They Came From The Stars I Saw Them - And I did

I went to the They Came From The Stars I Saw Them gig last night at the Hoxton Bar and Restaurant.

What a brilliant night, though obviously I'm paying for it now.

The night started off with Omo, well actually it started off with a picnic, which I failed to bring any food to, and Liz talking about liking the jib of someone's coat but this is loosely meant to be a gig review so I shall continue...

I have to say I wasn't overly impressed by Omo, there first and third songs were far too arty/experimental for my liking and underlined everything that I hate about Shoreditch.

However they did do one rather lovely second song about fish coming in a tin.

The next band were more like it, sadly I hadn't started making notes at this stage, not being a professional reviewist so I can't remember their names let alone what they played.

Then on bundled They Came From The Stars I Saw Them in all their white clad glory.

I made it back from the loo in time so I didn't miss any of their set.

Of course I was dancing straight away.

Love, love, love the sing-a-longs.

Love, love, love the dance-a-longs.

More of that please.

I also noted the encore as I don't think, anyone is welcome to correct me, that I've seen They Came From The Stars I Saw Them do an encore in all of the three or four times that I've seen them perform.

Then there was another blinding band, but sadly I failed to make any notes on them so I don't even remember their names let alone the songs they performed.

Then onto The Chap, the main event.

Even before they came on I was happy because one of whom I can only assume was one of their roadies had a T-shirt emblazoned with Alabama Thunderpussy.

The mind boggles.

My only concern at this point was the girl from Omo was also The Chap's keyboardist, not more artsy crap I thought, but my fears were soon to be allayed.

They started off with a spoken piece mentioning the members of The Stars that made me giggle.

One of the songs that they performed was apparently about "proper songs" whatever they are, though Horton (a member of The Stars) shouted out that it was really about Phil Collins.

Indeed.

Even before this point I had noticed that the bassist who was in some very tight shorts, I guess it was quite hot, was showing an outline of his manhood (look at me being all coy).

My eyes kept falling on it throughout the performance and making me giggle.

Anyway more about the important stuff: the songs.

One song came complete with what I can only describe as a robot gopher dance complete with side step.

Genius.

The bassist also played the violin for some songs.

Well I say played, he actually beat out a rhythm on the strings, which worked really well, or played sporadic discordant notes, which I was less impressed with.

The violin beating also threw up an impressive amount of dust and was quite severely broken.

The lead singer even brought out a double bass or cello at one point.

Yeah I know two years of G.C.S.E music and I can't tell the difference, disgraceful.

They played a song which they introduced as "shit disco", but I thought it more liked great pop.

Despite two promises that the songs we were about to hear would be about being lost in the forest looking for a girl, well, none of them were.

Their encore songs were dedicated to Claire and Hector: Claire because she couldn't make it, Hector because he wasn't allowed to come.

There was interesting use of flash cards by the keyboardist for one song.

The end of the last song saw them freeze to the closing note.

Even Horton froze reaching up open mouthed to the stage.

Poser.

I only went to the after party for an hour, I had to get up in the morning.

Was entertained by the naked ladies being projected onto the wall, though the best one has to be the old man with the sign round his neck, which read: They came for Brian Haw I said nothing. Then they came for me.

I'm ashamed to say though I've seen this guy on countless occasions I didn't recognise his name.

Unfortunately there were some anal sex images, call me a prude if you like but I don't really want to see that on a night out.

Thanks to being disorganized I now owe Liz a fiver to add to my other debts, at least one of them I can blame on someone else.

Will have to call in the £15 debt owed to me.

So get yourself to the next Stars gig people!

Plug, plug.