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Another surprise gig!

3 May 2010, 18:10

Sun 25 Apr – Amanda Palmer, Robots in Disguise, Jason Webley, Bitter Ruin

This time the gig was a surprise to everyone, rather than just me. Having been announced on the friday and taking place on sunday afternoon. I happened to hear about it via a friend who'd been cancelled on for this gig, who'd then gotten tickets and cancelled on me (who then, obviously got tickets myself, as I've been without proper internets this was done entirely through my iPhone, which I was rather impressed at).

I managed to miss Bitter Ruin by the queue being to long (thus me staying in the pub watching the queue get shorter), apparently they're worth a watch so I shall keep an eye out for them in future.

Robots in Disguise didn't do it for me at all. This may well be me rather than them as a lot of the crowd were rather fond but I just didn't enjoy them. They were good at what they did but their songs weren't clever enough given what they were aiming for.

Jason Webley was up next. He was great and I've now ordered everything I could by him. He's a sort of one man acoustic punk show. Lots of power, some great songs and a piano accordion so obviously right up my street! Being a secret mid afternoon show the set was a lot shorter that I'd have liked but this then lead to the main event.

As it was a secret surprise much smaller than usual show, it wasn't going to be a standard Amanda Palmer show. This was obvious right from the start as there wasn't a piano anywhere in sight. As if that wasn't enough the first track was a Radiohead cover played on the ukele. The show continued in this rather silly vein playing more covers (including a N.W.A. cover!), songs about electric blankets and some of her Evelyn Evelyn stuff. It was utterly fantastic, she had a fab time and so did we.

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Surprise gig

3 May 2010, 14:42

Wed 21 Apr – Michael Marra

The night before this gig, I got a text message asking if I was free as a ticket had be bought for me but they'd forgotten to actually check I was free/tell me they had. I'm glad they did as it was a fantastic gig.

His songs manage to be both silly and deep at the same time with great story telling tradition running through them talking about everything from Bob Dylan gigs to the history of Dundee to the issues with lonely hearts ads, spiced up with a Bob Dylan song and a few bits of traditional music. He was very funny and had a great voice.

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That's the way to do it.

3 May 2010, 14:37

Tue 13 Apr – Gary Numan, O Children

If Trent Reznor and Til Linderman are getting to old for that sort of thing, explain Gary Numan. He was fantastic. Had the right balance of heavy and electronics playing a combination of the Nine Inch Nails inspired and Nine Inch Nails inspiring material that spanned his whole career with great stage presence and loads of oomph. The only thing that detracted was Adam Ant turning up during cars and shattering some illusions about himself. I'd have hoped that he'd have more stage presence, a better voice and generally be less of a twat.

The support act were rather good too in that they reminded me that on occasions goth rock isn't actually that bad.

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A rather sombre evening.

3 May 2010, 14:33

Sun 11 Apr – June Tabor and Huw Warren

I was actually impressed with June Tabors voice. She's aged well and actually sounded a lot better than I was expecting. It was a good gig but there's a rather big but. Everything about it was depressing. The choice of music was depressing. The lighting was depressing. The way she was dressed was depressing. I know Huw Warren from somewhere. I'm not sure where but I do.

I listened to Leonard Cohen on the drive home to cheer myself up.

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I'm not sure what to call this one.

12 Apr 2010, 20:28

Thu 8 Apr – The Kathryn Tickell Band

To get it out of my system before I write this. ARGH! WHY DO GIGS LIKE THIS HAVE SEATS?!? I WANT TO BOUNCE!

So yes. Despite having lived a few minutes up the road for a couple of years, it took until after I'd moved to the smoke to make it to a gig at The Maltings.

It was well worth it though! Dancy stuff is always my favourite folk music and Kathryn Tickell is among the best people at playing them (and one of my favourites) so it was bound to be good. A great set of up tempo stuff with occasional waltzes and even the odd lament (which didn't annoy me, despite not being dancy). It was a good humoured fun set too which left everyone smiling at the end.

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Sex, drugs and... well... folk...

5 Mar 2010, 18:44

Thu 4 Mar – Spiers & Boden

A quick jaunt up the space line to Kilburn later, we found ourselves outside the venue. I'd not been before and was definitely pleasantly surprised. It was smaller than I was expecting but had good sound and a nice atmosphere.

