{"id":18331,"date":"2015-09-28T20:57:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T18:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/?p=18331"},"modified":"2015-09-28T20:57:53","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T18:57:53","slug":"verona-walls-black-moscow-dukes-of-note-room-of-phonics-at-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/verona-walls-black-moscow-dukes-of-note-room-of-phonics-at-mercury\/","title":{"rendered":"Verona Walls, Black Moscow, Dukes of Note & Room of Phonics at Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"
Friday\u00a018
\nSeptember
\n2015<\/div>\n

Like a lot of people, I was really sad when Mercury<\/a> announced it was\u00a0closing. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it was saved from the brink and is now back up and running. I’ve been slack in checking the revamped venue out but finally did so for a really fun gig – Rocking the Road to Zombie Fest<\/a> featuring Verona Walls<\/a>, Black Moscow<\/a>, Dukes of Note and Room of Phonics.<\/p>\n

\"Verona<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Black<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Dukes<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’ll be honest, Mercury<\/a>‘s pretty much the same, which is good but also a little weird…there are some noticeable changes, positive ones include a fantastic new lighting rig, the removal of that weird stage-side curtain\u00a0and general maintenance and repainting. Less convincing changes include the addition of pleather cushions\u00a0on the bricked\u00a0stage-side seating (comfy but a little odd…) and the plastic picnicky chairs and tables near the bar area…<\/p>\n

\"Mercury\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The one that made me sad though was the repainting in the backstage area: all the iconic band signatures are gone<\/a>…I mean, I get the whole clean slate thing, fair enough, but because it still feels like mostly the same venue it’s pretty upsetting not having that graffiti’d wall around anymore…it’ll be okay though, as long as bands start signing on it again…<\/p>\n

Anyway, the gig was fun, though the vibe was a little unusual\u00a0– \u00a0because it was essentially a battle of the bands competition the crowd was a little different from the norm and featured a lot of friends and family members there to support and fewer punters just there to party.<\/p>\n

First up were Room of Phonics who were pretty chilled,\u00a0in spite of this however\u00a0the band’s \u00a0guitarist somehow managed to lose half a tooth after the set, definitely one of the more bizarre twists to the evening…<\/p>\n

\"Room<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Room<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t