overlap

It has become something of a habit to combine gigs in London with a bit of wandering around and seeing where else I find myself; this time I ended up meandering around the City before eventually hitting the Clerkenwell Road and heading back in to the Charing Cross Road area. It's the first time I've covered enough ground to see the amount of transport-related work that's going on in preparation for the Olympics, and while I understand the long-term regenerational benefits to the city, it looks like it's going to be a bit of a mess for a while. It's also the reason why the Astoria venue that was my destination for the evening is lined up for destruction, and having seen some memorable gigs there over the years it'll be a bit of a sad thing when it all goes. Surprise bands who are unfamiliar to me are always a welcome change, and in the case of The Go Set I'd spent five minutes on myspace to conclude that they sounded all right and I wanted to make sure I saw their support slot and left it at that, so it was with no firm expectations that I made it into the Astoria 2 five minutes before they were due on stage. No big announcement or introduction preceded them, just a couple of minutes of furious bagpiping before the piper was joined by the rest of the band. Despite being a long way from home, there was plenty of antipodean attendance at this ANZAC day show, and what we got was a glorious race through fifty minutes of good sweaty fun. They play what might be described as straight rock with a folk twist, with the pipes and a tin whistle heading towards what you'd get if you crossed China Drum with the Pogues. It's slightly distracting with the piper being barely audible over two guitars and a drummer that beats the kit into submission with nonchalant ease, so when the other instruments are not quiet there's an understandable urge in him to either play air guitar on his bagpipes or charge about the stage jumping up and down, and the whole thing adds up to a glorious racket. Lyrics aside, there's perhaps not a lot of subtlety about The Go Set just a healthy blast through some great rock songs, with the sort of honest simplicity that the Kaiser Ferdinand Party posse could learn a thing or two from – excellent stuff, and a new band whose material I now need to track down. I'd not have made the trip for them alone on the strength of what I knew, but if that had been a headline show rather than a support slot I'd not have been disappointed. Which is only part of the reason it gets a post of its own. More pictures to follow on flickr, but you can see for yourself whether you think they are serious about their music.

Labels: gigs, The Go Set