Blog: A Lovely Evening 2

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Last night the Spice In My Curry and i went to a GIG, to see Chris T-T at the 12 Bar. It was GRATE.

I always think of Chris as a sort of Super-Evolved version of ME, like someone gave ME Red Kryptonite and I BECAME a Possible Future ME, that... er ... was Chris. Does that make any sense? It seemed to last night on the way home, in my head... anyway, yes, i say this because he always seems to be a couple of years AHEAD of me - for instance, last year he gave up his day job and started doing ROCK full-time, something which I guess MIGHT be possible for me to do one day. Anyway, we had a quick chat with him when we arrived, he is a LOVELY chap and it was BRILLIANT to hear how well things are going for him now. The whole Not Having A Day Job seems to be working pretty well now, he says, and he's got all sorts of Exciting Prospects coming up, including a new album for which - AHA! - he and the band are going to do DEMO VERSIONS before they record it properly! Everybody's doing it! He seemed really happy with things, and it was HEART WARMING to see his Brave Decision had paid off. He was writing his setlist, so i asked for "Hole Full Of Submarines" and we had a CD SWAP. THUS this afternoon i shall be listening to his live acoustic album, COOL.

He had to get ready to GIG so we went and got a PINT, and I once again thought "I really like the 12 Bar, it is ACE", because it is. It's SORT of like a Red Kryptonite version of The Magazine, the pub in Leicester i drank in over a DECADE ago, because it feels like a homely place you could sit in and have a PROPER PUB EVENING in, but also feels like Things Could Happen, that you're likely to bump into somebody and form a BAND and/or devise a GRATE IDEA and actually carry it out. The Mag was VERY MUCH like that (i ended up being in a LOT of bands at the time), and the 12 Bar feels to me like a more relaxed, older, but still GROOVY version of it. Is GOOD!

So yes, we got our drinks and went in to see Chris, who'd promised a slightly different set to usual, in that he did mostly "serious" songs. We do get compared to each other occasionally, he and I, but I do think a BIG difference between the two of us is that he always makes a clear distinction between his "serious" and his "stupid" songs (the latter usually being the ones he puts out as singles, like "Eminem is Gay"), whereas i VERY MUCH DON'T. I do wish he wouldn't, it's like he's apologising for writing a song with some gags in, but i can see why he DOES do it, as he always comes across as quite SINCERE and COMMITTED to things which... er... i don't necessarily always do.

He was certainly BOTH of these things last night, doing a string of heartfelt songs like that drew out the PASSION in him, he was AMAZING. Mention was made of Bruce Springsteen a couple of times, and you could see that in him too, the DETERMINATION and again the PASSION of his singing and what he was singing about was a JOY to see. He's also got a WINNING WAY with the PHRASE, my favourite being when he sang "I am silenced by contentment... and supermarkets". It may not read that well, but when he sang it it was RIPE with meaning, it was deeply affecting and MOVING. He also did "Giraffes" which apparently he doesn't usually do solo, and it too was GRATE - the three rules of Giraffes! FANTASTIC!

I had a THOROUGHLY GOOD TIME, and was ALL CHUFFED halfway through when he dedicated "Hole Full Of Submarines" to ME! OOH! He was very complimentary INDEED when saying so, and EXCITINGLY (NB if you are ME) when he said "MJ Hibbett is here" a couple of people went "Ooh!" GOLLY! I got a bit excited and said "Thank you very much!" but unfortunately i didn't say it QUITE loud enough for him to hear and thus for it to qualify as Audience Interaction, but I said it TOO loud for it just to be me talking to someone nearby, so instead it came out SLIGHTLY MAD, and SHOW OFFY. I felt like a bit of a WAZZOCK.

But apart from my own DAFTNESS it was just a FANTASTIC gig, DEFINITELY the best I've ever seen him, passionate, exciting, and, when he sang "We need a rabble rouser" in "Bored Of The War" I, and I'm sure everyone else who was there, thought "Yeah! I vote for YOU!"

posted 14/10/2004 by MJ Hibbett

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