Kid Harpoon, The Milkmaid + First We Take Manhattan, Dingwalls, London 13.03.08

Kid Harpoon - The Milkmaid + First We Take Manhattan, Dingwalls from nearer dark on Vimeo.

I definitely had a few problems with the sound at the beginning, but please do watch Kid Harpoon. We met the extremely enthusiastic stagediver/mic borrower at the next show in Brighton. Terribly nice chap, even better at sidetracking himself than I am, so me giving him a link so he could see this video on vimeo turned into him wanting the recipe for mayonnaise. But of course.

Oh and see the Kid any chance you get.

Helsinki, batterieswerentdead + Ampersand, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - batterieswerentdead and Ampersand, Dingwalls 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Helsinki's set was beautiful, batterieswerentdead was epic, my film doesn't really do it justice.

I did temporarily know the full name of Matt's wah pedal, but I forgot to do the writing things down thing. It's the one he's using on Ampersand.

If you're reading this before Sunday 27 April, get yourself down to Victoria Park, Hackney, for the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival that day - Helsinki are playing, there's tons of other great music too, it's going to be a very special day. And also a very important day - find out more here: LMHR Carnival 2008.

Helsinki, Je t'emmene au vent + Ribtickling, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - Je t'emmene au vent and Ribtickling, Dingwalls 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Drew McConnell and friends - see note on post below. Je t'emmene au vent is a Louise Attaque song. Sorry again for background noise, but it's the tradeoff with standing further back to avoid the reverb off the PA - although I seem to have picked some of that up too.

Helsinki played an excellent show - part of which I missed due to travel vagaries. Yes I did kick myself.

Helsinki, Delivery + Cologne Hotel, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - Delivery and Cologne Hotel, Dingwalls, 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Helsinki have a pretty fluid line-up - Drew McConnell has a large revolving cast of wandering troubadours, and the shows are very special, whoever is up there with him. This particular night he was supporting Kid Harpoon, and had borrowed his drummer, and had Lord Large on keys. And Matt Park on guitar, who's a regular fixture.

Apologies for uber-chatty neighbours. No, I don't understand either. I tend to go to gigs to see the bands, rather than to conduct loud soirees during people's sets.