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I’d heard lots of good things about Dananananaykroyd but never managed to get along to see them the past couple of times they’ve been in London so when I heard they were playing in Barden’s Boudoir, a short walk from my house, I took the chance to head along and see what all the fuss was about.

I wasn’t disappointed… I really enjoyed the gig. The band have so much energy, especially the lead singer who spent the entire set jumping all over the stage! The use of 2 drum kits is impressive and gives them a unique sound but didn’t feel too drowned in the drums.

With all the jumping about it was pretty hard to get a lot of good photos, it was made even more difficult by the other photographers insisting on using their flash. My camera couldn’t get a good light meter reading from all the flashes going off so a lot of shots came out either over or under exposed. Despite that, I did manage to get some good shots.

Support came from Agaskodo Teliverek who I’d never heard of before but enjoyed nonetheless. The lead singer spent the whole set smiling and jumping in and out of the crowd like a swirling dervish. Some good songs and pretty eccentric made for an interesting band to watch. I was also interested by the use of a keytar - not seen one of these used in a band before!

The venue was really good for taking photos. It’s reasonably small so they are happy for amateurs to take photos. The notice at the entrance asked photographers to only shoot during the first two songs of each band’s set, a reasonable request which didn’t seem to be adhered to by most of the other photographers there and wasn’t strictly controlled by the management either, I chose to follow this request so that I could enjoy the bands’ sets as well as taking some photos. I was able to get right in front of the stage and the two coffee tables supporting monitors in front of the stage provided some useful props to steady myself and get some good shots. Lighting wasn’t great - mostly red and blue lights giving some photos a purplish glow.

I did manage to get an interesting shot of the lead singer from Dananananaykroyd offering up the mic to the bassist for her to add some lyrics to their second song.

Will definitely try to head back to Barden’s for some more photography practice considering it is practically on my doorstep. Looking at their bookings for the next few months I’ll hopefully find something that takes my fancy!

Checkout the rest of my photoset from the gig.