Last night yours truly, Jon P and Birger headed off to the new Marquee (now next to the Empire Theater in the West End) for an invite-only gig by Elefant. The gig was opened by two non-descript navel gazing bands (described as music for Guardinistas by Jon P), and then we were treated to Elefant. There is a great buzz about this lot as they are suppose to be the next big thing in indie-tinged pop world. Well from what we saw last night, don't expect much, live at least. It was patently obviously the lead singer was absolutely hammered, even struggling to stand-up, and Birger swears he was singing to backing tapes. There were instances of his voice coming out of the speakers while he wasn't singing or even near the mic. (It is, of course, possible that he was on an impressive delay, but one has to wonder.) The band was a mess and was completely under-whelming, so bad was the gig that quite a few people left early. It is really hard to overstate how rubbish this lot were, despite the fact the bands before them were no great shakes either.

There was one positive thing about the night, besides the free beer at first, it was nice to be in the new Marquee. Its a pretty decent venue with the audience perpendicular to stage. The venue has 5 floors with a bar and mini-stage on the top floor. The bar upstairs is uber-trendy and fairly dear. Russian beer seems to be the beer of choice at the Marquee and at over £3 a pop don't expect a cheap night out. It is good to see the Marquee club back in central London.