Before I go on to the gig, a quick word about parking at the S&G for all you boys and girls to take heed of - DON'T just turn up early in the day and park your vehicle in the pub's back lot without mentioning it to the guys lurking downstairs in the beer cellar first! I did just that yesterday and ended up getting myself a parking ticket for my troubles. £60 fixed penalty... balls. Fortunately your friendly S&G landlord was able to have the fine rescinded for me later on, but it's still not a pleasant experience to get back to your car and find a fucking fixed penalty notice slapped onto your window! Next time I will be leaving a "Doctor on call" note on my window or something. Anyways, just so y'all know!
Okay, here's some gig facts for you.
LAZARUS BLACKSTAR
Lazarus B*S were 1st up tonight, and they had a decent crowd. I could be wrong here, but I remember a different band line-up last time we saw these guys. Also, this is the 1st show I had been to at the S&G in 2009, it was probably the same for a lot of the other people in attendance too. Man, I forgot just how fucking loud this venue is. Really, really fuckin loud in that place. L.B.S. got on with their set pretty sharpish and I'm guessing that they had all of their knobs set to 11. Sorry, no idea of what the setlist was... I should have asked. Talking to mikey (vocals) later on, he was happy with their set, he said they had a much better show here than at Scumstock in Sunderland recently.
After Blackstar finished their set, there was a HUGE wait between the end of their set and the beginning of Ramesses's. Like an hour or something. Not a problem for everyone else, the crowd spent this time wisely (at the bar getting drunk).
RAMESSES
THEE CLAW loves Ramesses and they always do a good show. Just like Lazarus Blackstar before them Tim, Mark & Adam just got up on stage and played, no dramatics, no ad-libbing with the crowd. Seemed to me that Ramesses had the biggest audience of the show (plenty of people in the crowd musta needed to make tracks to catch the last train half way through Unearthly Trance's set). Again, no idea of the setlist. Shit reviewer, I know. It didn't make much of a difference anyway, they were so fucking loud and the crowd was so damn into it. The temperature in the room had gone up by about 10 degrees by the end of the Ramesses set.
UNEARTHLY TRANCE
It was quite late in the proceedings when U.T. got to the stage, about 11pm I think. Okay, so that's not really *that* late, but the waits between sets seemed to make it feel that way. That's no complaint from me there btw, I am always happy hanging around for post-midnight rock & roll. It just worked out to be a bit too late for some of the crowd, that's all. Ah well, the folks who left early missed out I guess!
One gripe: U.T. didn't play a lot of the material from their Electrocution record. At least, I expected more. But the set was still good... people around the front of the crowd went a bit nuts when they played Raised By Wolves. At the end of their set I was at the front of the stage, next to the speaker; as I was bent down (putting my camera back into my bag) a huge blast of feedback screamed out of the speakers and sent my head into a spin... like some kind of sonic torture implement! I stood back up and fell over because all sense of balance was suddenly gone from my body. Today I am still getting a sickly whistling sound out of my left ear, I think that's my hearing finally fucking gone. Haha, thanks a lot Unearthly Trance, you have just arranged lifelong tinnitus for me! Earplugs for me from now on I guess, you bastards.
