5/11/2010 A weekend of local live music

Subject	A weekend of local live music
PostedDate	11/5/2010
	Nothing that exciting going on elsewhere this weekend. so I decide to stay local and catch a couple of cover bands while also catching up with some friends. Friday night finds me heading up to High Barnet. As I walk up the road a spent firework nearly lands on my head! Now I realise why those old wartime ARP wardens used to wear tin hats! 30 seconds later another rocket clatters onto the footpath just behind me - am I going to regret going out tonight? I arrive at the Black Horse in High Barnet to find Suzi & the Hotlicks are playing. They are good musicians, but not a very exciting band. Suzi herself is lively and good at fronting a band, but it all seems a bit too polished and nice - the 'spontaneous' ad-libs and intros seem a little too well rehearsed. Most the punters seem happy enough though - the regulars in this pub are easilly satisfied as I suspect this is the only live music they ever see. Good choice of mostly rock covers though, and if you close your eyes they sound a good band. On Saturday night I see a heavier harder rocking cover band in a far less suitable pub.  Ye Olde Monken Holt is one of Barnet oldest pubs, and also one of the best - the real ales in this place are always great!  However, the pub has no stage - and the most suitable place for a band to set up isn't used as it would get in the way of the smokers going out the back for a drag on their cancer sticks. Consequently, the band are forced to set up in the most unsuitable place in the pub - the narrow area that links the bar to the rear of the pub - meaning not just the smokers but everyone else as well has to walk though where the band are playing!  I nearly saw a guitarist get his teeth knocked out by a mic stand here a few weeks ago when people started dancing and jumping on the feet of the stand.  The drummer is on the other side of what is effectively a corridor with people walking between him and the rest of the band while they are playing. The band however, are really good! The Haunting (or Haunting AD to avoid confusion with another band) are playing rock covers tonight, but have a lot of their own material and have two albums in the can. The lineup has evolved a lot over the years, and Shag (guitar) and Witchy (vox) are now joined by Jason ex-Planet Of Women on bass - re-uniting with his former bandmates from Lick That - a band who's video some of you may have seen on the much missed Raw Power/Noisy Mothers TV rock show back in the day. Tonight's setlist is mostly in the 'classic rock' genre and features songs from Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zep, etc. This is a lot more convincing than the band I saw last night, who although they played well just appeared to be going through the motions. This lot mean it!