14/3/2009 Dirty Harry @ the St Moritz

Subject	Dirty Harry @ the St Moritz
PostedDate	3/14/2009
	A long night in sleaze central. I arrive at the St Moritz club in Wardour Street just after ten to find it's not even open yet.  This ex-Decadence venue is not one of my favourites - in fact it's my least favourite of the four the club has been at, so at least it gives me an excuse to go and kill some time in the Intrepid Fox until the joint opens. A couple of bottles of Newcastle Brown later and I head back to Wardour St, where rather to my surprise I find the St Moritz still stocks the same beverage - only in tins and at an outrageous price.  I find the band won't be on until 12.30, so I have even more time to kill. Just as well I didn't need to catch the last tube as I planned to go on somewhere later anyway. I still manage to miss the start of the band's set, because by 12.30 I am caught up in conversation upstairs.  To make matters worse I am bursting for a piss by then as well.  Needing desperately to answer the call of nature and hearing the band already playing I discover a long queue to the clubs inadequate toilet facilities - the queue is much longer than the one for the ladies and it looks like at least a ten minute wait. I'm not putting up with that, so I head out into the street to make other arrangements...  Missing the beginning of the set I eventually get back in expecting to find the sound quality in this cramped venue is shit. Amazingly it's actually really good on this occasion. Dirty Harry is on good form. The band sound good and the atmosphere in these intimate surroundings is exciting. Harry's songwriting has improved a lot since the first album that her record company at the time managed to completely ruin by trying to make her into a 'pop star' instead of a rock chick. The rock is very much back now, and this is definitely the hardest rocking 'Dirty Harry' band as it now features ex-Towers Of London guys The Rev and Snell on guitar and drums. Hopefully, with gigs now (at last) becoming a regular ocurance things will start to pick up - and maybe Harry will be able to afford gloves for both hands? One thing I'm very pleased to notice is that the sets are getting longer - nearly 40 minutes this time instead of the 20-25 minutes that have left people feeling a bit short-changed in the past. It's well after one in the morning by the time the Dirty Harry set is over - not that it's a problem to me on this occasion, but it would have made it impossible for a lot of potential fans to make this gig. I make my excuses and head off to another club further down Wardour Street where I have promised to meet someone -  it's rude to keep a lady waiting... My final port of call for the night is Decadence at it's new home at Trash Palace. Some people have been raving about how great this new venue for the club is, but I'm not especially impressed. It's certainly a great improvement on the St Moritz, and it certainly has a lot more atmosphere than it's more recent soulless home at SIN. I liked the better bar and larger rooms at SIN though. Trash Palace is certainly nice and sleazy all the same - most suitable for Decadence.  Nothing can compare with the atmosphere of the club when it was at Gossips, but this is the next best thing.