Confused, Mind Bruised, It Seeps Out/It Seeps Out, It Seeps Out

Syncrownized as seen through a pint of Thwaites'

Friday 8 February – a warm day, but the lack of clouds that allowed the watery winter sun to raise the day-time temperature presaged a frosty night, probably below freezing. An evening, therefore, for layers of clothes. And an evening of music in the company of “A” and two, hot Dutch chicks. Oh yes! In a change to our advertised programme, we foreswore “good music and a decent pint(s)” at the Roman bath, for “good music and a duff pint(s)” at the Stone Roses Bar where Syncrownized were due to appear.

There was a band playing when I first arrived, it might have been Wasted, but I can’t be sure. Anyway, “A” and the ladies arrived, and eight texts later, we were also joined by Legs Elena, the spy mistress from Moskva. Syncrownized played a host of covers including: The Jam (Town Called Malice), Dylan (All Along The Watchtower), Led Zep (Rock ‘n’ Roll, Whole Lotta Love), Undertones (Teenage Kicks), Chuck Berry (Johnny B Goode), Rolling Stones (Sympathy For The Devil), The Who (My Generation), Fleetwood Mac (The Chain), Steppenwolf (Born To Be Wild), The Clash (White Man In Hammersmith Palais), Aerosmith (Walk This Way), and Neil Young (Rockin’ In The Free World). Sadly, there was a bit of funk in the middle, Stevie Wonder’s Superstition blending into a medley of funkadelia including Deee-Lite’s Groove Is In The Heart, and James Brown’s Sex Machine. Gods help us! Still, it did get all the funk out of the way in one fell swoop. As expected, the Thwaites’ beer was distinctly average.

You might think that I have a fine memory, remembering all the songs they played, and you would be correct. When they had finished I went up to Leon (lead singer/guitar), congratulated him on the excellent gig (creep), and blagged the set-list off him. Except of course that they hadn’t really stuck to the set-list, so half of it was wrong anyway. Ho hum. Lucky I had my brain with me.

As we staggered home I encouraged “A” to show the girls a snickleway, which caused them both to collapse in a heap of laughter. It appears that “snickle”, or something sounded very like it, is Dutch for the male appendage. So you can guess what they construed “snickleway” as!

Saturday 9 February – and I had it on good authority that there was a jolly good band, called DSQ, playing at the Roman Bath. DSQ are a York band consisting of Mickey (vocals), Dave Stanley (guitar), Rob (guitar), Rainey (bass), Nick (keyboard), Shaun (drums), and Fraz (percussion and vocals).

I didn’t realise quite how popular they were until I turned up about ten past nine, only to have to wait in a queue to get in the door! If it wasn’t for the fact that the lovely lady bouncer knew me, and my friends were already inside, I might have spent most of the evening out on the pavement. However, I did manage to get in and we were treated to (a) lovely foaming pints of John Smiths (b) lack of oxygen due to the vast number of people inside (c) lots of rock covers, some of which I only half recognised. Now, following Friday, my brain wasn’t up to its normal marvellous retention but here are a few of the tracks: Van Halen (Jump), Kinks (You Really Got Me), Bryan Adams (Summer Of ’69, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You), The Automatic (Monster), Snow Patrol (Chasing Cars), The Beatles (Standing There), Elton John (Still Standing). We had to leave before the end as “A” and the girls had to get up early in the morning and head for the hills. But, if DSQ come back soon, I will make a point of watching them again. They were very good indeed.