Blog: Jim'll's Brain

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Last night The Dishes On My Menu and i went OUT, to the pub, for a meal and then to a GIG at the Betsy Trotwood to see Jim'll's Brain. The Beer In My Pint Glass had heard some of his stuff on Myspace, really liked it, and suggested we go and see him - as it turns out, this was a REALLY GOOD IDEA.

We got in and sat having a quick sip of our beer before we went downstairs - they were playing "Tapestry" over the pub PA, which probably helped my good mood, and I thought "I LOVE GIGS!" - it's the routines and the rituals of it, the not knowing what you're going to get, the BEER, the company, the chance of bumping into people you know AND people you don't, and the EVER PRESENT THREAT of ADVENTURE!

Anyway, we went downstairs to watch the end of a young Australian woman's acoustical set and almost straight away noticed how VERY much better it was down there since the smoking ban. Previous gigs down there have been HORRID, it's always HOT (and still is) and breathing gets harder as it fills with SMOKE and STINK - now, however, there was only the comparitively gentle aroma of HUMAN, which doesn't stick to your clothes quite as much.

We looked around and straight away spotted Jim'll as we'd seen his picture on his myspace, and also because he was the person in the room wearing skintight silver sparkly trousers and a cape with his torso and face painted bright blue. Soon he took to the stage and was INSTANTLY loveable - obviously a bit nervous but transmuting it into CHARM and CHARISMA, and rather unexpectedly launching into a trio of really sweet, very touching songs about mental health problems. NOT what I expected - initially I felt disappointed, then concerned (I always worry when people go out of their way to make others laugh AT them) but soon realised the only problems were with ME and my own GIG FILTER - why can't someone dress as a superhero/smurf and STILL do, actually, realy good, charmingly vulnerable songs? Most acts you see would be VASTLY improved if they did ONE of these TWO things!

After these he leant down to the floor to "Mr iPod", where he'd store backing tracks - and blimey, that's really cool isn't it? Sometimes THE FUTURE comes up with some REALLY good ideas. The rest of the set were a _little_ more like what I'd expected but, actually, much better and all round GRATE. He reminded the both of us A LOT of Mr John Otway, in that all the songs were GRATE and, as I say, LOVEABLE, and so was he. The room was full of LOVE for him, everyone was smiling at, also WITH the songs, and the tunes were ACE. Best of all they were all REALLY short - many of them ended after what would usually be the middle section GUITAR SOLO (which, also, was invariably BRILLIANT), when he'd obviously thought "I've covered that topic - NEXT!" This is a policy that, i feel, ALL people writing songs would benefit from immensely, also people LISTENING to them.

It was all rather fantastic - there room was filled with HAPPINESS, only added to when his Christmas Song (which was VERY Christmassy) was accompanied by everyone getting presented with a GOODIE BAG containing a CD, party poppers and various SWEETS. We spoke briefly to him afterwards, resisting the URGE to HUG him for fear of getting covered in BLUE and soon left the pub with great big silly grins on our faces, talking all the way to the tube about how FAB it had been.

Gigs are GRATE!

posted 3/8/2007 by MJ Hibbett

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SPAMBOT FILTER: an animal that says 'oink' (3)
	(e.g. for an animal that says 'cluck' type 'hen')