Wednesday 26 June 2019

1,144 INDOOR PETS, St. Agnes, London Chiswick Metropolis Studios, Monday 24th June 2019




Happy Birthday to me! And on my birthday I’m always up for a gig, particularly if it’s a) by one of my favourite new bands, the spiky, spunky spritely young powerpop bucks Indoor Pets, and b) it’s free! I didn’t know what I was signing up for tonight, however; Indoor Pets announced on their Facebook page that they’d be “recording a live session” at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, and tickets to come and watch were free but incredibly limited… so I put my name down, thinking it might be a gig, it might be watching a recording studio sesh, who knows? Either way, it’d be a fun thing to do on my birthday!

One of the nice things my company does is to give everyone their birthday off work, so this trip plan was expanded to do some shopping oop t’Smoke! So, after a morning taking Kasey around a prospective Senior School and an impromptu trip into town to buy a new phone, to replace my old handset which took a swim in the cinema loo at the weekend (!), I set off about 1ish, parking up at Osterley and tubing it to Notting Hill, then hitting the book, comic and record exchanges. Eventually tubed it back over to Chiswick (the right side of town for a gig as well!), found the venue and loitered in the vicinity before they let us in at 7. The audience were ushered to the upstairs bar and I found a comfy sofa to sit on and work out my new phone’s inner machinations, before we were then all ushered back downstairs to a small, wood-lined and very pink-lit studio, with a stage set-up at the far end. Ah, so it is a gig, then…

I’d actually bumped into IP bassist Olly in the bar upstairs who primed me on the running order, so before da Pets were due on at 9, we had another session from St. Agnes, who kicked into gear at 8. Unfortunately, they were awful; clumsy and ham-fisted gothy hard rock straight from the Almighty school of heavy-handed rawwwwwwk riffery, with a screaming goth female vocalist who seemed to think feigning orgasm sounds is still “rock’n’roll” in 2019. And I do actually like my goth, me – I was hunting around for a Virgin Prunes 12” in Notting Hill earlier – but this was just dated, turgid, lumpen and really heavy going, with lyrical couplets such as “death or glory, I don’t really care”… I endured a couple of numbers before retreating to my comfy sofa, where unfortunately they were still audible, albeit quieter!

Took a wander back down as St. Agnes finished their crushingly loud final number, and the “rock” half of the crowd filed out. This left the tiny room happily less crowded but still stiflingly hot, as Indoor Pets set up. Just after 9 we were good to go, though, and the boys took the stage, crashing into a noisy instrumental opener before helium-voiced gabbling motormouth vocalist Jamie Glass kicked in with the opening lines to the bouncy, buoyant “Cutie Pie, I’m Bloated”, kicking off a soaring rambunctious rendition and eliciting lots of jumping about – both onstage and off!


Indoor Pets were once again in rare form tonight, an onstage whirl of energy, angular shapes, rubber-kneed bounce and swirling hair, particularly from Olly and guitarist Rob. Jamie was his usual effervescent self, quipping, “thanks for coming down! We’re worth every penny of the ticket price!” before the flippant slow grunge of “Couch”, which for me recalled the sardonic sparkle of Glitterbox (remember them?). “Teriyaki” was terrific, off-kilter, fast and frantic, before the sweaty vocalist (suffering with his glasses steaming up throughout) asked, “who’s on the water?” prompting the roadies to hand out bottles to the melting front rows. Once again the new album material showed up well, the likes of “Heavy Thoughts” in particular soaring, anthemic and hooky, yet my highlights were the final 2 numbers; “Barbiturates”, as bitter, biting and yet bouncy as ever, and a frenzied, moshpit-inducing “Pro Procrastinator”, which closed out this 40 minute vignette. “You’re so kind!” remarked Jamie, “I think you’d have paid for a ticket!” Maybe, just maybe, we would have…!

A quick chat with Rob before I wished him and the boys well on their Weezer Brixton Academy support slot this weekend, and headed off, unfortunately having a 20 minute wait for my tube before getting back to the motor, a swift rant down the M4 getting me home at 12.30 before I nodded off! Nonetheless, a fine way to spend my 27th (twice!) birthday, with a band who (finally) seem to be going places – Indoor Pets!

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