One-line gig reviews for March

This month wasn’t about big-ticket gigs so much as a run of slightly odd nights out – you probably aren’t expecting gig reviews that reference accidentally going on a yoga retreat, the phrase “I fucked his sister”, being “prissy about being on the dance floor”, or an assertion that something was “good, but not £18 good”, and yet here we all are …

I dropped in to Tones & Drones at Trades Hall, Walthamstow on 5 March and caught a bit of Sami Fitz with Arconic, plus projections from 2digitvisuals, which was an improvised mix of vocals, gong and pad synth and felt weirdly a bit more like stumbling into a yoga retreat than being at a gig.

Next up was a night of comedy at Union Chapel, Islington on 7 March compered by Maisie Adam and featuring Dylan Moran, Fin Taylor, Alana Jackson and Michael Odewale. The most inadvertently funny moment of the night though wasn’t on stage, but Maisie asking two guys in the audience how they’d met, and one of them deadpan replying “I fucked his sister.”

Well’ard, Capital Salvage present at Trades Hall, Walthamstow, 8 Mar – Very fun young punks who threw in a Chappell Roan cover and a pulsing bass-driven cover of Barrett Strong’s Money.

The Charlemagnes, Capital Salvage present at Trades Hall, Walthamstow, 8 Mar – This was pleasant enough power pop, but I must admit I was distracted as I had managed to book to do all the things that day which included then dashing to the pub to watch Leeds set up an FA Cup quarter-final with West Ham after beating Norwich (so missing the headline act Spoilers), and then heading off to see Red Sonja at Bar Trash.

Capital Salvage is DIY/not for profit gig promotions from East London, “bringing new and old noises to Sunday afternoon all ages matinee shows”.

Disco 2000, Trades Hall, Walthamstow, 21 Mar – The night where I discovered that my partner is happy to dance along to Suede b-sides she doesn’t know, but I am prissy about being on the dance floor for anything I don’t know every single word for, even if it is one of her favourite songs. Ooops.

Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s, Design Museum, Kensington, 25 Mar – I wanted to go to this exhibition before it shut, and I was glad I did, but it was quite slight for the money. The actual recreation of the Blitz with a video wall playing the kind of music Rusty Egan would have DJ’d was neat though, as well as some of the examples of contemporary magazines on display. Good, but not £18 good.

Spirited Followers, Windmill, Brixton, 25 Mar – Had a bit of a Greek/Lebanese flavour to it as it ebbed and flowed into a huge climax, reminded me a bit of Her Name Is Calla blended with Swans.

What Jen Wants, at Windmill, Brixton, 25 Mar – Really solid shoe-gazy vibe

Jen Brister, Big Penny Social, Walthamstow, 26 Mar – Brister was the headliner here, with a long and sometimes screamingly angry rant about menopause, men and relationships. Before then we’d had Rajiv Karia‘s wry observations about being one of very view people of colour in the room, and by virtue of sitting in the front row I got roasted first by compere Jamie Allerton and then at some length by Jordan Brookes, who was definitely my pick of the night.

You can browse the full archive of one-line gig reviews here – a slowly expanding record of loud rooms, old favourites, questionable nostalgia traps but mostly excellent life decisions – even if not all of them panned out this month.

Last time out I wrote about the Umlauts, and a gloriously 90s-and-early-2000s-loaded run of Maxïmo Park, Kaiser Chiefs and Suede x 2 (pictured below).

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