I always find it funny to review my own shows. I am BIASED. This was a bit of a dream show (much like the She Keeps Bees one!) because I have a huge amount of love for Scary Mansion. If they hadn’t come over here I would have gone to France to see them. I love them so much.
It was usual Allotment fare, with lots of cake and we decorated the venue to be all Allotment-centric (although we appear to be missing SEVEN gnomes now?). We had some silly kerfuffle whereby no sound man came, so it was The Tailors who literally saved the day working magic with the venue’s PA to handle the sound for all the bands. They are heroes.
I was milling about waiting for Scary Mansion to appear when I saw Ben, Scary Mansion and Chris Garneau’s epically wonderful drummer, jump down the stairs. It was super surreal having Scary Mansion over. Leah, Brad and their tour manager Siegfried followed. It was so nice to see them! It was so lovely to talk with Leah especially. It’s kind of strange to hear someone sing so much and then finally hear them speak and have them around.
I can’t write enough good words about Scary Mansion. Everything about them is brilliant. I did some big swoons while listening to them sound check. They really rock live! They are amazing.
Line & a Dot opened. The Tailors were next. I have a lot of love for The Tailors. Adam is a friend but I had never properly met the rest of the band, but they’re all completely lovely. They were so cool with doing the sound that night, and their warm, laid back, beautiful music was perfect for a lazy Sunday at The Slaughtered Lamb. It was lovely to have them.
Then, it was time to rock. Scary Mansion had the volume up super loud (the venue told us to quiet down a few times during the soundcheck) and it was awesome. They did New Hampshire and then On My Mind. Live On My Mind is so good. SO GOOD. Ben absolutely hammers the drums, he’s absolutely phenomenal. His drum parts work so brilliantly with everything Brad does. Literally every single thing Leah does is perfect. Then they did No Law before we had to end the show because Leah was poorly and had to go to hospital. Apparently everyone who comes to the Allotment is a super sweetheart and nobody asked for their money back (and to be fair, they did get to see three songs from one of the best bands EVER). It was pretty frightening and I was super worried for Leah. Thankfully she was alright.
Then I saw Scary Mansion the next day. I’ll review that later. It’ll just be more gushing.
It‘s quiet in here! Why not say something?