Shadow Orchestra play Filthy Kicks album launch

That's us - in the middle!

Sunday is an odd day for a gig – on the one hand, it’s technically a “school night”, but on the other, it’s still the weekend – wooo! Luckily for us, what started out as a very damp squib turned into a really great night.

The Shadow Orchestra first met the Filthy Kicks when we both played at the Off The Tracks festival in Derby earlier this year. So we were thrilled when they asked us to come and play at the launch of their new album, Dirty Little Secret, at Cargo in Shoreditch.

Things started badly when we turned up at the venue in the afternoon, in the pissing rain, to be met by locked doors. Huddled for warmth under a few parasols in the courtyard, it felt like we were being punished by the God of Promoters for daring to turn up on time…

Chris from the Shadow Orchestra and Darren from the Filthy Kicks compare wet feet

I hid in the photobooth:

Cold. Wet. Miserable. Prepared to kill for a hot chocolate

Eventually we got in and got soundchecked, hoovering up a peace offering from the management in the form of cake, tea and nachos along the way.

Thankfully, the gig itself was a total blinder. I was gutted to miss SubStatic, who apparently rocked the place – I was busy having my super-glam makeup done again by the fabulous Valentina.

We went down a storm, especially when the bass kicked in and the stage literally shook:

Blurry. That'll be the bass kicking in

Thanks to everyone who came to see us – and for the charming heckling 🙂 New/old/remixed song Bones seemed to go down well, and we had a ton of fun on stage. My fingers were killing me by the end of our epic set-closer Sweet as a Nut.

Then it was the Filthy Kicks – bags of energy and lots of fun:

The Filthy Kicks tear it up. I need to get a better camera, really

And there were even Shadow Orchestra logo cookies for people who bought CDs:

My piping skillz are improving. Slowly.

So – did you come down to the gig? What did you think? And did you get a cookie?