03/11/25 - 09/11/25
Nov. 20th, 2025 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satyricaWe had D&D on Monday night and I was in Tuesday evening as well, cooking and starting to kick things into action in preparation for the move. In theory I was WFH on Wednesday, although headed out in the morning to take a guest to an appointment and came home via the new house. I went out again in the evening, to collect E from after-school club: there was much dramatic eye-rolling and reluctance to leave when I got there but once we'd left it all went okay and I stuck around once M had come home for dinner and to hang out with her as well. Having (willingly) sacrificed a number of potential options to real-world hanging out, it was over a week since I'd been to a gig come Thursday and I was definitely getting withdrawal symptoms: I cam home after work then headed back out to Camden Assembly. First up were the female-fronted Gifthorse, who made me dance with their last one, but I was there for the double-headliners of first Welsh boys The Now, playing classic rock and putting on an impressive show (and it had filled up nicely for) and then Fntsy, oozing charisma, although there were a surprising number of slower and more reflective numbers amidst the high-energy showmanship.
I was going back out to Camden the next night too, this time the Electric Ballroom, which I was feeling particularly nostalgic about for some reason: support came from Slag, who it was great to see on such a big stage and performing to such an appreciative crowd. I was there for Opus Kink, a show rearranged from this time last year, and I was honestly impressed that they had filled the Ballroom, given they didn't really seemed to have released much music or played many shows (other than a recent run) in the intervening time. It started off with a choral performance from the balcony ('The Opus Dei Kink Shamers Choir' as they were billed): it sounded lovely but got a bit lost as they weren't really visible and there was a fair bit of hubbub from the crowd and the novelty gradually wore off as they kept going for 4 or 5 songs. There was definitely no sense that they had lost momentum with their fans as there was a real explosion of energy (I had to fight my way from the centre to the edge of the mosh) and they brought some enjoyable elements of ritual to proceedings, although the set carried on for about an hour and a half, which it didn't quite feel like they had the extent of material to justify.
I had a very home-y day on Saturday: going to Sainsbury's and carrying on with packing and house stuff for much of the day, then was off to Camden for the third night in a row in the evening, this time to Dingwalls 2 which felt busy and buzzy with a young crowd when I go there, although it ebbed and flowed with the different acts. The first one I saw properly were Ferb from Kingston, characterised by urgent guitars. I'd come for The Faith Estate, who'd had to rearrange some numbers to accommodate the absence of their keyboard player and threw in a Brian Jonestown Massacre cover; I enjoyed seeing them again and was impressed by their frontman's singing skills, which I hadn't really clocked previously. I stuck around for headliners A Different Kitchen, whose EP launch it was and really got people moving as they switched from groovy sounds to moments of frenzy and felt like a very unique experience.
I was heading down to see my parents on Sunday (rearranged from when I was supposed to combine this with R's birthday last month but got Covid): the journey was all going well until we reached Eastleigh only for the train to be abruptly terminated due to over-running engineering works. It seemed like I could be looking at being hours late but I thought I was being clever by ignoring the announced advice and going back on myself to Winchester, sprinting over the bridge to catch a train coming back in the right direction with seconds to spare, but then that one got stuck at Southampton for ages waiting for a guard to turn up, so it didn't make too much difference in the end; at least I was only half-an-hour late and Dad collected me from New Milton. We had a lovely lunch and hung out for a few hours, then R came to collect me and drove me up to Southampton, as a way to spend some time together, although we carried on chatting in the Costa by the station too, before I negotiated the trains back up to London.
I was going back out to Camden the next night too, this time the Electric Ballroom, which I was feeling particularly nostalgic about for some reason: support came from Slag, who it was great to see on such a big stage and performing to such an appreciative crowd. I was there for Opus Kink, a show rearranged from this time last year, and I was honestly impressed that they had filled the Ballroom, given they didn't really seemed to have released much music or played many shows (other than a recent run) in the intervening time. It started off with a choral performance from the balcony ('The Opus Dei Kink Shamers Choir' as they were billed): it sounded lovely but got a bit lost as they weren't really visible and there was a fair bit of hubbub from the crowd and the novelty gradually wore off as they kept going for 4 or 5 songs. There was definitely no sense that they had lost momentum with their fans as there was a real explosion of energy (I had to fight my way from the centre to the edge of the mosh) and they brought some enjoyable elements of ritual to proceedings, although the set carried on for about an hour and a half, which it didn't quite feel like they had the extent of material to justify.
I had a very home-y day on Saturday: going to Sainsbury's and carrying on with packing and house stuff for much of the day, then was off to Camden for the third night in a row in the evening, this time to Dingwalls 2 which felt busy and buzzy with a young crowd when I go there, although it ebbed and flowed with the different acts. The first one I saw properly were Ferb from Kingston, characterised by urgent guitars. I'd come for The Faith Estate, who'd had to rearrange some numbers to accommodate the absence of their keyboard player and threw in a Brian Jonestown Massacre cover; I enjoyed seeing them again and was impressed by their frontman's singing skills, which I hadn't really clocked previously. I stuck around for headliners A Different Kitchen, whose EP launch it was and really got people moving as they switched from groovy sounds to moments of frenzy and felt like a very unique experience.
I was heading down to see my parents on Sunday (rearranged from when I was supposed to combine this with R's birthday last month but got Covid): the journey was all going well until we reached Eastleigh only for the train to be abruptly terminated due to over-running engineering works. It seemed like I could be looking at being hours late but I thought I was being clever by ignoring the announced advice and going back on myself to Winchester, sprinting over the bridge to catch a train coming back in the right direction with seconds to spare, but then that one got stuck at Southampton for ages waiting for a guard to turn up, so it didn't make too much difference in the end; at least I was only half-an-hour late and Dad collected me from New Milton. We had a lovely lunch and hung out for a few hours, then R came to collect me and drove me up to Southampton, as a way to spend some time together, although we carried on chatting in the Costa by the station too, before I negotiated the trains back up to London.
