Thursday: The heat rash is definitely on the way out, I'm finding less and less blotches everyday and I was even able to work out in my room these past two days. Left for the Tap after seven, found myself moving from place to place for an hour and a half not really knowing what to do with myself, anxious for the bands to start. At one point I was sitting at the end of the bar and I see these really badly dressed hipsters and think they are the campest looking fuckers I've ever seen then I realise that it's three members of Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, the singer was even wearing a WWI jacket like My Chemical Romance do now, but they were talking to anyone who came up to them so they seem that they are nice blokes at least.
Pariah: The last Guillaume Seam show I went to they were selling a CD of Thom's solo acoustic stuff, I didn't buy it but I'm interested to see what he's doing now. Thom sang while playing acoustic guitar while another guy played violin and did occasional backing vocals, together they knocked out mental folk music. It was good but the crowd didn't care for them, in front of me were two of people with their backs to the stage talking to their mates (which is fucking rude if you ask me, you can do that at the bar, there are people who actually want to watch the bands). On the last song Thom broke a string, ripped it out and just kept on playing like Guillaume Seam in the last few months of their existence, at the end of the song Thom just kicked the mic stand so it crashed on the floor instead of saying something to the crowd, as good as this was I'd still like to see Thom with some electrical instrument again, November Coming Fire never had an off show when he was playing bass.
Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster: This is odd, the poster for this show said there was going to be another two support bands but the Eighties Matchbox guys start setting up after Pariah. They were great, played a bunch of new stuff, the good songs off their first album and I even found myself enjoying the songs I didn't really care about before off their second album, Guy was getting offstage and walking around the crowd like he did when they first started and pulling some Iggy Pop stunts, like climbing up to rafters above the stage and singing from there, hitting himself in the head with the mic and at one point he starts staring at this girl standing on the seats behind me like he wants to have a moment with her but then licking the forehead of a fat guy near her. Had to put up with the phenomena that is the Indie Mosh Pit, waif young men bringing their pints with them to the mosh, even Thrash fans and old crusty Punks know that's a waste of money. They finished with Celebrate Your Mother, came off then encored with Presidential Wave which is what they always used to end with.
Got Chips then started walking up to the taxi rank, a passing car driver used his window washers to squirt me, that hasn't happened in a few summers, or at night.
Friday: Took the bus to Chatham to do my shopping, went into the post office in the Pentagon to post something I sold on eBay. While I was in line a little baby girl out of her pram became fascinated with the tattoo of skeleton Satan branding 666 into skeleton Baby Jesus' forehead on my calf, walked up behind me and touched it, it was cute in a way. I did mean to stay in 'til half eight but I got bored and left for an earlier bus, but it had been a while since I took the bus to the Tap on a Friday and I forgot that buses went hourly before seven, so I walked to Strood High Street (fuck hanging around in Darnley Road for fifty minutes) only to find the next bus was the same one I was waiting for in Darnley so I walked the rest of the way to Chatham as it started raining, the lesson learnt here; no really, stay in and wait for the ten to nine bus. Saw Steve Mills for the first time in a good six months, caught sight of Ben, ex of Wired but for the first hour I was just by myself not really knowing what to do (and this is were it gets introspective and depressive but not for too long I swear), I think it's not so bad when I know that someone will come because then I can plan out how to spend my time before they arrive but when I'm not sure if anyone will come I feel lost. Thankfully Mills showed up with his brother and his entourage, talked bollocks with him for two hours straight (which was the highlight of my night) then he had to leave around midnight as he had work the next morning. I walked around for a bit before I realised there wasn't anything keeping me there so I left.
Pariah: The last Guillaume Seam show I went to they were selling a CD of Thom's solo acoustic stuff, I didn't buy it but I'm interested to see what he's doing now. Thom sang while playing acoustic guitar while another guy played violin and did occasional backing vocals, together they knocked out mental folk music. It was good but the crowd didn't care for them, in front of me were two of people with their backs to the stage talking to their mates (which is fucking rude if you ask me, you can do that at the bar, there are people who actually want to watch the bands). On the last song Thom broke a string, ripped it out and just kept on playing like Guillaume Seam in the last few months of their existence, at the end of the song Thom just kicked the mic stand so it crashed on the floor instead of saying something to the crowd, as good as this was I'd still like to see Thom with some electrical instrument again, November Coming Fire never had an off show when he was playing bass.
Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster: This is odd, the poster for this show said there was going to be another two support bands but the Eighties Matchbox guys start setting up after Pariah. They were great, played a bunch of new stuff, the good songs off their first album and I even found myself enjoying the songs I didn't really care about before off their second album, Guy was getting offstage and walking around the crowd like he did when they first started and pulling some Iggy Pop stunts, like climbing up to rafters above the stage and singing from there, hitting himself in the head with the mic and at one point he starts staring at this girl standing on the seats behind me like he wants to have a moment with her but then licking the forehead of a fat guy near her. Had to put up with the phenomena that is the Indie Mosh Pit, waif young men bringing their pints with them to the mosh, even Thrash fans and old crusty Punks know that's a waste of money. They finished with Celebrate Your Mother, came off then encored with Presidential Wave which is what they always used to end with.





Got Chips then started walking up to the taxi rank, a passing car driver used his window washers to squirt me, that hasn't happened in a few summers, or at night.
Friday: Took the bus to Chatham to do my shopping, went into the post office in the Pentagon to post something I sold on eBay. While I was in line a little baby girl out of her pram became fascinated with the tattoo of skeleton Satan branding 666 into skeleton Baby Jesus' forehead on my calf, walked up behind me and touched it, it was cute in a way. I did mean to stay in 'til half eight but I got bored and left for an earlier bus, but it had been a while since I took the bus to the Tap on a Friday and I forgot that buses went hourly before seven, so I walked to Strood High Street (fuck hanging around in Darnley Road for fifty minutes) only to find the next bus was the same one I was waiting for in Darnley so I walked the rest of the way to Chatham as it started raining, the lesson learnt here; no really, stay in and wait for the ten to nine bus. Saw Steve Mills for the first time in a good six months, caught sight of Ben, ex of Wired but for the first hour I was just by myself not really knowing what to do (and this is were it gets introspective and depressive but not for too long I swear), I think it's not so bad when I know that someone will come because then I can plan out how to spend my time before they arrive but when I'm not sure if anyone will come I feel lost. Thankfully Mills showed up with his brother and his entourage, talked bollocks with him for two hours straight (which was the highlight of my night) then he had to leave around midnight as he had work the next morning. I walked around for a bit before I realised there wasn't anything keeping me there so I left.