Tonight, I went to the Old Bar in Fitzroy to see Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. They rocked. They played two sets, going for about two and a half hours in total, performing various songs on accordion, contrabass, violin, clarinet and a few other instruments. Most of their songs had an eastern-European feel, though some were rather Spanish, and there was even a spirited Irish jig in the set. Their performance was intense; the melodramatic lyrics (from a world where people are routinely beset by entire Hells of devils, it would appear) executed with fearsome intensity; it wasn't all brooding madness though; there was a good dose of humour (the performers' stage personas and affected accents; the instrumental solos, which whilst technically impeccable were perhaps a little too flamboyant in places to be entirely straight, and the song where the musicians, who had wandered into the audience, joined in with animal sound effects in appropriate places). Towards the end, they did a few earnest songs; just acoustic guitar and heartfelt lyrics, with no theatrics; there were tears in the audience. And then they launched into an encore of their signature number which was about either sex or cannibalism, depending on how you interpret it.

Anyway, they're playing tomorrow (Tuesday) night at the Old Bar again; I recommend seeing them.

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