Jules lands at the Dog and Muff!!!

27th of July:

The Dog and Muff was a gig venue I was really looking forward to. That was until the rest of the guys started telling me that I was going to have to either pull my jeans up, or have to suffer the indignity of having my arse pinched continuously the entire time I was there. I was as you can imagine a little apprehensive about turning to a place where by all accounts, we would be paraded around on stage like pieces of meat. I didn't think anyone could enjoy that, but then again, people go to places like liquid every weekend, don't they?

So, we got there, and no one had a clue what was going on.










There was no drum kit waiting for us, and this was when support act panic starts to sink in. As prepared as we had been, it looked like all was going to fail. Then when we'd set up our gear on stage, basically taking it in a bloody coup d'etat, we had no microphones or stands bar the ones we'd brought.....

Oh well. Better late than never. Everything turned up just in time for us to sound-check NSPCC, but not before we were asked to warm up the crowd with instrumental versions of songs.... Which was more than a little weird.

After our sound-check, we performed our per gig ritual with the 'care package', sat down to a drink, and geared ourselves up. By this time, the hall was swarming... it's the only word I can use that accurately describe the activity.... with kids who just wanted to hear a good show.

Ok, that's not actually a picture of the Dog and Muff. Nor are they kids. But you get the idea.

Then.... The gig.

This was a truly magical set. We sounded among the best gigs we've ever played, rivaling the gig with Toast in Ifor Bach, or the TJ's in the park audtion. More importantly, it was the sound of a band that finally.... FINALLY.... hit their groove.

I'm told the highlights included Punk Rock Girl, doing it's usual job of getting the crowd into a party atmosphere, but this time around, it wasn't buried mid-set to revive flagging souls, but played first: From that point, you were in for a wild ride.

The double whammy of Radioactive and Acid Angel also hit the crowd like a hammer, sounding better than I've ever heard them: That's since I joined the band, from CD's I'd heard, from the Andy K and Dan Henly era... They sounded scorching, especially radioactive, with its punky, reworked intro.

New material however were what most of the people were there to see. Even if the Dog and Muff is where most of our fans go, we still had to give them something new. "Gayness," "State of Mind," and "Crimes" served to do that. I'm afraid I didn't do state of mind justice though, by slightly messing up a complicated guitar bit, and totally forgetting the lyrics to the second verse. The recovery was good though, with Mike on my right side to whisper "Don't worry, just carry on. It sounds ok." I suspected he may have been lying, but I loved him all the same for it.

We closed out the set to applause for "crimes," during the outro, which was damn sweet, got a drink, and then, disgusted with the fact that people seemed to cool to dance to the band after us, who were full of enthusiasm and had the most energetic and charismatic frontman, we got up and danced. Thankfully people joined us.

Remember, you're never too cool to dance to music you like!

From the other side,


Jules