The Next Big Thing

Things never went according to my - at best - sketchy plan at the weekend but I did manage to drag myself out the door on Saturday. The Eruption imprint took a trip out east and had a tasting session at Leith Walk’s fine Elvis Shakespeare emporium, anyone visiting Auld Reekie should make a point of going down there. Anyway, the bite size nature suits the primal blues clatter. Four broadly similar sounding acts on one bill in the evening? Maybe not so much. You know how it is with persecuted prophets but I wish the less is more thing could be extended to embrace the length of set in relation to material available. Play 15 to 20 minutes, blow everyone away and leave ‘em wanting more.

If you stray over the half hour mark and don’t have the necessary tuneage then all momentum is lost. In addition, if there’s too much choice at the merch table it confuses the person that might well be separated from their cash in the gig equivalent of the supermarket impulse buy. These are all just objective observations, the lord knows that it’s hard enough to get any traction in these times. Eruption is a Northern cousin of the London’s “Not The Same Old Blues Crap”, it has many tentacles and deserves your attention for the sterling work done on behalf of flying a flag for rock’n’roll. I sincerely hope that Mr D’uff wasn’t disheartened with the turnout and will attempt to educate the locals again. The apparent popularity of what the JJR is doing might mean it'll catch on. Might = maybe. I'm right at this minute listening to the Scientists set from ATP and thinking how it was when they first came over here. Now that was what you call a group, something that always left us wanting more. (Gracias Rev. Roswell)

In between all that, I saw “Cyrus” and liked it a lot in a quiet understated way. A twisted comedy with some great performances and not a bad way to while away a couple of hours. I heart Marisa Tomei. Yesterday I saw Jean Epstein’s “Fall of the House of Usher" and Hans Richter’s “Ghosts Before Breakfast” with live score by The Southwell Collective at The Bo’ness Hippodrome. Criminally under-attended but bloody amazing. I take great comfort from the fact that a film made in 1928 looks much better than much of the computer generated rubbish that generally tends to make the world a crappier place.

Really looking forward to the arrival of Eric and Amy later in the week. I hope that anybody who visits this portal that can will catch one of their shows. All the details are right here and for the minimum of effort you’ll be subjected to easily one of the best gigs you’ll ever have been to. Ever.

The other big event this week is the release of “Facit”. No info as yet with regard to the anglo version but you’ll know as soon as I do. Anyway, you need both.