1028th
Oct

I went to see Carl Barat last night at the Scala on his first solo tour in support of his new album. I went with my mum, who is a massive fan, and my stepdad, which was quite nice as it meant I got free drinks! Carl was supported by a band called Swimming, who we only caught the last few songs of, and The Heartbreaks who I predict big things for.

When Carl finally took to the stage at 9:30pm, he looked incredibly nervous and mumbled his introductions before starting off with ‘Je Regrette’. It took a few songs for him to get into his stride, and although he had the backing of a large band he still looked quite uncomfortable during the gig. The crowd were loving every moment though, and managed to sing the words to most of the album despite it only being released a few weeks ago.

Carl played pretty much the album in it’s entirety, and peppered the setlist with Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things songs which went down a treat with the ravenous audience. The encore opened with two acoustic songs, including a sublime version of ‘France’, and then continued with a further three songs before ending on the triumphant ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’. Carl confessed that he was no good at talking at gigs and decided to just let the music speak for itself, which was fine by the bouncing, cheering audience.

The setlist was:

Je Regrette, Je Regrette
Run With The Boys
The Man Who Would Be King
Carve My Name
She’s Something
Deadwood
The Magus
So Long, My Lover
Up The Bracket
What Have I Done
Death Fires Burn At Night
Death On The Stairs
Bang Bang You’re Dead
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9 Lives
France
The Fall
Time For Heroes
Truth Begins
Don’t Look Back Into The Sun

Earlier this week I got the chance to see The Social Network, which I had been looking forward to for a while. It was a really brilliant film with a great plot and an awesome soundtrack. I especially liked how they didn’t dumb down the computer stuff, but didn’t make it too full of technobabble either. I get so frustrated with films that show someone hacking into the US military site, tapping in a password and clicking a big flashing ‘LOGIN’ button. It was really enjoyable to see exactly why Facebook has become such a huge social phenonmenon, whereas sites like Myspace and Friendster have fallen by the wayside. I especially liked the use of Livejournal as the blogging medium, LJ represent 😉 I’m not sure how relevant this film will be in 10 years time though. It seems like more of a current day thing. Still a great film though, and I would highly recommend it even if you are not interested in Facebook or social networking.

This week I have also been quite busy with halloween plans, and testing my resin casts. Unfortunately the glitter didn’t turn out so well this time and seems to have clumped, so in my next batch I will just mix the glitter in like before. I’ll polish them up and see how salvageable they are anyway.

Unfortunately the Manics gig for tomorrow has been cancelled, but my Saturday looks to be busy. I am shopping and collecting costumes in the morning, bleaching and dying my hair after and then attempting to bake these for the halloween party:

They obviously won’t look quite as good! But I’ll try my best. Expect lots of photos from the party, especially as my brother has an absolutely hilarious costume planned.

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1023rd
Oct

On Thursday I went to the Garage for the Relentless Energy Sessions. Chrome Hoof, Does It Offend You Yeah? and The Sounds were all playing, and I got the tickets from my PureHMV account so I thought it would be a nice free night. It turned out to be a bit weird, because when we got inside it was only about half full and stayed that way for the rest of the night. Most of the crowd were just confused by Chrome Hoof, and although a section at the front livened up for Does It Offend You Yeah?, they quickly left after they had finished. By the time The Sounds took to the stage at around 10pm the room was about a third full and looked like a school disco gone wrong. It just made me feel uncomfortable really and I couldn’t get into the music, so we ended up leaving after about 5 songs. I don’t know if it was lack of advertising, or if people just weren’t interested, but it seemed really strange to me. We enjoyed Does It Offend You Yeah? anyway so the night wasn’t a total loss. They are supporting Linkin Park in November so hopefully I’ll see them with a bit of a better crowd next time.

On Friday afternoon I got an exciting email come through. After roughly 4 years of trying, I have finally got tickets to a recording of Never Mind The Buzzcocks! It’s for 2nd November and my boss has agreed to let me leave at 3pm so we can go and queue and guarantee our seats. I’m so excited, I hope they have good guests!

Today I went shopping to find some bits to finish off my Halloween outfit. Can you guess what I’m going to be? 😉

I also took a look in the 99p store (as I usually do, to see if they have any good bargains), and they had the Star Trek glasses that the American Burger Kings were giving away last year. I got the Spock and Kirk ones as we don’t have much room in our cupboards, but they all looked awesome.

This week I have lots of gigs coming up. Carl Barat on Wednesday at the Scala, Manic Street Preachers on Friday at Brixton Academy and The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Robots In Disguise on Sunday at Heaven. I also have a Halloween party to go to on Saturday so it’s a very busy week for once. Luckily I get paid soon!

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1019th
Oct

I had an amazing moment yesterday. The official Placeboworld twitter and facebook pages posted a link to my review and photos of the Placebo Brixton gig from my gigblog! I like how they posted my personal link rather than the one on GigJunkie haha! I also had a few people filter back to this main site and buy things from my shop. Nothing better than indirect promotion from Placebo!

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1017th
Oct

On Friday I went to see Crystal Castles at the Roundhouse, which is always one of my favourite venues. It feels quite big when you get inside, but you still get a great view no matter where you stand. I arrived a bit late just as HEALTH were supposed to take the stage and got quite confused for a moment before I realised that Team Ghost were still playing. I don’t have much to say about them as they were unfortunately not very memorable. HEALTH on the other hand were totally amazing. The last time I saw them at Reading Festival, I came away feeling very underwhelmed. But they really blew me away this time and I think they won many many fans judging by the large mosh pit that formed! I would even go so far as to suggest they were better than Crystal Castles.

Crystal Castles were still brilliant though, they were after all the band that everyone had come to see. Everyone was dancing all the way to edges of the room and the sound was so loud I had ringing in my ears the whole way home. They came on late so they only had an hour to play but they cherry-picked the best songs from both albums to keep the good mood going, wisely foregoing the slower songs in favour of more upbeat ones. Alice Glass was ever the insane front woman and spent about 90% of her time in the audience. The other 10% saw her flinging herself around like a woman possessed and carting a strobe light around the stage. The crowd left sweaty and covered in beer, but all grinning with smiles on their faces.

This weekend I have been taking it easy and watching the Star Trek marathon on FilmFour, Grindhouse, Sherlock and making spicy carrot and lentil soup. I am making full use of my new blender!


Photo by Mike Hughes

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107th
Oct

On Wednesday I went to see of Montreal at Koko which was an interesting experience. I’ve seen them before so I knew what to expect, but it was still great fun. They have live performance art on stage, with people dressed in lycra bodysuits writhing around with skull masks. It is all very surreal but so captivating to watch. The crowd were lovely and happy and not pushy and shovey, and the setlist was really great. Quite a bit from False Priest so I think I’ll have to get around to buying that soon. She’s a Rejector and an encore consisting of the whole of The Past Is A Grotesque Animal were my highlights.

Last night I was debating going to see Blood Red Shoes but I decided against it in favour of staying inside in the warm and watching Heroes. I spent 3 bloody hours drawing buttons for the new online shop! It’s almost done now, hopefully I can finish it at the weekend.

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