Happyness at the Louisiana, 6th May

It's raining on Wednesday evening. The harbour kind of stinks, and the wind-rain combo isn't doing anyone any favours - except maybe the bar at the Louisiana. Crushed Beaks have had to pull out of supporting tonight because of an injury, and the venue isn't exactly close to the centre of town, so most of the gig-goers have been sitting in the warm of the ground-floor pub for an hour or two before tonight's one-act gig begins.

Once the doors open, everyone heads upstairs to a small room with a low ceiling, some interesting smells, and Happyness' set-up, accompanied by pink and green lighting. The room fills up a little more with a huge range of people, from teenage hipsters to over-50s to Big Jeff, and about ten minutes later, three guys walk through the crowd and onto the stage. They're all wearing t-shirts, jeans and trainers, and one t-shirt, a Doc Martens "Stand for Something" tee, has been filled in so the front of it reads "I stand for Christmas." Meet Jonny, Benji, and Ash, AKA Happyness.

Avi Buffalo & Happyness at Thekla, 8th October

Thekla always seems to manage to put on bands with just the right amount of self-awareness: they know that people will want to see them perform, but they're not big enough to overestimate how many people will be there to watch. On Thursday, I went to see Happyness, and stayed for Avi Buffalo.