Dan / Running Standard

Dan plays guitar in a band called Running Standard, all the members of which are excellent musicians, and who make a brand of rock that occasionally leans to what we might once have labelled 'prog'. 

Tonight they were playing a gig in Kendal, and both Charlie and Hannah came up from Manchester to join Abi and I in going along to watch. 

To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect: a regular gig just didn't seem very them. And I was right, inasmuch as they didn't;t just get up and work their way through a setlist. It was more... hm, what's the word? Somewhere between relaxed and (not quite) shambolic. 

Actually, it was a bit like sitting in on a rehearsal: playing would start, maybe peter out, or someone else would join in, and we'd get a song. We had changes of drummer as two of the members swapped instruments, and also of instrumentation.

At one point, one of the band decided to take a comfort break, and then a couple of the others did, too (there was a lot of lager being drunk), so Abi got up to tell a joke* (see Extra).

All round, though, it was an excellent gig. They played my two favourite tracks off their recent album - 'Magnificent Pendulum Film Star' and 'Loaded False Elektra!' - and they were an absolute credit to themselves.

* 
A polar bear goes in to a bar. 
He says "I'll have a rum and...


... coke".
The bartender says "Why the long pause?"
And the polar bear replies "I don't know. I was born this way."