empty

i was out and about last night.
first off to a free gig, and it was lucky it was free as it was pants. the joy of free gigs is twofold. firstly they are free, no money spent and you have a night out. secondly there is always the chance you are going to stumble on a good band who you are going to want to see again (and even pay to see). the nightmare of free gigs is that sometimes you just don’t know what you are going to get and last night it was one of those “oh why did i bother” events.
currently my favourite places to see free music are the spitz , on commercial street; the foundry on old street and the whatever night at underbelly in hoxton square.

oddly this post has nothing to do with free music or gigs. i had met up with joel for the gig and he had mentioned that traffic had been light on the roads when he was travelling to the spitz. i hadn’t noticed as i was annoyed that i had managed to miss two 25 buses so as far as i was concerned i was always behind on time.

it was only when we left the spitz to go and get some bagels on brick lane that we both noticed that the area was almost empty.
we had been down there on the friday night and the area was throbbing, the vibe bar pounding out its trendy sounds, people queuing to get into 93 feet east, the bars and food shops in truman’s brewery packed, cars, bikes and people milling and filling the lane.
monday night and the place was like a ghost town. even the bagel bar was devoid of it’s usual waiting throng of hungry people.

the only times i have seen brick lane that empty have been on a christmas night or when i have been coming back from a club and everyone with a bit of sense were enjoying that last hour or so before they had to wake up.

admittedly it was a work night so that might explain the lack of people. the college art shows have ended so those students have all gone. but you can’t help wondering if people are just not venturing out at the moment, worried at what might happen to them.

it was an eerie seeing brick lane that empty, it felt wrong and it was somewhat depressing.