The bloke in the yellow shirt on the front page is called Matt. I met him in the toilets last night at Barden’s Boudoir in Dalston, where I went to see some bands I’d never really heard before. Everyone had a great time, including Matt, who cut his face open while celebrating his birthday onstage with the headliners Suspect Parts. But my favourite band of the evening were The Saudis, who are like Vampire Weekend getting rowdy at a crack party in Scarborough.
Their drummer plays afro-beat, the keyboards are a bit Elvis Costello, and the singer is like a homeless Alex Turner. They are really good.
The Saudis made sure they had some half time refreshments, which included shots of tequila for the whole band and and a sit down for the singer.
The singer put his jumper back on and headed straight for the bar after their set.
The headliners, Suspect Parts, are a mix of the members from other bands- The Briefs, Clorox Girls, and the guitarist from Wolverhampton’s Ripchord (below). Their music is a kind of power pop with big, fun, but fairly meaningless choruses.
I hadn’t been that interested in them until the lead singer decided that he would add priesthood to his list of duties (guitar/vocals/worship). Like Eli in There Will Be Blood, he offered redemption and blessing to the audience who had evidently been intoxicated by The Saudis’ decadent brilliance. They lapped it up.
Then they announced that it was this guy called Matt’s birthday. They invited him onstage for a bout of wrestling.
Matt clearly came out of the encounter the worst off, landing himself quite a birthday bump. The Suspect Parts man was very pleased with himself.
Matt waited until the end of the gig before rushing to the toilets, which is where I spoke to him. He is a financial copy writer or something similar, and he wasn’t looking forward to explaining to his boss what had happened to his face. I like his shirt.
