:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, April 14, 2006 ::

Gig Review: Toecutter & Xiam @ Noise Club, The Full Moon, Bristol, 13.04.06

I'd been looking forward for ages to Dave Toecutter's Bristol debut (he's Austrilain so doesn't play the UK very often), and the greatly anticipated return of Noise Club. The line up, featuring another Aussie, Xian, and the cream of the local breakcore crowd should have been a house filler. Unfortunately, the night was not that well promoted, and suffered from falling the day after Monkey Knife Fight put on DJ Rubbish, Chevron & Karl Marx Stadt, and also falling just two days before the Peace Off tour hits the Black Swan.

I turned up around 9:30 at a gig that was supposed to have started at 8, and nothing was going on and I was one of the first people in. Sam Atki2's set, planned for half nine, didn't start until nearly half ten, and due to no one coming along to take over went on longer than planned. After running out of grim(e) material he reverted to his older breakcore tunes, although the grime stuff that so few heard early on was the best material. James Binray then played a great set, and a fair number of people had turned up and started trying to dance by then. There was some great mashed metal material I hadn't heard before in there towards the end. It was gone midnight when Tom D'Kat took his turn, and I was starting to wonder how long our Australian friends were going to get.

Management decided to shut the bar at 12 (a licensing restriction? If so why did nobody seem aware of it?) and by half 12 the manager was standing by the door shouting, inviting punters to "Fuck Off!" Come 20 to 1, he pulled the plug on Tom's set and started shouting more abuse at the 50 shocked punters. Toecutter tried to negotiate playing just one track, having travelled from London that night for the gig and all the way from Oz for just a handful of dates. To no avail. He ended up playing two tunes through a loud pair of headphone to a remaining crowd of about half a dozen. (My mate Phil got a great photo of this, I'll try and get a copy) You could tell he was a great performer, he gave it is all, and got a good response under the circumstances, even getting call and response participation from the determined hangers-on.

We were then all turfed out onto the street and waited around to see what was going to happen. The consensus was that everyone was going to head to a house round the corner for a house party they could play live at. The house turned out to be a squat, occupied by more bicycles that people could possibly live in there, and I found myself in a crowd of pissed off, winter wrapped, club goers suddenly hanging around an unexpecting kitchen. Someone tells us off for being to noisey, getting everyone's attention then saying, "You all realise, the is a squat, and we have neighbours who have to get up early, so could you all keep your voices down please." I liked the emphasis on the "is", implying that squats have standards that non-squat dwellers might not be aware of. Like children being told to be quiet the level dropped for about 20 seconds then rose to where it was before within minutes.

The entertainment we were waiting for had decided to get some food on the way, and the longer everyone waited the more uncomfortable it got. After being sent round to the 24hr offy with Phil and Binray I decided not to bother going back, so I've no idea what happened after that. I hope the guys did get to play to some sort of appreciative audience in the end, but all round the night was a massive disappointment for everyone. Two lessons that need to be learnt here:
1. Nights on this scale need to be far better organised and promoted than that was.
2. The manager at the Full Moon is a twat and no one should ever give them any business.

:: Dan 14.4.06 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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