Tuesday 13/11/07 Amusement Parks on Fire, Shady Bard @ Hoxton Bar and Grill, London

Tuesday night saw renowned shoegaze club night AC30 shack up with Hoxton’s Bar and Grill. The decadence of tonight’s shindig hides behind the guise of the black curtain (how very Soho!); it also sees AC30 take on the Sonic Cathedral kids in a setting that is only a stone’s throw from their terrain- what with Old Street’s Legion providing sanctuary to Sonic Cathedral before they flittered more freely about the capital. But we’re all friends here, right? Good music is good music, despite whose feet the shoes are on.

Shady Bard prove that shoegaze is not the only genre on the menu this evening. They may seem like an odd choice of support but luckily, for the Bard, when they play something magical happens. People who would often never admit to liking such a band come over all quiet, lost wandering amongst the sonic wilderness of their own thoughts, before they eventually snap out of it, and all too enthusiastically offer to go to the bar to get you another beer. Though the sound and tone may be set for Amusement Parks on Fire’s intensity, nevertheless people you’d never thought you’d see tapping their dirty shoes to folk are doing just that. From ‘Bobby’ through to the eco friendly ‘Treeology’ and intense ‘Torch Song’ we don’t need to tell you that there’s good reason why Birmingham’s Bard are out in force this evening; their music is just as easy to get lost within as anyone else’s on the bill.

Amusement Parks on Fire are a total contrast to Shady Bard in terms of musicality. Here sits a band on many a music obsessive’s ipod, without boasting much media coverage at all. Their major album was released on V2 last year and is a masterpiece of sorts. It is the kind of record that people with active shoe sound obsessions fix in pride of place in their collections. When you see a band live, a year after the release of an album, you don’t actually expect to hear all that many songs from it. But APOF are not ones to disappoint. Sneaked into the set are 5/8 songs from that album. One song in, ‘In Flight’ blares from the amplifiers; a song that sounds muggy but rich in layers like an extravagant fondant truffle (the best that money can buy) squished under a very clean pair of brogues. It’s decadence for music obsessives but probably indiscernible to any one else; an acquired taste, which if weaned on a diet of early nineties indie, will probably make your year. ‘Out of the Angeles’, the album in question, was recorded in Sigur Rós’ converted swimming pool studio in Reykjavik; so much of the mugginess of the sound of the album can be attributed to this production; the sonic diegesis provides a loud and claustrophobic sound that you would not think translatable into a live set; only it appears to do just that. It probably bodes well to be slightly inebriated into the set as ‘A Star is Born’ permeates the inner regions of your eardrums; providing the perfect dreamscape.

Sometimes listening to music can be a really private thing which enables you to explore the deepest regions of your inner world. It’s not so much about being a part of something, nor being somewhere, nor observing a spectacle; sometimes it is simply about seeing a band you know and love, for the first, fourth or last time. APoF are simply a great band and this night was no observable exception.