A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in November 2024

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in the first place? You can find all of my one-line gig reviews here.

The Cure, The Troxy, London, 1 Nov – God I love the Cure so much and I was so lucky to get a ticket to this, and had a brilliant night with two of my dearest friends including drinks in a Cure-themed bar beforehand.

[The Cure at the Troxy]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, O2 Arena, London, 8 Nov – I had a ticket for this but events conspired against me. Booooooooooooooooo …

Corpus Milner, The Lexington, Islington, 11 Nov – I also missed this opening act at the Lexy, because it overlapped with going to see the Palestinian-Israeli documentary No Other Land, which I very much recommended in my monthly cinema review yesterday.

Nuovo Testamento, The Lexington, Islington, 11 Nov – I am a big fan of bands a fraction of my age collecting a load of vintage equipment that I couldn’t afford in the 80s and 90s and then making a relentless facsimile of things that could have had “©1987 Produced and mixed by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow for PWL” written on them.

[Nuovo Testamento at the Lexington]

[Bonus points to the DJ for playing Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and DAF between the acts]

Curses, The Lexington, Islington, 11 Nov – Talking of a facsimile, once they strapped on their guitars, Curses do an extremely accurate reproduction of seeing an electronic-powered goth band in 1987, and I enjoyed it very much.

[Curses at the Lexington]

Sparda, 100 Club, Soho, 12 Nov – Bonus points also scored here because their guitarist appeared to have the exact same haircut that I had at his age, approximately 100 years ago. He was a much better guitarist than I’ve ever been, though, and this was much heavier than I was anticipating from their very decent single Evelyne.

[Sparda at the 100 Club. I recognise that haircut]

Dog Race, 100 Club, Soho, 12 Nov – This band are absolutely great, incredibly tight live, the singer is mesmerising, I liked all the unreleased songs, it is all a bit weird and Sparksish, and they finished with The Leader and It’s The Squeeze which are two of my favourite records from the last year or so. I got to chat with a couple of them afterwards and they were absolutely lovely people too.

[Dog Race at the 100 Club]

Gia Ford, St Matthias Church, Stoke Newington, 14 Nov – A new venue for me and it always feels a bit naughty to be drinking alcohol and watching a gig in a church, though I did opt for wine as it seems clear from the Bible that Jesus preferred that to lager. I doubt I’ll get to see Gia Ford anywhere as small again, as I think she might be destined to become very big. The only negative was the sound was a bit boomy and the drums a bit over-powering given the acoustics of the venue.

[Gia Ford at St Matthias Church]

Konx-om-Pax, HERE at Outernet, London, 15 Nov – I quite liked this once I recovered from the immediate Withnail & I-esque impression that I had come to a night club by mistake^*. Konx-om-Pax was the sort of stuff I can imagine listening to while reading 2000AD.

Halina Rice, HERE at Outernet, London, 15 Nov – I really enjoyed this, as ever, with some stunning visuals, but ooooooft my ears were properly hurting at one point from the bass and I am getting a bit too old for this sort of very loud intelligent techno malarky live.

[Halina Rice and some very loud bass (not pictured) at Here at Outernet]

Modern Woman, Electric Brixton, London, 16 Nov – This mob are going to get a restraining order out on me if they see me at the front of one of their gigs again, I reckon. It was great to see them really fully owning a much bigger stage than I’ve seen them on before, including some entertaining cowbell antics.

[Modern Woman at Electric Brixton]

Deadletter, Electric Brixton, London, 16 Nov – I’d bought the ticket primarily to see Modern Woman, I’d never heard of the main band. Checking them out beforehand they sound pretty decent but I’d already had a haircut, been to a great Riba exhibition, and a pub and some non-league football that day, plus it was my fifth gig in six days, so I called it quits for the evening before they started.

Midge Ure, London Palladium, Soho, 19 Nov – I wasn’t going to go to this as it was quite pricey and I expected it to be mostly a re-tread of his 70th birthday show at the Royal Albert Hall last year, so had it marked down as “skip”. But then the tour started and I saw the setlist on the web and thought this might be my last chance to hear once more a dozen or so Ultravox songs that have meant so much to me over the years since I first saw them on the Set Movements tour supporting the Lament album in 1984, forty whole years ago, and so inevitably I was there. Hold your heroes close. Go and see them as often as possible.

[Midge Ure and band in Ultravox configuration for ‘The Voice’ at London Palladium]

Martial Autist, The Black Heart, Camden, 24 Nov – As he came on I gave an encouraging “Whoop!” as I often do for support acts and he immediately stopped and said “What the fuck was that?”. Martin, do not make yourself a central character at gigs.

Vaein, The Black Heart, Camden, 24 Nov – Finally at about the 1,057th attempt I managed to get to see Vaein and he did not disappoint. Electronic sex dungeon music. He has also just done an absolutely filthy version of Santa Baby for a goth/industrial Xmas album.

[Vaein at the Black Heart, Camden]

The Cassandra Complex, The Black Heart, Camden, 24 Nov – I never really got into them or saw them live but I had that absolutely seminal “This Is Electronic Body Music” compilation on vinyl in 1988 which included their amazing One Millionth Happy Customer^** so I thought I’d catch them on this anniversary tour, which rather depressingly opened with a song from 1990 – Nightfall: Over EC – declaring “the third world war is coming home, night falls over western Europe” which was a bit too on the nose with my day job. Anyway I enjoyed this a lot, and probably should have paid more attention to them previously.

[Cassandra Complex at the Black Heart, Camden]

Goat Girl, Earth, Hackney, 28 Nov – On paper they have all the ingredients that should make me love them, but I’ve seen them live a couple of times and just somehow never warmed to them?

[Goat Girl at Earth Hackney]

But I had very much gone to see the support act …

The New Eves, Earth, Hackney, 28 Nov – Like watching people perform a magic ritual, genuinely the most intense exciting live band in the UK at this very moment. Go and see them as soon as possible, and that is an order.

[The New Eves at Earth Hackney]

^*I am not joking, it was a proper night club-style entry queue with an almost cavity search and there I was aged 53 going here is my beanie hat, these are my thermal gloves with the little bits of thread in the fingertips so your phone still works, a packet of nurofen in case my ankle starts giving me grief, some coins in case they are needed for parking or a shopping trolly, my spare battery in case my phone goes below 60% charge, a charger in case my spare battery goes below 60% etc etc, his poor face the lad trying to search me and my seemingly bottomless pockets of nonsense.

^**There is actually an m-orchestra track I’ve played live a couple of times called A Late Night Ruined which is a cover version of One Millionth Happy Customer, but with a plummy Radio 4 play about a haunting played out on top of it instead of me doing the vocals. I might do a version with the vocals now.

Find all of my one-line gig reviews here and then sue me because some of them are quite long.