James Davies
Hey there. The (B)log is on the fire, the goose is getting fat, my sister bought me a ‘Onesey’, and it’s time for a gift-wrapped message from yours truly.
I myself quite like Christmas, and being that I am in a constant state of arrested development, I don’t need to live vicariously through the eyes of children to enjoy it. I have my own eyes, of course. All the better for watching shitty Christmas movies (Santa Claus The Movie-obvious but vital) and scooping the mince-speckled custard from the bottom of a bowl, among other things. So, whatever, arbitrary Christmas acknowledgement aside, I bid you Merry Christmas with a genuine warm sincerity. I mean it. No, I do.
On to the gig. As a venue on a Friday night, Casey’s is a strange fit for bands. The area for which to trade your stage craft is a small, cubby-holed, partially visible section, looking out over the smoking garden. Despite it’s seemingly inappropriate ergonomics, it kinda works. Once you get set up and play the intense energy your band creates is contained in the area enough for people to gather around it and jostle for its emanating warmth or retreat to a safer distance. To the sides of said space you can watch through open sections of wall. On this night, as we played there was a buzz in the crowd that has been scantly represented at the shows during our Babies reboot so far. Heads appeared in and around us and familiar faces and not so familiar faces encased us inquisitively.
Maybe, the fact that most of us were sober (not always the case) and of sound mind (hmmm); or that we were preceded by a good set by the opening band Barking Toad (and to be followed by the mighty Jairus) that ramped up the excitement; or maybe we were playing to a less cynical open minded audience, but the show felt good before we played a note. All in all, I think we smashed it!
During the set we flung, flayed, flew and fornicated with a grace we have maybe never touched before in our like… 37 year history. I know it sounds self important to talk about your band so earnestly, but all this time I have known we could play this good and when you finally do…it’s a relief. Each song was a fight to stop my arms from falling off but we each rode the storm and pulled it off.
“Confidence supersedes genius” said one famous boxer. This is true in the sense that being talented is never enough. ‘Doing’ something awards a tacit knowledge that only repeated failure and growth can express. Now, after playing you never really know how it went down but that you and friends in the band had a musical union. Which, is already enough. Post gig congratulations from audience, promoter, bands was forthcoming and for once I believed them.
So, this time round, whilst coming off a years worth of journeying towards our collective potential as a band, we may have reached a milestone. Let’s hope we can keep up the good work.
Next year we will enter the daunting world of studio recording and hopefully reemerge with something resembling an album. We are off to Anchor Baby Studios to be helmed and engineered by Dan Lucas of Jairus fame.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here is a link to some of the gig shots from one Clair Waller.
