Tyrannosaurus Alan – Beacon Court 12th January 2008

This was originally published on another blog just after the gig!

We went to a gig on Saturday night at a local pub called the Beacon Court. My eldest daughter told us her friends band were playing there that night so we decided to go.

It turned out there were three bands on – the first of which were called Your Broken Ego and were, in the words of an overheard conversation in the gents, a bit blink (182)! They were loud and as far as I could tell quite competent musicians BUT god were they dull. All songs played at full tilt with no variation or subtlety any where to be seen. We hoped this wasn’t going to set the tone for the night. They gave away free CD’s so I suppose you have to give them points for trying!

Next up were Posture troop (not as Sarah thought she’d heard them say!) who were a trio (although at one point I wondered if they had a fourth member hiding in the wings!) They put me in mind of Cream or Ten Years After and some elements of Acoustic Ladyland. However their set was troubled by a troublesome guitar which fed back all the time and eventually ended up being tossed into the corner and stomped on! The main problem though was a sound system that favoured the bass and drums to the exclusion of everything else but this was the same for all three bands. I quite liked them though and would probably go and see them again.

My daughter had come along with her best mate and her best mates boyfriend so at one point I sent her a text saying “you look like you’re play gooseberry – would you like a drink”. She came over and we had a chat – I remember my Dad turning up at a gig when I was her age but that was John Otway and Wild Willy Barratt and Otway was doing something very rude with a microphone when I turned round and saw my dad standing at the back of the venue!

I asked her which of her friends bands we had come to see the one he drums in or the one he plays guitar in. She said he was playing guitar and singing – well sort of singing she said! She also told me the band had changed it’s name and was now called – wait for it…..

Tyrannosaurus Alan!

I was expecting the same sort of music as the first band but my daughter had mentioned a Sax player and I could also see a trumpet so i was intrigued. When the band kicked off it’s first number (called Mango Number 5 – I think) it was quite a surprise to find it had a Ska beat! I suppose the best way to describe it would be Hi-energy Ska or Ska/punk but it was really infectious and the brass section really sounded great. I could see lots of influences most of which were probably indirect but it would have had me down the front dancing had it not been for the fact Sarah would have killed me for embarrassing my daughter!

Sadly their set was marred by the same sound issues that had been present all evening – the tracks on their My Space show how overpowering the bass and drums were in the venue. There was an odd moment where they invited “anyone who knows the words” to come up and sing on a cover version of Kate Nash’s Foundations and several people took them up on it. Sadly the set was quite short and I could have listened to them for longer – must see them again when they have a decent sound system!

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