It's a pretty full turn out at the Barfly for these two Italian bands. After chatting downstairs, we head upstairs in time to catch the last song from the second band on (whose name I didn't catch). They have an audience dominated by youg girls (I think it's a 16+ show). As the band finish we head for the front. Rather embarassingly some of the young girls have taken their tops off and are prading in their underwear. We avert our eyes, as do the band who may be too busy packing up to notice.
There is a bit of a delay before Maleficent take to the stage as everything is cleared away and new stuff set up (you can see I'm au fait with all these musical bits). Maleficent put on a visual extravaganza that even the barfly lighting fails to ruin. As always these days flashing lights are employed with increasing periods of strobing as the set goes on, until the last song is lit entirely by strobe. This is exactly the same sequence used for Mab and for the last band I saw here. From this pattern I presume there is a standard Barfly guide to lighting, pity it's so short. After a couple of songs I give up trying to capture photos in the brief moments of lightness and use flash. Everything is a bit random so I just take lots of pictures relying on probability and a Nikon SB800.

After another (brief) break we are treated to a powerful show by Mab. It vis a performance brimming with power and confidence. As they are late starting their setlist shows they have dropped a song. They finish at 11.10 which is still too late to catch the last southbound train (2320 from Camden Town) but miles too early for the first nightbus (0025 from Tottenham Court Road). Transport on Sunday nights is quite Kafkaesque. On a positive note the nightbus comes as timetabled and is remarkably fast.