Sic Alps are friendly.

The Portland Arms (Cambs) could not have been a more fitting venue for this U.S. grunge-fi band Sic Alps. It seems that grotty and gritty is quite fashionable at the moment.

Before solely divulging into the complexities/praise of the Alps performance, the only other notable band of the night were Internet Forever (naming crisis?!) who not only were fronted by a man in jegging's, therefore offering a lovely silhouette of his penis for about 30 minutes, but they also tempted me to part with £2.50 for a wonderfully kitsch tape containing their songs - 6 tracks on side A, 6 on side B. There were interesting/fresh/sort of new...

Sic Alps. This was the penultimate date of their 14-leg UK tour, which you would not have guessed from the energy that they exuded for about an hour on what was a very small stage, in a very dingy venue. They threw themselves through a heavy set of 19 songs. What really impressed was that all three band members switched and swapped instruments regularly, fully enthralling the 30 odd people in the crowd. 

For me, the gig was what music should be about... intimate venues, tiny gatherings, strong drums, and dirty guitars - not NME endorsements or mega-crowds! Post show, doubling up as a salesmen, I was sold a nice AA T-shirt by the freshly sweaty front man, that states "Give It To The Sic Alps". He even wrote me out a set list to what I had just witnessed (friendly right)! He then informed me that their last stop was Ipswich - good luck with that, I said.