Badly, I Groove

Late shift at my job last night.

Only joking, I don't have a job! What I actually did last night was play another gig with SCRIBER. It was only my third gig as a member of Josh's backing band - the first was supporting James Vincent McMorrow - and since our last performance had been a little...clumsy, it was imperative that we got it right this time. In fact, we were so deteremined to deliver the goods that we actually decided to rehearse a couple of times before the gig.

Rehearsal #1 was at Josh and Ed's house, and I decided to spice things up a bit by bringing my mandolin along. I basically just did it because I get bored waiting for an appropriate moment to play the drums, but my noodlings went down pretty well so we decided to throw it in. It made it a bit folkier, I suppose. Although we did set ten minutes aside during the rehearsal for a little Krautrock experiment on Ed's keyboard, and I think that would be a pretty good direction to take if the nu-folk bubble should burst.
Rehearsal #2 was at Tewkesbury Place, and was mostly spent trying to choose a song to cover. Unfortunately, it seems like there is no band that all three of us appreciate, so after much deliberation - as well as an extended jam of Anyone Else But You by The Moldy Peaches, the only song we all knew* - we scrapped the idea and told Josh he could just play his own shit

We had a brief rehearsal before the gig, too, just to make sure. But we didn't need it; by this point we could have played Led Zeppelin themselves into a cocked hat.


The sound guy was a bit annoyed - no-one had told him that he would have to deal with a mandolin - but apart from him everyone was in high spirits. Having decided that "Scriber" was a bit too singular for a three-piece, we passed the time between soundcheck and show by brainstorming names for the backing band. Some of my favourites:


Scriber & The Shoelaces
Scriber & The Sluts
Scriber & Ed & Joel
Scriber & The Rebircs
Scriber & The Super Dinosaurs The Shoot Lasers From Their Eyes

Josh, being the misery-guts he is, vetoed all of these and introduced as just Scriber. But we'll just see about that.


The gig went very well; our weeks of arduous rehearsal paid rich dividends. I missed my cue on the first song - Josh usually counts us in but instead he just nodded and it's hard to tell what number he's on with just nods - but otherwise it went great, and even my mandolin bits were pretty sweet although I do say so myself. We were treated to the luxury of awed silence, which made the quiet bits all the more electrifying and the loud bits all the more potent. And I do love the way that Josh, when people start applauding at the end of a song, will raise a hand to let them know that it's not finished yet and shush.


Best of all we played Badly, I Move (or 'The One With F' as Ed knows it), which is my favourite 'cause I actually get a decent thumping rhythm going on the drum.

The setlist, for anyone keeping score:
The Party
Mountain Man
Holland House
Slow Runner
Badly, I Move
The War & I


(Ed pointed out last night that no less than three of those songs are named 'something and something'. Can't see them all? Well there's "The War and I"; "Holl and House"; and of course, "Mount 'n' Man".

I ran off at the end of the set because, well, we finished later than I thought we would, and I had food and a Sarah waiting for me at home (not to mention my tonsillitis, which I used as my 'official' excuse). The other bands were probably great though. A girl from my course was in one of them so I feel a bit bad about my breach of gig etiquette but, eh, I was hungry. Sorry Sam!

Joel.

*Ed also did a very shouty rendition Steak For Chicken on electric guitar. I've never seen him so angry.