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Bring me Sunshine...

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? in relation to Barfly anyway.... M and I headed to Cardiff Barfly last night after a very long break, to see The Sunshine Underground ( see also previous post Au quatrieme fois). Some bits of the cellar venue looked a bit smarter, others as scummy as ever!!! Say no more.... but crowd control barriers??

We were treated to 2 support bands, so no complaints on value! First up (breath in), Shut Your Eyes & You'll Burst Into Flames, were, sorry to say, an obvious rip off of TSU but not in a good way! On a positive note, they didn't hurt the ear drums, but mostly samey and easily forgettable, except maybe the bouffant hair and energy levels! Next up Foreign Islands (I think this is their myspace) who were much better, although I was a bit bemused by the singer's face mask for first track.

By the time The Sunshine Underground took the stage, Barfly was pretty much full and with a very enthusiastic audience! Perhaps the venue suited them better or maybe it was just quieter, but my ears didn't hurt anywhere near as much compared to their Coal Exchange show. Set list of course made up of material from their current album Raise The Alarm. Bargain for fans - there were flyers around advertising all 3 formats for forthcoming single Commercial Breakdown for £3! Get down to HMV or Virgin on 30th October. Thoroughly enjoyed the set, anyway, although there was no encore. The crowd barriers did start to make sense for TSU's set, though, as they in effect made the stage bigger (and for those of you not familiar with Cardiff Barfly it is very, very small indeed). I would definitely recommend their show!

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