22/8/2006 JOANovARC @ Too 2 Much

Subject	JOANovARC @ Too 2 Much
PostedDate	8/22/2006
	'Too 2 Much' - is this the current worst named venue in Town?  I thought re-naming Camden Palace as 'Koko' was pretty bad - and don't even get me started on 'Hammersmith Apollo'.  I can understand why they wanted a new name for this venue - the former sleaze pit Raymond's Revue Bar, but surely they could have picked something better than Too 2 Much? I have to say I was far from impressed by this place as a venue for rock bands. It's difficult to find, and then on arrival the averagely dressed rock fan will wonder if the door staff will even let them in to this plush looking establishment? To be fair, I got in without any trouble and made my way upstairs to 'level 1'. The room the bands were playing in left little doubt as to it's previous use with it's sloping cinema style floor, comfy seating, tables, poles, and what I guess is best described as a 'couch' near the stage for the venue's previous 'performers'.... I made my way up to the bar at the back to see what refreshment was on offer - I didn't spot any beverages behind the bar which appealed to me, and as I was sure I would have been outrageously ripped off had I purchased anything I decided to do without.  I may have decided not to patronise the bar, but I couldn't really avoid having to use the toilet - this was an experience I would have liked to have done without as the place had one of those very annoying toilet attendants.  When you are at a rock gig you just want to get in and out of the bog as quickly as possible to get back the the bar/band. What you really don't want is some patronising fucker trying to squirt smelly stuff on you when you are trying to wash your hands - just fuck off out of my face - you won't get a tip by annoying or hassling me or keeping in that perfumed room for one second longer that neccessary.  There was already some emo type band playing when I arrived. They looked like they were trying far too hard, although they were obviously reasonably competant musicians. Their music made absolutely no impression on me whatsoever. JOANovARC took to the stage later than planned due to guitarist Shelley being stuck in a traffic jam due to an accident en-route. The girls put on their usual polished performance, although I didn't think it was one of their better shows. That said, even a below par JOANovARC performance is better than many bands at their best so it was certainly worth the £5 door charge. Actually, it seemed a pretty faultless performance from the band and if I hadn't already seen them so many times I would have been very impressed - most the other people in the audience seemed to be judging by their reaction.  This is something I have noticed this band are particularly good at - making a big impression on people who have never seen or heard of them before. Not many bands seem genuinely capable of this - you need both strong songs and a great live performance to be able to do this. I can't think of another band who are as good as winning over crowd who don't know them from Adam (or Eve).  There is another band who's name escaped me on after JOANovARC. They were sort of indie/pop and I thought they were terrific with their first song - but after that they just seemed to lose my attention and the songs that followed seemed nothing like as good. As I'd decided not to bother drinking anything there didn't seem any point in staying any longer so I left three or four songs into the last band's set and was back home by around 11.15 - which was a result as I had to get up around six the following morning. I'd been out, seen three bands, and only spent a fiver in cash - so a nice cheap night out for a change!