JD at Miss-Shapes II

Last night, we were once again joined by Le Tigre's JD Samson at Miss-Shapes for our tenth birthday party.  As ever it was rammed, and we had the pleasure of opening for her.  I made a conscious effor last night to mix it up a bit more than normal with a lot of new good stuff, or old classics, staying as far away as I can from the same old Killers / Kaisers hell.   

Setlist is after the jump: 

Popstarz Setlist : 28/2/06

David Bowie - 5 Years
Grandaddy - The Crystal Lake
Duels - Potential Futures
Orson - No Tomorrow
Betty Curse - Stay Out Of My Way
Le Tigre - My My Metrocard
Belle and Sebastian - Funny Little Frog
Phoenix - Too Young
New Young Pony Club - Get Lucky
Veronicas - Revolution
Bell X1 - Flame
Kaiser Chiefs - Time Honoured Tradition
The Zutons - Why Don't You Give Me Your Love
Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie
The Modern - Jane Falls Down
Editors - All Sparks
Maximo Park - I Want You To Stay
Charlatans - One To Another
Placebo - Meds

2006’s greatest pop song so far

Yes, it's not the Pipettes, it's not something by Rachel Stevens, it's not even Girls Aloud.  It's bloody Rihanna.  That warbling Pon De Replay girl from last year.  Don't worry I haven't crossed over into the darkside though, she's gone pop with the Softcell sampling SOS (Rescue Me).

I can't decide if it's quite good or simply brilliant.  It's rather masterful in any case.

Miss-Shapes Setlist : 16 Feb 06

Click to see the setlist after the jump!

Brick Lane : A Minor Exploration

Sunday night with nothing to eat in the house, J & I went for our first exploration of Brick Lane.   

Located in the East End of London, the street is famous for a Sunday market and also being the heart of the city's Bangladeshi community.  Previously it was the heart of the Jewish community and it was quite different from the Jewish tales of Brick Lane my grandad told me about as a child.

We wandered down the road slowly, stopping to look at various shop windows, wishing it wasn't late on a Sunday evening so we could actually buy some of the groovy things we were seeing.

As we grew thirsty and ran out of shops, we ventured into the massive Vibe Bar.   A large dark room with a glassy chillout area, this is a place that definately needs investigating on a weekend evening.  Set in an old brewery, there seemed to be endless staircases that perhaps lead to a further part of the bar on days when more rooms are open.  A drum & bass dj outfit were playing and the listings for the Bar look interesting.  As an added bonus, they serve Pie Minster pies, who make the brilliant Heidi pie which I got so hooked on at Glastonbury.

Continuing down the road and enticed down Dray Walk by the smell of an outdoor BBQ, we reached the Big Chill Bar.   Although I hadn't been before, I was aware of the venue from knowledge of their annual festival and an intimate Pete Tong set last summer which I'd sadly been unable to attend.   Wandering into the spacious but busy bar, we smiled to see David McAlmont on the decks, playing the sounds of Cole Porter.  What more could I want!

The venue is a large rectangular shape with a long bar running down one side.  Filled with couches, and complete with wireless internet access, and a varied food and cocktail menu, this is one place which I cannot wait to return to.   A perfect place to meet friends or brunch.

But back to Brick Lane itself.  At it's basest form, its a place where you can get a curry any time of day or night.

The 'picking where to eat' experience differs largely from anything I've experienced before,resembling more the club/bar scene in Blackpool or Ibiza.   Outside nearly every restaurant there is an employee trying to get you to come into their particularly venue.   If you linger for more than a second outside a menu, without anyone outside, someone will come running out, and so it became a mission to try to read menus without stopping.

We were offered all types of wonderful things - a round of drinks for free, 20% off our meal, free starters, but eventually we plumped for the only restaurant that didn't try to make us go in, The Aladin.

