December is a quieter month for live music as venues shut for a couple of weeks and people are too busy to go out. But I managed to get out a couple of times. One of those times was incredible, the other not-so-much.
12th December - Everything, Everything - LCR, Norwich
Prima Queen Pop rock, which was certainly palatable and rather catchy. I liked it as a warm-up act, and I liked their stage presence. But their songs didn’t blow me away. ⍟⍟
Everything Everything Here’s proof I don’t just rate everything 4-5 stars! This was an underwhelming performance for me. Admittedly, I felt rough beforehand and tried to sell my tickets. Even so, they had little presence, no spontaneity and their songs started to grate. Not because they performed badly. If anything it was too polished; too formulaic. I also think that maybe I just don’t love their songs. I absolutely loved one or two of their older albums but this gig reminded me that there was a reason I stopped listening to them. ⍟⍟
Overall night rating: If I had more than 4 hours sleep the previous night, maybe this would have been a 3-star. But no more than that! ⍟⍟
20th December - Rework Christmas - Norwich Puppet Theatre
This was absolutely epic but my photos of the gig are terrible so here’s an excerpt from my new Notebook Dump page, where I talk about the event!
I saw a gig of local bands performing their version of Christmas songs. Feasts, my favourite experimental noise rock band shouted their way through I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday and Peter Turrell, a once homeless busker, did a tremolo version of Silent Night on his classical guitar. I think my favourite act though, if only for their uniqueness, was a band called Squad Lobster whose “thing” is to perform Christmas songs at any time of year that isn’t Christmas. At this gig, they broke their own rule and have now vowed to never play Christmas songs at a time other than Christmas. Their other whole thing is to perform all their songs sexily. There was quite a lot of cumming all ye faithful and other such Christmas crudeness but one of the standout moments was when they tried to get the audience to make climax noises.
Overall night rating: If there is great music and an element of uniqueness about it, I’m as happy as a clam. ⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟
Sorted out the 2025 calendar yesterday and I’ve realised that I’ve got a congested time of 5 gigs in 9 days later on this month so I’m trying to get the rest in now to prepare myself.
Any one else got any live music plans for the month? Or for the year? What are you most excited about?
I love Prima Queen. Butter knife, Invisible Hand and Eclipse are all beautiful songs. I’m very interested to see what their debut album is like.
So far I have Desperate Journalist, Bad Nerves and Destroy Boys (with support from Gaffa Tape Sandy) booked in for January. Excited for all of those and the first half of the year is shaping up pretty well too.
Hope you’re feeling better now and wishing you a very happy New Year.