Hentucky Breaks presents Birthday beats Friday 22 August 2008 – 3BlindMice, Ravey Street London
So Hentucky came back for a little free gig at 3blindmice, Ravey Street.... so how did it go? Well, let’s start from the beginning…
I usually get questioned on when the next Hentucky is? Usually from friends asking when they can have a good excuse for a slash up whilst meeting old faces they haven’t seen for a while. However a request came from Lisa who pulled on the old sob story “but we won’t be able to see the next event as we’re moving out of the country.” Then it came to me, as our band was building momentum on writing tracks for the first time in years since we started and talks have murmured that we need to start gigging. I emailed round a few venues, from 93 Feet East (which was a bit too much) to some random cinema in Borough. Eventually 3BlindMice was recommended and I went in, met Rodger the manager/co-owner and we got on and took it from there.
That was 7 weeks before the gig and we had a shed load to do. We firstly had to come up with a name (thanks to a copy of my brothers Economist and a random text from George the next morning merging Karoshi with… Kid), pick the songs we wanted to play, finish our songs, construct a way to play our songs without having to resort to recruiting new members to play all the different parts we construct in the studio and whatever else in between. Coupled with mad work schedules it was literally a manic escapade of lugging equipment around various houses, learning how to master in an evening, and just getting to grips with the live set up. Eventually the day was nearing and on the 11th hour we got to grips with the set up and levels and basically what exactly we want to play.
So on the day itself I hauled my stuff into work, intending to try and capture a few work heads to pop down by getting them to tag along. As it was my birthday on the Friday I tried to work but mixture of rinsing the birthday train and making myself feel better and excitement of the gig started to wear me down. Come 4ish o'clock (god bless flexi system) I was out the office for intending to have a few warm up drinks. Ah the joys of intention, you mean so well but it always ends up somewhere else.
Unfortunately, after 4 double Vodka and Red bulls in an hour I was wired to fuck. My eyes having a mind of their own, looking around the room like I just had a Toby Carvery with a side of schrooms. Eventually the chatters of utter cod shit was on order and trying to see if anyone else could come. In the end the work turn out to the venue was pretty low but respect to new girl Carina for coming down (that's dedication for only 4 days into the job).
Anyway we get in and started to set up, as George literally had got there. He noticed my wired-ness and obviously looked concerned if I was going to do a Docherhouse. I started to focus on the task ahead and get on with it. Eventually Amir came and along with his new amp which arrived on the day (you're like an American soap Amir sometimes) and we started to get everything set up. Working out the levels in a small venue was pretty painful due to the location of the speakers, and it never really felt right in the booth area anyway. Eventually it would come to bite us in the arse, but we felt ready anyway.
After drinking, a quick psyche up in the toilets and saying hello to various friends who came down (more work crew did show as promised later which in all honesty I was surprised at) we went on. A little crowd had gathered of randoms mainly, which was nervy and our set begin. The levels came back to bite us in the arse and at points I couldn't hear fuck all. So a little sloppy in timing came out, however we did practise playing to low levels to train our ears and it paid off, but most of the set worked very well in the end. Some of our ideas paid off, mixing in artists like RJD2, LCD Soundsystem, MSTRKRFT and Chemical Brothers amongst our own tracks where as a few bits calmed down the place a little too much for our liking. Our tracks seemed to fit in well and people got into the grove of them which is cool for totally unknown tracks. The crowd was pretty packed out at the end and people bumped into Amir as we where literally sprawled into the middle of the bar, but we still managed to keep it going.
Our climatic finish was a bit hampered with distortion on levels (again the levels came to bite us on the arse) but overall it was a decent set. Over not many boo's or bottles thrown and a few people jigging around actually interested to see what we where doing. Our mates got involved, some actually just more interested in catching up with each other, but it's all good as that's the nature of a showcase gig to let people listen or just to get mashed up in the corner which is what a few people did.
Instantly when we where done 7 weeks of intensity came and ended after a 35 minute set, so utter tiredness set in. I wanted to go to bed at 9.30pm but obviously we had to stay, support Clear the Dancefoor, and well it was my birthday so any excuse for a drink. But in conclusion, we learn a hell of a lot from our ideas and it will aid us to do any final touches on our tunes. We have a swift deadline to get stuff on the internet as soon as possible including a recording of our live set (not at the bar itself unfortunately as I forgot to press record on the MD), as we need to start getting our music out there.
Afterwards Jim and his mate came down under “Clear the Dancefloor” and played a nice bumpy set. Mixing up dubstep, electro, 2step, breaks and party tracks. Some found it a bit too much of a basement vibe and made a move whilst others remained and more came to enjoy the rest of the show and have a little skank up. The place seemed to get pretty rammed again come midnight and at the end it was a decent mix all night (and this is for a bank holiday weekend which could either be shit or miss).
For the future we will be looking into continuing our Live DJ thing but also will be looking towards a full live set up at some point in the future, so watch out for that. We just want to put on a good show, write some music and have a good laugh with it all.
However thanks for everyone who came down, Rodger for hooking us up at venue and of course George and Amir for all giving it their all. And also a final thanks to A-Dwag and Lee for their wedding the next day. Best cure for lethargy ever, in the form of a good day out and absolutely piss up. Who said posing on your knees to Spandau Ballet was a bad thing?
Written by Ivan Madeira
