Late Shows – Central & Gateshead

The second night of the Late Shows we started on the other side of the river with the Open Submission 2024 at the Baltic, then crossed back and climbed up to the Castle for mead and storytelling, in this case a delightful story by Marie de France, who I had not previously heard of. Grainger market was next on the list, for some fried chicken, vermut, and espresso martinis, plus music and odd but entertaining projected animations. We nearly got lost on the way to the Tyneside Irish centre but eventually made it up to the top floor for some traditional music, then climbed back down to Blackfriars for a weird and wonderful Ballad of Blackfriars – which I am told was recorded and dearly hope will be uploaded someplace eventually. We finished off the night at Four Quarters with some craft beer and arcade games, including the also very weird if maybe not wonderful Lucky & Wild, which is apparently a real game that Namco successfully released in 1993 but which I seriously thought might have been developed by some law enforcement agency, maybe as some sort of videogame spinoff from D.A.R.E.