The Birdcage, 15th June

So I've only ever been to the Birdcage twice (so far - I will be going back there a lot more often now that I know they have well-priced tea and good taste in music). Last night I went with my friend Billie to see 3 bands for £3. In all honesty, I had no clue who they were and hadn't listened to any of their music before we went, but we were figured it would be a good night because of the venue, and it was really nice!

Elder Island, Mouse Deer and Gold Road were playing. I have to be honest here - my memory isn't great, so my mind has just kind of smushed the three bands together into one big circus troupe-type collective, but I really enjoyed their sound. There was a lot of band-member crossover here, which worked surprisingly well - I don't know why, but I always assumed that if you're in more than one band you'll still be sticking to the same genre in each. I think the reason it worked so well having bands sharing members is because they played different roles each time, from backup to main singer and changing around with instruments. I also loved the fact that egg shakers were involved. (I don't know why, but they rank highly on my favourite instruments list - probably because they're one of the few things I can play.) It was also great to see some brass action going on; I don't think enough bands make use of it!

The evening was really fun. We arrived at about 8pm, so Elder Island were already playing. They had a really interesting sound, the kind of thing you can sit and just listen to, trying to hear all the different layers to the songs (so many!). As a venue, the Birdcage attracts what you might call the stereotypical "indie" crowd - in short, a lot of well-dressed, classy people. Big love to the velvet jackets, waistcoats and tea dresses in particular. The night went really well and the atmosphere was great: even though I'd never heard of these bands before, it felt really natural listening to them, and you could see that everyone was enjoying watching them, from the couple sat watching from their chairs, looking perfectly at home, to the bar staff dancing away behind the counter, and the lead singer who at one point sat down on the settee at the very front and watched her band-mates play for a little while. It might have had something to do with the fact that when they weren't playing, the band members were just sitting on sofas and drinking, like everybody else. Gotta love a humble band.

ANYWAY, let's try and get back to the whole point of this post! The bands were great. They have a real summery, old-time feel to them - some songs for walking around on sunny days, some for dancing your little feet off, and there were even some songs that felt like they were made for just sitting and listening to on warm nights, taking them in. All in all, an amazing variety of sounds.

Great job, bands. Great choice, Birdcage.

-Alice

Hey!

So my name's Alice, and this is gonna be my 'personal' blog, I guess - I've had a tumblr for a while but people can get very comfy in the image they make of you, and on there I am a picture and art blogger (or re-blogger, I guess). Incorporating personal posts within that has never been easy, and I never know what to say, so I figure I'll just dump all that stuff here.

I promise I'll try and make it okay and less boring to read for you than this.

- Alice