Alberry’s Wine Bar, Canterbury
Alberry’s Wine Bar, Canterbury, 26th September 2005:
Unstoppable once more! This double-header was probably the best gig we’ve had this year. Alberry’s is a funny old place. Back in the dark days of the mid-late 1990s, Dave and I used to speculate about the potential of this cellar-bar as a music venue. The walls were covered in pictures of the likes of Dexter Gordon and John Lee Hooker, but all it had for music was handbag house, or, if they were feeling really anarchic, Oasis (or maybe, if you were really lucky, once-in-a-blue-moon, drum’n'bass on a week night). The drinks were at least a quid more than anywhere else: a big deal when you’re 17 and used to making one pint last all night! Typically, once I’d departed for pastures new (sunny Reading) a band night did start, featuring Luke Smith, amongst others, but it petered out after a few months. After years of our constant moaning, live music in Canterbury seems to be suddenly and dramatically improving (I can’t say our moaning can take much credit — maybe it’s the decline of dance music?). Over the past ten months or so, our man Philthy Phil has been overseeing a new regular band night, which has overcome its initial lack of confidence (the air of “sorry about the live music folks; grin and bear it and the DJ will start in a bit” has long gone). The mighty Zumas have played a few times and I’ve played solo, but this is the first time both The Psychotic Reaction and Das Zumas have gone head to head.
Due to the post-pub nature of the venue, things don’t really get going until 10.30pm at the earliest. Therefore, as first on, we played to a modest but enthusiastic (read: shit-faced) crowd. Typically, there being NO PRESSURE (not our own night, no labels to impress, or signed acts to intimidate us) we played better than we had in ages (bar “Folsom Prison Blues” — how many verses, Luke?). By the time Zumas hit the stage (about 11.35pm) the place was heaving. One of the things I like about Alberry’s is that it tends to attract people who aren’t really part of any scene, so we’ve had them all: head-nodding indie kids, hooraying rugger-buggers, air-guitaring metallers, you name it! So while you may get little in the way of feedback from Mojo-reading musicologists, you do get people who simply want a tempo, something to move to, and some people get quite scarily enthusiastic. Occasionally, playing your own music can feel like a dispiriting bleeding-heart ego trip if people aren’t responding, and whilst having people come up afterwards and ask you about chord inversions and FX or whatever is good, and can be very flattering (especially when your ego is as fragile as mine), sometimes the more demonstrative audience response — they strut their stuff and shake their booty! — can be preferable. You can simply relax and enjoy playing and watching the effect it has on people rather than feel like you’re being analysed. Some gigs can feel more like seminars. Thus, whilst the Zumas set felt at times like an exercise in crowd control (the audience are, quite literally, right in your face!), I really, really enjoyed it. More, please!
Set list:
- Dance of the Midwich Cuckoos
- Force of Nature
- Buried Alive
- The Medway Crab Fisherman
- The New Victor (Dick Dale)
- Cocoon
- Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)
- It’s A Small Town
- What’s Under The Stairs?
- In Your Head