I had a couple of tickets but left it late in finding someone to come along so couldn't sell the extra one. I got there early and as they weren't taking returns I hung out outside waiting for touts and other loiterers. None came, it was conspicuously quiet, particularly, I thought for a small sold out gig.
I was joined out front by Steve, another solo traveller, however it was his birthday and his friend had let him down late on. unlike me he wasn't brassic and looking to recoup the ticket price and a few coins to get through the week. He'd bought his two on ebay for less than half the price of one ticket. I was giving up hope of scalping it when as I bought a pint to take in, someone asked if I had a spare and I got a tenner for it.
Due to my salesman-like activities I missed the support, I don't recall their names but people said they were good. I scooched upstairs and took a spot in front of the stage, the band appear on-stage and tune up themselves. Its nice and small in the OBL, it was my first trip there. Some friends of mine had a club night there a few years ago but I never made it down.
Looking around the club it didn't look sold out, it was pretty spacious, I can imagine that place jam packed and heaving, sweat dripping off the ceiling, full on kick ass night, tonight wasn't as adventurous. It was another one of those gigs when the crowd bop their heads merrily along, you want someone to kick it but they don't. Born Ruffians are an affable band, a nice mix of jaunt rock with a slight twang and in Luke LaLonde have one of the best yodels in the business.
The set is a nice mix of their first album "Red, Yellow and Blue" and tracks from the upcoming "Say It". They open with newbie "Oh Man" and follow it swiftly with old favourite "Barnacle Goose". The band play their songs well, and there's a real sense of the music being enjoyed by both the band and the audience. Steve who had disappeared out for a cigarette reappears with a pint for me but instead of enjoying the music spends his time trying to chat up some of the girls in the audience, he had been convinced he'd find his future wife. He leaves me to find a girl I presume and I am thankful for his having left me.
The music continues with the set focusing on new songs "What To Say" and "Sole Brother" but here are big cheers for the oldies "Hedonistic Me" and "Hummingbird" in particular. The set ends with the excellent "Foxes Mate For Life". An encore never materialises as the minute they finish the DJ strikes up and the crowd dash out of the door and the band no longer have an audience for an encore. I can't decide which is most idiotic, the DJ for trying to sell us his wares and not checking what the last song would be or the crowd for not thinking there might be an encore.
I clamber onto the stage and steal a set list, "I Need A Life" would have been the encore. I chat to drummer Steven Hamelin who says they had thought of putting it in the main set but they thought they'd get an encore.
I listen to "I Need A Life" several times on the way home in some sort of effort to make up for not having heard it live, people have more patience, good things come to those who wait. DJs easy on the trigger finger, do not "just push play".
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