Why is it the more things you have on a list to complete, the more you end up not doing any of them?

The Flashguns: 5.9
The Good Shoes: 7.5

I have French homework, Spanish homework, mandatory job hunting as per the job seekers benefits rules, guitar practice and other minor chores. And have no desire to do any. I'd love to do Spanish and French but I doubt I'll learn much. I'm hoping when I find paid full time employment I'll have more stability and keep a regular diary on things to complete daily. But logically I'll have less time then now. Hopefully concentration rises in line with earnings. A lot of the rich do have high concentration levels...

I went with Antus Dius to see the Good Shoes on the 18th, they were lovely and enjoyable.

More detail you say? Ok.

We turned up with lovely fliers in order to get £1 off and entered the great Hippodrome, increasingly filled with people younger then me, but a lovely place, probably my fav in Kingston.

The show began with a warm-up called the Flashguns. As Ant pointed out, it's a tad unusual for so many American bands to come to Kingston to play in front of 20 or so random English boys and girls but if you're going to come to London to play at all and are relatively small, New Slang in the Hippodrome would be a top choice I suppose. The people are nice and the place is very hospitable.

The band were "pretty ok". A perfect way to sum them up. They bashed out a few ok songs which were good enough to sway to. I remember none and if I had a video of them I probably wouldn't post, too much hassle. Still if you enjoy a laid-back indie band then keep an eye out for them, they played long, melodramatic notes and tunes, something of an indie fast paced coldplay. "Flashguns"! Apparently on a European tour so someone somewhere with money think they're pretty good. And with all that concentration they must know what's best right?


We moved on for drinks and met a guy we met last during the wombats gig. He took a photo for us which I posted on fb, the only one with me Ant and Caroline in at the same time for your reference. He's a damn nice guy and a good laugh. He was absolutely nothing like what I remembered during the Wombats gig but I was wasted. We had a brief chin-wag before those Shoes that are Good came to the stage and we ran to observe.

It was my first time viewing and heard mixed reviews. Bursting onto the scene like some wild thang, they took massive strides with their first album and were initially pretty brilliant. Unfortunately album number two was a pile of poo. It bombed and calls from the band that they were playing a song from their "latest album" is met with a chorus of "oo-er"s.

That said my first experience with the Good Shoes was rather pleasant. The band played a mix of old and new stuff and the old stuff was definitely better. Smacked of local brilliant songs and the failed encroachment of new, more mass-appealing songs which turned sour. The band are originally from Morden which is roughly 2-3 miles I'd say from where we live.

What let the band down most I'd say was the lead singers lack of enthusiasm. Banter from the front was pretty much brushed off or ignored and he seemed to be in a 'lets get it over with' mood.

Here's a video of one of their songs. It was an old hit. I also have a vid of their finale but the quality is poorer and the leader sounds a lot more off-key then I remember. It also had more viewage of the the chavs in front of us acting like dicks which is never good. Why do people throw bottles onto the stage. It boggles belief. (I sound so old!)

If you desire to see the finale it's on my facebook. Its a good song which many an Englishman (and woman) will probably recognise off of sitcoms and dramas off of Channel 4 and the BBC. (I'm thinking of Skins.)

After the performance we sat for a few hours with our friend, I mainly observed the conversation, feeling tired as hell. All of this non-work is affecting my sleeping patterns. An enjoyable time it was though.

Final News!: The unpaid internship has offered me £65 a week for one extra day a week working on their Social Networking section. Mainly twitter. Annoyingly there are TWO rather large facebook groups for them, completely splitting the support. I'm either going to try to be an admin on one or make my own, although splitting it three ways seems rather stupid. Would give an official aspect to it though.

Tonight I'm off to the central London birthday bash of two footy mates. Expect to read a blog and see photos of the night soon! An old friend has appeared in the profile picture of another friend on my facebook. Took my breath away, she's always been pretty stunning. Time to attempt to be as stunning as possible eh.

Hope all you Yanks have a great Thanksgiving!!

Til later.