Autopsies

www.betika.co.uk
We played a couple of very different shows over the weekend - the first we had very high expectations of and ended up disappointed by, and the second we weren't really sure what to expect and it turned out to be fantastic. Whether this is a psychological trick or an accurate reflection of how things went is impossible to tell. Events conspired against us at The Villa on Friday and we didn't get a soundcheck, so the sound guy had to sort out our slightly unorthodox set-up over the first couple of songs, nevertheless we were playing together well and hard- too hard, it would turn out as I snapped a guitar string at the end of "Volkespiotr". That's the first time I've ever broken one playing with Betika, (maybe because I've just started using a different guitar?) and I didn't really have a contingency plan. I had a second guitar with me but it was in this ridiculous open F# tuning that I use for "By Default", so I started worrying about what I was going to do next instead of concentrating on what chords I was supposed to be playing and what words and tune I was supposed to be singing. After that I just couldn't seem to get my head back into the right place for playing. I borrowed Ed Hat's guitar and we finished the set but it felt like the energy we had at the start had vanished somehow and I came off stage really angry at myself for having screwed up and let the rest of the band down. My sorrows were thoroughly and comprehensively drowned at the bar afterwards.
Tonight Carolyn and I did what we thought was going to be a short acoustic set at Le Bateau in Parkstone- when we got there it turned out that not only were we going to be the last band of the night but also a couple of acts had dropped out so we had to play for a bit longer than we thought we were going to have to. We though we were going to be doing four songs, in the end we did "Summers of solemnity", "One day my house will be flooded" (an appropriate song given the appalling weather), "I killed a fly", "We will not know peace", "If you go to work on me I'll die", "Girlshaped", Simon and Garfunkel's "I am a rock", Iron and Wine's "Naked as we came", "Robot" and a super-rare performance of "I've been in an accident", which I make to be ten in total. There was lots on unrehearsed ropeyness on our part but the audience was absolutely fantastic, they were quiet as church mice in the quiet bits, they laughed at the lyrical jokes, they handclapped along during "Robot", they applauded long and hard and they shouted out for more until we played more. A perfect gig, basically! If you were one of those audience-people, I thank and salute you!

There's more live Betika action coming up over the next week or so- Thursday will see the full band playing some of the songs we never usually play using cardboard boxes for drums at LIMBS, the following Monday we'll be doing another acoustic set of indeterminate length and mood at Destiny, and on the Friday (May 6th) we'll be laying the ghosts of The Villa to rest at Mr Smiths full-band style, in the exalted company of The Marlins. That night will also see Nic Rawlins (Sancho cover artist and paper cinematographer) lose his DJ cherry.

The battle with the Badgers continues.