23/6/2006 TAT & the Hitchers @ the Underworld

Subject	TAT & the Hitchers @ the Underworld
PostedDate	6/23/2006
	An eventful night in Camden. The gig was for the release of the new single 'Champagne, Cocaine, & Strawberries' from TAT - a song which has just been getting some airplay on Radio 1 and Xfm, so maybe all the band's hard work is starting to pay off... I arrived just after The Hitchers had started their set. Unfortunately, there were very few people in the venue early enough to enjoy their up-tempo (for the most part) Stray Cats meets Green Day down a dark alley rock 'n' roll - certainly less than their other recent visit to the capital. I blame the world cup on the telly.  It's a shame as the Hitchers are an excellent band and deserve better.  TAT were on good form - probably the best I've seen them. The lovely Tatiana is one of those rare people who just looks like she was born to front a rock 'n' roll band!  Although the band put on a great performance, the show was ruined for me by my new camera.  I had been really looking forward to getting some good shots as the only time I had a camera with me at a previous TAT gig (TMF festival last year) it was a rubbish camera and the picture quality to too poor to be of any use.  This time I did even worse as my brand new camera which had worked OK at a gig last night failed totally when I tried to get some pictures of TAT's performance.  The Hewletts failed to Packard and the device crashed big time.  I then wasted a good part of the band's set trying to get the bloody thing working again, but my efforts were all in vain. I gave up in the end and after much fucking about failed to get even one picture.  I got dragged down to the front and still managed to enjoy some of the show so all was not lost.   After the show the free Champagne (with strawberries) flowed, but as usual the Underworld shut really early and put quite a damper on the proceedings.   After security chucked us out we ended up in the pub upstairs - where some pretty outrageous alcohol fuelled things happened.  In fact I'm quite surprised we didn't get thrown as nudity (not mine) was involved amongst other things...  The shocked look on some people's faces was great - but they seemed to be enjoying 'the show' all the same!