1/2/2009 Men & Gods and Battlekat @ The Lexington

Subject	Men & Gods and Battlekat @ The Lexington
PostedDate	2/1/2009
	Sunday night and the weather forecast is for snow. By around eight my car is already covered in snow, but I'm going to the gig by tube as usual as I like to have a drink or two. I live on the extreme northern edge of London and it's usually a couple of degrees warmer in the centre of town so I guess the snow won't be settling when I arrive at Angel station. Wrong. By the time I've walked down Pentonville Road to the Lexington I'm covered in the stuff. The Lexington will be better known to some of you as Clockwork in Pentonville Road. In spite of what some reviews say, I don't think it's changed that much since being re-invented as a US style whiskey bar. Although there are still no real ales on tap the selection of beer has improved - still no Newcastle Brown, but they have bottled Spitfire and London Pride so at least people who like their beer brown instead of piss-yellow have something to choose from. Not cheap though at £3.90 a bottle!  Strongbow is on tap at a much more reasonable £3.10 a pint though - much cheaper than most music venues so it's not all bad. Oh yes, there are some bands on too. I'm not a (total) piss-artist - honest! But I do seem to tend to judge music venues largely on their bars as my regular readers will have noticed.  There are a load of bands on at the Lexington tonight, and it's particularly good value for money as it's free admission on this occasion. There's a female fronted band on when I arrive who manage to remind me of both Blondie and Coldplay. Yes really. I didn't catch their name, but they seemed to have some good songs. I'm here mainly to see Men & Gods. They turn in an excellent performance as usual. The sound mix is quite good and the band are interesting to watch as well as to listen to. I always find this band fascinating as there is so much interaction between the musicians and every show is completely different. I've only seen Battlekat once before. It was at least two years ago at the Purple Turtle but they managed to make an impression back then and I've been wanting to see them again, but they don't often seem play this side of the river. Battlekat are lively and certainly quite unique. They have a certain something that makes them stand out from other pop/rock/indie bands and definitely have the potential to go further, but they really need to get out in play more around Camden and the West End if they want to get noticed and progress any further. Although I only got to see two and a bit bands it's been a good night. By the time the last band have finished there is a blizzard blowing outside, but it was certainly worth making the effort. I just manage to get the last tube home - just as well as by the morning the northern overground part of the is out of action because of the snow, and so are all of London's buses!