On Friday, Anti-Nowhere League played at the Underworld in Camden Town. ANL is one of my favourite bands of all time. I have never seen them play live because they don’t seem to make it to the West Coast of America very often. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited for this show. I arrived before Mi Mujer and found the pub to be completely lit by candles and candles only. In my naïveté I assumed it was a Halloween stunt and thought, ‘how annoying’. ‘Surely drinking by candles lost its charm by the industrial revolution’.

Turns out that the power was off because of something outside of World’s End control affected the whole area they are situated in. While I cursed my luck I patiently waited for Mi Mujer and checked the signs continually being taped to pillars, doors and walls regarding updates to the show. Mi Mujer arrived, and like magic, the power was restored. She has the effect on me where I see lights when she enters a room, but didn’t realize it would extend to the London power grid. It’s a good thing she showed up because a men’s toilet in Camden Town without lighting is something I don’t want to venture into again—I questioned every puddle on the floor.

Anti-Nowhere League played and we had a great time. We were befriended by a Scottish punk well into his late 40’s with piercings and tattoos covering his body. He had some interesting tattoos on his head with skulls and the like, and bizarrely, a giant Spiderman slinging a web above his ear. His best one was a full back piece of the ANL emblem of the raised fist and spiked ball. So I spent much of the night shouting lyrics, throwing my hands in the air and jumping about. The rest was spent pretending I understood a drunk late-40’s Scottish punk’s ramblings above the noise of the band. My hearing is rubbish, which I blame on both spending too many years in an engine room in the navy and going to too many punk rock shows, so my normal response when people talk is to nod my head, smile and say “Oh, yeah”. It works pretty well.

Afterwards, Mi Mujer told me that Animal reminded her of Elvis which took me by surprise. I know Elvis was a bit risqué but he didn’t sing about being a sexual pervert and hating everybody. Goes to show that what is dangerous and taboo one day will become cute and nostalgic in a couple decades. No surprise really—my grandma was a flapper.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Life in GMT, London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.