so loud that you LITERALLY COULDN'T HEAR ANYTHING ELSE. The soundman must have been elsewhere. It was so loud that we had to go out of the room.
First time I'd seen the SBA with full line-up, and they were shambolic at times but mostly excellent. Great new song called 'Streetlight Lullaby' perhaps - I'm a sucker for a muted trumpet. Some awesome foot stamping action too.
Winners were like a cross between The Darkness and Razorlight - insanely, unapologetically catchy, they even had a key change towards the end of one song. Though I wasn't entirely happy with the way that they sat downstairs with their mates til their stage time, then sodded off with their kit afterwards.
That should've been the end of the night, but Alex from the Retards - really - did an aoustic set. God knows who he was or where he came from, but the less said about his songs the better. If I say that he closed with a cover of 'That's Entertainment' that should probably be enough. We couln't even leave because our kit was still on the stage.
Sunday June 15th 2008
Alex from the Retards (?!)
Winners
The Dawn Chorus
The Steve Bland Assembly
The Boicotts
My favourite type of venue - pokey, bit smelly, easy to fill with a few bodies. Large asian crowd, presumably because of the promoter Taka - legend - and the first band on The Boicotts, who may well have been great, but one of the guitarists' amps was so loud that you LITERALLY COULDN'T HEAR ANYTHING ELSE. The soundman must have been elsewhere. It was so loud that we had to go out of the room.
First time I'd seen the SBA with full line-up, and they were shambolic at times but mostly excellent. Great new song called 'Streetlight Lullaby' perhaps - I'm a sucker for a muted trumpet. Some awesome foot stamping action too.
Winners were like a cross between The Darkness and Razorlight - insanely, unapologetically catchy, they even had a key change towards the end of one song. Though I wasn't entirely happy with the way that they sat downstairs with their mates til their stage time, then sodded off with their kit afterwards.
That should've been the end of the night, but Alex from the Retards - really - did an aoustic set. God knows who he was or where he came from, but the less said about his songs the better. If I say that he closed with a cover of 'That's Entertainment' that should probably be enough. We couln't even leave because our kit was still on the stage.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
XCIV - Portsmouth South Parade Pier - 03/06/08
Tuesday 3rd June 2008
Portsmouth South Parade Pier
Frank Turner
The Dawn Chorus
Paddy Taylor
Rossco
Cons:
The venue was way too big to the point of being inappropriate. I'd never been to the room that the show was in - it's kind of like a huge Phoenix Nights-esque ballroom complete with shiny silver backdrop. During all the supports the crowd was sat miles away at the tables and chairs - this isn't ideal of course, but i really hate saying "come on up to the front" to a crowd, just in case they don't. There was a ridiculous amount of artificial smoke on stage. I think a lot more people would've been in if the tickets weren't £10 (12 on the door!), but it wasn't depressingly empty. Was just a strange sensation having only ever seen Frank playing in packed out rooms before.
Pros:
We got to see Frank for free! I absolutely love seing FT live, and this was the first time i'd seen him play with the whole band. He was awesome as always. We played pretty well I think, we certainly seemed to get some decent feedback. Unfortunately the Cons seem to have taken up more space than the Pros, which doesn't really fit with what was actually a great night, so I feel I must continue with this sentence until it eventually, yet very slowly, reaches its inevitable end, and before you know it - if you use various different types of punctuation - you'll find that simply by waffling on and on, the Pros outweigh the Cons.
x
Portsmouth South Parade Pier
Frank Turner
The Dawn Chorus
Paddy Taylor
Rossco
Cons:
The venue was way too big to the point of being inappropriate. I'd never been to the room that the show was in - it's kind of like a huge Phoenix Nights-esque ballroom complete with shiny silver backdrop. During all the supports the crowd was sat miles away at the tables and chairs - this isn't ideal of course, but i really hate saying "come on up to the front" to a crowd, just in case they don't. There was a ridiculous amount of artificial smoke on stage. I think a lot more people would've been in if the tickets weren't £10 (12 on the door!), but it wasn't depressingly empty. Was just a strange sensation having only ever seen Frank playing in packed out rooms before.
Pros:
We got to see Frank for free! I absolutely love seing FT live, and this was the first time i'd seen him play with the whole band. He was awesome as always. We played pretty well I think, we certainly seemed to get some decent feedback. Unfortunately the Cons seem to have taken up more space than the Pros, which doesn't really fit with what was actually a great night, so I feel I must continue with this sentence until it eventually, yet very slowly, reaches its inevitable end, and before you know it - if you use various different types of punctuation - you'll find that simply by waffling on and on, the Pros outweigh the Cons.
x
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