For you or me it might be unusual to stand on top of a woman lying on a bed of nails whilst you play the saxophone. Well, not if you’re part of Slamboree, the raucous DJ/live band/circus party band. At one point backstage a juggler was teaching me to throw a hat correctly to land on my head whilst a rip-to-remove velcro dress was being tested out 2 feet away. I needed all my concentration skills for that one.
That’s right, to quote a line on the new Paper Aeroplanes album (out this week – double underline), I might run away with the circus. Really I might. Ever wondered why running away with the circus is such a cliche? (God what is it with quoting paper aeroplanes songs today…) It’s because they know how to have a good time.
We’re at Bucks New Uni’s end of the year Festiball. For the uninitiated, University May Balls involve showering students with as much entertainment as possible, in as many spaces as possible, and as much booze as possible, then letting nature take its course. Bucks do it particularly well, and all their events are free to students.
I have the pleasure of playing right before Everything Everything – an impossibily interesting band, and fully deserving of their huge popularity right now. They’re taking interesting to a fine art. Love the lyrics, melodies, rhythms, everything everything (sorry). Check them out if you can – they’re on tour in October. Their songs sound like this and this and this. Good guys too.
Slamboree finish the night as only they can – with stilt walkers banging nails up their nostrils and Batman’s Joker playing dubstep trombone.
Thanks so much to everyone who listened to my set. So many people stopped me to say how much they enjoyed it. You guys were amazing. Compared with some my stage show is little, only a guitar and a mic. All I have is songs and words, and new ones at that, still shifting and settling. But I hope there were some good connections made. I loved it.
