Half a Dozen Eggplants or Six Aubergines

Even with the most diligent attempts at finding interesting things in London, it's inevitable that certain events will escape unnoticed. Although Gramaphone is listed as a music venue in Time Out, their individual shows aren't listed, and none of the various music- or culture-centric emails that I subscribe to mention it, so Bob and I have our Vancouver friend Angus to thank for letting us know about a Gramaphone show tonight that we would have been very sad to miss. As an added bonus, the venue is quite nearby and convenient to get to; after supper, we headed down to the basement venue, where the first band had already started (I never did catch their name):

Next up was Pikelet,
followed by the reason that we were so excited about this show--Darren Hanlon.
Clever lyrics, catchy tunes, and personable between-song banter all seem to be hallmarks of a Darren Hanlon performance. We first came across him by accident, when he opened for the Magnetic Fields in Vancouver, and it was really nice to enjoy an opening act so much (it used to happen much more often than it does these days, it seems), so we were very happy when Angus let us know about tonight's show! Unlike the first time we saw Darren Hanlon, where everyone seemed to be there for the Magnetic Fields, tonight's crowd was comprised of die-hard fans who sang along with almost every song, much to Darren's humble amusement. (By the way, if you want to hear the lyrics from the title of today's post, you can do so here.)