its been three hundred and fifty-one days since miocene last ventured outside the confines of the rehearsal rooms and onto a stage in front of audience to serenade us with their beautiful music, not that i have been counting the days or carving the walls with impatience, i just wanted to share this quickly made calculation with you all.

so for nearly a year in the deepest darkest depths of east london, miocene have been behind closed doors making music, crafting new songs and refining their sound, with a demo and a couple of mp3s released along the way to keep us happy as they continued to make music.

tonight is the first time that any of the new material has been played outside the four walls of the studio to an audience, only their stablemates have been witness to the sounds they have been creating, needless to say anticipation and expectation are floating around in the air along with nervousness.

with a bit of luck i turn up just as ben is poking his head outside the side door, i feel like a child in a sweet shop as they let me in, i should be used to this all by now, still i feel like a sponge, so i curl up slightly when we sit down to talk.

i am nervous about tonight, they are nervous about tonight, its been such a longtime since they played to an audience, the room has the atmosphere of a band who are playing their first show except miocene are clearly proud of their music and just hope that we feel the same at the end of the night.

as we talk the tension seems to rise, only the two dogs belonging to tidalmind ease the minds of them all, laughing as one of the dogs drops one on the floor, scooped up soon after by the lady whose name i dont know, all i know is that she has worked here ever since i have come here.

the waiting around as always is the worst part of the night, miocene are refraining from the usual band tactic of drinking to pass the time, they need to be sober tonight they say to perform, the thought of food passes through their mind as they realise they need to eat, its at this point they go off in different directions as doors open.

miocene still have a couple hours to wait until they go onstage tonight, thankfully the support bands tonight are all stablemates so they will be able to occupy their time watching their friends perform and hopefully losing some of the tension that fills their bodies right now.

the reason why the majority of us were here tonight were due onstage shortly, i shuffled upfront through the crowded room, old faces stood next to new faces, all of us expecting something special after reading, waiting and hearing about the new material, i was very nervous in the moments before they took to the stage, i can only imagine  the thoughts running through their head, miocene knew they had to deliver something special tonight, the question was could they?

miocene from the outset took hold of the audience as though they had never been away, opening with the use of a keyboard to deliver a haunting intro, the set was a tight and heavy one done in that typical and beautiful miocene manner, the new material as intricate as the old, twists and turns keeping us on our eyes, working our bodies and minds, reaching down into our hearts, entrancing us all.

pure and free reign were injected into the set at various points to make us as well as them feel that bit more welcome, they blended in perfectly with the new material, none of us knew what was really coming, the usage of two keyboards at one point during one song was magical, if it all sounds this good live, i cannot wait until its all on cd.

ben remarked that the geeks among us would know the next tune, he was of course referring to poisoning dionysus, simply known as dionysus now, the first track from the demo in september to have been released online, as beautiful as it was then as it was tonight, reworked slightly, those of who knew the words sang along.

the night had to end at one point but not without a bang, the explosive and incendiary "devil with halos" pushing all right the buttons for just under two minutes before the set closed with the excellent "untitled", a journey through the unknown, a distorted guitar sound dominant for the opening few minutes followed by a beautiful section where ben sings with that heartbreaking manner of his and then follows it with some rapid rhyming spoken word before the music takes over and closes the song as it opened.

i left the monarch tonight contented, the band i love doing what they do best, the magic is still there between them all, i feel for them as i did last time they performed, they met all the expectations they imposed on themselves tonight, when they talked of new material, they meant it, i cannot wait to hear what they could not perform tonight, i am bias in my opinion but you cannot help but be moved by miocene and their music, the album is going to be worth the wait, to the future ;p