Miscellaneous - Spitz, London, 22/1/2004

  by Olga Sladeckova

published: 6 / 1 / 2005

Article

With a 6 months break since the last one, the Penny Black Music Night returned to the Spitz on the night of the 22nd January – 2 years after our very first event. This time we decided to go for 5 bands to offer more variety of music and to make the evening, which we were hoping to be enjoyable, last longer. Guildford based instrumental post rock band Moly gave the night a striking and assertive opening. Considering their appearance very early on the bill a few minutes after the door opened they nevertheless drew an enthusiastic audience, who remained glued to their powerful music throughout their performance.. The beautiful tunes which come in and out of their VERY loud music felt seductively magnetic. Second up were London based punk act Lewd. They built up on Moly’s uninhibited attitude. Paul Fifield, the band’s singer, kept talking to the fans as if they were long time friends which helped to add to a very relaxed atmosphere. Sheffield band the Repomen were a very big success. While the Penny Black Music Night was their London live debut they seemed amazingly confident. They are a band who grew up on the punk and attracted the full attention of the audience seemingly efffortlessly. At one point Denzil Watson, the band’s singer, even jumped into the auditorium for closer contact with the fans. Heist are regulars to the Spitz. Their orchestral music and smart appearance added to the night 's charm. You couldn’t take your eyes off the stage watching this sevn piece line-up of the band smartly dressed in 60’s style clothes and playing instruments such as cello and violin against a backdrop of projections at the back of the stage. It was the first time Heist had played in London since a German tour at the end of last year. Bikini Atoll also very often appear at the Spitz but this time they had a lot of new songs to play for us. They were just back from spending two weeks in Chicago recording new songs with Steve Albini. Even though the band only came on after 10:30 it was well worth it for the fans who waited to see their set. The 4 piece Bikini treated us to handful of new songs, but also some of the older ones which had several people down the front dancing along. To sum it all up, I believe that anyone who got to witness the whole gig had a great time. People turning up to the gig and staying throughout the whole night is alone proof of a successful evening, but it all goes down to the 5 great bands who managed to keep our attention right from the beginning till the very end. If you have missed it this time then we are hoping to be back at the Spitz with a brand new line-up in May or June. See you then.

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