On Saturday, my friend John and I braved the freezing weather conditions to go see The Wedding Present play Cyprus Avenue in Cork. The roads were dry on the way down and we arrived in plenty of time to buy a few books at Vibes & Scribes. Later, I bought a woolly hat to keep the cold out, though I was outdone by John who bought two. After some nice hot food and a cold beverage at the Bully restaurant we made it to Cyprus Avenue in plenty of time. It’s a small venue that’s divided into a main room and an adjacent one at the back that carries a live feed from the stage that can be viewed on a number of screens. We were surprised to see David Gedge standing at the merchandising stall with who I presumed was his partner and manager. While John bought a live CD of the band, I chatted with Dave about the gig. He told me they’d start with a few songs and then play their Bizarro album in full. John asked if they’d be playing the Camden Deluxe version of the album as it features their frenetic take on It’s Not Unusual. Dave said he wouldn’t be playing the deluxe version and politely turned down John’s request to play the Tom Jones number. We managed to drag ourselves away from Dave to watch the support act on the screen as they played in the next room, though we were also able to hear the band’s rudimentary musical skills and similar sounding songs. The band had the rather unusual moniker of So Cow and their musical style was a poor attempt at mimicking such bands as Green Day, Weezer and the like, but without the musicianship or the songs. Their punky version of Del Shannon’s Runaway was the highlight for me and I wouldn’t have minded if they had played more covers at the expense of their own material
