1114th
Oct

It’s been a bumper week for me with two gigs one after the other. The first was the fantastic Horrors at the Roundhouse (see previous entry for my review), and the second was IAMX at Heaven last night.

It was a pretty early one due a 10pm curfew, and the band came onstage at 8pm with no support act. It’s a good thing I checked the Heaven website as I was planning on moseying up there around half 8! I saw IAMX rather a lot on their last two tours so I got quite used to the stage presence of their touring drummer and bassist. Since the new album came out they have replaced most of their live musicians which feels weird and strange to me, so the only familiar face is Chris Corner, the man behind IAMX himself. (There is always Janine, but I strongly dislike her, so I rather wish she wasn’t a familiar face..) This coupled with the fact I haven’t listening to their newest album a whole lot meant I started off the gig in a rather apathetic mood. Who were these strange people on stage playing songs I didn’t like or know?

I changed my mind pretty swiftly as they kicked off with the two strongest songs on their new album, ‘Into Asylum’ and ‘Music People’, followed by a few more crowd pleasers in the form of the stomping club anthem ‘Nightlife’ and the ethereal single ‘Ghosts of Utopia’. Just as I was getting into the swing of things, they then played a block of slower (and in my opinion, more boring) songs which reverted me to my previous doom and gloom mood. I still think it’s a travesty that they continue to play ‘Tear Garden’ live instead of the far superior ‘Kingdom of Welcome Addiction’. Chris Corner, despite an ankle injury, was ever the emphatic front man and they kicked it up a notch again with a slew of singles and fan favourites. The encore was everything I could have hoped for with ‘Bring Me Back A Dog’ and ‘Spit It Out’ bringing the show to a dizzying conclusion. Overall I think I enjoyed myself, although it possibly came more from the older tracks than some of the newer offerings. Although if you have not seen IAMX live much, you will still be impressed by the vigour and pomp they inject into their live show, so they are well worth the ticket price.

The setlist was:

Into Asylum
Music People
Nightlife
Ghosts of Utopia
My Secret Friend
Fire and Whispers
Tear Garden
Oh Beautiful Town
Volatile Times
Think of England
Nature of Inviting
Cold Red Light
Kiss & Swallow
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Bernadette
The Alternative
Bring Me Back A Dog
Spit It Out

I only have a few passable photos (A combination of bad lighting and distance), but you will find some excellent shots at Sophie Garrett’s flickr.

1113th
Oct

Apologies for the barrage of gig reviews recently, it’s just that October seems to be my designated gig month of 2011 and I haven’t really been doing much else.

Last Friday I went to see Death From above 1979 at Brixton Academy. Before my thoughts on the band, I have to ask does anyone know what the f*ck is going on with the stage? They’ve put in a platform in the front half that levels off the ground and brings it flush with the original stage, and then they have built a smaller stage on top of it with scaffolding. It looks rubbish and also means that you don’t have the view advantage that came with the sloped floor, so I really hope it’s not permanent.

Anyway; the bands. I got there too late for the first support act, Me, but I had the unfortunate luck to witness The Computers. The music was pretty good, the band had a thing going on with their matching white outfits, but the lead singer totally ruined it by screaming all the vocals and making seriously cheesy remarks in between songs. Usually I don’t mind a bit of screaming here and there, but the music really didn’t suit it so it just ended up sounding odd. Consider me not impressed.

Death From Above 1979 were great though, and they played through a swift set as their now-familiar reunion banner hung behind them. The crowd started off a bit apprehensive but soon warmed up, and everyone around me was happily dancing, moshing and flailing through their favourite tracks. The highlight for me was Romantic Rights where Sebastien took a little wander around the stage and down to the fans, before leaping back onto his drumkit for the manic ending to the song. I don’t think anyone could complain about the setlist, with the majority of ‘You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine’, ‘Heads Up’ and various b-sides getting an airing. The only issue I had was that the sound wasn’t amazing, but then none of the gigs I’ve seen DFA1979 do this year have had great sound so it may just be an issue with the way they play.

The setlist was:

Turn It Out
Dead Womb
Going Steady
Too Much Love
Cold War
Black History Month
Go Home, Get Down
Little Girl
Blood On Our Hands
You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine
Pull Out
We Don’t Sleep At Night
Romantic Rights
Do It!
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You’re Lovely (But You’ve Got Lots Of Problems)
Losing Friends

My latest gig was The Horrors at the Roundhouse last night. I was seriously excited for this as I have been playing their newest album ‘Skying’ non-stop since it came out, and I’ve been really impressed with all the performances I have seen this year. I took my mum along as well as she’s been loving their last two albums. The support act Toy were good enough to warm the crowd up, but not particularly memorable. We got some drinks and moved into the centre of the crowd to get the best view, with myself assuring my mum that The Horrors’ crowd weren’t a jumpy lot. How wrong I was!

