Take me out tonight..

First Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in the new venue.  Not a bad little place, quite cozy and all the red curtains remind me a little of 9th Ward.  Seems to be a wierdo friendly sort of place too, which helps.

We were just finishing getting ready (Elaine fixing makeup, me watching Wild Zero) when we got a call from i_beloved, who decided on the spur of the moment to come with us.  We got there some time after ten and there was already a decent crowd there.  That's one thing i like about nights with an early close - you can walk in before midnight and actually find people there.  Blue Velvet was good for that when they didn't have a late licence and people used it as either a pre-club bar or an easy night out.  That's something we could probably do with again around here (at least for us ain't getting any younger'uns).

Quite a bit of the night was spent saying "hello there, haven't seen you in ages".  Quite a few familar faces i'd not seen out of the woodwork for some time.  I also got mistaken for Neef again for the first time in ages, at least since i stopped shaving the side of my head.  Too many fine folks to do a name-call, but a good group.  Luckily Elaine was there to hold most of the conversation, as i was in over-caffeinated wind-up doll mode again with my usual attention deficit.  Good thing i don't take speed - it'd be scary. 

Ms Ann Thropik came on a bit earlier than expected and were quite good.  From some mp3 samples i'd heard on the internet i'd expected them to be very hard-rock/nu-metal based but, while there was a bit of that in the sound, there was also a fairly cabaret (for want of a better term) or maybe even 'swing' (definitely the wrong word, but i can't think of a better one) feel to a lot of it.  It reminded me in places of Lydia Lunch's mid '90s 'Shotgun Wedding' and Die Haut collaborations, or maybe some of Mia Stone's bands like the Dirty Strangers or Satellite.  Whatever, it was good and i really enjoyed it.

Having started earlier (cutting short Hayley and Edward's rather fine debut dj set) the band finished earlier, so it looked like my set afterwards would go a lot longer than expected, though it evened out in the end when the place closed at 1.30 rather than 2am.  I'd been quite unsure of what to play, and had a few ideas worked out depending on whether it was a 'standing around yakking after the band' crowd or a 'we're restless and want to dance already' crowd.  It seemed a bit of both, so i went the in between route, and it seemed to go down okay.  There wasn't much of a dance floor there, and what there is is hard to see from the dj booth, so that helps to avoid 'must fill floor' stressing (look ma, no nerves).  The set was a bit rough for technical glitches while i was trying to work out the peculiarities of the new equipment (especially not being able to pick how loud each track would start) but i don't think it hurt too much.  The song selection was apparently quite acceptable, so that's the main thing.  And i swear i wasn't going to play the Horrorpops this time but, well, it was a Horrorpopsy sort of crowd.  :)   It caught me by surprise when the staff told me to wind things up by 1.30, but that turned out to be handy timing as i was just tossing up when to work in a request for My Way, whether to keep it for a closing song or play it then and not make the chap wait so long for his request.  Ended up able to do both.

It did seem a sudden end to the night, and a lot of people seemed to be just starting to get into the swing, but hopefully those that wanted to boogie some more found satisfaction somewhere after that.  By the next KKBB in March they'll have a later license, so things'll be a little more to the usual schedule.

I really enjoyed the night (and the company) and hope there'll be lot more nights there.

Now to go see what money we've got left and whether we've drunk the shopping budget.  Seeya.

( setlist under cut )