This Claw tour thing that's been going on throughout 2007 has been lots of fun and it's taken me all over Europe but lately I've started to notice that it's beginning to lose momentum. It's been over 6 months now since we last went out of the country for a gig. As well as that, we've noticed that the gigs have started getting bigger & bigger, almost as though we have to somehow top the previous one in order for the tour to progress. Which is, of course, nonsense.
Last night was a case in point - Alice Cooper and Motörhead were playing in Manchester and I really wanted to go along. But it was at the MEN arena and at £37 a ticket too... add on top of that money for petrol, merchandise and other stuff, it was all pointing to being quite an expensive Sunday night out. So that gig was abandoned.
Then, at the last minute, we ended up going along to a different gig, a sort of replacement or filler concert to make up for missing out on seeing The Head and Coop. Me and Patchie went along to a night at the Korova bar in Liverpool city centre to watch a set by a band called Gentlemans Pistols who are from Leeds. And coincidentally enough we were in Leeds one night earlier, to see Jesu at the Cockpit.
If you have never been to Korova, it's a bar in Liverpool situated near a place called Concert Square. The gig was held downstairs in a kind of cellar area that has been modified to resemble a stage. I have been there once before when I was out on a date - last time we walked into Korova and wandered down to the basement, completely unaware, only to find a band starting their set. For the gig tonight the whole of the stage was lit up with red light from all angles. I'll try to get a photo of the stage for you to see, it was mad.
A side note about the gig at the Korova - I saw a particular lad in there that I haven't seen for about 3 years. Last time I saw him isn't a very pleasant memory, it was an incident that ended up getting very messy and landed me in court. Seeing him again last night was something and it was nothing at the same time... sooner or later it's bound to happen that you run into people who you haven't seen in a while. The 2nd band of the night were playing and I happened to turn, clocked him out of the corner of my eye and quickly realised who it was, but I couldn't bring myself to turn around and say hello. I have got nothing against the guy in question, it just made me feel very awkward seeing him all of a sudden! Obviously something is still going on in my head that I haven't fully resolved yet. Anyway, these things happen. This is something for another time perhaps. Back to the gig.
The bands: 4 bands played at this gig, each of them was completely different from the next. The first band up were called The Cold Ones, they were a punk rock band, kind of like Black Flag. The second band on were called Wolf Cry Wolf - we never watched much of their set to be honest (Patchie needed a ciggy break and I needed a walk & a think). They came across as kind of emo (maybe that was just the vocals though), loud guitars, lots of tempo changes. The 3rd band on were a band called Bow & Arrow - I liked them a lot. Big swirly riffs and lots of drums.
Gentlemans Pistols are a rock band from Leeds. Simple as that. They all have big beards and dress like they're from the 70s. When they came on stage and started playing it sounded a bit like a Zeppelin cover band to me, they even have a song called Heavy Petting which is an almost riff-for-riff rip-off of Led Zeppelin's Dazed & Confused. Which is a good thing by the way! Gentlemans Pistols are due to support the band Witchcraft when they play Leeds in a few weeks (on December 4th) and it's presently 2 or 3 gigs along on the Claw Tour's itinerary list. It was good to see a bit of them in Liverpool, it was like a taster for the Witchcraft gig.
