My favourite Nottingham band
doesn’t do many hometown gigs these days, and now that they are getting married
and having children their priorities are understandably changing. Last night
they played for the first time since the summer, and only their fourth gig (to
my knowledge at least) this year and there was no way that I was going to miss
it. Captain
Dangerous are in my opinion at least, too big for Jam Café but somehow seem to
be stuck on their own rung of the ladder. In
the past they have played to a packed out Rescue Rooms (on two occasions) and at one point it was thought that Nottingham had the next big band
on their hands. I have searched for them on YouTube and found footage that goes
way back; festival sets, videos, gigs, busking,
the body of work available documents a band on the rise. Winning the poll to
open the Market Square in Nottingham in 2007 should have been the start of
something massive, but for some reason they seem to be stuck in whatever glass
box this city’s musicians get themselves trapped in.
I had to record my American
show before going out, and knowing how insanely busy Jam Café gets I wanted to
get there for eight o’clock. As it turned out I didn’t leave the house until
eight, but luckily I still got in as the support band, Maniere des Bohemiens were setting up. Gary and Tegan met me there, and NottinghamLIVE was
represented by me, Cassia, and Darren’s wife Geri.
Joined by two guest
violinists, a woman called Di and Nicole from The Most Ugly Child, the band
didn’t quite have room on stage so three of them had to stand at floor level.
If I’d have been any closer I would have been in the band. Their set included
two new songs, ‘Hang Your Head In Shame Darlin’’, (which I have heard before
somewhere) and ‘Lovely Bones’, on top of classic songs from the first album The Empire Never Ended. Although the Nottingham music scene
was fairly well populated, it was nice to see so many members of the public in
attendance, especially in such a small place.
There appeared to be a couple
of slight problems with the band’s sound (to them, it sounded great from a
punter point of view) and a few issues with cues. However, this added to the
charm of an intimate gig from a band with something of a punk attitude. As much
as I feel that Captain Dangerous deserve to be on a bigger stage, the fact that
you can see a band of their caliber and capability in such a venue is a gift
that we should be very grateful for. Despite the late hour the show didn’t seem
to last very long, and nobody would have complained if they had chosen to play
all night.
Once again Captain Dangerous proved themselves to be the best
band in Nottingham, here’s to the next gig. Whenever
that might be.
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