Taffy, Blindness, Haiku Salut – The Wilmington Arms, Clerkenwell

I only went to see one band, and I had a triple treat. It’s nice when things turn out like that, isn’t it.

Taffy had come into my radio station to perform a set and then undertaken a UK tour to support their debut album, Caramel Sunset, which was out on Club AC30. I was chatting before the gig with the label owner who gave me a vinyl copy of the album, which was really nice of him. Taffy were flying back to Tokyo the next day so I was determined to make sure I caught them.

First support act was all-girl instrumental trio Haiku Salut, who played a great set of baroque pop songs and glitch beats. I’m not into the glitchy stuff so much, but the songs were great. It was also a great performance watching them make their songs. So good in fact, that I invited them into the station a few weeks later (and this is what they sounded like then, with all the lights on!)

Second support Blindness were a little bit darker and almost gothlike than music I’ve been listening to recently, but there was a fair amount of Garbage in there, and even lots of Curve. No real surprise as ex-Curve guitarist Debbie Smith was in the line up. I had a good chance to watch the band close up in a fairly small venue – and her guitarwork was superb.

And of course Taffy – a great blend of Britpop and fuzzed up shoegaze. They didn’t disappoint.

Yeah, took lots of video tonight. Wish the venue had bought some lights though. And wish my camera could deal with low light just a little better. Still, my non-video camera has a flash!