Blog: Performing Pals

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I've been out TWICE in the past two nights - i know, i know, i should be writing an IN SOCIETY column or something - both times to see some PALS, performing.

On Tuesday night I headed out to The Green Dragon in Croydon to see Mr Pete Green playing at Freedom Of Expression. I've been there so very many times that it felt WEIRD not to have my guitar with me, and I kept PANICKING every few minutes when I realised i didn't have it. It was LOVELY to be there again tho, and there was MUCH HUGGING. It was also GRATE to see Mr Green again, as it feels like ages since I last saw him or, indeed, Mariantha Atomic Beat, and it reminded me of what I've missed most about not doing so many gigs this year: the bit beforehand with the beer and the chatting. It was lovely, and made me excited about the prospect of a whole WEEKEND of that sort of thing, come Indietracks.

Pete was, of course, GRATE, and it was brilliant to see him in a room like this where it WASN'T an Indie Scene type gig. It's lovely to play to people who already like you, but it takes a special kind of something to do it to a room full of people who have no idea what you're like and could get up and leave or just sit and CHAT if you don't entertain them. Pete, of course, GRABBED them , turning them from a chatting mobile crowd at the start to a LARGER one hanging on his every word by the end. Well done sir!

Then last night myself and The Punchline In My Joke went to Leafy Stoke Newington to see my friend Cathy do her first stand-up gig. She's been doing a Stand-Up Comedy course and this was their big end of term show where everyone was doing five minutes. We'd heard some of her GAGS a couple of weeks ago and were thus assured of some LARFS, which we indeed GOT. I always find it weird watching my friends, especially my friends I know from outside of BANDS, doing this sort of thing, and get VERY NERVOUS about it, but she was DEAD good, got everybody on side, and had the whole room cheering by the end. She also finished with a last line so... MEMORABLE that pretty much EVERYONE referred back to it over the rest of the night. I shall never look at a plastic knife the same way again!

It was lovely to be out seeing OTHER people doing THE SHOWS, but I must admit it did make me hanker a little for some of my own again. Luckily, I've got LOADS coming up!
posted 1/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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