It was just Spiers & Boden with no support for the evening which worked mostly very well. The crowd were a little subdued in the first half of the set (I think this was as the first few rows of people were sat on the floor which kept things rather sedate). In the second half however a few people were a little drunker and the sitters had stood/been forced to stand and everything went a little bit mental with much bouncing/singing along and all round fun/sillyness.

Music wise the set was a good balance for tunes and more ballady stuffs with a lot of stuff from their first album combined with a few bits they normally do with Bellowhead (including an as yet to be recorded track from the next album that went down well).

I had a really good time.

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You can dance if you want to...

14 Feb 2010, 21:37

Sat 13 Feb – Assemblage 23, Revolution by Night, Tenek

I arrived just in time to hear the last Tenek track. I'm slightly annoyed that I missed their set as from that track I heard they're really rather good out and out synthpop. Shall hopefully catch them in future.

I missed most of RBN, but from what I heard they were much better than last time and the crowd seemed well up for it.

It's difficult not to compare Assemblage 23 to certain English/Irish futurepop combo at times. That's slightly unfair though as they're a fantastic band in their own right with a great catalogue of tunes and vast amounts of stage presence. They had the crowd (me most definitely included) dancing from the very start of the first song to the very end of their set. Both audience and the band had great fun. On a personal note it was definitely just what I needed!

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Not my cup of tea

14 Feb 2010, 21:30

Wed 10 Feb – Ulver, Necro Deathmort, Void Ov Voices

When asked to go to gigs, I never say no in that I can usually find something in them, but this just didn't work for me.

Necro Deathmort were two guys with synths and stuff, I'd hoped with a name like that they'd get the joke but it appears not. I've seen so many bands do that sort of thing so much better that I was unimpressed musically too. I'm guessing they've come at it from a metal direction rather than an electronic direction and haven't heard a lot of that sort of stuff.

Void Ov Voices lacked something. It was Attilla, the guy who's vocals worked so well with Sunn O))) just before christmas, on his own with a collection of effects boxes setting up loops and reverb of throat singing and chanting and things. It worked rather well, but not quite well enough I think it could have done with some projections or something.

Ulver were just a bit prog for me. They weren't anything like as weird as I was expecting and although they had a few good tracks (that reminded me of a tesco value 65daysofstatic), they just didn't do it for me.

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And then there was this trombone...

15 Dec 2009, 01:14

Mon 14 Dec – ATP Presents: Sunn O))) + OM

Seriously... What?!? Normally I like to review gigs I've been too. I'm not sure I can with this one, beyond saying it's possibly the oddest gig I've ever been too and I'm not sure I'd believe what I'd written if I did try. They were neither awesome, nor terrible, they just were. I think I enjoyed myself though.

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Great music, shame about the crowd!

5 Dec 2009, 10:35

Fri 4 Dec – Regina Spektor, Jenny Owen Youngs

I hate it when this happens. What should have been an amazing gig was really spoilt by members of the audience. I'm not sure why people thought it was OK to talk loudly through an acoustic gig to the point that people around them couldn't really hear the music, but even right down at the very front this was the case. Argh! Other factions within the crowd were the lots of "I love you Regina" and song request shouts that weren't so bad but still annoying, particularly when just after a really slow/sombre song completely killing the mood/atmosphere. (I did start to get fed up of the sea of digital cameras too, but that was only a minor annoyance).

Jenny Owen Youngs was quite a good "chick with an acoustic guitar" type girl. Could have done with being in the backroom of a pub rather than a several thousand person venue, but had some really nice songs.

Despite issues with the sound both off and, apparently, on stage, Regina Spektor was great. Well, when I could hear her over the talking she was anyway (people did seem to get it out of their systems and quieten down towards the end). She played a good mix of stuff with a drummer/string quartet and just her on her own (including an A cappella song about eye colour) from throughout her career including all my favourites (she got the words to Samson wrong and insisted on starting again, although this was because someone in the front row had fainted and she'd stopped the gig to get him help which had spooked her). The string quartet played the solo from November Rain as the intro to On the Radio, this made me smile.

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