Food, friends and gigs

[karohemd]

After being rather useless all day yesterday (the week of feeling crappy and not having enough sleep finally took its toll and I slept til midday), I managed to miss the train I had intended to take (but it would have been delayed, anyway, so no harm done, bloody "fatalities") but still arrived at the N1 centre before everyone had gathered. Of our group I only knew psychokatuk, steve_a23 and jonny_eol. As usual for me, I've forgotten all the other names, anyone care to help? EDIT: People included girls from Germany (skorpionuk) and South Africa (taryn_vee) and greeba (who knew angusabranson via a housemate). Small world indeed.
After chatting about anything and everything, a lovely seafood stirfry and even better wild berry sorbet, we headed over to Slimes a bit before 8 only to find that the doors had just been opened so we weren't really late. Wandered around a bit and bumped into owdbetts (who seemed to be the only Camgoth there), kneeshooter (I feel your pain) and finally stellalive (one day we'll manage to exchange more than a few words outside a noisy club/gig). angusabranson turned up later, too.

Things were running late which didn't bode well for me being able to see it all before I had to leave but RBN eventually took the stage and were surprisingly good. For some reason I had expected something more trad goth, not synthpoppy EBM but it worked quite well and I enjoyed them much more than I did, say Frozen Plasma at Infest or V2A at Black Celebration. Good response from the crowd already which was probably down to them playing on home ground (Steve being the main Slimelight DJ) so all was good.

Rotersand finally got on at 10 and took off immediately with Truth is Fanatic merging into Almost Violent. The setlist was similar to the one at Infest but in a different order and of course Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy was the highlight. Cool to see Rascal playing guitar during One Level Down, too which added just a little more to the whole experience. Sadly, I had to leave after Lost (very promising indeed for any new material coming along) as I really didn't fancy the long and uncomfortable train/bus combo which would have taken me into Cambridge at 2:40.
Still, it was worth it and it only speaks for Rotersand's enthusiasm, charisma and ability to work a crowd that they managed to bring even a crap venue (hardly any light on stage and the room being narrow and long with obstacles in between) like Slimelight to boiling point. angusabranson mentioned that it was almost sold out in advance and there were only a few tickets left at the door. Very cool indeed.

Was very lucky with tubes so made it to my train with plenty of time but it's better safe than sorry. owdbetts just made it in time, too, having stayed a bit longer so we spent the journey home catching up a bit.

Sorry to all those of you I didn't get a chance to say good-bye to! :o(

Comments

[jonny-eol.livejournal.com]

Add greeba (the person sitting opposite you) and taryn_vee (the South African) to the Wagamama's. We'll have to ask Debs for help with the other two!

Good to see you again, and it was a great show. RBN are really desparate to shake off their distant history as goths (their last recordings in that style date back to 1994) but they sound so much better now they aren't trying to be Nephilim wannabes.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

yep! See you next week.

[dj-steve-rbn.livejournal.com]

RBN is essentially a different band - the main songwriters (guitarists) in the old band left way before we started using synths and it is a totally different style. I write a lot of the music now (I didn't in the old band) along with Bryon (who used to play bass but now plays keys) who also didn't write too much in the old band. We should have used a new band name from about 2001, because it just isn't the same band at all. I think we didn't change it because we were booked to play Leipzig WGT as Revolution By Night. In hindsight, I wish we had changed the name, because there does seem to be a small element who have incorrect perceptions about us. I heard of some people wondering why a trad band were supporting Covenant, and trad goth we are not! :)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

As I hadn't heard the previous incarnation I don't have a point of comparison but I certainly liked what I heard. Keep up the good work! :o)

[dj-steve-rbn.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't want to hear it! Carl McEldritch impersonation vocals (done badly!), 2 guitars, bass, drum machine... we sounded like a cross between Fields Of The Nephilim, The Sisters and The Mission, but not anywhere near as good as any of them were in thier heydays! :)

[angusabranson.livejournal.com]

An ex-housemate of mine?

What did she/he look like? I didn't know any of my ex-housemates were out and about last night!!!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

greeba, apparently.

[angusabranson.livejournal.com]

ah, I can understand the confusion now.

Greeba isn't one of my ex-housemates but I am dating his current housemate, Rosie, up in Leicester. :)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I knew something wasn't quite right. ;o)

[psychokatuk.livejournal.com]

I think you've managed to name-check all the Waga's posse except skorpionuk's hubby, dakeyras (Colin!)

Was great seeing you again, shame you had to leave before the end though.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thanks! Turns out everyone knows everyone else, anyway. ;o)

Indeed!
Would have loved to stay and chat but I really didn't feel like getting squashed on an uncomfortable bus until 2:40...

[psychokatuk.livejournal.com]

No, I guessed as much. I remember the pain of Cambridge-London socialising!