The Duvals, Red Eye, 11th January 2000

And here we go for tonight. The first time I'd been back to the Red Eye for almost a year and the place had changed quite a bit. I waltzed through the door and round the side and missed the bar completely because it's gone from round the side. There's just a space there now and this sparkly bit of bench type thing. The bar at the front is still there though and that's where you're expected to go if you want beer. And I got lots of it. And they sold it to me at expensive prices. Fuck it. I expected it and I sold out to it. Hmpf.

The bands :

Winner - Blink 182 on steroids. Quite good actually and pretty funny too especially the gibbon impressions by the guitarist. Nick helped things along with his heckling. Toe-tapping stuff which everyone seemed to have lost interest in by the end.

Serpico - Fucking rocked as always - favourites were Winter, Price of Everything and Buried Alive. Funny, I thought lots of people liked this band yet I was the only person right at the front watching them with the best sound too. I know I'll hear excuses for other things but fuck it, you shoulda been there :) This is the Red Eye. Why are you hiding at the back?

The Duvals - A band I love and a band I gave a pretty negative review to last time. This time they were much better (even though they didn't play "Stomach"). They have amazing lyrics and hooks to die for but do you know? By the end I just thought "next time this lot play.. I'm going on my own" because I really can't stand the piss-taking of it anymore. A lot of people like this band and a lot of people think they're shit too. But I've never really heard anyone make any criticism worth listening to.. ie. If people said they were crap because of something in their music I would listen but it's all "the guitarist makes me laugh" and "they're bollocks" - thanks for that Sean Tyler. At least, I think it was him who said that at the Bull and Gate. I would appreciate it better if people said "they have cliched guitar solos, overbearing backing vocals and they just don't make me excited for their songs" but if comments like "they're shit" are all i have to listen to then i'd prefer not to listen at all.

At the end of tonight's gig I got fucked off because I couldn't even be bothered to listen anymore... so when some stupid fuckwit bitch accuses me of being boring because I tell her three fucking times that I don't have a light I thought it was a good excuse to storm off on my own :) I felt like killing her just to prove a point to be honest but there you go.

So all in all a good night for the most part - could've been better in places but then again I've seen Blink 182 so I know what bad is really like. I should think myself lucky :)

--Chris