21/03/04 and 22/03/04: Hella + Murder of Rosa Luxemburg + The Edmund Fitzgerald + The Death of Love + The pAper chAse + Baby Dayliner + Wolves! (of Greece) + Creeper&fright, at Needles Basement Bar, London

http://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk

So the deal was. Tom and I had made a plan to go stay with Matt in London, and head to two (for us) highly anticipated gigs. Both happened to be at the Needles Bar, just off Great Portland Street. A place we'd never been to, and didn't know any thing about.

Day One:
With the help of a map, the first part of our trip was easy. We found the venue without much trouble. So it was at least a good start. Things took a down turn when we found out those poor Wolves were stuck on the motorway with a broken van. So we wouldn't get to re-live the warfare style onslaught of last week. Still I was sure we were going to have a better night than them. So we couldn't complain. This bad start was followed by two awful support bands. A two piece that was more like a ring piece. They made a loud disjointed racket for 1 minute, and then something broke. The next 5 minutes were spent fixing the said broken something, and then there was another minute of noise, before the drummer ran through the audience shouting. Did I say it was pitch black apart from a torch on each of their heads! Hmm not a good start. Next was a karaoke singer who was a cross between Morrissey and Patrick Swasey circa Dirty Dancing. Oh dear, things weren't going our way tonight. On the plus side at least they weren't your run of the mill indie rock bands. Still sometimes different is not interesting, it's just crap.

The pAper chAse, were musically as good as ever. They've got a very unique sound. Lots of low end percussive punches from the bass, keyboards and drums, over which the wiry guitar and singing sits perfectly. Socially they were still miserable sods. Example: Me "Hi we played with you in Colchester, so how's the rest of your tour been?" dead pan voiced reply "yer good". Me "you've played loads of places since then". Dead pan "yer". "So has it been fun?" "yer". Ohh please give an ounce of enthusiasm. I wasn't asking for the guy to fist me for christ's sake! Anyway despite a strange start to our adventure, we had a fun night. The venue was great. Very small, dark with a friendly atmosphere, and we were looking forward to coming back.

Day Two:
The next evening came round quickly and the promoters were definitely right, when they told us to "get there early". By the time we'd been out side for 30 mins the queue was 300 strong, for the no more than 100 capacity venue. The maths wasn't going work out in most peoples favour. Luckily Tom, Matt, Laura, Tom, Andrew, and I were all at the front end of it. It took a while, but soon we were in and sipping bottles of beer.

I can't remember that much about The Death of Love, apart from they had a very capable drummer and a female singer. The sound wasn't great, but too be honest, regardless of this they didn't really strike a chord with me. The drummers excellence began to grate after a while. You got the impression that the others were playing a song and he was just showing off over the top. Still they got a good reception from the crowd.

The Edmund Fitzgerald on the other hand were a revelation. The three youngest looking people in the venue got up and proceeded to intoxicate us with some great, and very sophisticated post hardcore sounds. They rocked bloody hard as well. Apparently they are recording an album this year. I'll certainly be looking for that, and any more live outings they've got.

By the time the Murder of Rosa Luxemburg were arguing with the sound man about plugging in their keyboard, I'd ended up very close to the front. The room was packed, and the beers had been flowing, so I felt like a closer look. It was a good choice, as this lot certainly knew how to ignore the lack of space and thrash about regardless of the wall to wall audience. Musically they weren't as engaging as the Fitzgerald, but there was still something about it that kept me watching until the end. The use of a strange echo vocal effect was great at first, but didn't warrant it's 75% domination of their set. The same could be said for the enthusiastic antics of their singer. Lots of screaming, and flailing about. Which can obviously be a good thing, but maybe with a bit of restraint at times too! Both took your attention away from the rest of the band, which was a shame as they were playing something far more intricate. I think a second viewing would very much be in order though.

Now Hella was what we'd all been waiting for, and the closely packed room became even more closely packed, as the two guys set up their equipment. Constant calls for everybody to move back a bit were ignored as people stuck fast to their positions. This was Hella and they wanted to see something. It must have been very overwhelming to come to the UK and then play with people one inch away from you. Matt said that the cymbal closest to him was touching his t-shirt, each time the drummer hit it. To say they didn't disappoint is something of an understatement. They were absolutely spot on. These two guys must be telepathic or something. The guitarist kept making motions to change sections, but I didn't once see the drummer make eye contact with him. Yet the changes happened with spot on precision. How was this done, and how did they keep up such a relentless pace? They even played 1-800-Ghost-Dance, and Republic of Rough and Ready, so I would have been satisfied from that point on anyway. By the time drummer Zack had gone for a piss stop, and they'd played an extra long encore medley (I can't quite imagine a Hella medley now, but I assure you it did happen), we were all spent, and in need of fresh air. The room full of bodies soon turned into a much more comfortable place, as people filed out. Re-grouping with each other, opinions were divided. Tom, Matt, and I thought they were amazing, but the others weren't so sure. Andrew called it the "biggest pile of self indulgent wank" he'd ever heard. So I guess one mans chocolate ice cream is another mans shite in a bowl. Anyway don't just take my word for it, see for yourself when they come back in August.

I tip my hat to the Upset the Rhythm gang. They provided us with an interesting two days worth of bands, and I'd love to go back for more.