knee deep in static

So as part of my Mum’s ongoing birthday presents (started with a netbook before her birthday and shoes ON her birthday)…and because I wanted to see it anyway, we went to see Much Ado About Nothing. I don’t think I’ve laughed at a play so much in my life before. David Tennant and Catherine Tate, as Benedick and Beatrice, have the best comic timing ever and Don Pedro… Don Pedro was aces. And Claudio! And Don John! And Dogberry.

It was aces all round.

Anyway. So. We’re sitting there. Watching. Laughing. About 20-25 minutes in I feel my Mum look at me and think (yeah, it’s a thing. It’s like when I know she’s giggling like a madwoman during Mass). A moment goes past, where she decides, yeah, she’s going to ask me.

“Is that Doctor Who?”

I <3 The Kill Van Kulls. Really I do. They were an unexpected bonus when I saw The Naked & Famous last year and when I heard that they were releasing a new single and doing a small gig to launch it… well. I was sold. They remind me a little of Tears for Fears crossed with Patrick Wolf, which is actually a pretty nice-sounding hybridisation.

Anyway, they were great. Their music really filled out the venue (yeah, I know it was small, but still… you’ll see what I mean later) and, of course, they played the one song that I really know too. I guess I should really try to hit up more of their music, but have a sneaking suspicious that there isn’t really a lot of it about.

Also, as soon as they have a tangible EP or album out? It shall me mine. Definitely. And yeah, I know, CDs are getting a little old-fashioned now, but I like having music I can hold. Especially when you’ve had several hard drives die on you.

Support came from Ben Burrows and We Human. We Human were OK – as it’s over a week since the event, I don’t really remember much. I know I thought they were OK, but they could have done with being a bit louder somehow or bigger sounding (the music didn’t really fill the place, like I mentioned TKVK’s doing before) and maybe it was down to there not being that many people there… but I don’t know. Maybe there wasn’t enough banter between songs. Maybe the sound needed turning up. They were OK. That’s all I’ve got. They’ll probably be more to my exact taste in time.

Ben Burrows was pretty good. Just him, his guitar and his laptop with a sizeable chunk of “you know, I think he listens to a lot of Jeff Buckley” with a smidgen of “a bit ramshackle” for flavour. In contrast to We Human, he really filled the tiny stage and not just because he’s like… a giant (seriously, he was really tall). There was chitchat, there was poking the laptop to make it work without making it fall off its stand and there was guitary bits with some drum bits. I liked it. There was one song that had a one word title beginning with L, I think, that I really liked and now can’t remember the name of.

So. In conclusion, We Human were OK, Ben Burrows was pretty good and The Kill Van Kulls were aces because I don’t go and see bands I don’t think will be aces. Unless someone else has kindly given me a free ticket.

And now that I’ve had some time not trying to remember that Ben Burrows song? I think it was called “Lariat”.