I've been to 100's of gigs - too many to count and across a range of music genres and I always love to go to venues I've never been to - particularly if they are renowned and revered for the bands that have played there and the amazing atmosphere that they seem to go hand in hand with.
On Friday night I got my first chance to experience Brixton Academy - what a venue!! With friends from out of town visiting to go to the Rodrigo Y Gabriela gig I took the opportunity to tag along. I have seen RodGab before, and they are amazing but I'll be honest and say that, actually, I was more excited at the prospect of going to Brixton Academy than I was at actually seeing the Mexican musical duo. I managed to blag a ticket at the tube station - I'm not a fan of buying tickets from touts and was all geared up to use my best Scottish banter to get a good price! I needn't have given it much thought - not sure the touts down here have much business acumen, the guy only charged me £1 over the ticket and booking fee cost! Great - I had a ticket and hadn't been ripped off - I already knew it was going to be a good night!
On entering the academy I was struck by how similar the entrance hall feels to the Barrowlands in Glasgow, one of the greatest places to see live bands. Not sure if it was the style of the staircase with its art deco balustrades that had me reminiscing about my favourite Glasgow venue, the stale smell of beer and dust or the buzz and electricity in the air that you don't always get at other venues. The main hall is bigger than I had imagined and is actually quite imposing with its decorative alcoves and pilasters - and the stage is big too and the floor raked so you always get a good view. It was packed and we couldn't get as near the front as I would have liked but that was partly our own fault for being slightly late. The gig was great and there was a carnival atmosphere, in part due to the Cuban band that accompanied RodGab on the stage. Its the kind of music you can't help moving along to and the things that pair can do with guitars is just outstanding! But I can't help wishing I'd gone to see something a bit more Rock n Roll for my first trip to Brixton, however I'm looking forward to many more trips to Brixton Acadamy and hopefully next time to see something more rock, with dirty guitar riffs and lots of noise - its the type of place that I can imagine would be at its best then.
The rest of the weekend continued on this theme and I met friends in Camden on Saturday afternoon, where we unintentionally continued the South American theme having a few Cocktails in Made In Brazil on Inverness Street. http://www.made-in-brasil.co.uk/ Its a great little bar and the barman really knew his stuff, they do traditional cocktails with a real twist. The holiday feel was helped along by the fact it was a gloriously sunny and warm day for February. No gloves or scarves required and sunglasses a must and we spent a good deal of time laughing about the fact we'd gotten a rickshaw home the previous night!!
Although my friend Big N probably spoiled the experience for himself by eating the 2 whole chillies that were meant as garnish in his drink. While he sucked on ice cubes C and I had a good laugh at his expense!!
After leaving Made In Brazil we had a wander round Stables market, where we then ended up in the The Cuban!! http://www.thecuban.co.uk/ See the theme emerging! Had a few Cuba Libres and some great tapas. The Cuban is a great place to meet in the market - although I think I might get lost trying to find it again! Not sure if I should contribute that to the fact the market is like a maze or the copious amounts of Rum that had by now been consumed! From here we headed up Chalk Farm Road to The Barfly - famed for its live music and synonymous with launching the careers of the likes of Coldplay and The Strokes. Its smaller and more intimate than I thought and I was rather surprised by the lack of Rock music that was being played in favour of pop tunes - I would never have believed it if someone told my I'd hear Aqua's Barbie Girl in The Barfly Camden!! We did however have fun dancing to cheesy tunes and the Barfly didn't disappoint in its delivery of some yummy looking rock types! One particularly lovely leather jacket clad Italian caught my eye - shame I didn't have the guts to ask for his number!
As I said I was slightly surprised at the lack of Rock music being played and tweeted about it this morning - only to have Camden Barfly tweet me back to say they were playing rock music upstairs all night! Upstairs?? Oh maybe the place isn't as small and intimate as I thought - Ooops!! Well at least I have an excuse to go back and check it out and who knows maybe the Yummy Italian will be there too! I'll get his number this time!!
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