Fuck The Cistern!

TOILET @ NAMBUCCA
Nambucca, 596 Holloway Road, London - Friday 18 August

The toilets at Nambucca are an obvious attraction, which would require a whole article for itself. However, stories of bouncers wrestling drunken fans in pools of piss will sadly have to wait for another day, as, despite its misleading name, Toilet is about so much more than the goings on in graffiti-covered cubicles. It is, in fact, a roomful of gorgeous indie kids flailing to four amazing bands. What more could a girl want?

The entertainment starts as soon as we walk through the door, with a man, who’d clearly been in the North London pub for a while already, table dancing - just a sample of what is to come over the course of the night. Before long, William Kay (www.myspace.com/williamkay) start the evening properly with their Libertines-esque tunes. Their introduction to Bonnie & Clyde – “This is Bonnie & Clyde, which was also a film, and a song by Jay-Z, so it must be good”, thumbs up, cute smile – leaves all the girls swooning, and by ending their set with a raucous version of I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book they keep us big-kids very happy.

Next up is Awful Sparks (www.myspace.com/awfulsparks), whose short sharp bursts of ‘office funk’, as they like to call it, including the ridiculously catchy International Toughguy, are so much fun to dance to, and to watch, as singer Patrick thrashes around with infectious enthusiasm. They are clearly having so much fun that we can’t help enjoying ourselves too, especially when Patrick finally gives in to the crowd’s demands and removes his shirt.

Friends of the Sparks, Oxford five-piece The Mules (www.myspace.com/itsthemules), then take to the stage, but have trouble getting the aforementioned table-dancer, who has now taken to pretending he owns Nambucca, away from the microphone. Eventually, they get the chance to play, and it’s so worth the wait. The Mules say they “enjoy both kinds of music, country and western”, and this way of story telling has clearly had an effect on their lyrics, but their songs pack much more of a punch than any country and western act. With hits like Polly-O and Tule Lake, taken from their recently released album, Save You Face (buy it now!), they work the crowd up into a throbbing, sweaty frenzy, leaving us feeling euphoric and the floor so wet it becomes a safety hazard.

After a brief break, when we all desperately intake liquids, the moment I have been waiting for for weeks finally arrives. Any band labelled by Carl Barât as “like The Sex Pistols meets The Cheeky Girls” is bound to be brilliant, and Crash Convention (www.crashconvention.com) do not disappoint. Opening with their latest addictive demo, Pirates, Crash Convention capture the crowd, and leave us enthralled until the end. The fans, like myself, shout the words along with the band that they clearly love, and the sense of community this creates is incredible. Songs from the hauntingly beautiful St Catherine’s Oratory to the energetic, feel-good next single Abandon Ship, combined with the band’s stage presence, and overwhelming likeability, set them apart from the hordes of current indie scene bands, ensuring that Crash Convention are destined for great things.

The night ends on a toilet theme, with a DJ set from Fuck The Cistern, and we leave exhausted and dishevelled, but extremely happy, having seen some of the best new bands in London at the moment.