Aaron Dilloway/Chocolate Monk Variations - The ICA 16/11/09

Fucking Aaron Dilloway man. He's fucking excellent. There were various combos of various Chocolate Monk artists to start off the evening at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (a clean, serious venue...) including Dylan Nyoukis, Karen Constance, Neil Campbell and yes, Dilloway, and they were all lovely and entertaining and everything and it was a great showcase for inventiveness and playful improvisations but it was Dilloway's solo set in the main hall that was the highlight of the night. A rusty-tooth grinding opening section gave way to heavy drones, driving downhill, a rolling horror, a real cave digger. And then the contact mics go in the mouth and he starts to growl his way out of the pit, up n up, against the tide of his tape machine, and then he's standing, flailing, agonising like a transmogrophying wolfman, and he wins, and it's over, and everyone cheers.

Haunted Fucking/Deathscalator/Broken Arm/Icarus Line - Old Blue Last 10/08/08

Didn't see Haunted Fucking, sorry 'bout that Haunted Fucking but you were on too early. Deathscalator were boring, I think PJ said something like I can hear rock music coming out of the speakers but I can't see a rock band on the stage, I dunno, maybe that was Broken Arm. Fuck knows. Both of them were boring as hell. It was kind of worrying actually because really they weren't doing anything particularly wrong it's just they sounded like who the fuck cares? I'm serious I don't even remember seeing two different bands before Icarus Line that's how invisible they sounded. Oh dear. I got pretty drunk and I walked into a door and really hurt my face. I mean it really fucking hurt y'know, all down one side, the edge of the door slamming into the edge of my eye socket and my cheekbone. Fuck, man. Seriously. Icarus Line played and they were like a weak Stooges so I just went and had a cigarette then had an argument about sex and went home and when I woke up the next day I didn't even have a black eye or a hangover or anything. Maybe I'm a mutant or something I dunno.