Gig report: Lu @ The Troubadour, London

Band: Lu (with myself on percussion)
Venue: The Troubadour, Earls Court, London
Date: 20/01/11
Audience: Nice, respectful, felt busy, lots of warm applause
Set: Over The Blue, You, Winter, Leave Me, Twinkle Twinkle, Beyond, The River, Ain't Dancing
Notes: I really enjoyed this gig tonight, I was a bit worried about it to be honest - for starters the last time I played there I got very lost and missed soundcheck, getting everyone a bit flustered in the process, and I was also concerned that we've not rehearsed too much recently and the new material may have caused us problems. But it was one of those evenings that just worked out really well - I actually wrote down some directions this time and blimey - I found it first time, must pay attention more often. We opened the gig tonight, but obviously due to the fact that I was travelling on a train from Cambridge I couldn't bring a drum kit with me, and no other acts had drums, so I had my trusty reliable Sonor sub-snare with me instead. It actually sounded better than it had a right to - the last time I played there with Lu I felt the full force of a standard drum set-up was too powerful for her delicate jazzy stuff. Tonight though I was nicely enough in the background to let her voice take centre stage, rhythmically it was great fun seeing how many different sounds I could get out of such a tiny snare (plenty, as it's so simple to tune/de-tune on stage without anybody noticing, Sonor make great snare drums...) and how many different grooves we could get going - Lu was on top form, best I've seen her in ages, and it was easily the best we've ever played together. The new material was very enjoyable too, I was completely winging it, but the songs are so well crafted it wasn't hard to find some sort of footing. We went down well, got paid, and good to see good friends (Ben, Carl, Irsan - Lu's husband) for a beer and a catch up too. And the Troubadour itself is a lovely venue - I mentioned to someone earlier that I wish Cambridge had a venue like that, perfect size, great acoustics...but then again it's only 90 mins down the road, I'd happily travel there to watch a gig any time.

A quick non-gig random aside about the train journey home. Managed to get the fast train back (which took less than an hour), and it seemed to be the one that is full of businessmen and office types who work in the city. I've been having lots of doubts about myself recently, about my direction (this whole nearly 30 thing is rattling around my brain perhaps a bit too much), the realisation that a lot of people earn a lot more money than me for really digging in with their 'proper' careers; I consider myself to be a hard worker but my aspirations are always rooted firmly outside of the 'norm'. Tonight I was sat in one of those little blocks of four seats alongside three stressed-looking businessmen. It was gone 10pm, yet they were still chatting sales figures, targets, all manner of business acumen which I couldn't help but overhear. Fair play to them - these people clearly work very hard, they more than likely contribute to keeping the industries in this country going, they deserve all the financial rewards under the sun for the pressure they are blatantly under. I reckon they were all about 10 years older than me, and they all looked so worried, so stressed. I couldn't help but feel, on their behalf, is this a life? Don't get me wrong - if they chose this - fair play to them, and they were all very friendly to me as I barged passed with my snare drum in one hand and stands in the other. It's more a case of 'I'd rather you than me' - I'll sleep well tonight, maybe it's because I was reading a book about Tony Wilson and Factory Records, but I think I'm doing the right thing.