Smith and I went to see Ayria play at Electrowerkz in The Angel last night. The standard room was used for the bands and the bar at the back was open but only with one person serving which seems about two too few! We had actually caught a train from Purley to St Pancras and so the venue was only about a fifteen minute walk from the terminus.
When we arrived a KLOQ were already playing.
This band were pretty good. The singer could sing, which is not necessary in this genre, more of an advantage. They had a live drummer and bassist. All other noises were produced by a computer. They were a bit dancy but very enjoyable. Andy and I both liked them a lot. I’d happily see them again.
Next up were a band called Inertia. They were a project of the drummer from Killing Joke. Now, I have seen Killing Joke and they were pretty good. However this side project were not good. They weren’t terrible but the style of music mostly left me cold. There was a guitarist, the drummer, a singer and the programmer. The guitars were too much and there was too much noise and sound. The first two songs had a slow walking keyboard riff that irritated me a lot.
I thought the singer was a bit weak and needed to be much more powerful to compliment the sound of the rest of the band. We left them playing. It was that boring.
The headline act was a Canadian female singer called Ayria. I would describe her stuff as quite pop-like but with the slight edge that means she plays places like Electrowerkz and not the Smash Hits Pop Party [possibly showing my age there].
She was much better than the other two bands. She had two musicians with her who both seemed to be really enjoying themselves. It’s odd but watching musicians enjoy themselves makes the whole thing much more enjoyable for me.
All her songs were great and she didn’t talk a great deal, if at all, in between the songs. She did a great job and it was very enjoyable.
After the gig all the bands were hanging around and I accidentally hip-bumped Ayria later on in the evening. Electrowerkz turns into Slimelight club at 23:00 and so Smith and I hung around for a while. We sampled some lovely cocktails and chatted to some of the bods who attend these events.
Fortunately for us there are trains from Victoria to home once an hour through the night. This means it’s possible to get back without having to use stupidly expensive taxis. All in all it was a very good night out.