24/4//2012 Tracer @ Islington Academy

Subject	Tracer @ Islington Academy
DateCreated	4/29/2012 6:28:00 AM
PostedDate	4/28/2012 10:47:00 PM
	I'd been looking forward to this gig for a while, but my journey to Islington didn't go according to plan. Unfortunatley someone had decided to chuck themsleves under a train at New Southgate. It's the second time some unfortunate has decided to top themselves here recently while I've been trying to get to a gig. New Southgate has always been a popular place for this, but I expected this to happen less often since they closed the adjacent nuthouse, as that's where most of the troubled souls used to come from. To my surprise it still seems to happen fairly often at this particular station. (I discovered a few days later that people had thrown themselves under trains at both Oakleigh Park and Hadley Wood stations on this day - all nearby on the same line). I'm sad that someone died, and in a particularly unpleasant way. But there are countless other ways one can choose to kill oneself without ruining the day of hundreds or even thousands of other people due to delayed/cancelled trains etc, as well as your own family and friends - not to mention the train driver (many of whom never really get over it) and the poor sods who have the very grisly job of having to clear up the mess afterwards. I left home in time to be at Islington Academy well before 9 o'clock, but by the time I eventually arrived there was only half an hour left of Tracer's set. What I saw of this new young Australian band featuring two brothers (sound familiar?) set was good, but not one of my gigs of the year. The band are still early in their career and on their learning curve as far as live shows are concerned, but they gave a good account of themselves. They certainly make a big sound for a three piece and looked confident and at ease. The band's sound was a mixture of classic rock and grunge - and if you like Queens Of The Stone Age you might well like this lot too. The venue was fairly full but certainly not sold out - possibly booking them into a venue this size at this stage in their career is a little optimistic - but at least it means there aren't any disappointed fans who couldn't get a ticket. Tracer have some strong material on their debut 'Spaces In Between' album and I imagine virtually the whole album was played tonight as the band were planning to play for at least an hour. They also threw in a rather good cover of Black Sabbath's classic 'War Pigs'. It was certainly a worthwhile trip out to see Tracer, even if I only caught half their set this time - hopefully I'll catch their whole set when they return to the UK for more dates later in the year. This show was good value for money at £9 a ticket - only a quid more than to see Evil Scarecrow in what was effectively a pub venue a few days ago. I bet it won't be so cheap next time... I wasn't planning to patronise Islington Academy's overpriced bar, and in the event I didn't have time to anyway - so I was pleased to be able to quench my thirst in the adjacent Wetherspoons pub where I find a far better selection of beverages for almost half the price they were in the venue. I emptied the last barrel of Weston's Old Rosie and then found a pint of the topically named 'Sink The Titanic' was rather nice. After sinking an ocean liner I will also be sinking a battleship soon, but that's for a future blog...