16/3/2008 Monsta's Female Rock Night & other Camden shenanigins

Subject	Monsta’s Female Rock Night & other Camden shenanigins
PostedDate	3/16/2008
	I did sort of have this Sunday planned out previously, but as usual things go wrong.  Actually, things were bound to go wrong from the moment I decided to go to Decadence last night instead of going straight home from the 12 Bar - attempting to go to three gigs in then night, and then a club after?  Not smart really...  I was actually planning to go to another three gigs on Sunday - starting with Rockworkz at Tommy Flynns in Camden from three in the afternoon, but after a night at Decadence that was never likely to happen. Then the plan involved walking just up the road to catch Darrell Bath playing a free gig at the World’s End - I didn’t make that either and arrived shortly after he finished his set with his band. I’m told he was really good as well. I know from past experience that if I go to Decadence then I have to effectively write off Sunday as a sleep/recovery day - I never learn!  I did actually make the third gig on my agenda - after staying at the World’s End for longer than I needed to enjoy a decent pint of beer before heading round the corner to Bar Monsta and it’s less than ideal beverage stocks. The ’Female Rock Night’ at Bar Monsta looked quite interesting with four bands playing. Unfortunately, my thirst for decent beer at the World’s End delayed my arrival and I arrived with only two songs left of the first band’s set. The band was Psycho Baby and they were really good.  Laura the singer was a real livewire and great at fronting a band - I suspect she has some sort of acting training as she really commands the stage. Good singer too, and the (all male) musicians in the band were certainly above average as well, and not just making up the numbers as it often the case in bands featuring a strong girl singer. Sometimes you see a band that have obvious star quality, and this is definitely one of those bands. They could go far, but their London gigs are very rare as they are based around Kidderminster... Unfortunately, one of the other bands on the bill cancelled, and the other two were less than exciting. Next were Jesus Got His Gun - a new band who have risen from the ashes of Ophelia Torah. I’m sure I recognise the bass player from some other band I’ve seen playing in Camden recently...  Jesus Got His Gun aren’t bad, but not really my cup of tea and I wouldn’t choose to see them again. The last band are Vanilla Ride. They are not terrible, but there is something very ’My first band’ about them and they lack charisma and stage presence - maybe they will be a lot better in a year’s time? From what I saw tonight, the last two bands were onto a loser from the start having to follow Psycho Baby who sounded much tighter and more professional. No pictures of the first band I’m afraid as I was too busy at the bar and saying hello to people following my late arrival - by the time I could deploy my camera their set was over.  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to put that right on their next visit to London... My friends from Germany arrived while I was at Bar Monsta - their arrival had also been delayed after a long hard day’s sightseeing in the cold rain of London - and an incident involving a hairdryer that turned into a flame-thrower! No really.  The show at Bar Monsta ended fairly early, and we decided to escape before the invevitable house music drove us out anyway. We found that the World’s End was closing (what is it with this country on Sunday night!) and looked for somewhere else to go. Somewhere ’Goth’ was suggested - so there was only one place in the immediate area - the Devonshire Arms. The girls liked this place a lot, but it was shutting at midnight so we ended up in the Dublin Castle for some time before repairing to the hotel. It was just as well I didn’t have any work on Monday as I ended up going home even later than the previous two nights - I seemed to raise a few eyebrows on the tube at around 8.30 as I mixed with all the suits on their way to work.  Funny thing is - after being up all night I still didn’t feel tired. In fact when I finally got home I still felt fine so I decided not to waste the day by going to bed - I just stayed up all day and got on with stuff as normal before finally crashing around 11 the following night still not feeling that tired. And no - I hadn’t taken any drugs the previous night. It was quite a weekend!

PS: Bar Monsta was pretty cool but only lasted a year or so before turning into the really horrible 'Camden Rock' venue. It's best avoided these days.