It was just a fantastic, mesmerising gig. The setlist wasn’t particularly long, but we got an addition to the encore in the form of ‘Monica Gems’ and some of the more lengthy tracks helped to pad the set out to around 80 minutes. The band looked to be enjoying themselves as much as the bouncing audience, with hair flying as they whirled their guitars around in the strobing lights. Even Faris managed a few words in between songs and didn’t look quite as menacing as usual. As they ended the set with a hypnotic rendition of ‘Moving Further Away’, it was clear that they have moved very far away from their original kitschy goth personas of the first album, and instead focussed on creating lush, rolling soundscapes. Perfect gig, perfect album, I am happy.

Setlist:

Changing The Rain
Who Can Say
I Can See Through You
Scarlet Fields
Dive In
Three Decades
Endless Blue
You Said
Sea Within A Sea
Still Life
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Mirror’s Image
Monica Gems
Moving Further Away


(This was literally the only semi-decent photo I got. Damn those atmospheric moody lights!)

In other news this week: I have hit my 52 book challenge for the year (I upped it from 40 when I completed that a couple of months ago) so my book plan now is to finish off my remaining unread books, and then re-read the Harry Potter series. I’m trying not to buy any more in the meantime, but I caved today at the Southbank book market with a cheap copy of Iain Banks’ The Crow Road, plus the new Discworld comes out today so that is an essential purchase. It’s much better than before though, when I had 25 books that I hadn’t yet read!

2011 Reading Challenge

2011 Reading Challenge
Amy has

completed her goal of reading 52 books in 2011!

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114th
Oct

You know how I mentioned earlier that Metronomy keep getting better every time I see them? Well that’s still true. Seriously, I’ve seen them about 5 times this year and at the end of every gig I think, well that was amazing, it really can’t get better. And then it does! I’ve been a fan of them since I saw them supporting CSS in 2007, so it’s been nice to see them grow from a band that used poundland push lights on their chests into a band that now have a large fanbase and got nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. It was this nomination that meant they could play the vast Royal Albert Hall and comfortably sell it out.

It was a bit of an odd gig at first as everyone was sat down, and no-one wanted to be the first person to stand up and start dancing. Sadly they played ‘Love Underlines’ right at the beginning so I had to just chair bounce to that one instead of my usual mad dancing, but as soon as they reached ‘She Wants’ it was enough to get everyone on their feet. They had so many fantastic little moments, like Oscar Cash being pushed on in a synth on wheels, and a previous band member appearing on the stairs to perform a solo. Together with their flawless funky pop it was enough to put smiles on everyone’s faces and raise the roof with the audience’s applause. It’s one of those gigs that people will be talking about for a long time, and if you weren’t there you have missed out.

Unfortunately I cannot find the setlist anywhere for the life of me and I can only remember patches. If anyone finds it, please let me know!

There are lots more gigs coming up in October, including Death From Above 1979, The Horrors, IAMX, Bombay Bicycle Club and Miles Kane so it’s going to be a pretty busy one for me!

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1115th
Sep

I went to see Crystal Fighters last night at the Shepherds Bush Empire, but I won’t be writing much of a review because I didn’t really feel very into it. The music was nice and the band were pleased with the packed out venue, but the crowd really annoyed me and I ended up moving right to the back where I couldn’t see anything. I ended up leaving before the end because I was just not enjoying myself. Luckily I saw them at both The Big Chill and Reading this year where I had a nice time, so it hasn’t tainted my live experience.

Plage was excellent though. I dare you not to smile when you listen to it.

In jewellery news I have booked a table at the Entertainment Media Show/Collectormania London on the 1st and 2nd of October. I wasn’t going to do it originally, but they have now announced David Tennant as a guest so I am there with bells on! I’ve booked photoshoots with the man himself, plus Arthur Darvill and Paul McGann so I’m very much looking forward to it. I may even find time to sell some jewellery! I’ve hopefully got some new designs coming soon so keep your eyes peeled for those.

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119th
Sep

Last night I got a pretty unique opportunity to see one of England’s biggest bands, Kasabian, playing a tiny venue. They were there to record for the Album Chart Show and I managed to bag some free tickets earlier in the week. They played 9 tracks to a rapturous audience, including a selection from their latest album. Tom seemed to be either hungover or ill, and was hiding his red eyes with some oversized sunglasses at first, but that didn’t stop him from putting his all into it and getting the crowd singing along. They closed the set with ‘Fire’ and the whole place went mental! I took a pretty bumpy video which I’ll try and upload. It was a nice teaser for the new album and I felt privileged to have seen them so up close, but I do wish they had played something from their first album. I’ll be going to see them at the O2 Arena in December anyway so I have high hopes for that gig.

Setlist:

Velociraptor!
Where Did All The Love Go?
Days Are Forgotten
Shoot The Runner
Re-Wired
Underdog
Vlad The Impaler
Switchblade Smiles
Fire

There’s a couple more at my Flickr page.

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