Men Daimler, La Bête Blooms, and Sam Jones @ The Adelphi

Hurrah, at last. Great golden relief as I finally come across a young Hull band that I actually like. Anyway, more of that in a moment, first it is time for ire.

I won`t lie, my heart sank when I saw Sam Jones clamber on stage to open the night. I just don`t feel the need to laugh at someone’s surprisingly public, awkwardness. By all means go on stage and self-taunt liberally, but too many jokes tonight scream “HELLO I`M AWKWARD, THAT’S FUNNY*” – followed by some penis joke. Nope, after x years of living, I still don`t find the mention of male genitalia that funny. No, not even when said with wide maniacal eyes and a scary grin. Maybe it is just me. Then there is the rather ill-judged song about wanting male equality. Seriously, if you are going down that route then make the content funny and not some half-arsed summary of all the unfunny anti-feminist jokes of the last twenty years. However, there were moments that brought a smile (and that should be applauded as I am an inordinately stroppy git these days): some of the rhymes and word play in parts were great, and the use of Christian Bale rant inventive, but ultimately ruined by Sam playing the his final card, oft the comedian’s last desperate attempt to get a laugh: dressing up as a woman.

Being mean and nasty (see above) is so much easier than being nice. After only seeing one gig by La Bête Blooms, rather than make some vast and likely misguided attempt to describe the band by throwing together comparisons to The XX and Pulp – oh crap, I just did, although I`m still not sure I meant it – let’s summarise my thoughts in an example act. The day after the gig, I spent a fair few hours trawling myspace to find the name of said band and I was none too disappointed with what I found. Finally, a young Hull band that I`m willing to leave the house to watch.

Men Daimler, as constantly returning performer and a much-loved one, is woven into the history of the Adelphi. He is a talent that bemuses the crowds by not being more famous than he actually is.  Tonight our man screams, cries, dances and rambles his way through a night of song and frolics; captivating by halves.

 *Normally I would refuse to type in capitals, but it mirrors the unsubtly of Sam Jones.  

 

Comments

[sam jones (yep the rubbish one)]

I must say I agree with this review… the points you raise are all valid and it is good to get feedback from people who don’t like you.

What I’ve found is that the people who like what you do (or who you’ve been nice about first) tend to say only vague nice things, thus encouraging you to go further. Unfortunately this lead to the glut of willy jokes in the set you reviewed - the reliance on which I agree makes my act at best tired and at worst desperate and a little bit sad.

I don’t understand people but I want to connect with them (it’s only human right?) so I do what I think will make them happy. Sadly, as I don’t understand people, I’m not very good at it and so, in cases such as yours I’ve done the exact opposite.

You don’t often get real advice/feedback from people who have no motive other than to express their true feelings… The truth is a hard thing to come across and rare to hear (which makes progress slow, I wish more people were as honest as this review). I can’t thank you enough. It will help me learn for future. Thanks.

The one thing that I would like to add to this (though I do not counter your conclusions nor your opinion in general) is that the ‘awkward’ thing isn’t part of the act really – in fact for the large part I’m trying really hard not to be - I just am actually very awkward – I never know what to say to people as I’ve never really had any actual close friends or anything - I’ve never really learnt how real people behave or talk to each other (this is also why I’ve got no one to tell me that joke ideas are/aren’t any good – or tell me when things are bad ideas in general (hence the drag queen ending)). People scare me and I need to get over my fears and learn to be normal. I genuinely don’t know what people want from me and so I make bad choices and there are so few people like you around to help me put things straight.

Thanks again. But to reiterate… I’m trying to emulate the joys of friendship by doing shows and get emotionally to the point where I can make genuine friends with real people (failed on this night it would seem). Don’t get me wrong, I agree with everything you said and I thank you for saying it – but, my act is me hiding from or attempting to overcome my general awkwardness – the awkwardness is not part of the act.

SAM

[Sam Jones - yes again - sorry]

I shouldn't have sent the above comment (you appear to have sent me into theorpy mode - I started typing and it just flowed) I stand by my points but probably shouldn't have troubled you with them. Why should I unload my mental rubbish on to you? Was not the correct thing to do and I'm sorry (I'm not really a preformer and I've never had a review like this before - didn't know how one is meant to react)
Point is I thank you for your feedback and am happy to report that I'm going to think about how I might learn from it.

I encourage your blogging - I like your writing style and your passion. Don't let dicks like me behaving like this stop you from expressing yourself - a journalist should report it as he sees it, you're doing a great job. Keep it up. Sorry about my childish reaction.

SAM

[ThatExploded]

Hello Sam,

As I am free to react and express myself concerning your act then you are similarly free to express yourself at this "review." I`m not judging you as a person and if you felt any of the above was a personal attack then I apologise.

I was simply trying to express why I don`t find you that funny by judging what I saw on stage. I wasn`t suggesting you were putting on any level of awkwardness, I just felt that sometimes the jokes relied on you coming across awkward. At the same time, I am but one opinion and you shouldn`t go into some major introspection just because one person doesn`t like your routine.

Concentrating on the positive, I did find some of your set amusing and that is to be applauded, because as I freely admit, I am something of a grump when it comes to stand up. I have tremendous respect for you getting up on the stage and baring yourself to people, so keep on getting up there.

Mike

[sam jones - last time honest]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply... I'll try not to emotionaly vent so much and keep this short.

The review kind of freaked me out when I read it - in truth mainly because it reflects what I've long suspected is true. I'm turning (or have turned) into exactly the type of act I don't like. My despiration to write material, well I go to the 'easy' pot - and I've been getting away with all for so long and I've got complacent. Your review was good to hear as, to be frank, it's drawn to the front what I've long felt... it's not good enough to do this easy and ill-thought out material and I should aim higher if I'm going to have an act I'm not slightly ashamed of.

It took me a couple of hours to understand (sadly I replied to it first) that what you are doing here is almost identical to what performers like me do on stage. This blog must be a hard and really brave thing to do.

You put yourself out there and see what happens. I absolutely respect that and dont want to do anything to stop you from expressing yourself by second guessing what would happen when the people involved read it. My reply/reaction definately had a degree of emotional baggage with it and for that I'm sorry. That was wrong of me, I had not thought about it enough first (just like my act, boom boom).

I would hate to put you off writing bad reviews because, just like in my case, a lot of good can come from hearing the negative.

Failed to keep that short, sorry,
Anyway, glad all is good,
Stay you,

SAM