9/4/2009 Cherry Brakewells @ Water Rats & Lionsex @ The Dirt

Subject	Cherry Brakewells @ Water Rats & Lionsex @ The Dirt
PostedDate	4/9/2009
	After last night going to one of London's venues with the top two stinkiest toilets, tonight I go to the other one. It's not all bad though because the music at the Water Rats  is fantastic! Last time I saw the Cherry Brakewells here there were some problems with the sound, but things are far better tonight and the band are on fine form. They seem to be picking up a bit of a following, and appear to be particularly popular with photographers for some reason. ;-) The band's performance tonight is excellent, with one of the highlights being a surprise Led Zepellin cover. Lead singer Shay introduces it by saying it's pure self indulgence. 'Whole Lotta Love' going down very well indeed with the crowd. Maybe the band should be 'self indulgent' more often? Just occasionally you see a band who leave you thinking 'This band could really make it all the way'. Cherry Brakewells are one of those bands. The night is still young, so I head off to the Borderline for The Dirt. This newish club puts a band on fairly late before spinning the tunes into the small hours. It's a bit of an odd night. The club appears to be aiming for the sleaze/glam rock crowd like Decadence and the bands reflect this. However, tonight it's a case of 'right club - wrong crowd'. As well as assorted rockers, the place is full of 'normals' - drunken city boys and tourists who have just wandered in off the street to go to a club - any club. They stagger around and 'dance' like twats - generally ruining any 'rock' atmosphere the people running The Dirt are aiming for. The band tonight are Lionsex. In their home town of Milton Keynes they probably seem pretty wild, and maybe even vaguely original to the locals. Round these parts they look incredibly stale and cliched. They can play well enough, but so can most bands. It would help their cause if two of the band didn't look like they were so desperate to be in Guns 'N' Roses. Their songs are nothing to write home about, like most other current bands of their genre on the London scene. They are one of the least original bands I've seen for a long time, which wouldn't be so bad if they did what they did really well and with real style like Heaven's Basement. This lot just leave you thinking you've seen it all before. A million times. And better. This club is in a good venue and certainly has potential, although I don't think there's much point in having 'guest' DJs if they aren't allowed to play what they like...