I met with BenC & HuiMin for curry last night, good to see them again…though I was getting some weird vibes from one of the waiters, which made for kind of pensive service, but the food was good.
Then on to The Hibachi Dealers at the Half Moon. lark_ascending providing vocals. I arrived after they’d started, but I think I only missed a song or so….it didn’t matter too much since the guitarist from the next band hadn’t arrived yet anyway so they were having to do a few extra tracks to fill in.
As is often the case the sound was awful in the small room at the back of the pub, but the music came through anyway. Perhaps a little more stage presence from the lead singer could iron over some of the gaps between song, it’ll come with practice. Quite a prog turns metal sound, very much the kind of thing I like, and things’ll get better once they’ve had a bit more time performing together – plenty of potential, needs a bit of tightening up.
Then between the bands was the usual mix of music made somewhat more entertaining by the one of the artistic quiet spots in the music coinciding precisely with someone on the other side of the room saying “I’m a virgin”, you couldn’t do that if you’d planned it. Timing is /everything/. Poor lad.
Finally the guitarist of One Mile High turned up, and they spent a while faffing and setting up…they’d not had a soundcheck and just dumped all their kit on the stage and got on with it. Given that they came out sounding rather good. And though he didn’t look much he was worth waiting for, some really lovely dirty blues-y riffs and fabulously self-indulgent solos. These guys had a bit more stage presence, and have obviously been together as a unit for a while. Worth seeing again.