Progress

Published on Thu 4 Feb 2010

They've spoiled The Borderline. I can't believe it. I've been going to gigs there for 15 years without it ever visibly changing, and out of nowhere it's been given a really half arsed facelift. Gone is the Mexican style tiled roof on the front of the bar, gone are the weird wooden doors to nowhere on the back of the stage, gone is the cage around the sound desk, gone is the dirty wooden floor, they've even binned the posters on the way in which detailed notable people who'd played there in the past. In their place are some tacky spotlights, some deep red drapes, some cheap wood effect boards and some smelly white paint. Admittedly also gone is the stench emanating from the gents, but I even kind of liked that. Despite all this, the gig I was at, David Bazan, was incredibly good. Which is just as well, because during yet another tidying spree at the weekend I put the tickets in a "safe place" and haven't seen them since. I had to buy some more the night before, meaning that I effectively paid three times for my one. It's also just as well it wasn't sold out.

The support act were Postdata from Nova Scotia. They started off sounding less than great, and then the singer/guitarist broke a string and had to struggle on with 5, but after a few songs they started to sound great. I meant to check them out further today, but forgot. The synth guy had, by some distance, the nicest sounding melodica I've ever heard - inasmuch as it actually sounded good (I wonder where he got it). I also suspected from a distance that his beard was stuck on, or at least waxed or something, but I bumped into him at the end and it looked normal close up.

However, as usual with this kind of thing, David Bazan was a league above them. I reckon he played about 2/3 Pedro the Lion stuff and 1/3 his solo songs, all of which was brilliant. He's such a presence on stage and has such an amazing warm voice. And the songs are just so good. He also took questions from the floor, and though requests seemed to be given short shrift he was pretty frank about his faith, or lack thereof. Dan asked a couple of things, but I don't recall what. It was so great to hear songs like "Priests and Paramedics" (what a song to open with!), "Transcontinental" and "The Poison" live. We even got to Kings Cross in time for me to have my first McDonalds of the year. I'm suffering slightly today from there being a rail replacement bus service, but it was worth it, and at least it was replacing the 11.15 rather than the 12.06.

My month off the booze came to an end a few hours early on Sunday (I decided at about 7pm that it must be February somewhere) because we had another Travis Waltons gig, this time at the Haymakers. It went pretty well I thought - everyone seemed a bit more relaxed than last time, though I did balls up my first lead bit. People seemed to like it anyway. I managed to walk there with my keyboard without too much trouble. Google says it's a bit more than a mile, so I reckon I have a range of about a mile and a half on foot with keyboard in tow. It was quite fun listening to the different noises the wheels make on various surfaces. The sound on the bridge that Tesco paid for to allow people in Chesterton to get to the shop more easily is particularly good. In another display of conversational genius (remind me again why I'm single?) I was telling someone or other about it and they suggested recording them all and turning them into a song. Hmm.

I've been in a pretty miserable mood ever since I stepped daintily off the wagon. I wonder if it's a coincidence.

Not done much else. Stupidly went to the football on Tuesday in the cold with one guy who'd never seen a goal in English football and another guy who'd not seen Cambridge win all season. Can you guess what the score was?