Mindless Self Indulgence Gig Review

Band: Mindless Self Indulgence
Date: 11th July 2008
Venue: Roundhouse, Camden, London.

So my friend and I get to Roundhouse at around 5.35pm. The queue is already around the corner by the time we arrive and we have that momentary back-of-the-queue-panic ("Oh my God, we're SO going to be stuck at the back, man!" ) however by the time doors open, it is a different matter as the same amount of people in front seemed to be behind us. We have around an hour and twenty five minutes to kill so while we wait, chatting to the people around us, my friend grabs some Dominoes which is conveniently right next to our place in the queue and we eat. Then, I run to a corner shop to grab four bottles of water and some sweets and we chain smoke for the remainder of the wait.

Finally, at seven, we seemed to slowly be crawling our way to the entrance until we actually arrive. The mood is pretty relaxed with security, there's no searching, no "Ladies that side, men this side -IT'S NOT DIFFICULT PEOPLE!" etc and when we get in, tonnes of people are queueing for the cloakroom (amatuers). I take this as my chance and grab my friend's hand, dragging her up the stairs past what seemed like a few hundred more people. When we get into the stage area itself, the Roundhouse lives up to its name, being entirely circular with the stage at the far end. The first support, RID, seemed bearable but my friend and I were just too anticipant to care really, except for the few fans that seemed to know who they were. At this point, we were on the far left of the stage and pretty damn close at that, maybe three, four rows from the front.

Once they finished, then the pushing, shoving, swaying and people generally being thrown about began. Although, it was nothing compared to when IAMSHITX came on. It was actually quite humorous: Here was this pretentious emo band, being all 'Oh look at me, I wear my jacket open with no top on underneath because I'm so lonely' giving all these come hither looks and shit and NO ONE was listening because, oh I don't know, they were all DYING in the pit. By this time, my friend and I were in the middle of it all, dead centre of the stage, dying for a piss after two bottles of water and can of Coke each, sweaty, in pain and getting severely fucked off with this shitty time wasting band (and don't flame me if you're a fan, I'm allowed to dislike them as much as you like them). I think people were just pushing each other out of boredom at this point, it was entirely soul destroying. I also remember girl in front of me turning around and yelling at me to 'stop fucking pushing [her]' and so I kindly told her, 'It's not me, it's the HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE BEHIND ME.'. Then a man of...hefty stature, obviously desperate to get his jolly's out of this irritating exscuse for a band, practically bulldozed us out of the way, setting us back by about a couple of rows.

Then FINALLY after what seemed like several millenia, IAMX kindly got the fuck off the stage to shouts of 'You suck!' and 'Who the fuck ARE you?!'. I remember having the same conversation with many of the people standing around me at the time. By this time, my friend and I were still pretty close and could see the stage pretty well, but not close enough to be involved in all silly shoving and competition to get to the barrier. It felt like bloody AGES until MSI actually came on (to There's No Business Like Show Business) and so cheering at roadies in the mean time was in order for entertainment. When they did finally come on, it was Kitty first, followed by Steve, then Lyn-Z and then, of course, Jimmy.

They opened with Shut Me Up, which made everyone go ape shit naturally and played pretty much all my favourite songs (with the exception of Revenge, Bed Of Roses and Mark David Chapman) which included Bitches, Never Wanted To Dance, LIGHTS OUT, Prescription, Issues, On It, Bomb This Track, STUPID MF, 1989, Straight To Video, FAGGOT, Dickface and probably a couple of others that escape me.

Lyn-Z only did one back bend (*fuels pregnancy rumors!!!*) but it seemed to go on for, like, ever. Jimmy was humorous as ever, hitting a note that I'm sure only dolphins and dogs could hear: 'Yeah, I can be all "Faggot faggot faggot blah blah blah" -but when I hit that note!' (as he demonstrates at this point) 'That's when you all say "Awww he's so attractive!"'

Funny man.

He got three kids on stage too to sing to a song that I forget (I think it was from Tight though) not to mention his own singing was spot on. By the time they were about a song or two into their set, we were now the complete opposite side that we started on, on the far right of the stage, with a great view of Lyn-Z and only about two rows away from the front. On the whole, they were so worth the aggrovating, sweaty, shitty-support-band-enduring, really-need-to-pee, tiring wait -as usual- and I suggest anyone who hasn't seen them and just wants a night out of fun really, really should!