We went to see Whiplash at the next last day before closing forever West End Cinema. Firstly, awesome film. Really awesome. Made jazz drumming incredibly visceral and also, J K Simmons is as awesome as you’ve heard. Awesomer. Awesomererest. Also, the lighting was very good and evocative. Great use of a sort of cinematic chiaroscuro, but without drawing attention to itself.

We were lucky because the three of us (Rockus, one of my oldest friends, and my better half) got the last three tickets to the showing.

Afterwards, I just had to see some jazz. So Rockus and I went to eat at Sala Thai before visiting Twins Jazz (my favorite jazz club in the city). Sala Thai had a decent, but not great jazz trio (guitar, bass, and drums). Then, we got the last two seats at Twins Jazz. The last two. After getting the last three at Whiplash. Karma, dudes. Coming through.

The band have an excellent trumpeter and a very impressive pianist. The sax man was, sadly, uninspiring. You kept waiting for him to really bust out… but he never did.

Anyway. A fine night.