After my last two visits to Bar Music Hall had ended in night bus territory, my expectations of a well organised gig tonight, were very low. I was however pleasantly surprised as Ghostcat played only a few minutes later than the stage time they had given me.

February has been a long month with many excellent bands playing. More and more I go to a gig and find 2 bands I know on the bill (obviously I do some planning so it’s not a surprise). Tonight I am definitely here to see Ghostcat who are playing first. Sometime ago, perhaps a year, someone recommended the RGBs to me. At the time they either weren’t playing anywhere or were playing gigs that clashed with friends, so I lost interest. But I remember their name and plan to see them tonight. There are several bands in between who vary between ‘tending to tedium’ and interesting, but to me they all have flaws.; I am not photographing bands just because they are there. I run into Doll’s House who co-incidentally have earlier today left me a myspace comment about the photos from when I saw them two weeks ago. They are with Daniel Miller who is cameraless tonight.
Ghostcat are good and the lights adequate although still heavily backlit, tonight there is also something from the front. Fortunately the evening is running more-or-less to time, otherwise I might have run off to catch the last tube. As it is I have time to catch the beginning of the RGBs and decide they are worth catching the night bus. They are 3 girls playing keyboards/synths; but 2 of them wear the yeyboards like guitars and the lead singer is very energetic. Well worth seeing and quite an extreme challenge to photograph. Night buses aren’t too bad for a Saturday and I am home at 3.30 am

I have a tremendously efficient evening with no hanging around or extra pints of beer; just tube, half a pint of Guiness, watch/photograph Ghostcat, finish other half of Guiness whilst chatting with band, then home for an early night. Its all rather fortuitous as I have assumed that arriving at 9.30 to see the headline band gives me quite a lot of leeway, but in fact it gives me about 10 minutes and I am lucky there weren't any delays on the tube. It's a good show, good lights; the crowd could have been larger but otherwise a pretty perfect evening. Now I'm off to bed. But here's a traditional picture of Ali jumping higher than most bands..

Ghostcat are on at 7pm! So I struggle through the rush hour crowds. Initially we are told that the doors don’t open until 7 and we must wait in the cold. After a while of refusing to go outside to queue they let us in. Usual loads of backlighting and quite a lot of smoke makes photographing a distinct challenge. Apparently they have stopped doing proper beer; the Spitfire pump clip is permenantly turned to the wall. When I first came to the water rats I thought it was a good venue, but these days it seems to be turning into a venue that bands only play once. Ghostcat are good and it’s early enough that I could go Christmas shopping afterwards….