Kill Clouseau played our second gig last night at Molly’s Bar in Northampton. Set list was as follows:
Set 1
1. All Day And All Of The Night – The Kinks
2. 2468 Motorway – The Tom Robinson Band
3. Are ‘Friends’ Electric – Gary Numan
4. Beautiful Day – U2
5. Common People – Pulp
6. Don’t You (Forget About me) – Simple Minds
7. Down Under – Men At Work
8. Invisible Touch – Genesis
9. She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
10. Yellow – Coldplay
Set 2
1. One Vision – Queen
2. Ordinary World – Duran Duran
3. Owner Of A Lonely Heart – Yes
4. Pop Muzik – M
5. Sit Down – James
6. Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel
7. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
8. Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus
9. American Idiot – Green Day
10. The Only One I Know – The Charlatans
11. American Pie – Don Mclean
We turned up nice and early, as requested, only to find that there was nobody at the venue. Eventually, at around 19:00, the deputy manager turned up and let us in. We got the gear in and set it all up, being careful to move our cars out of the way once we had finished, lest we offend the Hell’s Angels, who have a meeting place next to Molly’s.
Once we’d set up, we had a nice rest until we hit the stage at 22:45. By that time, you already have a reasonably good audience and there are people who come to Molly’s for the live music, so that is no bad thing. They even pipe a video link of the band round to other parts of the bar so that everyone can see you if they want to kind of watch whilst chatting or waiting at the bar.
The first set went down very well and we then had a short, ten minute break before getting back on stage for the second set. By the second set the crowd was really into it and the audience reaction was great. It’s great to see people enjoying what you’re doing and appreciating it. You can see how some people react when you play one of their favourite songs.
A great evening all round, despite getting back home and into bed at 04:00 this morning.
It’s a sad but true fact that we just don’t experience that kind of feedback from an audience in BAiT, because we don’t do enough gigs, and tied in with that, people just don’t know our stuff. Sure, the reception at the GPS support gig a couple of weeks ago was warm and friendly enough, but it feels great to get off stage knowing that you’ve helped make someone’s evening, got some cash in your pocket for your efforts, and had an alround good time out with your mates doing something you love doing – i.e. play music.
BAiT brings something different to the fold for me. For me, BAiT satisfies a creative desire to actually write music as a band, be it on a rhythmic, melodic, or lyrical basis and also the satisfaction of developing, arranging, and then recording this material and having a permanent record (i.e. a CD) at the end of the process; but BAiT’s live gigs which are few and far between rarely leave me with a buzz anywhere near approaching that of the covers gigs. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy them: I do; but because the audience never reacts in the same way as the like of the audience at Molly’s last night, it can be quite frustrating. I know the BAiT material is good. I know that we play it pretty well live, but the sad reality is that those few who come to see original music nowadays don’t know that.