Monday 3 August 2009

Grrlls grrlls grrlls

We broke out of the Wolverhampton mould on Saturday. Thanks to Dan, we all decided to go to Birmingham's sophisticated Island Bar and attend Atta Girl, which billed itself as 'lo-fi with predominantly female vocalists', DJed by two women. As this describes a vast swathe of my record collection, I was well up for this.

Fortified by decent ale and even a cocktail, we ventured upstairs to find… lots of people like me, i.e. slightly corpulent balding men, with a very few riot girrls/indie girls scattered here and there. The cakes and fanzines were good, and some of the music was very cool (Sonic Youth, yeah!), but by the time we caught the last train (11.30, boo!), the legendary DJs and the lo-fi hadn't put in the merest hint of an appearance.

Instead, the first hour was 60s soul. Now, I like 60s soul - but there's something utterly conservative and cringeworthy about so determinedly reaching back that far for a night's entertainment, especially for a young, hip crowd like that. Still, we'll be back, no doubt.

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