A glimpse of the cluttered Cardiff stage
Engine Rooms, Cardiff
There is no room on the bus. We're overflowing with baggage. There's so much equipment and lights that peculiar items are seeping into the living area. Try not to sit on that clarinet, for example, and don't make tea in that precious Tibetan prayer bowl.
Speaking of equipment, our official main support band, Bell X1 arrived yesterday and unloaded a vast array of their own, which seemed to duplicate much of ours (apart from the Tibetan prayer bowl. And the log drum. And the pig-nosed psaltery). Word goes around that the other support band Kashmir will be bringing almost as much again. If the other venues are as small as this there will be no room for the audience at all. Happily, today we are supported only by Bell X1 and the relatively small Duke Special, who has also been travelling on the bus and supplying us with his unique brand of drunken madness.
There's something a bit strange about the gig to begin with, but then Matt figures out that no one apart from the front row can see him and pops his head up between songs to make contact with everyone else, which seems to warm them up a little.
The stage is so cramped I seem to hit my guitar on something every time I move, which makes for some spectacular detuning. Matt hit his head on the piano in Berlin. Perhaps he mentioned that?
It's day three. Seems like a lot longer than that.
