We tried out some new material including a cover version of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock although, as Chris quipped afterwards, our version was more like Altamont.

After playing the song I remarked If Joni Mitchell was dead, she’d be rolling in her grave. What a terrible thing to say! Of course what I should have said was If Joni Mitchell were dead …Salter Cane does not condone wanton abuse of the subjunctive.

We also road-tested a relatively new song called Cut It Down that we’re probably going to record when we’re next back in the studio (just a few short weeks from now). You can get a sneak peak of the song thanks to one audience member who had the presence of mind to make a video …Salter Cane does condone recording and photography at our concerts.

The concert is being organised by local promoters, The Cable Club. The other bands lined up for the evening are The Elms and Villareal, who will be playing an acoustic set.

The cover charge is just £4. Where else will you find a Saturday evening full of so much misery and dark country rock for so little?

If you decide to come along — and I hope you do — feel free to bring your camera. If you take any pictures or videos and upload them to Flickr, be sure to tag them with:

• saltercane
• upcoming:event=896911
• lastfm:event=626028

The latest side project from Nick Cave is Grinderman. The band have been rehearsing down at the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove where they also chose to throw a little warm-up gig for their forthcoming tour. Three quarters of Salter Cane went along to the intimate little gig (I’m sure that the other quarter, Chris, would have been there too had he not been away in Germany).

I wasn’t a particular fan of the Grinderman album but the songs made a lot more sense live. The band came on stage in the somewhat peculiar venue and launched into Depth Charge Ethel. While I was letting the music wash over me, Jessica pointed out that Warren Ellis — no, not that Warren Ellis — was playing a bouzouki.

At first I thought This town ain’t big enough for two rock’n’roll bouzouki players! But after a superb set of Grinderman songs followed by an encore of Bad Seeds songs from the back catalogue, all was forgiven.

But just for the record, we were here first.

A special thank you to those of you who documented bits of the performance, including this footage of us playing the song The Truth Is Nothing for the very first time.

Remember, if you post any videos on YouTube or pictures on Flickr, be sure to tag them with saltercane.

Salter Cane are headlining so we expect to be on stage sometime around 10pm. But come along before that to hear The Epstein and The Sea Will Decide.

We’ll be trying out some new material tonight. Wish us luck!