End of a busy Day

[karohemd]

Everything worked this morning, no traffic in Cambridge, no troubles with trains or tube, got to Dragonmeet, skipped the queue and wandered around a bit, saying Hi to a few people.
- wandered around taking photos
- played a demo of Esoterrorists run by gbsteve. A bit short maybe and various rules/roll options were covered. Gumshoe looks like a very quick and deadly system, very much on my wavelength. Sadly, the very short scenario didn't feature the much advertised system for finding clues (we entered the scenario at the end).
- killed half an hour by wandering around, taking photos and chatting to people and then
- played corone's Victoriana 2nd ed game, which was a full adventure, not just a demo. I like the setting (Victorian steampunk with magic and alternative races) and the system is interesting and quick, too despite using a lot of D6.
- unfortunately, I didn't get to play a Cold City demo and missed entering the short one of Covenant: A story game of failing conspiracies gbsteve and pwca were playing so I just mooched around a bit chatting to people
- had to leave before the auction because the Neofolk gig had been advertised with a door time of 6:30 ...
- So in essence, I didn't get as much gaming in as I wanted but it was good to see people and the big game I did play was good fun.

Got to the Water Rats at 6:45 to find a queue. Doors finally opened almost half an hour later. Had I known this, I could have stayed for the auction. Grrr.
After finally getting into the back room, I very briefly chatted to sublevel3 and his girlfriend and then had a look up front. Found what I thought was a good spot at front right of the stage. There wasn't a lot of light but it looked like it would be OK because there was at least plenty of light (if not that strong) from the front.
jonny_eol then randomly found me and it didn't take long before the gig started.

Andrew King was first and delivered some fantastic stuff with his band (keyboards/twiddly knobs, drums/percussion, percussion/keyboard). The best thing for me was the contrast between his traditional, clear folk voice and the minimalistic, percussive, almost tribal instrumentation with backing synthdrones and samples.

Rose Rovine e Amanti, an Italian band, were next in the lineup. A bigger band and more folky and accessible in their music and also really good.

A longer break this time until all the stage had been cleard for Sol Invictus. A full band this time (obviously Tony Wakeford on voc and g, bass, violin, laptop/bodhran and Andrew King on percussion and background vocals) and they played really well. The only thing that annoyed me was that Tony was standing quite far back (further back than the violinist) which meant I couldn't get many good clear shots of him from my position (obviously, there was no pit so I couldn't move).
Stupid train schedules meant I had to leave before the end but I got a good hour in and it was well worth it.

I think I'm sufficiently tired now to go to bed. Mad prepping/tidying tomorrow, photos sometime during the week. Good night.

Comments

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

You had a bit of the clue finding stuff but I guess I didn't make enough fuss about it. It's the first time I've run such short demos so I'd be interested in any more feeback you can give me. In fact, I'll ask for some on my LJ.

[sublevel3.livejournal.com]

Hi Ozzy, shame that you had to leave early and I didn't get much of a chance to catch up with you. Look forward to seeing your pictures of the night. Shame about the positioning, it was so packed in there that it was difficult to move anywhere, but I'm sure you'll have something good.
Justin says he'll put up a page on the Cold Spring website for them.:)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was really inconvenient. The venue was far too small, people were pretty packed all the way to the back and there were still quite a few in the bar. :o(

The lights weren't very strong but at least they came from the front and I managed to get a couple of good shots. There'll be a preview tonight, hopefully more by the end of the week (or else next year as I'm off soon) as I have to do the ones from Dragonmeet first (for which I was actually hired).

Cool! Let me know who to get in touch with. :o)

[sublevel3.livejournal.com]

Email Jo and Justin direct on info@coldspring.co.uk

They'd love to see the pictures, they told me so in The Dev yesterday when we were having drinks with Rose Rovine e Amanti and your favourite german, Mr. K. ;)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Done!