After a hugely enjoyable meeting with my Outline colleagues and being in the city anyway I thought I’d find myself a Wednesday gig – naturally – and so it was that I experienced a fantastic night of comedy and psychedelia where Jurnets Bar was transformed into the Psychedelic Circus. With stunning visuals and projections from Richard Rix, both behind the stage area and floating trippily over the beautiful arched ceiling.
First on were Mr Zed, from Cambridge who had an interesting blend of indie-infused psychedelia with some borrowed lines from Bittersweet Symphony and a cover of Kasabian’s Doberman but more their style was when they announced “We’re from Cambridge, of course we love Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd” ahead of a cover of Astronomy Domine but they play their own stuff too with a healthy dose of political comment in the lyrics as well (“Who’s the terrorist?”).
We were then treated to some slightly surreal but very enjoyable comedy from the duo Bendy House ahead of some more spacey vibes from Shep and Norwich’s own The Mahatmas. This was my first proper live experience of The Mahatmas and they were just superb, where Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and even the Wolf Number all meet up and alongside the superb visuals they took us on a wonderful musical journey. The Psychedelic Circus is a regular event and I’ll be sure to be there whenever I can.
(More photos soon)
A few days earlier I attended a Stop the War Coalition demo against military strikes on Syria, which was arranged at very short notice but nevertheless well-attended and with some really good speakers. Alas we all woke up to the news that strikes had already happened overnight.
After the speakers there was some brilliant live music from local protest punks Glitchers (formely Shock Hazard), quickly setting up and playing from their van. I loved their passionate energy and anger channeled in a proper punk spirit. They played a loud and blistering set, and added “We don’t often play venues, we take our message out onto the streets. We’ll be back soon – the next time our government does something stupid again” and the following day they played outside the Ministry of Defence in London. Big respect to these guys.
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Norwich: Music City, UK 