Gig Review - Mitch Benn

When I was a fresher at university, Mitch Benn played the union.  I don't remember why I didn't go.  I do remember being woken up by the guys in my halls banging on my door telling me that I'd missed a brilliant evening.  The CDs that they bought back from the gig were hilarious - the perfect antidote to looming finals. Since missing him play 10 years ago, I've caught up with him on The Now Show and Twitter (where I'm happy to report he's a user of Dabr - the mobile Twitter client I code for). So now, on to his gig at The Bloomsbury Theatre.  A few hundred people made it through the driving rain on a cold November night - and they were rewarded with the funniest set I've seen since... well... since Boffoonery earlier in the week! The audience were, as Benn put it, a right bunch of weirdoes. A mixture of Radio 4 fans, prog-rockers, students, comedy buffs and - fairly obviously by the way they wooped during the opening bars of every song - some die-hard groupies. As much as I love The Now Show, it's obvious that Mitch is much better when freed from the constraints of the 90-second-topical-song format - his long form work is energetic, funny and surprising caustic.  That said, he skilfully took audience suggestions and composed a short topical song - Nudey Bear - during the interval. For me, the highlight of the evening was "IKEA" - hearing a hall full of people sing like demented Vikings while the band turned the volume up to 11 is a memory I'll treasure forever.  You can listen to the track for free at We7. His current tour runs until the 27th of November - walk, hitch-hike or drive to your nearest venue; Mitch Benn shouldn't be missed.  I know I'm not going to leave it ten years before I next see him.