“We’re Ship’s Piano and we have technical problems!” stated one of Ship’s Piano’s guitarists exuberantly, before the band quickly disappeared and then reappeared with said problems under raps. In terms of introductions it’s certainly one of the more unique and funny I’ve seen and works pretty well as a metaphor for the band. With plenty of up-tempo songs such as In The End and Umbre, Ship’s Piano easily kept the audience entertained. Although they do need work on ending and segueing between songs, for example I have no idea why the lead singer mentioned some story from Dolly about some 15 year old girl who caught her boyfriend with another boy before jumping straight into the next song.
Having said that though they are very well organised for such a young band and already seem to have a following, with Last Day being requested for the final song. Also of note is that they gave out free CDs, one which they threw and hit a stage light. In summary, a band to potentially keep an eye out for.
The next band up were Airmen Firmen. A five piece band playing mid-tempo alternative rock songs. More organised than Ship’s Piano and with a keyboard player, which oddly considering their name was lacking from the Ship’s Piano’s set. There were some technical problems with the keyboard, but apart from that they didn’t really put a foot wrong.
Finally British India took the stage with some Indian piece playing as they walked on. By this time the place was packed, but if it worried them it didn’t show as they quickly hit it off with This Dance Is Loaded. The night was the launch of British India’s new album Thieves so as to be expected there was plenty of new material, but they seamlessly melded new and old material with a well chosen setlist, with newer tracks such as I Said I’m Sorry soon followed by hits such as Run The Red Light and Tie Up My Hands.
Not that British India needed to worry about the reception of their new material as the audience were entertained throughout the whole set. They easily kept up the energy and soon enough a good mosh was going with an endless supply of crowdsurfers to watchout for. Though it occasionally seemed as though the central pillar would crack a skull open such was the exuberance on the dancefloor. Unfortunately the night had to wind up at some point with British India disappearing, only to return thirty seconds later for the encore which even featured a teeth solo by the lead guitarist. So in summary British India managed to pull off an impressive album launch with ease.
