A week in gigs

I'm behind in posts, so let's wrap up this week in shows:


Mon., Jan. 21st - 40W
Tin Cup Prophette + Murder Mystery + Little Francis

Despite one of the coldest nights of the winter so far in Athens, and... a Monday (glad you follow), there was a non negligible audience (understand about 40, 50 people) for that show. I assume that the Hillary's laudative review of Murder Mystery in the Flagpole and Gordon's plug helped, or maybe was it just the presence of Tin Cup Prophette, or the debut of Little Francis who brought their friends as support.

I caught only a few songs of TCP, but was still impressed. Amanda Kapousouz had definitely a huge stage presence, huge like in 8.5 months pregnant. Nevertheless, that didn't prevent her to give us a nice soothing dose of her folksy trip-hop. Highly recommended to fans of Portishead.

Murder Mystery is a quartet (3 guys, one gal) from NYC, currently promoting their first album "Are you ready for the heartache cause here it comes". They play what would be lazily described as indie pop with slight country western overtones, or a musical equivalent of sherbet: it's refreshing, quite enjoyable, but not filling. The show itself was fairly OK. They lost some points for complaining about the lack of dancers (only a couple of people were actually dancing, while the rest of us were cosily sitting on their chair), and for trying to play games with the Athenians: "Athens is a hip town, right ? So you'll know what cover we're about to play...". FYI, that was an Orange Juice song, "Poor Old Soul" if I remember correctly. All in all, a good show, but nothing extraordinary. Their album is definitely worth listening a couple of times. Of the two MP3s linked with this post, "Honey Come Home" is the most representative.

Little Francis are four dudes, three on acoustic guitars and the last one banging on some stuffs. Don't ask me more, I was not paying attention and left in the middle of their song, it was cold.

MP3: Tin Cup Prophette:Going Numb
MP3: Tin Cup Prophette:Speak or Spill Down
MP3: Murder Mystery: Love Astronaut
MP3: Murder Mystery: Honey Come Home


Thu., Jan 24th - Flicker Bar
Joe Rowe's Coming Out Party

First show of Joe Rowe's (of The Glands and Casper and the Cookies fame) new band. Joe sings and plays keyboards, along with fellow Cookie Jim H. on drums, Eli on guitar and Adam on bass. Good solid indie-rock, great first show (sounding even better when you know they practiced only four times as a 4 piece), with a cover of Echo and the Bunnymen as a bonus ("Villiers Terrace"? "Do it clean"? I'm not sure. Correct me in the comments). Most (all) of the songs were actually written for Joe's other, semi-aborted projects, The Ice Caps and The Goons. Guys, congrats again, and we want another show very very soon!
MP3: JRCOP: Green Umbrella



Thu., Jan 24th - Caledonia Lounge
Attached Hands - Caledonia Social Club

Attached Hands are a duo playing live keyboards on pre-recorded samples, with some psychedelic animations in the background. Boards of Canada, anyone ?

Caledonia Social Club is a shoegaze jam experiment involving members of Local bands such as Maserati, A. Armada and others. Fairly efficient, but you definitely have to be in the mood. It took me 15 min. to realize that in fact, no, not that night...



Fri., Jan 25th - Go bar
The Buddy System - Pegasuses XL

The Go Bar was packed for the third Buddy System show, so packed that it was easier to brave the cold and watch the animations from the outside patio than trying to peep through the crowd. If you still don't know anything about the Buddy System, I can't really do anything for you: check some previous posts, and go and see their coming fourth show on Sat., Feb. 2nd at the Caledonia Lounge, where they'll support 63 Crayons and an exciting band of Roenoke, VA, The Young Sinclairs . Note that Friday was the premiere of the Buddies' new animation,"Nature's Tiny Realm".

Because of conflicting schedules, I missed Pegasuses XL. Shame, shame, shame on me.


Fri., Jan 25th - Farm 255
The Ice Cream Socialists - Casper and the Cookies

Because of conflicting schedules, I missed the Ice Cream Socialists, but frankly... Casper and the Cookies delivered us an strong, honest show, mostly consisting of songs from the "Optimist Club". After all, that show was more a live practice before their Japan tour than anything. No big surprises here, a good time for all the family.


And that's all for this week. Stay tuned for more goodies.