10.16.03 | Brent's Night Out

Claudine was out of town tonight for a two-day company training program. Normally, this would have meant a night alone at home: pizza, the A-Team, video games, etc. Of strange coincidence, however, I had been invited to a live music gig this same night by a guy who delivers groceries. The guy, Peter, drives a home-delivery van for ASDA, a supermarket that I've used to a couple times to get groceries. Earlier in the week, Peter had, along with handing over bags of bell peppers and boxes of shredded wheat, given me a flyer to his band, Flexie, for Thursday night. It seemed like a good combination: Claudine's gone and I've got nothing better to do.

Peter had said he expected his band to go on about 10:30 p.m. Thinking that this is England/Europe and bands might actually start on time, I took the Tube out to Acton Town. I got to the "George and Dragon" at about 10:40 p.m. Of course, I walked in and nothing was going on.

It seemed that the first band hadn't even gone on yet. There were a few people milling about and sitting at tables. There was nothing to do but get a beer and nurse it to death. There were two women tenders behind the bar: one attractive brunette and one very tall and skinny blond who -- no kidding -- was about 6 foot 4. She was wearing a big Texas-style belt buckle and a kind of cowboy shirt that I imagine Daisy Duke might have worn in Dukes of Hazzard. In addition to this, she wore her straight blond hair in long pigtails.

I found it humorous that the bar had a wooden valance that extended down a few feet from the ceiling. When ordering my drink, I could barely see the tall bartender's chin. Anytime she wanted to talk to somebody at the bar ordering a drink, she had to bend down to clear the valance.

Having sourced my Fosters for 2.70 GBP, I then had to deal with unpleasantness of deciding what to do. Stand along the wall? Stand close to some people -- but not too close -- and act like I know them? Ugh. I really dislike these situations. All of the people there seemed closed off and not interested in talking outside of their own little groups.

Finally, the first act started. The band's music, a strange mix of rock and hip-hop, was made even stranger in that their front man looked a little like Justin Timberlake, but 60 extra pounds of weight. Oh, and he couldn't sing. So, yeah, these guys were pretty lame. More entertaining was this young guy in the crowd who decided to dance alone on the dance floor. He was skinny and kinda looked like Bill Gates with his tousled bad hair and gold-rimmed glasses. He had a reasonable amount of dancing talent, but his moves, done at a double-time speed, were completely mismatched to the music.

I nursed my pint while the first band finished up. Then I had to wait while the bands changed out. By the time Flexie got on, it was 11:40. Peter was the front man and the rest of the band consisted of drums, guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion and two female vocalists. They had a decent jazzy sound. Alas, I had planned this trip using the Tube, and the trains generally stop running at midnight. I wanted to leave at about 10 till midnight to ensure catching a train, but I pushed it till 12 to get in two songs.

Unfortunately, in my haste to make it to the Tube station, I made the mistake of walking the wrong direction out of the club. I didn't realize it until it was too late, and I knew that by the time I backtracked and got to the station, there probably wouldn't be any trains. Considering my options, I knew there was only the bus or a cab. Buses are hard to figure out so I finally decided to just get a cab. It cost 11 pounds to get home (for a 10-minute ride). This raised the total financial cost for the evening to 23.70 GBP.

Would I have been happier with The A-Team and some pizza? Probably. But at least I got a journal entry out of it. << REWIND