4/8/2012 Cosmic Charlies @ Cockfosters F.C.

Subject	Cosmic Charlies @ Cockfosters F.C.
DateCreated	8/20/2012 9:39:00 AM
	Something a bit different from the usual gigs I go to. This Saturday night finds me at Cockfosters Football Club - unusual in itself as I don't remember ever setting foot inside a football club in my life! Which is kind of ironic as for many years I lived almost next door to this one and spent many happy hours dog walking on the sports fields. Also rather odd is that I'm going to see a Grateful Dead tribute band - and I don't even like the Grateful Dead! I'm actually here more for social reasons and out of curiosity. The place is still only a few minutes walk from home, and they have Abbot Ale on draught - at much cheaper prices than music venues or most pubs too. I think £7 on the door is a bit steep to see just one band playing a mixture of Grateful Dead songs and other covers though - I've paid the same amount twice recently to see four band bills at proper music venues in town - and they were a lot more lively too! This is the sort of quality of band you'd expect to see in your local pub for free. The band are The Cosmic Charlies - they take their name from a Grateful Dead song apparently. It's all pretty pedestrian stuff to be honest - decent enough musicians but like a very run-of-the-mill pub band - except they happen to play a bunch of Grateful Dead songs. The band do seem to have a following and some people have travelled many miles to see them tonight. Me - I just don't get it. Although the band themselves are hardly dynamic, some effort has been put into a 'psychadelic' light show. Man. Actually, this lightshow is more authentic than the band themselves as the old boy putting it on did the lights for the real Grateful Dead in San Francisco in the 1960's! I shit you not - this guy regularly used to work for the band back in the day. To me this seems a slightly surreal gig compared to the ones I normally go to, but it seems quite normal to most the Deadheads present - although none of them seem exactly excited by it all. I quite enjoy taking my beer outside for a break and enjoying nature's own lightshow in these unusual surroundings. It's a funny old night - I never dreamed I'd actually see a band play so close to my old home. It's certainly a much more peaceful and relaxed atmosphere compared to the sort of gigs I normally go to, but it's good to have a change sometimes.