Getdown Services at the Ballroom!

Hiya! The last gig of the year has happened! I’ve missed a few reviews for sixth form reasons and it’s been a bit radio silent so i’m sorry for that. Happily however, i can now review Getdown Services, and it was an absolute party!

It was in Electric Ballroom and it was my first time and i must say it was quite an odd venue. It’s quite a thin building of Camden highstreet but you descend and come into a large bar area, before coming into the massive ballroom. A really lovely venue because you could hang out there with drinks and seats for oodles, and also easy to get to a bar or piss or whatever.

The first band was called Langkamer, and are now my new obsession probably. A bit country to indie to folk to whatever other genre, lovely blokes, good music. They’re made up of two founders of breakfast records, Getdown Services label, and seem like just a genuinely nice group of lads making very good music. They ought to be much bigger, they have another album of goodness coming, and if you want to get into them i’d recommend the Ugliest Man in Bristol. Jazz hands!

Second up was Welshers The Family Battenburg. With the most wonderful name, their so called “spider rock” is energetic! They all look like extras off off of a Queen tribute in a way, and put on a cracker set. The singer came up to the crowd, screamed a lot, and i must say were cracking, definitely one to watch i’d say.

I really think the quality of supports shows to how much the GS lads care. Behind the sweariness, they seem like genuinely lovely people who care. I especially love how they’ve made clear they’re behind their label, and aren’t up for a switch, and that everyones welcome to their shows.

But now for the main event. As they’re coming on, some random middle aged women decided she’d kiss me on the cheek and introduce herself which was very very odd. As soon as the first five minutes of insulting practically everyone the band could, i ran away towards the pit. What a pit! Mind you, by the time i’d wriggled to the pit it was crisps which evoked a bit of a chaos, and by the next song i had been kicked in the head, elbowed in the tooth and been rather squished, and it was already the most fun i’d had this month. There was a lot of jumping around until we settled into the last song before the encore, I wish it didn’t bother me, which showed they had some mild emotional depth and created a lovely singing moment that they were clearly loving more than they’d care to show.

Post encore, Jamie Macmillan rocked up into the pit which you know means you’re gonna be promptly bruised and battered even more. I think of Jamie as an omen of the absolute most deadly mosh you’ve ever seen, and i was right! They gave us a new song, which evoked a pit, caesar, which even swept Jamie off his feet, and Dog Dribble which is about five minutes of the largest pit ever, where you basically run headfirst into other people. It was seriously the most fun way to end my year, like a school disco for drugged and drunked adults.

I wore my Brude christmas jumper by the way, big mistake. I sweated about a litre of the stuff, and if you can spot me in the pictures, i look as if i have heatstroke. I got a compliment though so it is so fine!

Top albums and gigs comes later this week, this gig will definitely be on it, it was bonkers stuff. Thanks for reading!