After the muddy excess of Glasto (have you noticed how it's cool to shorten the word Glastonbury this year? It's like our version of Gitmo - without the cramped horrible conditions and torture by terrible music of course) and a couple of wanky stadium style gigs it was time for Londonist to get back to basics.
Off to the Dublin Castle in Camden then for some in your face straight forward rock courtesy of The Marshall Plan.
We've had the CD the guys sent us for a while now and it was certainly our kind of thing, but we were still surprised about how incredibly tight the band were live. No nonsense here. Three songs in before we got a hello and then straight back to the job in hand. Fugazi like in approach, but creating a feel good atmosphere that we last felt while watching Stiff Little Fingers do their thing... The Marshall Plan owned the Castle.
Lead singer/guitarist Mark Inger pulled out his acoustic for the more melodic part of the evening that had the crowd dancing. It's been a long time since a complete stranger in the form of an attractive young lady grabbed hold of this Londonist for a little twirl around the dance floor and we put that down to the pull of the music rather than the underwear dampening field that all Londonists tend to put out.
Along side Inger were Tom Fleming on guitar and backing vocals, Anthony Grant on Bass and Rob Littlecott on Drums. If the rest of the audience hadn't realised how confident these guys were in having their way with us then it was underlined with the closing line from their new song 'Running Out Of Things To Moan About':
"Just fuck off and leave me alone"
We're glad we've kept the band to ourselves up until now because they'll soon be outgrowing these kinds of intimate gigs, but it would be selfish not to invite you all to the next one. They'll be playing The Betsey Trotwood, in Farringdon on Monday 25th July. See you down at the front. We may even dance with you.
