Think the sunlight is getting to me. Must find darkness. Once again I come up with a feeble excuse to spend my evenings in a basement with RBRBR, Tokyo Knife Attack and Miaoux Miaoux for company this time. Also solved the plastic glass dilemma by implementing a cunning plan to enjoy Guinness in a real glass upstairs in the bar between bands. It always takes bands of this type a long time to changeover, you see.
Anyway, to the music…and starting things off tonight was a guy called Miaoux Miaoux. It was classic style electro pop pop all the way highlighting a cleverly layered set of intelligent songs that made for very acceptable ear candy. Miaoux Miaoux (aka Julian Corrie) himself proved an affable and animated performer and - here's the real mark of quality - he started off with just two pairs of ears listening to him but by the end of his set there were 28. So far, so good.
Next to attempt to tempt the ears of the audience was Tokyo Knife Attack. Again, the name was but a pseudonym for one man with a hat and his electric toys. Unlike Miaoux Miaoux, this guy seemed distinctly uncomfortable on stage and this, combined with the electronic precision of this type of music, made for an uninvolving experience. His songs were decent enough examples of retro electro disco and his voice fell somewhere between Brian Ferry and Gary Numan in character but the impression left was that Tokyo Knife Attack would be a hell of a lot happier working in his studio.
You can't accuse RBRBR of lacking in showmanship. For a start, the drummer wore a horse's head for the entire set and they had a dressed in black ninja dancer to remind the audience that the idea was to move your body to the beat. Indeed it was destination dance floor all the way with samples decorating the robotic rhythms as song after song hit that same target with deadly accuracy. Try "27 Russian Friends" next time you need to get your Peugeot bouncing at the traffic lights to see what I mean. Given the drummer's head apparel, it would be too much of missed opportunity not squeeze in the phrase "horses for courses". So I have, and next time you are on the dance floor and find yourself wondering if it was the drugs then you'll know it wasn't - it was RBRBR.
Time to return to my cage for some animal crackers.