Long Balls & Casual Sex // EPIC Studios 20.02.2014
Where were you?
Long balls featuring Casual Sex. Complementary ambiguity, live at EPIC studios on Thursday February 20th. You’d think such names would attract people to go check it out. Especially when the admittance price is only five quid. Oh, how disappointed we are in the Norwich music scene. Barely a 10-headed audience was there that night, enjoying two great gigs. Where were you?
“Apparently Limp Bizkit played at Norwich yesterday”, stated Long Balls’ bassist at the start of their gig. “Did anyone see them?” Ten people look at each other, waiting. “Yeah!”, a guy at the bar shouted. “Well then, how were they?” The guitarist smiled. Perhaps the Limp Bizkit gig was the reason why so few people turned up tonight? “They were okay”.
Laughter. Laughter everywhere. Limp Bizkit might’ve been “okay”, but then again their gig was sold out. The fact that two young bands that enjoy making music not for the money, but just for the sake of it, have to fight in order to get their tickets sold, tells us that what they brought to EPIC was… well, epic. Both of them in a very different way though. Long Balls, the young Norwich-based band, surprised us with a very loud, musical clash between bass guitar and drums that made you crave earplugs the moment they began. Nevertheless you could almost taste the love the two musicians have for what they’re doing. One of them constantly apologising to the audience for what they were doing, the other laughing with him. Well, apologies weren’t necessary. They did what they love to do: making music and having fun, and this with full devotion. We could discuss the genre and whether it was good or not, but the fact that they put up a metaphorical middle finger to the Limp Bizkit music scene, was enough to like them.
Once Long Balls left the scene, Casual Sex invaded it. If you’re a well-respected band that just had a US tour, coming back to your home country in order to play for a very small audience might feel embarrassing. In this situation, you have a choice to make. Be pissed off and mess up the gig as some sort of protest, or devote yourself to the few people that did show up by giving them a great gig. Guess what Casual Sex did? A mind-blowingly good concert that was conveyed in a very, very professional way. Elvis-like tunes, drenched in dozens of other influences. Perhaps they were embarrassed because of the small audience, but they convinced the people that were there of their abilities as a band. Play this same set in front of a thousand people, and they’d all be ecstatic about it. Play it in front of ten, and you get your money’s worth: a great, cozy night on the tunes of lovely music.
This gig taught us an important lesson. Music isn’t about how many tickets you sell, or how big your audience is. It’s about loving what you’re bringing as a musician, and projecting this love to your audience. More than half of Norwich’s inhabitants missed this lesson last Thursday and two great gigs with it. So, again: where the fuck were you?
Yarreth Plysier
