The decorators have been in at Stereo. Or at least it looks that way as a plywood fire escape door has appeared where once there was none. Hey, it adds to the permanently unfinished look of the place…
Due to the remarkably early start - a gentleman is still taking his evening repast at 7.30 on a Saturday after all - the first band have been and gone before my arrival and Peter Parker have just made it to the stage. Pausing only for some internal strife - berating one member of the band for tardiness at rehearsal -this foursome showed that charm can overcome a lack of musical excellence. With Clem Burke levels of rhythmic fussiness, simplistic songs and nearly but not quite harmonies, they shouldn't have worked but they did.
Distinctly more polished were St Deluxe. Again four strong, they had clearly spent a lot longer in the rehearsal room and it showed in their performance. They were big on making a lot of loud noise with their guitars and demonstrated that in every song which probably fits in nicely with the whole ethos of their shoegaze meets indie rock sound. So were they mean and moody? Yes. Were they magnificent? Not really. Even the man in the Davy Crockett hat didn't seem to be impressed.
Ten o' clock and it's all over. I'm not even hungry.