***k Buttons

And so, after a glorious run of excellent gigs, I finally had a dud. Since last November, when The Minx came to see The Wedding present (her first gig for ten years!), pretty much everything I've seen has varied from good (Irving Washington) to great (Junip). Plus I've seen Kraftwerk *twice*!

But before I go any further, a little background about the unfortunately named Fuck Buttons. They specialise in noise, noise made with synthesisers. It's not a particularly melodic noise, in fact I think it would be fair to say that you would be unlikely to single them out for your shortlist of bands whose tunes you might whistle on a sunny autumn morning, when there's a pleasant nip in the air and a spring in your step. But, in a certain mood and when the fancy takes me, a bit of electronic noise is just the ticket for me. You can hear one of their easier on the ear numbers just here.

Another - and for the purposes of this blog, relevant - point to make is that their drum programming is fairly basic (although I must allow for the exceptional 'Brainfreeze'). And that is unfortunate when the chap on the sound desk decides that the best possible mix for this evening's gig will consist of making the drums considerably louder than everything else. Thus, and sadly, the only track this evening that really worked was 'The Red Wing'.

Still, I appeared to be alone in my disappointment. From our elevated viewpoint, just behind the lighting desk, all I could see was a throbbing mass of bobbing heads and shoulders, making me feel as though I had stumbled upon a congregation of Alan Moore's 'different drummers'.

But there you go, into every life some rain must fall and tonight Fuck Buttons provided the precipitation!