I'll fully admit to having fairly low expectations, given that an old friend I hadn't seen in ages had said to me, "hey, it's my brother's band, you wanna come along ?" and I thought "well, it's something to do." But The Surrogate are actually quite good fun, and they're in a good position to ride the wave now that Rock Is Back^TM. "Gentlemens' Hardcore", the poster said. Indeed.

Becky from the Mavis' joined in for a couple of songs, and she's also in their new split-screen-security-camera video clip, which Tom was playing on a TV next to the bar before the gig started. Their spirited cover of Devo's Freedom of Choice certainly won them a few brownie points, too.

The other tidbit worth mentioning is that this gig was at Boutique, which is what used to be the Continental until mid-2001. It's been fiddled around with inside, and the stage isn't what it used to be, for instance - too small to be useful, and the lighting was pretty crap for taking photos (my excuse for using the flash, though most of those pictures didn't come out very well). It's a shame, really, that such a great place has gone to waste. Maybe they'll improve it over time, but I doubt it'll be quite the same.

[ see all pictures of The Surrogate. ]