The LSC

So this Monday just gone Lightspeed Champion came through town and played the Paradiso club. I only found out recently that Martin played bass for them so had got into contact with him the week prior to meet up before the gig. Having never heard a track by these guys before I was more than pleasantly surprised and if there is any justice in the pretty shoddy music industry then they should be huge by the end of the year.

Watching kids flock round the band to get autographs and to try it on with Anna was pretty funny to watch. I explained later the words of wisdom passed on to me about the "Rock Block" and the international sign of "help I'm being rock blocked" which is a simple circle made by the index and thumb. This circle, like an SOS, when spotted by another member of the touring entourage is to be dealt with with some swift tour talk about the urgent need to "move some amps" or something else equally full of shit. This is the same circle which when stared at, unless plugged with the index finger of another person is dealt with swiftly by a dead arm.

Paradiso is laid out with two floors, the smaller upstairs 'venue' and the larger downstairs 'concert hall'. On the same night, in the larger concert hall was an act called Dwele from Detroit. I'd never heard of them and R'n'B is one of my least favored styles of music, BUT, and probably because of the alcohol abuse my body had suffered in the past 4 days I actually enjoyed their set. I always seek out something different and I think the only true adjective to describe them live was 'SMOOTH'. Dwele, the frontman, at one point asked a girl in the front row what her favorite food was, "Spaghetti", came the reply, followed by the retort of "Well I love Italian food and I love Spaghetti, but when it comes to the ladies you know, sometimes a guy likes to try the Lasagne". Needless to say I LOL'D hard!. There was minimal ROFL but maximum LOL's.

Afterwards we sat backstage and got through LSC's quite substantial rider. Robyn the bands driver was a true soldier and it turned out me and Dev know a lot of the same people. He recognized me from Abandon Ship which I found pretty funny. Afterwards we relocated to a jazz/blues bar, which saw Martin get told in no uncertain terms to "Shut Up" by the drummer in the jazz band which was made up of 3 old dutch dudes. Really great to see some people from home and enjoy a bit of hometown familiarity.