3/4/2009 A rare local night out

Subject	A rare local night out
PostedDate	4/3/2009
	Several years ago (when Barnet still had a thriving music scene)  I used to be out watching bands in pubs only a few minutes walk from home nearly every Friday and Saturday night.  The two main pubs for live music have both shut now, and no other local venues have been well run enough to replace them.  So I don't go out much locally any more as there is very little left of any musical interest to me in the area.  The very few pubs round here that bother to put cover bands on don't want to pay enough to get good bands, so the ones that play tend to be dull and average at best - usually good musicians, but giving plodding and lacklustre performances as they go through the motions and play the same tired old songs. I don't really need to hear 'Mustang Sally' and 'Brown Eyed Girl' every week thanks. Or ever again.  So I was interested to see a new name appear on the scene. I went to the pub to check them out. 4Q turned out to make a refreshing change from the normal pub fodder and had a setlist containing plenty of punk classics, as well as a lot of 60's and 70's classic rock songs, plus a smattering of indie to bring things up to date. It made a nice change from seeing a bunch of fat middle aged (and older) blokes playing music that only fat middle aged (and older) people like. A couple of the band also play in Camden regulars the Telematics as well as infamous local cover band Binge Drinking - from whom they borrowed some of the songs!  It was quite an entertaining night, and good to hear a band playing a good but far less predictable set of covers than usually seen round these parts. The pub was pretty full, so they were obviously doing something right.  Quite a few live music loving refugees from other local pubs were in evidence, which shows there is a following for a more 'alternative' cover band locally. Unfortunately, I wasn't so impressed with the pub itself as a music venue - it's a bit small and there is no stage. In spite of this there was a better atmosphere than the pub over the road, which has the potential to be a good music venue. Apart from the band, another reason I was looking forward to this Friday night was to enjoy some better (and cheaper) beer than I normally get at a 'proper' music venue, but The Alexandra couldn't offer any real ales.  Still, it was open till very late so I took full advantage of what was on offer...

PS: This pub is now closed. At least I managed to play there with my band in the last year it was open.