Gig report: Under The Streetlamp album launch @ The Cornerhouse, Cambridge

Bands: Eureka Stockade (acoustic support), Under The Streetlamp (electric headline)
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 02/12/10
Audience: A nice bunch of people from both the 'Streetlamp and 'Stockade camps, plus a random Christmas party
Set: Eureka Stockade - She Got Good, Warm Hands, Through Every Darkness, Broken Pieces, Without You, All Alone, Heroes Fall . Under The Streetlamp - Do I Don't I I Do, Anything Nothing, Sunny Rainy Tuesday, What She Did To You, I Never Win, Last Excuses Of Summer, Wicked Witch Of The West, Honest Lullaby
Notes: Looking back on the above sets, it looks like I played lots of songs tonight, but they just flew by. The debut album from my on/off band Under The Streetlamp, a band that frustrates me but whom I love dearly, was released a couple weeks back, but due to the hectic schedules of all in the group tonight was the closest to the release we had for a launch party. Tom Tilbury opened it with a sterling, honest set which was well received by the large-ish audience (okay, not a huge crowd - but it's a small venue, it felt very busy), I'm very happy I've signed him to the label. I then played congas for Eureka Stockade for our stripped-down, acoustic, trio set (we gave bassist Nathan a night off tonight) which worked really well - at times it was proper flying, especially on 'Through Every Darkness' - that works so well acoustically, who would've thought it? Then it was time for Under The Streetlamp to take the stage. For a band that hasn't rehearsed for months, I thought we were remarkably good - any lack of finnesse that perhaps the 'Streetlamp of a couple years ago had was replaced by good old fashioned energy and enjoyment for what we do. The kit wasn't ideal, so a majority of my fills were snare-based, which made me feel a bit bashy, I'm aware I'm capable of playing a lot better than this. But the songs are just such fun to play - the time signature changes, the humour, I love it and could do it all night, the audience seemed as into it as we were. With a few songs to go, some dickhead from the Christmas party, which seemed to be taking place at the same time as our gig, ran onto the stage and did something to our singer, Jess, which I'd rather not talk about again. It ruined the show, it upset her, it angered the rest of us, it marred what was great little gig. We dropped 'Mostly Twilight' from the set, finished early and went home. Jess did brilliantly to hold herself together after that 'incident', she's a strong girl. It all felt flat afterwards, there was a sense of closure about the whole thing. To me that felt like the final Under The Streetlamp gig, you can just sense it sometimes, it's hard enough getting us all in a room together at all but for the sake of the album we had to tonight. I loved a majority of the evening, and have no doubts that we'll all be drunk together before the year is out, but the ending of tonight was just weird, and a little sad.