22/5/2008 Shush @ The Cross Kings

Subject	Shush @ The Cross Kings
PostedDate	5/22/2008
	A nice easy to get to gig for me tonight - Shush at the Cross Kings (formerly Backpackers) in Kings Cross. It's quite a relaxed venue - small and intimate without being crowded - tonight anyway. Nice beer too - a rarity in a music venue!  It's good value for money - £6 (£5 with flyer) for 4 bands. I arrive just as the first band are finishing - the female fronted Sid Sings. From the final minute of their set that I heard they sounded worth checking out. Next up were The Spivs. Good musicians, but a bit too 'art rock' for my tastes. They were followed by the cumbersomely named Jodorowsky's Ape - sort of indie punk and a bit ropey - maybe a bit more rehearsal time or just a few more gigs would help. I wasn't having a great time so far, in spite of some decent beer for once. The barmaid seemed equally enthralled by the last two bands... Fortunately Shush livened things up with some tuneful and well crafted pop/rock songs. Less fortunately, bass player Marina has now left the band  but her replacement is actually rather good although he has a totally different style. Marina will be missed though.  More changes are afoot in the band as it was also 'Bloody Paul' the drummer's last gig with Shush as he is off to concentrate on his other band Blood Island Raiders. Unfortunately, during the band's set my camera batteries give up the ghost - so I have to swap to my phone camera. I usually carry spare batteries, but somehow my system fell down on this occasion and my spares were flat too.  So apologies for the picture quality, but consider yourselves lucky as you won't get any pictures at all in most people's blogs! As well as having plenty of good tunes themselves, Shush also threw in an excellent cover of Blondie's 'Call Me' - always a crowd pleaser!  So it was a nice Thursday evening out in the end - good music, nice beer, and home at a reasonable time with minimal public transport hassle for a change.