Clockwork Sniper

is a local hardcore/punk/death/metal band. (Like I know the difference.) Phil's sister is dating the singer or we wouldn't have gone within a mile of The Croft last night. You'd think that two eighteen-year-old girls in black make-up in the back of his car would have tipped me off slightly about the type of music we were about to see, wouldn't you? But the goth look can cover several dark, mysterious musical bases these days so I held out for some kind of Cure tribute band. Alas, and alack, and all that stuff.

The vocals were mostly unintelligible screams but I picked out a "motherfucker" or two. Though it was a total lyrical bust, once I'd accepted the voice as just another instrument I started appreciating it more. In a fine Frasier moment, I told myself it was like listening to an Italian opera and not to care that you don't understand the words. There wasn't much to look at but the guitarists in the support band amused me greatly as they competed for the sound mixer's attention throughout their set. Each wanted to be one louder than the other. (If you join a band without first watching This Is Spinal Tap then you should be prepared to face the consequences - namely, being ridiculed on the internet by people who have seen it.)

Clockwork Sniper played last. A little bird told me that frontman Andrew has a nice singing voice but felt he had to shout like like a demonic beast on this occasion so the hardcore audience wouldn't think he was a pansy. I watched about half of their set before I lost the ability to tell one song from another and moved back to the bar area.

Soothing soul music was on the jukebox and this (combined with saying earlier that I couldn't hear the words properly) made me feel about 50 years old. I talked to a stranger about "the eye of the duck" scene in the films of David Lynch and helped someone else steal the hat his friend was wearing. There was no macho jostling at the bar but no-one got served any slower. All in all, it was a refreshingly unusual evening - and a schoolnight, too.