Clinic @ 229, London, 9 April 2008

Have you ever felt very excited about a gig before that you think about it for days? This is how HSAH felt at the prospect of seeing clinic. After the recent discover that a new album, Do it, on the way and that very few UK dates had been confirmed HSAH was not going to miss this gig.

229, Great Portland Street was the host for this one off London gig. A venue that reminds HSAH of her student days merely because the venue is set in the basement of some student halls. With the crowd gearing up for the gig the haunting sounds of ‘you never walk alone’ bellow out of the speakers and everyone wonders what strange prank this is. However little do they know that this is the intro to the gig.

Clinic walk on stage in the trade mark surgical masks and Hawaiian shirts that makes them look like some crazy badies from Doctor Who…imagine that episode! They clearly stated that the gig will be a performance of two halves. The first will be a show case of Do It, which proves that clinic can continue to make raw, rough and stripped tracks that are infused with a lounge style. The high light being the last single Memories.

The second half was an ‘archive’ set of material from past albums, Internal Wrangler and Walking with Trees et al.
Clinic have the uncanny ability to sound like they are playing in an empty room and you are the only person witnessing them work their magic. They have the essence of very early orange juice but mixed with an American surf rock sound that’s much linked to rockabilly. This is especially prevalent on tracks like Sunlight Bathes Our Home and Internal Wrangler. You can imagine walking down the set of some western film and the sound track would be Clinic. Maybe if you were really cool you’d be wearing shades whilst strutting.

For a show of two halves it felt as though the gig was over before it had started and by half ten Clinic had announced that they would be ending their set. It was time to say bye and farewell to this bunch of lovable oddballs.