[for best results, read this while looking at the photo below]
The first lot were good. I don't know who they were because they announced themselves as "we're usually the mighty [mumble] but there are usually nine of us and today there are only two so we're the tiny [mumble]" but then I really do think you're just supposed to know ... when I finally got talking to someone (rare for me, cheers,
jinty) the first thing he asked was, "how did you know about this gig?" sort of hey, you're not in our club ... but anyway they got really excited with a saxophone and a packing case and a squeaky dog toy and that was great (especially the bit with the dog toy). After that it was Toby Goodshank (one of the moldy peaches but not Adam) pretty good and I did think some of his stuff was nice but just sometimes when he was singing to a chorus of snickers about arsefucking or christianity or incest or just one more wacky outrageous thing for the antifolk posse to laugh at, I fetched up feeling a bit like he was devaluing outrageousness, I got the same thing from some of the contents of an old comics anthology called Taboo, where some of the strips would just feel a bit like ticklists of broken taboos, disgusting and outrageous and uhk but so what. Sample quote: "when I kiss you I'm sucking your ex-boyfriend's dick, when you fellate me your ex-boyfriend and me are swordfighting in your mouth" ... that song especially, what did it mean? I wish I was fucking your ex-boyfriend? I can't help thinking about your ex-boyfriend and the fact that you used to sleep with him kind of makes me ill? I wish you were a virgin? Oooh, veering into dodgy territory here. Dodgy? Using "I'm being outrageous" to cover up sentiments edging towards sexism, homophobia. Or maybe he was a hot young queer and 100% sincere about the arsefucking and I'm being way unfair. Still, it was a funny image, but it didn't go anywhere (he also repeated, a lot, and far more than the other singers) which left the songs kind of flaily, for all that they were sweetly sung, and open to maybe being laughed at for ugly reasons. But it was fun and anyway it was Major Matt Mason US next who did perfect-simple songs between stoned ramblings just like you should (I think -- or maybe not, what would I know?). At this point Damian and I noticed that if we angled our heads just so, we could see his reflection in one of the glass-covered pictures on the wall, but then one of the many REALLY TALL PEOPLE (what, are they all reacting against having been force fed McDonalds for the first five years of their conscious lives or something? Damian's not short, and he couldn't see over their heads!) moved back over and this brief moment of seeing what was going on was gone. So you have to imagine all this happening in a very very steamy upstairs room with oozing walls and painted-shut windows crammmed to capacity with me just staring at the backs of people and twitching, while my shirt gets stickier and my brain draws pretty colours. Anyway, what did he sing about? Oh yeah, "you're a girl, and I think that's really cool, you're a girl, and I think that's really hot, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm not!" Yay! The guy I had noticed cartooning earlier and stared at with rude curiosity got up next and that was Jeff Lewis. I actually got a good view of his first super-lo-fi video (a flip-chart pad covered in magic-marker drawings) which was all about super farmer john vs. the evil celery guy (or something along those lines) and him just singing and flipping the pages which was really utterly fantastic and I just can't tell you how much I wanted to get him in for Caption and put him on with the National Theatre of Earth Prime and the James Kochalka puppet theatre. He then did a really long song called "Last time I took acid I went insane" which did a good push at the music/comedy divide and was about well you can probably guess can't you? He said he couldn't remember this song too well, so I don't feel so bad about missquoting it; "woman got on stage in woodstock thought I'd like to hear about her writer's block songs about songwriting suck so I'm wrinting a song about songs about songwriting". And then it was time for Kimya. Kimya's lovely, she sings in this delicate, tremulous voice songs which could kick you into next tuesday, dying in the heat like we all were and deeply serious, heartbreaking songs, songs to make you cry and wish that the world were a better place but tough and mean and snarly all the same. I won't quote her, because I'll just get the phrasing wrong, there's a special order to the words when she sings, and I just can't catch it. Oh heck, just buy the record already ... the photo below is of Kimya. No, really, she's just behind that girl's head.