Since I moved to England this has been the longest stretch of no live music that I have experienced in a few years. So last night as The Police played Wembley and England faced South Africa in the Rugby World Cup, I headed to the Roundhouse to see Black Diamond Heavies. As K said to me when I mentioned going to this show, you gotta get back to it.
Faithful reader, you might remember that awesome concert that K and I attended at the Creepy Crawl over a year ago where Living Things, the headliner, threw their microphone down after two songs and left the stage because they were unhappy with the turnout in their hometown. Well, at that gig we saw an unexpected set by Ghostfinger, a band from Murfreesboro, TN. We met them afterwards. Van, the drummer is also in Black Diamond Heavies, another two-piece, which is why I was interested in seeing them.
When I saw the ad for the night, I was a little nervous. Whenever I see the word “blues” I must admit I think “boring”. The Jim Jones Revue left me cold. The vocals were too low and instrumentation was muddy. On the last song, the keyboard player picked up the keyboard and put it on his shoulder to shake out a reverberation like a guitar player would do. It was really strange.
The next band was a solo artist from Austin, TX. He was laying the southern shtick on a little too strong for me. The audience acted no differently than an American audience except they were laughing a little harder at his Southern jokes.
Finally, BDH came on the stage and they were the real deal for the evening. I prefer Ghostfinger, mostly because I prefer guitar to keys (BDH is drums and keyboards only), but their brand of trippy blues is worth a listen. Unfortunately I did not get to see their entire set. It was time to head to the tube for the most stressful train trip home. Several of the main lines were out and two closed down as I stood at the platform. I thought to myself, the only way I would put myself through this stress on a Saturday night would be if it was a band I absolutely loved. While I have my pick of bands to see since everyone comes to London, my taste for a night out will become more discriminating. --J
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