Gig report: The British IBM @ The Black Bull, Godmanchester

Band: The British IBM
Venue: The Black Bull, Godmanchester
Date: 30/03/12
Audience: It was dark so couldn't really see, plenty of applause though.
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Dirty Little Cannibal, The British IBM, Life In Monochrome, Animal, Sugar Water, 3 Years, Guns, Washing Machine, Washing Machine (again).
Notes: This was an odd little gig. I enjoyed it - I always like being on stage with Aidy and Dave because we seem to be completely on the same wavelength musically these days yet there's a still a sense of unpredictability about it all. We were headlining this excellent event - the monthly gigs at the Black Bull are always worth checking out because with 8 acts playing (4 acoustic) it would be hard to not at least like something. It does mean the headline band has to wait around a lot though, and felt like a very long evening at times. We eventually hit the stage at 11.30pm and by then a fair amount of the very busy audience had gone, but those who stayed seemed to be enjoying it. For a while it felt like a fairly standard gig, we're pretty tight, some new tracks from the album were given a first live airing and the set feels fresh enough. The audience really, really took to 'Washing Machine' - I'm not surprised, a lot of people do. When we were called back on for an encore there seemed to be a demand to hear that song again, even though we'd only just played it seconds earlier...Aidy started playing it again so Dave and I joined in. That felt a bit weird, but they seemed to enjoy it just as much as the first time around. We ended the show in our now traditional manner - of trashing the stage slowly, politely and with great care. Dave was rolling on the floor as always, and on Friday we thought it would be fun to pile our equipment on top of him, so we did. We left the stage with our giggling bassist under a stack of guitars, cymbals and drums, the audience weren't quite sure what to make of that but the promoter loved it and praised our 'character'. Odd gig, but enjoyable.