Comfortable but basic inside, we ordered Onion Bajjiis and Chicken Tikka for starters, followed by a mixed grill thing and a chicken korma, all accompanied by a bottle of plonk from a nearby shop.   Yay for BYOB.   We particularly enjoyed the menus claim that the Aladin was a favourite of Prince Charles, having mentioned it specifically on LBC in the mid 80s.   The menu even invited us to ask the staff to hear the tape of the mention if we so desired.   We contained ourselves.   

Unfortunately though, after such promise, the meal was ultimately disappointing.  The starters were perfectly average, and while J's mixed grill showed some promise, my chicken korma was darker than expected and the chicken itself was rather chewy.

Well at least we can cross one of many Brick Lane restaurants off the list.

I'm sure there will be many more Brick Lane related blog entries to come.

(writing about Sunday 12 February)

The Hellfire Club : Bethnal Green Working Mens Club

When Darren brought up the idea of Bethnal Green Working Mens Club one hazy Saturday afternoon, we looked at him with a bit of confusement.   "No no," he exclaimed.  "It's really cool!"  Really?  A working mens club is cool?   "Yes, they are sometimes on rollerskates!"  We decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, albeit with one eyebrow raised.

My birthday rocked round and options for where to go seemed pretty limited.  We could have an admittedly great time at Wig-Out or we could try something different.  Purusing the wonders of the world wide web, I happened across Oh My God I Miss You: The Hellfire Club at, well would you believe it, the Bethnal Green Working Mens Club.   Aah this was fate.

The website itself scared quite a lot of my friends who wondered exactly what I was planning on taking them to.  After all the dress code was that you should have a 'touch of the whore' about you.   Brilliant.

It promised sleazy kitch, rock & roll, classics, showtunes, rockabilly, oddball delights and a taste of the devil.

So off we went about 1030, and arrived at a mammoth queue. Hooray.   Eventually after lots of standing in the cold and being allowed in 2 at a time, we all got in and watched cool young 20somethings go to the groundfloor, and those you may associate more traditionally with a WMC downstairs.  What exactly was downstairs we may never know, but the Guardian indicates that our room is run as a separate licensed venue rented out from the WMC itself.

So the room was a large square, mainly carpeted and full of elaborately dressed up twentysomethings with a devil on the stage.   When we entered Editors - Munich was playing.  A fabulous song, but surely a bit safe and regular given the music policy.  Within about 20 minutes the regular indie was pushed aside and a more random selection ensued. We were happy.

Great thing  #1 : The bar staff do not care how much you pay them for drinks. Darren got a whole round for free. I got a round of 8 drinks for £15 and James got a Red Bull for "errr lets say a pound?"

Great thing #2 : Lots of people I know happen to live near us randomly.   And we saw them all there. Hooray.

Great thing #3 : Everything was decorated in a really fun way. You can tell the promoters put a lot of effort in.

Great thing #4 : It was fun buying random things to wear, and getting a smidge dressed up in silly things.  James had a cane, Naomi a bowler hat, Darren a leopard skin scarf.  Jeez we're hardcore.

Great thing #5 : It was like being back at uni, walking from the union to Hurst. It took us 5 mins to walk home. Sweet!

Bad thing #1 : The door queue was massive, and they seemed really disorganised about who they were letting in and who they were making wait longer.

Bad thing #2 : It was quite hot

So yes, it was rather good and it's definately got the Karinski stamp of approval.  Hooray!

We look forward to many more nights at the WMC.   Sometimes Mark Lamarr plays rockabilly, sometimes they have tea partys and bake sales.  Sometimes they play bingo and learn how to jive.   I get the feeling we might be going there quite a bit.

[writing about Saturday 11 February]

Online

Golly gosh, my very favourite GCap DJ tagged me a week or so ago with a meme and of course being in the throws of moving house, I've had no internet and neglected to read his blog.

Now Be have made me happy and all is right in the world as once again I can waste my life on the internet. If you are thinking of changing your ISP or getting the super high speeds Be can give you then please shout at me for an invite as it will get us both a free month. Hooray.

But now to the meme. Everyone's done this one but me so far...

It's that one about 4. See you after the jump if you want to read it...