Paul Goodwin

Trying to Escape From Europe

Published on Tue 6 Dec 2016

I played at The Blue Moon the other night supporting Model Village and Owl and Mouse. I finished this year's new song in between getting home from work and leaving for soundcheck (if I could write that many lines even every month I'd have a lot more than a song a year. Nothing like a deadline etc...) and so was determined to play it. I tried to run through it in my head on the walk there, but the walk there is only about 5 minutes and someone was randomly following me round the back streets with "The Final Countdown" playing very loudly on their car stereo, which made it very hard to concentrate. For reasons that made sense at the time I ended up playing it last, and couldn't remember the first line of the bridge so I ended up finishing the whole set with "I can't remember any more, so I guess that's me!". Stupid Europe. The first half sounded pretty great/upsetting to me though, I think it's a good one. It's called "There are no Happy Endings" as I disappear into a self-referential black hole. I also played "Romantic False Lead" and forgot half of that. On the whole though I think I'm better than I've ever been. It's a shame I'm not playing much.

Setlist: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, Muscle Memory, So Finally a Love Song, Romantic False Lead, Heat Death, There Are No Happy Endings. 

I enjoyed the other bands a lot. Owl and Mouse were really nice and bleepy though it seemed like quite a short set. I could've happily listened for a lot longer. I'd definitely see them again if they came back and I could get out ever! I used to see Model Village a lot back in the day, but hadn't for ages and they sounded really full and tight. The Blue Moon is a good venue, even without the stage that it used to have when it was The Man on the Moon. Fun fact - it was the first place I played in public. It was also the first place I played Watertight in public (different occasion obviously).