Decided to go to this gig in preference to watching the footy; good thing too as England got beaten 2-0 by Holland so we failed to qualify for the World Cup. D'oh! So Clive and I headed down to the Fleece instead, only to find on arrival that the first band had cancelled so we had an hour's wait for the next band. D'oh!
But boy, was it worth it! Antenna, two thirds of old Boston band the very wonderful Blake Babies (Juliana Hatfield of course being the other third), came on at 9 and totally rocked the place with some extremely fine and well constructed college rock numbers, played with verve and gusto. Big John Strohm, vocalist and focal point, led his new baby confidently through a splendid and shining pop set. Clive and I both had the feeling we've not seen the last of Strohm and Antenna, a point we made to a chuffed John afterwards.
By contrast, the much-heralded and actually very short (!) Drop Nineteens were very disappointing. Mainman Greg Ackell was suffering from a sore throat and cut some numbers from the set, but by contrast to their fantastic Reading Festival set a couple of months ago, they seemed awkward and ill at ease, and projected their dreamy Muses-like pop rather poorly. A great shame, particularly on easily their best number, the wonderful "Winona", which came across very rushed "live" tonight.
Good thing we saw Antenna then, as they more than made up for it tonight, after all!
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