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satyricaTuesday before last I went to see HMLTD, who had decked out the Electric Ballroom in an Infernoesque tableau of sinister, bloody masks and dangling, intestinal shapes. First support were Show Boy, another product of the apparently burgeoning South London scene, who had an androgynous glamour and songs that deftly switched from Channing Tatum to the Bauhaus. Next up Pixx were pretty solid too: a moody (I think) duo with an impassive frontwoman. I'd only caught HMLTD before at Great Escape and had wanted to like them more than I did: seeing them on home turf brought out their qualities more, which wasn't so much the music (although there are a couple of great songs) as the spectacle; they are shameless posing provocateurs who were rewarded with a wave of energy from the crowd. I was at home Wednesday (N calling off because he was still ill), then was back in Camden on Thursday for Otherkin: my first time at the Camden Assembly since its transformation from the Barfly. I only saw one of the supports, Concrete Caverns, who managed to punch above their fairly standard rock with some nicely political lyrics, then Otherkin were again impressive, full of unironic energy and quite unnecessarily taking great pains to get the album I bought afterwards signed by all of them.
The annual Halloween Party at N's had come around on Friday night, with an open theme this year, which produced the usual range of efforts: I had cobbled some stuff together which I had decided to confidently declare represented The Horned God. There was a good crowd, with the usual suspects at the centre of it, but I crashed out earlier than I would have liked and was not in a good state the following morning, just about becoming functional in time to go into work and deliver part of the overnight workers' induction. I popped home for a bit then headed out to Egham for the finale of our Ghost Stories game which provided a suitably satisfying confrontation and more dubious Enochian chanting.
On Sunday a quartet of us went to the Scythians exhibition at the British Museum, which I really enjoyed: a lot more textiles than you usually get because of the preserving permafrost and it never felt too crowded. Of the original three of us planned, only I managed to make it back to Ketch's for lunch afterwards but it was lovely nonetheless; M's Mum was down for the weekend so I hung out with them a bit back home.
Last week started with Book Group: Hagseed seemed to be a universally average experience, it certainly seemed to be rather phoned in by Margaret Atwood's usual standards. On Tuesday I was back at Camden Assembly for a Halloween gig by Yonaka, supported by Stereo Honey, who I'd see before and remained impressive but not my thing, and female-fronted space-rockers Anteros. Yonaka had adopted a Clockwork Orange styling for the evening. N & I went to see The Death of Stalin at the Rio Wednesday, which was enjoyably random, then Aberrant finally happened again down in Lewisham on Thursday.
Friday night I took N to see Nordic Giants at Bush Hall (having failed to meet Josh, who was also gigging nearby, for a drink first): we caught one support, Swedish "post-rock" instrumentalists PG.lost who were really good. Nordic Giants are also largely instrumental, with famous political quotes being intoned over their soundtracks to specially made short films. It's pretty unique and only really works with all three of the elements, I imagine that my attention would quickly wander if any one of them was missing. Saturday I went down to Woking and met up with K for lunch before going round to hang out with Layla & family: we took in some local fireworks but were otherwise pretty sedate, lovely to just spend time with them though. We stayed over so I wandered across to my brother's this morning (detouring for a stroll along the canal), spent a bit of family time with him and then we drove to Guildford to visit Granny, who still appears to be doing remarkably well.
The annual Halloween Party at N's had come around on Friday night, with an open theme this year, which produced the usual range of efforts: I had cobbled some stuff together which I had decided to confidently declare represented The Horned God. There was a good crowd, with the usual suspects at the centre of it, but I crashed out earlier than I would have liked and was not in a good state the following morning, just about becoming functional in time to go into work and deliver part of the overnight workers' induction. I popped home for a bit then headed out to Egham for the finale of our Ghost Stories game which provided a suitably satisfying confrontation and more dubious Enochian chanting.
On Sunday a quartet of us went to the Scythians exhibition at the British Museum, which I really enjoyed: a lot more textiles than you usually get because of the preserving permafrost and it never felt too crowded. Of the original three of us planned, only I managed to make it back to Ketch's for lunch afterwards but it was lovely nonetheless; M's Mum was down for the weekend so I hung out with them a bit back home.
Last week started with Book Group: Hagseed seemed to be a universally average experience, it certainly seemed to be rather phoned in by Margaret Atwood's usual standards. On Tuesday I was back at Camden Assembly for a Halloween gig by Yonaka, supported by Stereo Honey, who I'd see before and remained impressive but not my thing, and female-fronted space-rockers Anteros. Yonaka had adopted a Clockwork Orange styling for the evening. N & I went to see The Death of Stalin at the Rio Wednesday, which was enjoyably random, then Aberrant finally happened again down in Lewisham on Thursday.
Friday night I took N to see Nordic Giants at Bush Hall (having failed to meet Josh, who was also gigging nearby, for a drink first): we caught one support, Swedish "post-rock" instrumentalists PG.lost who were really good. Nordic Giants are also largely instrumental, with famous political quotes being intoned over their soundtracks to specially made short films. It's pretty unique and only really works with all three of the elements, I imagine that my attention would quickly wander if any one of them was missing. Saturday I went down to Woking and met up with K for lunch before going round to hang out with Layla & family: we took in some local fireworks but were otherwise pretty sedate, lovely to just spend time with them though. We stayed over so I wandered across to my brother's this morning (detouring for a stroll along the canal), spent a bit of family time with him and then we drove to Guildford to visit Granny, who still appears to be doing remarkably well.
