I must say it was refreshing to turn up for an underground band’s gig at 24 Kitchen Street half an hour before doors opened, and already there was a long queue stretching up from the Bridgewater St entrance right up to Jamaica Street.
But of course, this was no ordinary gig.
Firstly, honorary scouser via Essex, the incomparable Beija Flo was on support, and nobody in their right mind wants to miss her performance.
And of course, whilst the headliner, Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum may not be familiar to everyone just yet, there can’t be many people who are unfamiliar with lead singer Michael C. Hall through his role as Dexter Morgan in Showtime’s series Dexter – for me one of the finest actors of his generation and one of the top tv shows of all time.
But whilst Michael’s involvement is undoubtedly what initially piques a lot of people’s interest including mine, this is no Hollywood actor’s vanity project – their album “THANKS FOR COMING” is in my Top 5 of the year (bit of a spoiler there as my list isn’t officially out until next week 😉 )
More importantly, the album and their self-titled EP has had rave reviews from UK titles including NME, Line of Best Fit, The Independent, The Telegraph, Huffington Post.
Whilst Hall’s best known to us in the UK as an actor, he’s also a longstanding Broadway performer, having played leading roles in Chicago, Cabaret, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and was selected by David Bowie to star in his musical, Lazarus.
Keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen has played in Blondie and drummer Peter Yanowitz in The Wallflowers, and Morningwood.
So it’s perhaps no surprise that tonight’s performance was so peerless.
This is probably the last gig I will attend until Beach Bunny in February, and the Skating Polly show I’m co-promoting in March, as I like to hibernate at this time of year 😉
I seriously couldn’t have chosen a better final gig to see me through these dark winter months.
It was the band’s final date on their UK tour, lets hope they return to these shores soon.
