Gang Gang Dance @ Deaf Institute 18/08/09

I spent the past few days treking around the Edinburgh Festival drinking and eating myself stupid and fitting in the odd comedy show. It's fair to say that after dumping ones bags in the hall and essentially turning around and backing out the nice warm restful house going to see a band isn't the ideal thing to be doing. The train journey was one of them when (and I do this more often than not) I somehow get the feeling that the journey is nearing it's end and then get annoyed when it doesn't. Like in The Dark Knight when you think it's drawing out to an ending and then starts up again by the fourth time it does this you're really quite annoyed. That was me on the train back from Edinburgh.

Gang Gang Dance should have been the first band to feature in this blog, seen as they were scheduled to play at the Roadhouse in February. Unfortunately for punters and band the show was cancelled as their tour van burnt up (does a van burn up or down) with all their gear in it. this, along with the fact that last years album St Dymphna was in my topper most of the top albums of 2008 I wasn't gonna miss their next Manchester gig, no matter how physically fucked I was feeling (8 and a half outta ten). I'm also writing this after the event so you're getting short changed before we've even began because I've been to Berlin since and can't rememeber a lot of it!! Ha!! Read on losers...



Support act was the Sian Alice Group and they were indeed top draw. The four (or maybe five) piece displayed some hypnotic driving rhythms and stuff like that. The singer looked hot (in a sexual sense) and cool (in a fonzy sense) and sort of reminded me of Patti Smith without the lectures. The band had quite a relaxed vibe about them and reminded me of the Walkmen a little bit, although that was just about the overall visual impression (suits and moustaches).



Gang Gang Dance can't be everybodies cup of tea, for starters if they were I wouldn't wanna live in that world. Better writers than me have written about them trying to explain their range of influence both inwards and outwards but it's always a shortcoming (the journalism, not the music). They line up on stage with a large pile of gizmos and gadgets, a guitarist and a drummer a singer with some congas which she plays with what I can't help remember as large cotton buds (i'm sure some bore will inform me of their correct name).

I'd heard a live podcast a few weeks earlier so I wasn't suprised at their set which contained a large protion of instrumental improvisation with many multi layered percussion parts which I'd really enjoy listening to, but there's really only so long you can watch someone play the congas before you get a bit restless and what with the aforementioned train journey it's amazing I lasted.

They were ace, the album was much better. I liked the way they jammed songs out but was frustrated that they didn't play all their strongest songs. The guy playing the keyboards and samples needs a hug because he seemed to be doing just about everything while everyone else jammed it (or winged it). But yeah they were great, my girlfriend liked them (not as much as Sian Alice Group) but then she likes anything with a femal singer she's one of these "Ya-hoo you go girl" types.