Mark E. Smith of The Fall reads sports scores.

I attended a party this weekend where the whole evening ended up with my aging rocker friends cuddling up to a giant Mac to watch videos from YouTube. One, a dedicated Fall fan, brought the following to my attention: a video of Mark E. Smith from The Fall reading football scores on BBC TV.  This just proves anything that Mark E. Smith says sounds amazing, and like a Fall song.   

Cannanes - Keeping it Twee!

Well I certainly remembered The Cannanes from back in the day, so I was surprised to see that they'd come all the way from Australia to play at The Midway Cafe, a venue just steps from my home that holds about 30 people maximum on any given night. And indeed the maximum was pretty much reached as folks piled in on a Wednesday night to see the delightfully twee pop. Apologizing before many songs ("This next one is a long song, so if you have to go to the bathroom now would be the time"), The Cannanes do self-deprecation well, but the songs really held up well; energetic and sweet even sans a bass player. "He refused to come on tour with us," explained the singer during one of many rambles she credited to "Having done 5000 miles in a van to get here and everyone just wants you to shut up, it's so nice to have some people to talk to!" Adorable.

Show was opened by local Fall/Joy Division/Gang of Four cover band The In Out. Oh wait, those aren't covers... Oh well, I must admit that even though this band wear their influences on their dress shirt sleeves, I still dig their dark angular rock thing. Ain't nothing wrong with that...



Cannanes perform Asleep at the Midway Cafe (sorry so dark, it was dark!)