Miss Black America
The Man On The Moon, Cambridge, 23rd September 2005.
Back in the day, a hell of a long time ago, before the finger incident,
before Gish, before the break ups and downs, we were at the man on the
moon. Sitting in the other side of the pub me and a
couple of friends were listening to "Stay Together" by Suede
on the jukebox mulling over how depressed we all were as us student
types did
at the time, when a certain charming young man now known as Seymour
Glass came over and said something upon the lines of "if you like
this
you should come and see our band next door". We obliged. That band
was Miss Black America. It cost us the grand total of one British pound
each. It should have been more but the other two bands who were meant
to play didn't for some reason. At that point we were unaware that we
were the only three people who actually paid to see them, the other
people present were alledgedly friends and family and consequently got
in for free. Damn them.
Anyway, five years later I'm back at the man on the moon again. Different
friends, different haircut, different band line-up but still
looking forward to a good night of rock n roll. Because i'm lame and
can't be arsed about bands that I'm not there to see, I didn't catch
any of the other bands playing. I caught a bit of Djevara who were great.
But the other two bands sorry, I missed you. I do apologise. Perhaps.
MBA took the stage fashionably late with an additional, very young
guitarist. Remember kids, this is a band who are so ice cool that they
let the NME take pictures of them eating ice creams. (Although, really,
it's not the same band but well, we shaln't delve into that). Upon hitting
the stage Seymour tells us that Celine Dion is dead. Okey dokey, so
this gig is for her. Opening with "The White Noise Inc", the
set is made up of a mixture of new and old songs. Well, I say new songs
but most of them have been being played for quite some time now. There
is one brand spanking new song played which is representative of their
new "metal" direction. Perhaps a bit of an overstatement there
by Mr Glass, but it does rock like Mount Everest on cider. "Drowning
By Numbers" is introduced as "our next new number one single"
and "Emotional Junkmail" is dedicated to Rosey. By the time
11 O Clock comes around they're trying desperately to finish off the
set before we all get kicked out of the pub to go home and watch late
night porn, or make love, or cry, depending upon what you like.
In a world becoming more and more over run by Coldplay's, Keane's and
James Blunt, the only thing that makes total sense is a band like Miss
Black America. Shout it out.
Richard Bull
Pix by Paolo Messina
SET:
The White Noise Inc
Drowning By Numbers
Freefall
Miss Black America
Burn and Fade
(I think that was what it was called anyway)
Emotional Junkmail
Talk Hard
Chemical
Dot Dot Dot
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