The return of Club Choke - by Theo

Club Choke holds a special place in our hearts for, although it had ceased to exist as a monthly event by the time we met, it was through the club's message boards that we commenced our friendship and flirtation. So when we heard that Club Choke would be resurrected for its 10th anniversary we immediately signed up before we'd even seen the line up - but what a line up!

Thanks to my sister Hermione and her husband Richard agreeing to babysit (despite a triple booking) we made it to The Croft on time, where we ran into a veritable who's who in the Bristol music scene from the past 10 years. Many of them were old friends who we hadn't seen since we'd got back from Spain, so we almost wanted there to be more time between bands to chat and catch up. As it was, in order to fit an incredible 8 bands into the evening, there were two stages running in synch, meaning no break between bands.
Anta kicked off the evening with one long, almost seamless piece of tight-to-the-groove prog. Awesome, even if the gong was (intentionally?) hilarious.


Then it was a dash back through the Croft to the (relatively) new front room for the ultimate Choke band - Big Joan - who were as brilliant as ever with fat, scratchy bass and a captivating front woman. Playing mostly tracks from their ace new album, they did wheel out one old favourite, Tiger, which was great to hear.

The one non-local band, Actionbeat, followed back in the main room. We stuck it for a bit, but the pretentious vocals were bugging Kate and the squally guitars were irritating me: after two bands who had had such emphatic rhythms, I wanted something with a groove, and despite having two drummers Actionbeat didn't.

The very enjoyable Glis Glis were next, but by then we were starting to flag - sometimes you need a break between bands - and we're not used to standing up so much these days!

We got our wind back for the main event though, the legendary Madnomad. They'd stopped playing just as I got into the local scene, so had never seen them (despite knowing all the members), though their reputation had set the bar high. They cleared it. Despite nearly a decade away from the stage (as Madnomad) they'd lost none of their stage presence and had us all bouncing along merrily, though the general lack of participation in the masked mosh pit at the end perhaps showed everyone's age - ours included.


Sadly, we didn't have enough stamina to make it through the following three acts - SJ Esau, War Against Sleep and Geisha - all bands we've seen and enjoyed many a time, and we had babysitters to relieve, so we called it a night there. But what a great way to finish...

Time warp - by Theo

"It's just like being at a gig from 4 years ago" said Suzy as we filed out of the Croft's backroom after an ear-drumming splitting set from Big Joan. With Kate and I not the only Bristol emigres returning to the gig-going fold, and many familiar faces on stage, last Saturday's line up of Bravo Brave Bats, Big Joan and Glis Glis really did make us feel like we were partying like it was 2007.

With my parents kindly staying over to babysit Rosie, Kate and I managed to get out for the weekend and see some live music at one of our early flirting grounds: The Croft. Arriving early, we hung out with Obaro and Suzy from Glis Glis before they sound-checked. My old promoting partner Anna arrived with Lou in tow, Annette from Big Joan joined us, and over the course of the evenings we managed to see more old pals than we had time to properly catch up with. Must. Get. Out. More.

The bands were all ace, as usual. I say that as, although we had only seen Big Joan before (many, many times), between Glis Glis and Bravo Brave Bats there were 3/4 of the sadly missed You & the Atom Bomb on stage. So it felt a bit "as usual". I really should write a gig review.... but I've got two lessons to plan for tomorrow, so I guess I'd better stop procrastinating and write those instead.