Ever wondered why they put beautiful women behind a bar? It was only too obvious tonight. It is so they can break bad news to you like, as tonight, that there was no draught beer. Nada. Zilch. Not even Tennent's Lager. No man will cry in front of a beautiful woman even if he has just lost the will to live. Instead he will politely order a bottle of watery Italian weasel pee.
But, with God once again working in Her mysterious ways, there was salvation in the soundtrack to this misadventure as the intelligent and melodic post rock musings of We Came From The Sea rose from the background and properly engaged the ears. Engaged with the potential for marriage, I would say.
In what seemed like a logical sonic development, next on were The Baltics. Freed from the power chord restrictions of the electric guitar, they took instead a keyboard driven approach to getting those melodies across. Again the lucky number was three and, in their not quite math rock way, they balanced crowd pleasing quirkiness – and near electro cabaret in "Just A Lace" – with a notable degree of skill and good humour. Just the sort of band that you expect to provide the theme music to a Channel 4 sitcom.
Last on were Zulu People and whilst this trio – I see a theme here – were young and more than a bit untidy, they were not without promise. Their reach might have exceeded their grasp but, as a band, they knew the importance of dynamics and were not afraid to push themselves from subtle beginnings through to crescendos and – to give credit where it is due – the guitarist even threw in a rolling on the floor feedback finale. If they spent £1 on Mr Sheen, they could reflect some glory on themselves.
Time now for a visit to the State Bar for there is a Guinness there with my name on it.