Land of Talk

Manchester, Night & Day, 16/10/07.


Was looking forward to catching up with LoT. I think they are my fave little discovery of the year. I saw them in May the night before I flew out to Germany, so I was probably in a good mood then. I was due to see them last week as they were the support for The Decemberists.

The latter cancelled their tour leaving LoT stranded for a week without any shows and a long way from home (Montreal).

I got to the N&D about 8 ish I think. I wasn't sure, as usual, what crowd they would get. The "mini album" doesn't come out here until next week (this week now, I think). I imported it 7 months ago so I knew about them and have been shouting about the album since I got it.

There were not many people in when I got there and I felt immediately it would be a poor attendance. I bought a drink and had a stroll round. I spotted Lizzie from LoT so I went up and had a chat with her. I said it was a shame about the Decemberists cancellations. It was obvious Lizzie was pissed off by them. She told me they only found out online themselves. She said it was her decision to stay on and fulfill their "solo" dates.

The first band on were a 2 piece, two guys sat down one with acoustic guitar the other an electric bass. Point of ref would be Turin Brakes ish. I liked them, I'm a TB fan anyway but yeah the "Sensorites" they were called, good start.

Next up were "Serpentine Pad" an interesting bunch. No drummer (computer generated) three guitars two lead one bass. They play punky 2 minute songs, say early Sonic Youth compressed!!. I liked them at first then after 4/5 songs they all started to sound "samey". They weren't bad but got monotonous after a while.

LoT came on soon after. They set up different than last time, Lizzie on the left and Blake on the right. They opened with "Street Wheels" which was a strange choice as it's the slowest song on the record. Again Lizzie was "bobbing" up and down, she has an interesting way of playing. They played most of the album and three new songs I did not know. The new stuff sounded good though. The album does not come out here till 22/10 and the UK copy has one of the songs they played, Hmmmm!

Again I thoroughly enjoyed them, as they were leaving the stage myself and a girl next to me started shouting fo more. Lizzie looked a little embarrased as the crowd was so small up front (10 - 15?) but they stepped up and played one more.

After they left the stage the girl next to me asked if I would mail her my photos as she had forgotten to bring her camera. I went over to Lizzie after and said I enjoyed the new stuff the first thing she said to me was "I wish more people would come and see us" this took me aback a bit. I started to say something but she put her palm up in a "stop" gesture and said "don't mention the Decemberists". Again I just didn't know what to say, so I just said "shame cuz you would have been heard by a bigger audience though".

I felt really sorry for her and I left feeling down even though I enjoyed the gig immensely. When I took a look at my album I asked her to sign she'd written "Tim thanks for shouting about us".

I admit I had a tear in my eye at this point.