The Sentinels

The Sentinels I saw this past Thusday 1 March at Darkroom to a small audience, but guess who was in that audience? Dan "The Fan" was there! He's friends with the band. I believe this is the first time I mention him here but he has been to many, many shows that I go to. It's a common sight to see Dan bouncing around to The Dials, Walking Bicycles, White Mystery, etc. And he would work up a sweat dancing. After a long spell of no sightings of him in any shows, there he was talking to the lead singer, before the show.....it's nice to make it to a show on time. It has an effect when your audience is small, perhaps twenty spread about the place. Only Dan and I were right in front. Perhaps a few others as well. But most just sat in the booths and tables in the back. Still they were there and it's hard to believe that they just wandered in. It was still hard to read them. I can't completely call them indifferent because there they are. Some among them had to have been there for Sentinels just as I. But small audience and....it hurts. The lovely Ms Liz Elle as the voice of the band, with her glasses on looks intimidating as an Agent from The Matrix. Put a suit on her and I'm running...after the set is over of course. Having said that I don't mean to take the piss out of her. It's me noting the power she holds in her stage presence. And while we are at it, The Matrix can use more female agents!

So they got a CD out Music Of The Pleistocene and it is indeed growing on me. Saracen Smile, Widows' Weeds are songs that pop out to me, for reasons that elude me. I find it hard to describe them in relation to what I normally post. I have that problem with some bands that I like. They are ....dark. I know, everything Zig likes is dark. Sentinels self-describe as post-punk that is somewhere between PJ Harvey and The Fall. I'm familiar with La PJ, cool. Not so much with The Fall. That's a good start right? But a lot of bands begin with that, PJ Harvey,(having said that you would not believe how many people say "who's that?" when I mention PJ). And it was not what popped in my head when listening to The Sentinels. Having said that I understand that it's a common enough point of comparison, like a common language. You speak PJ? Cool, me too, and so do Sentinels. You will notice a drift in their dialect but that's ok. You know who else they like? We Are Hex....it's on their Facebook page! Anyway, I think they are all vets of the local music culture. Liz Elle the lead singer has sung in other bands. This next point at least for me applies to all new bands I see that are composed by music vets. The music they produce ....sounds older, more mature. I feel included in the audience they are going after. That is important to me at 39.

Zig