Pint of Carling, please: Live music at the Dice Club

Old Blue Last 38 Great Eastern St, EC2A 3ES

The first rule of the Dice Club is anybody speaks about the Dice Club.

:D

This interesting event is one of those itinerant clubs here in London, broadening music perspectives of all those who have what it takes to go out on Sunday. As my friend Victor works everyday but Sundays, for me it is a great chance to go to several gigs at least once every two weeks, which is when the club gathers...

Well, this sound as a quite stupid thing, doesn't it? We had pretty good fun. First of all, the place: this last time, at the Old Blue Last, in Shoreditch. Shoreditch, in the borough of Hackney (East London), is one of those buzzing areas in London that so easily you can love or hate. Ugly, dirty, with loads of petty fried chicken takeaways, it also hosts some of the most interesting clubs, bars or pubs in London. Quite close to Old Street as well, it is a great place for start the night out and move to the latter later on when the clubbing moods are high.

The Old Blue Last is a nice place to enjoy a night out. It has a couple of floor, the ground one where the pub itself is and the first one, where gigs take place. As an advantage compared to most places with this structure, they have a bar in the fist floor, so you can enjoy the music and have several Becks pints at the same time. And I say Becks because of the three different beers I tried, I have to say that one was the only really drinkable, I'm afraid.

The sound quality was average, even bad I'd say. That didn't matter too much, as we were there for fucking-loud-and-punk music, but maybe for a different type of concert it may be a relevant problem.

What about the bands? Here we go...

1. Joy-Rides

Awesome band, the most punk thing I’ve been into for a while. Joy-rides do not play punk music, though. Indeed, they do not play music. They use noises, loud instruments, in a weird and difficult to describe mixture. They used a megaphone in several songs, so the frontman was able to go and blend with the crowd, offering his sweat for free to everyone who wanted to be around.

All the instrument were quite discordant, and melody is a word they have to learn yet. But Energy is not. The singer transmitted really a lot every single time he pushed through in any song, specially in the anthem ‘I do what I like!’. This mate, covered in black plasters, completely wasted and trying to guess which was the next song every time, and the very well-looking bass player (she was completely drunk), were incredibly good inspiring the audience. They had a song the drummer was not good enough to play (as he was drunk as well), so they got the Guillotines guitar player to perform it… they seemed to be very good friends, both bands.

As stated, they did not play good music. They are mind blowers. But we all enjoyed the show. And that is the point.

2. Vile Imbeciles

Vile Imbeciles proved to be good musicians, lack of real spirit. Quite noisy as well, they did not really generate a big impression, even while they were much better musicians than Joy-Rides.

3. The Guillotines

Great band, and a cool mixture of both previous bands best elements as well. Good music (Great Music, indeed) and loads of energy. The very beginning was a declaration of principles: they asked the crowd if we where drunk. Nooooooooooo, we answered… so they got a scotch bottle and they started to pure booze in the front rows thirsty spectators, me one of them.

After feeling the hot stuff in our throats, everyone was ready for a great gig, and they didn’t hesitate to perform their best. The guitar player and Joe Coles (the singer) where brilliant, but all the other guys where really good as well. Bass player look (Heidi Heelz) was kind of the Crow Medicine singer, and, at the end, everything finished as a great huge punk party. Really good stuff...