23/8/2006 Rock & Comedy Night @ Bar Monsta

Subject	Rock & Comedy Night @ Bar Monsta
PostedDate	8/23/2006 7:03:00 AM
	My main reason for attending was to see Vamps 'N' Gypsies - I don't normally go and see comedy, but it sounded like it might make an interesting change. I sort of assumed the the 'rock' would be sandwiched inbetween the 'comedy' on the bill, but discovered I was wrong when I arrived and found Vamps 'N' Gypsies had gone on much earlier than I expected and only had about ten minutes of their set left!  I know I wasn't the only one to be caught out by this.  Shortly after I arrived, four string slinger Rich managed the unusual feat of breaking a bass string. What little I got to see of the band's set was good apart from that though.  You can read a review by someone who probably saw more of the band's set than I did here. Next on was comedian Jason Rouse. He performed at Download this year and his act is very much tailored towards the 'rock' audience. Quite a bit of his material is deliberately outrageous, some maybe going a bit too far with his constant references to underage sex and incest. He counters his more OTT comments with a forced grin as if to say 'Hey - only joking folks!', but I think we already knew that - it's what comedians do - right? Some of his stuff wasn't that original, and he referred to some notes at times - which is not quite what I would expect from someone used to performing to large crowds at festivals. That said, he did make me laugh a few times with some genuinely funny and perceptive remarks - although not as much as the bloke standing by the bar with his frequent bursts of forced sounding bellowing laughter, which made me wonder if he was a 'plant' or one of the performer's mates? Mr Rouse was good at interacting with his audience - which certainly helped in the more 'intimate' surroundings of Bar Monsta. Final act of the night was The Orator. I wasn't quite sure what to expect here - was it a solo stand-up act, or a band? It turned out to be both - an uneasy mixture which didn't seem to work very well as far as I was concerned.  I thought the stand-up part of the act was quite good, although it tended to rely heavily on digs at hippies - an easy target as nearly everybody hates them! Things went downhill when 'The Orator' got behind the drumkit to play and sing. The band consisted of just a guitarist, a girl cheerleader on backing vocals, and The Orator himself on drums and lead vocals. It was all a bit of a mess and would have sounded much better with the power of a full ROCK band. The guitarist was competant enough on his Les Paul, but made everything sound like recycled Rage Against The Machine or Audioslave riffs. It has to that said that The Orator is not the best drummer in the world, and his singing is virtually inaudible anyway. The musical part of the show is pretty dreadful - if he were to get a decent drummer and a bass player in and front the band on just vocals it would probably be a lot more credible as well as a lot more powerful. I think The Orator should either do that, or just stick to solo stand-up... Still, it was a varied night of entertainment in Camden and at least I enjoyed the little music I heard from Vamps 'N' Gypsies, and some of the comedy - you can't complain for a fiver really.

Bar Monsta has since turned into Camden Rock - one of London's dodgiest venues.