How Does It Feel To Be Loved?

I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open, but I just want to get down my impressions of the gig while it's still fresh in my mind.

First off, it was an absolutely gorgeous day - the sun was shining, the birds were singing - so even though I arrived two hours before the soundcheck, I sat in the sun and gossiped with Stars of Aviation and Irene. What friendly bands! This was possibly the nicest thing about the evening - the mutual support and admiration and general goodwill between all of the bands involved. (Also, there's really nothing I like better than hanging around with a gang of hott indie boys, but hey, that's just me.)

The other Shimuras straggled in at various increments of lateness, but I was in too good a mood to be bothered. Marianna was full of joy, having just come back from seeing Take That the night before, so we watched the videos on her camera and squealed with girly joy. However, soundchecks started so late and took so long that we had to dress and warm up before we got one! Plus, they had already started letting people in by the time we soundchecked! Eep! for people thinking we had started when we hadn't and resulting technical difficulties.

Anyway, we had just enough time to touch up our makeup and get some wine before shuffling to the stage - however, terrifyingly enough, we emerged from the ladies' loo to find that the entire Windmill was SO PACKED we could barely make it to the stage. Blimey!

I wasn't that nervous. It's weird when you're not nervous, because you don't get that adrenaline rush and that WHEEEEEEEE!!! when you finally go on. I was just trying to concentrate on playing guitar perfectly (least flubs of any performance yet, of which I am quite proud.) The girls danced from the very start, perfectly poisted and well synchronised. So much for "post pub chaos" (I think the early hour and the sobriety may be responsible.) John Brainlove was filming the whole thing which I found slightly off-putting, as he was on my side of the stage, and I was convinced the whole thing was going to be just one continuous shot of my giant ass. :-(

Between song banter was greatly cut, as we shifted professionally from one song to the next with minimal faff (though the best WTF? moment was when Anna started spouting something about drinking ourselves to death like Dylan Thomas (?) but we're getting used to Anna's endearing ramblings onstage). And for the first time ever, I managed to remember all of the words to Elephants! (Which we followed with Capture The Castle - geddit? ha ha, Elephant and Castle? Heh. OK, I'm easily amused.)

We were a bit pressed for time, so we ended up not being able to debut PWNED live, which was a bit of a shame. But we more than made up for it with the most DRONETASTIC* version of Noyfriend yet. Lots of people say this is fast becoming our best song live, and I tend to agree. I need to write more songs where I get to cut loose and actually play mental pedaled-out space guitar.

The girls helped clear up the gear, which really helped me not get stressed, and avoided a repeat of the last gig's mood-drop. Plus the crowd were so receptive. Lots of people kept stopping me and telling me what a good show it was, which is always nice to hear, especially if you feel like you've put on a good performance.

Sat outside and gossiped with Anton who I used to be in Fugue State with a million years ago, back in NYC. Anton's an amazing musician, and a fantastic songwriter - I learned so much from him back in the day - so it was great to have him there, especially since he was quite complimentary. He's someone whose opinion I really value and whose judgement I trust.

The gig was so crowded and the sound so quiet that I didn't get to hear much of the other bands, much to my dismay, as they'd sounded amazing at soundcheck. Stars of Aviation impressed me with their bassoon and the little late medieval baroque interludes. We decided that there should be more basso continuo in pop. Mon Fio had an actual VIBROPHONE onstage - kudos to them for dragging the thing about in the back of a cab. And Irene were fun, joyful Californian style (by way of Sweden) sunshine pop. Though I still don't know how they got all 8 of them up on that tiny stage.

Got paid properly (!!!!) and drank way too much wine out in the garden (while AMPy flirted with groupies - yes! we have groupies now! Hurrah!), hence the hangover and wretchedness today. But I've been in the best mood all day. Even the awful fatness of myself in the photos and videos could not put a damper on the proud sense I have that "yeah, we done good!"

Oh yes, and we got invited back to do a Pre-Truck BBQ with Piney Gir in July. Can't wait.

*Yes, there's always been a spacerock element to our music, etc....