a fine vintage

Last Saturday was spent listening to the Spiral Dance and Dandelion Wine play at The Night Train, which is not too bad a venue, albiet they didn't seem to have sprayed for goths yet, and the place was rather overrun with emos (or so I am reliably told by a dedicated goth-spotter). However unlike the previous Spiral Dance/Incubbus Succubus gig, they didn't spend the whole night looking on in shocked horror as the pagan contingent made good use of the dance floor. Some ... even joined in. And enjoyed themselves. And even continued dancing to Dandelion Wine stuff too (which, one must admit is not the easiest stuff in existence to dance to). This was one of the gigs that Spiral was using to record their live CD. The other was to be held in some misbegotten northern town (Gooler or Gawler or something like that) the next day. There was a surprising lack of expected faces as well, although this was offset by the return of some old, almost-forgotten, faces. Hopefully people can soon get to hear for themselves how Spiral sounds with a violin rather than a flute. I have to admit it seems almost normal to me now. Spiral's set was soon followed by Naomi and Nick of Dandelion Wine giving a highly energetic performance whilst wearing fairy wings. This time they brought the hammer dulcimer too. They are very energetic and busy performers, frequently making use of multiple instruments in short sequence. No wonder they ate the chocolate frogs before seeing if one was really a chocolate prince in disguise. Very enjoyable, although I should probably teach more people how to do the Mannschaft Pavane so we could dance to it. I must admit DW had SD beat when it comes to actually advertising themselves - I counted five seperate announcements in the music press announcing that they were playing here. Something which SD has often completely forgotten to do. It's embarrassing for the audience to be outnumbered by the performers. [1] Anyway, this Saturday has Spiral Dance, Dandelion Wine, and Wendy Rule playing at The Spanish Club in Fitzroy (that's Melbourne for you geographically challenged folks). I heartily reccomend, if you are within a reasonable distance, that you go see three of my favourite bands play live in one venue. [1] Although the one occaision where it was a duo on stage (The Hottentots) was more embarrassing but lots more fun. For some reason I got to suggest lots and lots of pieces.