GDFAF #7 took place at the Flapper and Firkin round the back of Brindley Place in town. I’m not familiar with the strategies of whoever owns the Firkin chain these days but I was under the impression that all those Fandoogle and Firkin pubs had gone the way of all faddish brands. Not this one though, probably because the name has resonance as one of the main gig venues on the Birmingham small gigs scene. Back in the 90s, before the Academy was re-opened on Dale End, this was where you came to see up and coming bands that were working their way up the hard way. It was also home to the “We Brought Our Friends” collective of experimental bands like Avrocar and Magnetephone who would put on cozy gigs where everyone sat on the floor, often including the band.

Most of the gigs were organized by Zoot who started promoting there around 1994. I saw Arab Strap for the first time at a a Zoot run Flapper gig back in 1997 or so. It’s probably relevant that they’ll be playing later this month at Bar Academy. It’s a shame but pretty inevitable that a slightly larger venue (capacity 300 compared to the Flapper’s 150) run by the Academy group would take much of the touring trade leaving Zoot with predominantly local bands, partly because the Flapper itself is really nice. A cavernous cellar with slightly sloping ceilings, it’s intimate but not too claustrophobic, the perfect place to see a band like, say, Arab Strap. Birmingham had needed something like the Academy complex for years but for the Flapper it’s a case of be careful what you wish for.

It’s also a really nice pub upstairs with a beer garden right on the canal, should you be in the area and need to escape the awfulness of Broad Street. In fact I spent half an hour sitting by the canal, reminiscing about gigs I’d attended here (Add N To X, Ten Benson…), while waiting for the door to open tonight and very pleasant it was too. Would the gig also be pleasant, a fitting continuation of good times past? Or would it be a sonic nightmare like Saturday at the Jug? Thankfully it seems the Zoot people still have good taste and, while not particularly revolutionary, this night was pretty top all told.

We started with Listen To Johnny who came over as a good-time pub band with a soft edge and a taste for pained love songs that you might find in a film soundtrack. The beat was quite up tempo, reminding me a teeny bit of the Boo Radleys (don’t ask me to specify which era) and a lot of their songs started with very familiar riffs that developed into more unique songs. On their website they describe themselves as a Britpop band inspired by Ocean Colour Scene and Oasis but as a live band I think they’re selling themselves a bit short. There’s the elements of some lovely singer-songwriter stuff there. In spirit that is – I’m not saying they should jettison the band who were pretty tight. As a sidenote, they had a drum solo, which was a shock. I wasn’t expecting two drum solos this fortnight, especially from this band, but I won’t hold it against them as I like drum solos. And oh look, they have a MySpace page.

The thing with these new band night is unless the promoters get really lucky you’re going to get some aesthetic clashes, and this was such a night. After the melodious pop of Listen To Johnny we had The Superglue Queens who were metal. The lead singer played a Flying V guitar! With exhaust ports! Really, there were four metal pipes poking out of the base of his guitar that served no purpose unless it really did take off like a rocket. I’m no great guitar aficionado so maybe such things are common in the world of the Flying V but it took my breath away. The aesthetic was hair and tats and they put down a solid set of rock. For a first gig they were very tight and nicely segued the first two songs together, something I’d like to see more bands doing.

(Sidenote for new bands: when you’re playing a set, taking long breaks between songs kinda ruins the flow. Everyone’s getting into your music and rather than build on that you let it deflate when you stop to faff about every five minutes. Give people half an hour of constant music with minimal gaps and you’ll blow them away, I promise.)

Not only have I had two drum solos in my first week of GDFAF, I’ve also now experienced two bands with people from Finland in them. The bassist was a Fin – apparently he heard the band’s music and flew over specially to join them, which may be bullshit but it’s also strangely plausible – and this guy knew exactly what was expected of him, immediately putting his foot up on the monitor and posturing like a pro. Musically they were doing nothing new but they were doing it very well and I was as impressed as can be expected.

Superglue Queens were the band that brought all their friends, which makes for an interesting evening as I often feel like I’ve crashed some kind of family event or party, watching the group dynamics at close range and forming utterly inaccurate and spurious opinions about them. Unfortunately, this pattern of lots of people coming to see one band makes the audience slightly uneven. When everyone’s come to see the headliner you can expect a nice build towards the end of the evening when everyone goes mental. Our final act, however, didn’t seem to have as many friends and so reaction to them was more muted, which was a shame as they were in my opinion the more superior band.

Killing Zoe channel the spirit of Iggy Pop through a fat man. There’s not other way to say it. They are old school punk with an aggressive attitude and no messing about. While his guitarists stood like warriors beside him, one craggy punk, one statuesque rocker, the singer jerked about the stage like, well, like Iggy Pop really. In fact at the end he praised Iggy, which was a shame as I was thinking I’d been really clever and made a subtle connection when in fact it was all premeditated.

But they weren’t a pastiche or homage – their music was their own, even if their songs had titles like “Licking My Pistol”, and the thing about doing an Iggy is you’ve got to take it all the way. This guy did, stripping off, hanging from the rafters and lying flat out on the floor. I half expected someone to produce a jar of peanut butter.

But sadly they didn’t have the audience they richly deserve, and I have a inkling they’re not the sort of band to do that self-promotion thing (I can find no mention of them online, though that might be to do with the slightly catastrophic decision to use a film title as your band name – second sidenote to new bands – Google before committing…). I think they could be on to something here. There are too many skinny punks about the place – Killing Zoe show what happens when you stick a bit of weight behind it and it is good.

Half way there! I dunno if the power of Melt Banana has rejuvenated me (I went to sleep with sharp jolts of Yako yelping through my brain) but I feel ready for the next week of gigs. Other than Jeffrey Lewis tomorrow I have no idea exactly who I’ll be seeing. Haven’t even checked the listings. I’d like to try and cover all of the small venues this fortnight so will be looking at the Hare and Hounds and the Sunflower Lounge, as well as seeing if they’re anything on at the Actress and Bishop.

Actually a brief scan of next week looks frighteningly sparse even with my novelty fallback for Monday. This could be harder than I thought. Suggestions please!

A quick reminder that you can get all the GDFAF posts in sequential order here and that the full selection of the hundreds of photos I’ve been taken is on Flickr here. And there may well be a podcast soon. Truly this is a multimedia project…