Creep Show (Sheffield)

I woke up feeling bad about not socialising with the Shriekback guys, yesterday, but then I got an email saying there was a playback of the new album at 2pm and I was relieved that we'd be on our way to Sheffield by then. I guess I'm just not that 'strangers are friends you haven't me yet' kind of guy.

Anyway, yes, Sheffield. Off to see Creep Show, which is a band made up of John Grant plus Wrangler, Wrangler being a band that includes Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire and Benge, the doyen of the analogue synth community. The Minx had found us an AirBnB about a minute's walk away, so we hung out there until, well, a minute before doors opened.

The support, Elsa Hewitt, was excellent: tweaking her synths and occasionally singing, and I think I could have watched her all evening. However, she was finished all too soon and on came Creep Show.

And, actually, they were pretty good. Set up as two chaps with laptops, Benge with a keyboard, and the other guy playing drums along with the programmed beats, they saw their way through most of the 'Mr. Dynamite' album plus, I think, the new single. The crowning moment, though, was a performance of Cabaret Voltaire's 'Sensoria'*. That made my evening. 

*A video lightly plagiarised by U2 for 'Even Better Than The Real Thing'.

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No scales
Reading: 'In Aleppo Once' by Taqui Altounyan