Diary of an up and coming sociopath

In what’s turning out to be a remarkably fun-filled (and expensive) week, Nikki and I went to see David Ford yesterday. If you don’t count the charity gig last year, this is the first time we’ve seen him play live.

Nikki met me from work, and we had a look in Fopp, then went for dinner at the Soho Square Nandos. Our Nandos card allowed us to claim a free glass of wine, which Nikki drank. This leaves us a mere three stamps away from a free whole chicken, and we’ll undoubtedly celebrate that one by, er, eating it. Following our meal (which I paid for again, though this time it was to pay off some money I owe Nikki rather than being generous, because i’m that kind of guy) we spent an hour abusing Borders’ legendary hospitality. I proved a point I had made at lunchtime to Ian about the opinion of graphic novels taken by bookshops, when I managed to find Sin City graphic novels on a table display among normal fiction books, while there were none to be seen anywhere near the actual graphic novel section. Bookshops are quick to shove graphic novels far, far away from the comics section as soon as they’re turned into a film, as if filing Sin City next to Superman is going to embarrass their clientele.

We found the venue by using Nikki’s new phones amazing powers of GPRS and looked up the exact address while standing in the middle of the pavement. I love the future. Now, if only the screen was a few inches larger, we’d really be talking.

The venue was utterly tiny. It’s really just a small bar with a stage in the corner. And it’s surprisingly full of concrete, as in, even the tables and seats were concrete, and I was inclined to agree with Dave when he said he preferred a bit of wood. Part of the problem with the venue being so small was that in my haste that morning, I had grabbed the first black t-shirt near me, and it had turned out to be my easyowlrd try not to think shirt, which had the unfortunate effect of presumably making me look like a total fanboy. It’s a big issue, especially for comic readers, where within the scene being called a fanboy is an insult without parallel. It’s basically the one thing I’m image-conscious about - not appearing to be an over-enthusiastic undiscerning wanker who’d call shit silver if the right person’s name was attached, and part of maintaining that image is following one of adam and joe’s rule of gig-going and not wearing a band’s own t-shirts to their gig. And I blew it. Christ, the embarrassment.

Ford was in decent form, trying out a few new songs and playing a few of his older ones, while accompanied by a woman named Frances, who was activating samples and providing backing vocals. The first new song, Go To Hell, was way off the pretentiometer, with its train sample and spoken word monologues, and in many ways reminds you that he used to be a drama student. The song “katie” which is apparantly about obsessions, and specifically, with Katie Derham, was easily my favourite of the new three. I also enjoyed “Cheer Up…” a bit more this time around.

After Dave was done, we hung around for Yo Zushi, who had formerly played with the band Great Days of Sail. His songs and music were quite good, but I get the feeling his voice would benefit from some production. His set certainly picked up towards the end. I tihnk I just have a higher tolerance for singer-songwriters because I can actually listen to the words in their songs, which are usually a bit more lyrically complex than your average mid-level support band.