Blog: Totally Acoustic

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I arrived at the Lamb last night to find it EERILY QUIET. It was weird - it's almost always RAMMED in there, but it felt like it was about three in the afternoon with only a few people lurking around. The SPOOKINESS continued when Adrian The Bar Manager took me upstairs to show me the MYSTERIOUS FORMATIONS which had appeared beneath the carpet. Just near the bar it smelt faintly of moist socks and you could feel LUMPS through the carpet. "It's pipes, I think" he said. "Or a TRAPDOOR!" I remarked. He looked AFEARED by this suggestion, and was even MORE alarmed when I pointed out what i thought MIGHT ACTUALLY BE a trapdoor back downstairs again. Luckily - SPOILERS - it didn't fall open over the course of the evening, and nobody fell a) through to the downstairs bar OR b) into a HELL DIMENSION. Which was nice.

The acts, Mr B Parker aka Superman Revenge Squad and Mr Matt Tiller, soon rolled up as did a few people - it wasn't HUGELY packed but was pleasantly COMPANIONABLE and so I went on and did THIS:

Totally Acoustic

Only A Robot

I Did A Gig In New York

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

The Gay Train

Fucking Hippy

I don't know what's up with me at the moment as AGANE i was a bit nervous, but it all seemed to go all right. I was very happy to PREMIERE Only A Robot (although a little surprised to realise it really doesn't have ANY gags in it - Steve is going to have to do a LOT of messing around behind me!) and also CHUFFED to find I still remember the words to Fucking Hippy having not played it IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (hem hem) for several years - it was a REQUEST! I got a bit WAYLAID during I Did A Gig In New York when I PAUSED to tell everyone that, funnily enough, that very morning I had happened seen an actual Thanksgivings Day episode of 'Friends' on breakfast telly... and this led to other stoppages about the current status of The Fantastic Four (or "Future Foundation" at the moment) and exactly HOW you wave a vagina, but other than that we SOARED through fairly speedily with no major harm done.

Next up it was Superman Revenge Squad, who came SANS CELLO this time. I LOVE his songs - the subject matter and the way he presents it seem so DOWNBEAT and sort of GLUM, but the way he carries it off makes it UPLIFTING and WITTY, so you find yourself GRINNING at his explanation of personal anxiety, especially when it is applied to comparisons with Rock Stars. I ESPECIALLY like the way he writes songs tho - as anyone who's seen him will know there's a LOT of words, SHOT out insistently at high speed, KIND OF like rapping, but also kind of like stand-up poetry, but ALSO kind of like folk music. It's hard to sum it up accurately, as there's NOBODY else doing anything like it, it's a truly unique and rather wonderfully style of song. He was GRATE!

As indeed was Mr Matt Tiller - I'd only seen him once EVER, while we were in Edinburgh last year. We'd been to see Being 747 and were sitting in the beer garden next door, where there was a big stage and, for first and ONLY time of ALL my visits to beer gardens, the act on there was ACE. And LO! It was Mr Tiller, HOORAH! One of the MANY lovely things about doing Totally Acoustic is I get to DRAG people who I'd like to see to MY night so i can see them again, and that worked out pretty darn well this time. ANOTHER lovely thing is that we get to have QUITE DIFFERENT acts on, together - Matt and Ben are DISSIMILAR in many ways, but both made the room feel COSY and full of JOY. My favourite song was the one about his parents' hotel, which i distinctly remember from August, but my favourite bit of ALL of it was when he chose a volunteer from the audience to do a live translation of one of his songs. The person he chose was The Lyrics On My Songsheet and she was BLOODY BRILLIANT! HOORAH! I was PROUD!

And then we fell to the usual Bit Of An Old Chat afterwards, the usual end to a BEAUTIFUL evening, this time with the added bonus of nobody plummeting through the floor of the pub. What more could you ask for eh?

posted 23/3/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Three perfect performances, two sensational CDs, one bombastic badge, plenty of Peroni, charming chats with the chaps post music, a 'portant podcast and now the opportunity for awful alliteration and shameless assonance. Long live MJH, SRC and the very funny Mr Tiller. Cheer up Ben, you are THAT good! We want more, we want more!
posted 23/3/2011 by Mark Lawrence

Thanks for a fantastic evening and the very generous gift of your new CD. We'll be back..
posted 23/3/2011 by Chris Cooper

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