RAB11
Well-known member
So in 2013, I was (briefly) a bachelor living up the road from the best venue in town, the Wedgewood Rooms. Tiny, dingy, sticky floor, black paint everywhere sort of place that always makes for the best gigs. One night I went to see The Joy Formidable (who really I should have attempted this week at some point) and I met a guy there who really I ought to have swapped numbers with. He suggested that I come down and see Kodaline a couple weeks later, so I thought why not.
Turns out Kodaline were a soft-rock ballady Keane-lite and not really my cup of tea at the time, although their performance was pretty good. And I learnt of the wondrous invention that is the e-bow that night.
But the bigger takeaway was the support act. Out comes a guy and a girl dressed like an Amish couple, out from LA to support an Irish band on their first tour in a tiny Portsmouth venue, the girl is all spaced out and pretentious, the guy wielding a strat and a magnificent beard, and they play half an hour of some of the coolest synth-pop I've heard in my life. They've had a few EPs and an album or two since then and they seem to have got more arty and less Amish from following them on Facebook, but there's one or two songs I absolutely love on that record they released that year.
Here's one of them, and a handy excuse to try the Korg MIDI I bought the other week.
Turns out Kodaline were a soft-rock ballady Keane-lite and not really my cup of tea at the time, although their performance was pretty good. And I learnt of the wondrous invention that is the e-bow that night.
But the bigger takeaway was the support act. Out comes a guy and a girl dressed like an Amish couple, out from LA to support an Irish band on their first tour in a tiny Portsmouth venue, the girl is all spaced out and pretentious, the guy wielding a strat and a magnificent beard, and they play half an hour of some of the coolest synth-pop I've heard in my life. They've had a few EPs and an album or two since then and they seem to have got more arty and less Amish from following them on Facebook, but there's one or two songs I absolutely love on that record they released that year.
Here's one of them, and a handy excuse to try the Korg MIDI I bought the other week.