Argies @KSET 01Aug2012

I went to see Argies play at KSET on Wednesday. I did not listen to them before but I was intrigued with the description of their music as "combat street rock" and I did my homework going through their stuff on youtube and investigating online so I was prepared. I also wanted to get a taste of what Monteparadisians were gonna get this year, to satiate my newly discovered desire to plan endeavor of going to a festival next year.

When I came to KSET, around nine-ish, an hour later than KSET homepage prophesied for door to be open (to my wild disbelief), club was still not open, and after it opened there was not any live music until about hour and 20 later. I see the wisdom (or should I say profit) in getting the people clubbed and spending money hours before gig they paid to see but it ticks me off beastly nevertheless. Oh well, cest la vie. Very hot vie also, because KSET was melting down from accumulated heat, and no cold beverage in the world could put a dent on that heat.

First I got to see No More Idols...

... and they were very, very dissapointed by low turnout but once they started to play they were great. Added bonus was that familiar crowd made NMI play very playfully and unrestricted, like they were alone, somewhere on a practice session, communicating with friends. I felt bad at one point not being so familiar with the scene as blondie there (far left on the photo there) sang one song with NMI and I could not place him. Blondie surely belongs to another band becouse he without doubt has mad performing skillz and I'm sure this will all be revealed in due time.

40-ish minutes later, Argies climbed the stage - and they were a different class altogether.

They started with a few chords from London Calling, just to get our attention and they continued on to play fiery mix of their own songs and covers - I forgot half of them but I remember we heard Nicaragua Sandinista, I fought the law, La Bamba, Psychokiller, Guantanemera. They were beautifully set up and I can't remember I ever heard drums in KSET being set up so explosive and loud but it worked wonderfully, not overpowering other instruments and giving whole performance one nice old-school big-space sound.

One other thing I noticed is how they are very clean, exquisitely well prepared warderobe-wise (wearing clothes that look great on stage and also can go through all daily errands including travel and high-end dinners), sensibly chosen shoes and it all looked deliberate and planned ahead. I liked that very much as I keep good dress code and travel-packing at very high regard. Last but not least, their bass player is so damn hot he deserves richly to be spoken of separately from on-stage performance.

I also decided to include one more photo, 'cause Argies were such good sports and they let the stage to be overtaken by home team a bit more:

We all had a good laugh and it was great, great night out.