Last night’s gig was … mixed. The band were very, very good. Beautiful, complex strands of sound shifting around each other, building from whisper to medlodious cacophony. I like the increased vocal element in the new material, as well – it lends the whole thing a bit more clarity, gives the listener a more informed hook into the soundscapes.

So yeah, a good time.

But by the end of it, I was ready to do bloody violence upon half the audience. From the bastards behind us who persisted in talking over all the quiet bits, to the idiots who kept shh-ing people more loudly than the people were actually talking, and most especially to the muppets who kept shouting over Ephrim as he was trying to talk. OK, I’m not sure it was a wholly smart move, trying to bring any level of political opinion into the stage patter, but then, it’s not like they’re an apolitical act. Still, while I don’t expect everyone to agree with them (I don’t entirely agree with them myself), I figure that if I’ve paid the price of admission, I might as well listen to what the man’s got to say. And I would have liked the chance to do that without it turning into a fight between Ephrim and some Kerry supporting fuckwit in the audience. Not a fight, of susbtance, you understand – just a fuckwit who wouldn’t let the poor sod finish a sentence without interruption. Debate, I can handle. Basic rudeness, not so much.

Still, as I said to a friend, the music was great, and the lady violinists pulchritudinous[1], and there’s not a lot more you can ask for…

[1] All women[2] violinists are, in my experience. Why this should be, I have no idea, but I’m not complaining.
[2] The men may be as well, but I’m not exactly sensitive to that sort of thing, and I don’t recall having seen any that stood out…