Although I still have the remnants of a cold I resorted yesterday to my usual method of medicating the shit out of it and getting on with my life. There was a gig at The Maze that I wanted to attend, Notts In A Nutshell, the semi-regular showcase of new and upcoming bands and musicians. I couldn't let the side down with regards the supporting of emerging talent in Nottingham by not turning up just because I have a cold, what would my fellow influential music champions with radio shows and podcasts think of that after everything I have said? Aside from looking forward to seeing the presenter of BBC Radio Nottingham's The Beat and the host of Notts TV's local music programme Literally and maybe having a drink with them as well as a discussion about local live music, I wanted to see the band City of Kites. I've known Gerry Trimble for a while and have seen him playing solo on several occasions and the band played an acoustic set on The Sunday Alternative on Trent Sound but I hadn't actually seen the band doing a full set.
As is usually the way I was running late from the start; once I was home from the courtroom I had to have a shower, dinner (we watched an episode of Bottom with dinner as there wasn't an episode of Eastenders last night) and make my way back out. Whatever obstacle befell me in my mission to get to The Maze, it was worse for my fellow music champions as they didn't make it at all. I missed a couple of bands but caught one whose name escapes me that just sounded like noise, never have the words "this is our last song" made my heart lift so much. City of Kites blew the place apart as I suspected they would do, as always it is a shame that Notts In A Nutshell isn't a well attended gig as this is an ideal place to discover new acts, good or bad. Professional to the end, the band played to the same standard as they would have done for a sold out crowd and that is how it should be. Sometimes artists can be a bit snarky and dismissive when playing to an empty room forgetting that a few people paid to get in (myself included, I always pay for this kind of thing) and deserve a decent show. Kites play a good humoured punky set and I would have been happy to declare them the winner of the night, even though it isn't a competition.
During one of the breaks in proceedings I headed out to the rear smoking area where two lads who looked about 12 (but obviously were not 12 because I am not implying that The Maze would serve under age customers) were discussing the differences between Guns 'n' Roses and Metallica. I have never heard such ill-informed waffle spoken in a smoking area before. First of all they said that GnR only made one good song, when in fact they made one good album, Appetite For Destruction, followed by one decent album spread over two substandard albums, Use Your Illusion 1 and Use Your Illusion 2. The problem seemed to stem from the fact that they were judging GnR based on what they are like nowadays, and when I said that I had seen them live in 1993 they looked at me as if I had told them I was present at the discovery of fire. Was I that dickish as a teenager to imagine that music didn't exist before my own time? Although I like Metallica (up to and including the 'black album') I do think that GnR are better, but these kids were dismissing both bands out of hand without any real knowledge which made me want to put my cigarette out in the eye of the mouthiest one. To be honest I'm not sure whether I was pissed off with their attitude in general or just the fact that I am too old to be getting into discussions about music with young twats at gigs. I tried to put myself in the place of the cocky teen in Converse and ripped jeans, smoking a hand rolled ciggie, trying to hold court and talking a lot of shit and then I realised the horrible truth; I was looking at the 16 year old version of myself. Not only was I looking at my 16 year old self but an even worse truth dawned on me as I returned to a bar full of people younger than myself (apart from parents of band members waiting to be called for chauffeur duty), I was the 'old' person that my friends and I used to sneer at for being at a young gig. I'm sure we used to sneer at people who were, like, literally, one hundred or something, but it would seem that we were just being cruel to people who were only in their thirties.
Interplanetary Trash Talk were the headline band last night, a band I haven't seen before but definitely will again. An all out '1,2,3,4' punk outfit, they played a blinding set again treating Notts In A Nutshell as if it was a sold out Rock City instead of what it really seems to be, a sociable band practise. The final result was a tiebreaker between them and City of Kites, except that it isn't a competition.
Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.
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March housekeeping
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