To the Queen Elizabeth Hall for the Tiger Lillies' 'Mountains of Darkness' evening...

The support was curious electonic noise preformed by K&A (Kirsten and Ashley) against a massive slide-show backdrop of manipulated 1960's/1970's interiors, that looked kind of sparse and otherworldly. The pictures were interspersed with detail pictures of gaudy fabric and weaves.

I quite enjoyed the music... I love theramin's and shifting muffled basslines, but it didn't really build into anything, likewise the beige scandinavian sitting rooms didn't really go anywhere either. I did think given the theme that it was going to take some kind of dark turn (which would have cheered me up no end) but it didn't and by the end the crowd hated them, and they were being heckled. Crazy G said that they were 'a poor man's Chris and Cosey' but I guess what we were being reminded of was the flatness of ordinary life, prior to being plunged into goth-fantasy hell courtesy of the TL's. That was my theory anyway... and I hate to see performers being booed.

Quick lager refreshment then it was time for the focus of the evening. Martin Jacques shuffled onstage like a cross between oddjob and a crotchety old gravedigger. He was dressed in victorian smart and a bowler, his face painted like a chinese assassin (he always looks like that though, it wasn't a special concession to the dark subject of the evening).

The TL's play what can possibly be described as demonic jazz-cabaret, and Martin Jacques sings in falsetto... the sound is not of this plane. They were joined by Alexander Hacke from Einsturzende Neubauten who has a great creepy voice and introduced most of the songs.

The set was new and informed by the life and work of American fantasist H.P. Lovecraft, writer of poe-inspired penny dreadfuls and goth-schlock horrors; the TL's easily conjured up a Lovecraftian atmosphere with songs about being plagued by rats and butchered by unseen assailants. The band were lit in blood-red and there were no more empty unsettling interiors being projected: instead we were treated to spinning demons and victorian etchings of bats and creatures of the night. My kind of cabaret !.... Afterwards we duly attended Kevin's 40th birthday party on a (static) boat on the Thames. Hayloid provided the tunes, including my favourite Howard Jones song... don't laugh, it was just the thing after so much supernaturalism.

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