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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117th
Jul

I’ve been working hard this week in preparation for the London Film and Comic Convention this weekend. iheartmyart will have a stall there, so if you are attending drop by for a chat and a free lollipop! I’ve also confirmed a place at a market in Brick Lane next Sunday (17th July), Kiki’s Market at the Rag Factory. It’s free to enter, open from 10am-4pm and will feature around 30-40 other handmade craft stalls. If you are in the area, come on down. It looks like its going to be a lovely day!

I’ve been reading pretty vociferously lately as my commute has gone up to around an hour each way. My goodreads 40 book challenge is going well and I’m already 7 books ahead. I think I may even be able to hit 50 books this year, which is almost one a week. I’ve been reading ‘The Polysyllabic Spree’ by Nick Hornby this week, which is a book about reading books. It’s very interesting, and has all of Hornby’s trademark dry wit, and it has been reinforcing my personal book philosophies.

  • Don’t read books because you think you should be reading them. Read books because you enjoy them.
  • If you are not enjoying a book, put it down and leave it, or you will come to see reading books as something difficult and arduous.
  • Don’t feel like you have to read all the classics and critics favourites, if you are happy reading the latest Ian Rankin or Dan Brown, then read it.
  • Lastly, always buy more books, even if you have tons still unread. More books are always a good thing!

Next up I am going to start on the Stieg Larsson Millenium trilogy, because my mum has thrust them upon me and told me I will enjoy them. I’m not one to disobey my mother!

2011 Reading Challenge

2011 Reading Challenge
Amy has

read 28 books toward her goal of 40 books.

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114th
Jan

Books

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It was my goal in 2010 to try and read a book a week. Unfortunately I got an iPhone in June and ended up spending a lot of my travelling time playing on that instead of reading, so my total for last year was only 39. I’m going to try and hit 40 this year, let’s see how well that works out. I have a Goodreads account for those that are interested, although I’m still trying to add older books to it. It’s quite hard to remember what I’ve read over the years.

2010 Books