Gig report: Flaming June @ The Hidden Rooms, Cambridge

Band: Flaming June
Venue: The Hidden Rooms, Cambridge (supporting John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett)
Date: 23/08/11
Audience: Seated, lots of them, lovely
Set: Rejoice, Under My Skin, You Do Moody So Well, The Devil's Daughter, Nerves Of Steel, I Know What It's Like, The Insane Ex-Girlfriend Parade, Stop The Ride, Rumplestiltskin, Wednesdays And Weekends
Notes: Seriously; it's gigs like this that remind me why I play live. Why I get so much pleasure being in a band, playing original material. Just one of those evening's when all the slogging around suddenly seems worthwhile. We were supporting the legendary John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett tonight, the final night of their 40th anniversary tour. It was a charity show, in a venue which I thought would be slightly unconventional but for the nature of the event it worked a treat - seated, capacity of 70 (nearly sold out), for a really good cause. Having Jo from the Cornerhouse do our sound worked in our favour too as she knows her stuff, and that was, in my opinion, without question the best we have played. The venue was hot, sweaty, the audience sat fairly close watching but completely getting it, getting the humour, getting the fact we were literally sweating ourselves senseless up there to entertain them. Our performance was fiery, very tight, it was a proper show, it was brilliant to be part of. With the single being released yesterday and the EP coming out next week there's a nice vibe to the whole FJ thing, we hit total top form today, I drank excessive caffeine beforehand but every drop of it seemed to be used in a fast and often furious set. Otway and Barrett then played two incredible 45 minute sets. I'm not sure I can even begin to describe the madness of what these two can create. They're the perfect comedy double act; Otway is the awkward one, Barrett is the confident one putting him down, Barrett is a truly magnificent musician, Otway shouts his way through the set and plays terrible electronic drums but then surprises everyone with a violin solo. Yet together it works so well - they've been around 40 years, it shows, I've not laughed this much in months and I only came back from the Edinburgh Fringe a few weeks back...they had an amplifier in a bin mic'd up on stage, they had songs - good proper songs. The gig ended with Barrett seemingly getting bored of the last track and cutting up his guitar with a saw, and then smashing it to pieces with a hammer. It's been done before, but the timing of it was impeccable. He then started playing bagpipes as Otway awkwardly finished the vocals...mesmerising, top notch entertainment. They're nice people too, managed to grab a quick word with both of them, they were really great. It was a really great evening all around, it's late, it's now technically Wednesday morning, I'm still buzzing from it.