GIG: Combichrist (Rescue Rooms, Nottingham)

 

Our second proper gig of the year and again it was a good one. We arrived just before nine hoping to skip the support bands, but ended up catching 'Priest' who are apparently quite a trendy band and supposedly something to do with the band 'Ghost'. I thought they were actually quite enjoyable, in an 80s New Romanticish kind of way.... the singer was definitely channeling Spandau Ballet a bit.

Last time we saw Combichrist I was distinctly underwhelmed, bad sound playing a large part in my dissatisfaction and also a growing resentment at the amount of 'metal' tunes played at the expense of my favoured electro tracks. There was still a lot of metal in evidence tonight, but at least we got a reasonable version of 'Get Your Body Beat' (I'd still rather it wasn't played on guitars, but hey ho),  not to mentiom 'Can't Control', 'Shut Up and Swallow' and 'What the Fuck is Wrong With You'. 

Thankfully the Rescue Rooms had their air con on as this show came at the tail end of a prolonged heatwave and to be honest it could have been completely unbearable (especially for the guys in Priest wearing gimp masks). We were also quite lucky to get a spot on the balcony which meant we were away from the crowd and had a great vantage point, also I rested my phone on the bannister to take the video above.

SHOPPING: Showhome Warehouse (Rushden)

Inspired by an old episode of 'Love It or List It', where Kirsty and Phil were in Rushden, we sniffed out and visited the 'Showhome Warehouse'. It was quite astonishing how much stuff they had in there, things that you would never have dreamt of and never knew you wanted. Most of the stock is ex 'Showhome', so modern in design, and some of it is cool and some of it... not so much. They also have some crazy stuff like the enormous Spiderman that hangs off the wall when you first go inside.

While it was fascinating to look around, we didn't come away desperately wanting to actually buy anything. Mainly because everything was so modern so it wouldn't look right in our house, but also because a lot of things were too big and way too expensive. Also a lot of things weren't in A1 condition, for example a kitchen sideboard reduced from £4000 to £1700 but it had a glass panel missing.