Novacain + Tsuba + Greenstorm / Joseph's Well, Leeds

 

We'd only played there three times but we'd grown to love the Well. Not only was the sound on stage always good, we were under no pressure to pull a crowd and we could pretty much pick any date we wanted to play as we were friendly with the promoter, Dave. Although we'd only played there at the end of January we couldn't wait to get back, and booked another show for March.

Mike had come up with a new Novacain logo to go with our hash sign earlier in the year. Although the design looks simple, with the 'v' and 'a' and 'a' and 'i' of 'Novacain' being joined together and a line running through the middle of our name as well as lines at the top and bottom, Mike assures me it took him hours to get right using a rather basic early 2000s graphic program. We first used the logo on flyers for our three-date January tour of Leeds, but we wanted to ensure our new image appeared on all promo materials for our gigs from now on so gave the design to Dave to include on posters for future gigs at Joseph's Well, starting with this one. I wouldn't say that we enjoyed promoting our band, but we made more of an effort than most groups we played with. Me and Mike would regularly meet for lunch at the Well where we'd cut up flyers using a crappy portable guillotine we bought from Staples, before visiting pubs and independent shops, like Rebop in the Corn Exchange, to distribute them. Sadly our efforts didn't always produce great results and I seem to remember that we had a rather meagre crowd for this show.

First band, Greenstorm, were, as the name suggests, snotty pop punkers, playing music in a similar style to Green Day, although without the super catchy riffs and melodies. They were ok without being great and haven't left much of an impression.

I'd seen Tsuba's name around several times before this gig and was pleased that we were playing together so I could check them out. And they lived up to my expectations. They played kind of jazzy indie rock, with quirky time changes and had a great singer who sounded a bit like Jeff Buckley. Not only were they a good band, they were also decent lads. A mutual appreciation developed, and I've always thought it was a shame that they didn't 'make it' after moving to London in 2002.

By March 2000, the Joseph's Well gig listing was looking much more healthy. Along with our friends Playground, the band that stands out for me on this flyer is Capital State, a funk rock band who I saw at Leeds Festival in 2001 after they won one of the first Futuresound competitions.

We played a ten-song set, starting with our newest tune "Gibbsys' Street", which we'd débuted at the Revival Bar in Halifax the month before. It was a solid performance but we were a little disappointed that we hadn't been able to attract a larger audience.

Afterwards we decided that it might be a good idea to take a short break from playing the Well, as the novelty of seeing us at the venue was clearly wearing off for many of our friends. We also wanted to write more tracks like "Gibbsy's Street" and felt that we were spending too much time practicing for gigs and not enough time song writing.

Set list (Novacain)

1. Gibbsy's Street
2. Back Row Exit
3. M.F.S.
4. Second Time Around
5. New Song #1
6. Step To It
7. She Keeps Me
8. Scarborough Warning
   
9. Stick To What You Know
10. End Of The World