Thankfully my mood was lightened late afternoon when I stumbled upon a line-up change at the Tube, Kill Moon who played an excellent set helped by the fantastic venue. (It really is a tiny tube in the Brighton sea wall)

After that things improved with an ‘off festival’ show featuring The Physics House Band, Slow Club and the Amazing Snakeheads, a band I failed to catch due to the long queues outside of the tiny Hope the night before.

The evening was closed off with some ‘knowns’, White Lung, a disappointing Mazes, an interesting performance from Arc Iris, a band who clearly listened to too much Frank Zappa and watching too many Yes performances. Finally my festival closed with Trans.

I managed to catch:

Josh Flowers and the Wild – great performance in the challenging Hub Tent

Hollie Cook – great voice

Gallery Circus – Energetic performance but the music didn’t work for me

Audience Killers – didn’t like the lead singer’s voice

Boy Jumps Ship – skater rock of the Biffy Clyro book of music. Exactly!

Kill Moon – great performance

The Physics House Band – sound like a complex equation imagined in music.

Slow Club – good performance, though fairly bland

Amazing Snakeheads – great live

Kieran Leonard – hard to judge. Singing unaided in a museum

Charlie Cunningham – as above

HSY – lots of energy and shouting. Great if you like that sort of thing. Personally not my cup of tea.

White Lung – not as pissed of as the first time I saw them, but still good.

Mazes – disappointed. Too much new material that doesn’t sound as interesting as their earlier material

Arc Iris – lots of really talents musicians living out the 1970s prog scene through the filter of Frank Zappa. Definitely a marmite band. I quiet enjoyed it. But I won’t rush out to see them again

Trans – sound issues aside, another great performance.

For a few weeks it looked like the British Sea Power gig at the Cutty Sark was going to be 104. This would have been an appropriately magnificent unusual gig for this magic number. Unfortunately, due to some laziness on my part, I missed two gigs in November and so it at 102. Instead, gig/concert 104 turned out to be Mazes at Birthdays.

Birthdays was a new venue for me. Upstairs it’s the usual Shoreditch, Dalston hipster type place. I don’t dislike hipsters per say. I’m not far from being an old one. I’ve been working with the web for nearly 20 years. But I’ve never been fashionable or cool in anyway whatsoever and to be frank, I’ve never been bothered by this fact. I’ve always worn ‘scruffy clothes’ and occasionally I’ll go a week or two without shaving. But I’ve never set out to adopt the look because it’s the ‘hipster uniform’ – and I’ve definitely never worn trowser that are either too short or too long and rolled-up. So yes, I’m a scruffy web developer. But that’s my natural way, it’s not a uniform I’ve adopted because I work in Shoreditch. Birthdays is one of the venues that’s filled with these beardy hipster types. Crap selection of beers on tap, expensive ‘homemade burgers’ and a selection of ‘craft beers’ – but all from bottles. It’s also designed to look like a dive. You know the type of places, Shoreditch is full of them. Downstairs things are on safer ground with a pretty decent little basement gig space.

The first band tonight was the Cheatahs. This is the third time I’ve seen them and the second time in as many weeks as they supported Metz in November. They have a grunge sound right out of the 90s. Reminding me of bands like Dinosaur Jr that were around when I was at Uni. But because of this I just feel I’ve heard better. I’m afraid I don’t hear anything original in their work. They’re not unpleasant to listen to. Quiet the opposite. They just don’t excite me.

Next up was Fair Ohs. I’d never heard of them before and I’m not going to go out of my way to listen to them again. Although at times they made some interesting music, the lead singer came across as arrogant. I’m sure it’s all part of the show. I just didn’t find the lead singer’s ‘character’ somebody I wanted to watch.

Finally on to Mazes, a band I’d been looking forward to seeing. I’d really enjoyed their ‘Ores & Minerals’ album from earlier in 2013. I thought it had four of five really good tracks. I’d meant to see them support Parquet Courts in November but missed the gig. So it was good to finally see them.

Unusually, they started with one of their strongest, probably strongest track, the excellent Bodies. I think this was a blinding choice to start with. They then mixed new and old material in an enjoyable set finished with Skulking.