1 post tagged “man like me”
Friday night was spent at home, finally having a proper dinner for the first time this week. Peep Show's on the tele, a re-run, but stil hilarious. The laughs are short lived mind you as I need to be in Camden for a gig at 12:30am. That mean's leaving my house at 11:30pm just as the pubs are kicking out. I share a 45min bus journey with some of North London's drunkest people....one of them, sitting opposite me, throws up where she thinks nobody can see her. She may be unable to control the eruptions of alcohol gushing backwards from her stomach, but 5 minutes later and she's perfectly focused on skinning up a spliff with the ease of someone perfectly sober. Remarkable.
The 10 minute walk from the Camden bus stop to the venue is one of the most depressing I will ever take. Every other person I pass is either a dealer trying to flog me some dodgy gear or a policeman grappling with another Friday night casualty. Alot of people tell me this is what makes London so colourful, but I'm afraid at 12:15am on a cold March early morning with me feeling tired and miserable, I just can't see it this way.
Step inside the venue and I'm in a different world. There's not one person in here not having a good time and my spirits are instantly lifted. I clock a couple of friends who get me a beer and introduce me to a couple of bands who have played earlier in the evening and we all head upstairs to watch Man Like Me, the band that are the reason for me out and about tonight in the first place. Man Like Me are 2 producers and a vocalist, totally infectious electro with some of the sharpest lyrics about the grime and shit of everyday life - yet their wry take on it all is at times truly hilarious. Watching the 3 of them dance about the stage like Madness while the crowd climb atop of each other's shoulders and bounce around the venue, invading the stage 3 times, is wholly uplifting and the thought of the journey here couldn't be further from my mind.
Gig over in what feels like the blink of an eyelide, I head home. The walk back to the bus stop is uneventful, the dealers and the cops are still there in force yet I manage to phase it all out, thinking only of Oxford's game against Burton Albion the next day. A win would help cement a play off place, wouldn't that be nice?
