Sometimes I write my thoughts down.

So last night was the first A/IM night at the Hobbit, the best pub in Southampton, if not the world (in my humble opinion!). Two bands played early in the evening. The first, Strongroom, were a fairly bog-standard indie band - pretty good for a free-entry pub gig, but nowt special.

The second band, however, were bloody brilliant. Named Envy And Other Sins, they first of all had dressed the stage in fairy lights and fibre optics, and dressed themselves in charity-shop jackets and an assortment of scarves, hats and flying goggles. If they turned out to be rubbish, this would be transparent gimmickry; but in fact their decorations reflected their music's spiky, bouncy, infectious nature. Good rhymes and witty lyrics (relatively speaking!), an excellent keyboardist, and seemingly without too big a sense of themselves. I'm not very good at describing sound, but a review on their website says "Think Supergrass with attitude, then add in irresistible drum rhythms, 80’s synth gone demented with age and smug guitar work... every track is spiced up with so many tack changes you barely get chance to catch your breath." I'd go along with that, pretty much. Look out for them, anyway.

All in all, it was a pretty good night. It was a shame that most folk left after the bands, leaving the A/IM guys to DJ mostly to us hangers-on, but I had some good musical discussions, including whether to say Kaiser Chiefs or Kaiser Chiefs and whether it's possible to compare Killswitch Engage with John Lee Hooker, and if so, who is best (I've not heard any KE, but with a name like that I doubt they're any good, though Tom disagrees). Also, Mary tells me she reads my blog. Hurrah! A big "hello!" to you :)