117th
Apr

On Monday was my second of three gigs in a row, Carl Barat at Koko. Now I’ve written reviews of two of his gigs fairly recently so I won’t go into much detail, but it was possibly the best of the three. I went straight after work again and found myself right near the front of the queue, and when inside I managed to get on the barrier (and save a spot for my mum). This meant we had an awesome view and minimal crushing which is always nice! The setlist was actually slightly different for a change, and the biggest surprise was Didz Hammond coming on to sing for the Dirty Pretty Things tracks. It was a highly enjoyable night and as long as Carl keeps playing gigs, I’ll keep going to them.
 
The Magus
Run With The Boys
The Man Who Would Be King
Carve My Name
She’s Something
Deadwood
Shadows Fall
Je Regrette
What Have I Done
Death Fires Burn At Night
Death On The Stairs
Bang Bang, You’re Dead
——————–
Nine Lives
The Ballad of Grimaldi
Sing For My Supper
So Long My Lover
Truth Begins
Don’t Look Back Into The Sun
 
Tuesday night was my last gig in a while, Micachu and the Shapes performing Chopped & Screwed with the London Sinfonietta Orchestra. I’ve gotten so used to the time printed on tickets being the door opening time that I showed up just after 7:30pm to find the performance had already started. (This has happened before at various comedy shows too, although it meant we were noticed by Ross Noble as we slunk to our front row seats and got talked to all night and received a round of applause) I quickly took a spare seat at the back and let myself enjoy the performance.
 
The band and orchestra together recreated the entirety of the recent release ‘Chopped & Screwed’ with additional interludes to make it slightly longer and flow seamlessly. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as their previous release had been a joyful, experimental clash of pop and electronica, but this was vastly different. It was a lot mellower and a heck of a lot more experimental, with not a catchy hook in sight as Mica’s voice echoed out across the hall. I did enjoy watching and taking it all in, although I’m not sure if it’s something I would listen to on record. The loveliest moment was when the orchestra put down their instruments and played a plain 3 chord backing to a flute piece using glass bottles filled with water. It was beautiful in its simple execution and very inspiring to watch. The band also made great use of home-made and unique instruments, something that has become a bit of a trademark for them. There was a brief interval where I slipped down to my actual seat near the front, and the whole thing was over by 9:15pm. It felt quite strange to get home from a gig before half ten!

1123rd
Mar

I’ve been a bit sad over the last couple of weeks at the lack of gigs on my calendar. It’s quite difficult to go out with my friends during the week due to location and work problems, so a nice gig every now and then helps to break up the monotony. Unfortunately my last one was a month ago at the NME awards and my next isn’t until the 28th March.

I suddenly seem to have a rush of them at the end of March and beginning of April now though! Me and my mum decided to go and see Carl Barat again at Koko on the 4th April, and now today I bought a ticket for the Japan Tsunami benefit gig on the 3rd April, featuring Beady Eye, The Coral, Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Graham Coxon and Richard Ashcroft. I’m not a big fan of Beady Eye but the other acts look brilliant. The ticket was a bit pricey at £40, but it’s all for charity and I got two jewellery orders come in afterwards so I don’t feel so bad.

Now my gig calendar for the next two weeks looks like:

28/03 – Patrick Wolf, Koko
31/03 – The Kills, Heaven
03/04 – Japan Tsunami Benefit, Brixton Academy
04/04 – Carl Barat, Koko
05/04 – Micachu and the Shapes, Southbank Centre

You wait ages for a good gig, then five come along at once! I’ve also realised that I’ve missed out on tickets for Battles at the ICA on the 20th April, which I imagine sold out super quick. Efestivals has them pegged as a strong rumour for Glastonbury so I’m hoping I can catch them there. They are one of the rare bands that are on my ‘Need to see live (and have never seen before)’ list.

1122nd
Feb

So much for a months leave; I had an interview last week for a position in London and started yesterday. I’ll have to get used to waking up at a normal time again.

The new acrylic has been received and it looks fantastic! There are a few pieces that can’t go up yet as I’m still waiting on other colours, but the blue ones and restocked yellow should be in the shop by the weekend.

This weekend I was kept busy with two gigs, the NME Awards tour at Brixton Academy on Saturday and Carl Barat at the 100 Club on Sunday.

The NME Awards tour is usually an opportunity for the NME to show off their latest indie favourites, so it was quite a surprise to see Magentic Man and Crystal Castles heading the lineup. Not your usual generic NME fare. I am not a fan at all of the other two bands, The Vaccines and Everything Everything, so I showed up late in the hope of missing them. No such luck with Everything Everything as I had to put up with most of their squawking, vacuous set. I moved forward before Magnetic Man to get a decent spot and instantly found myself surrounded by chav-esque youngsters. This did not bode well. My predictions were correct as Magnetic Man turned out to be an awful dubstep DJ ensemble. I just don’t get everyone’s fascination with dubstep; maybe I’m just getting old. They seemed to be quite well known as they got a massive response from the crowd and then about half the venue buggered off once they had ended. Their loss for missing out on an epic Crystal Castles set.

A roadie came out just before the band hit the stage to let us know that Alice Glass had a broken ankle, and although the doctor told her to cancel the tour, she said fuck that. This was met with a loud cheer as the band followed, their singer limping on with her foot in plaster and a crutch in one hand. It was a frenetic, riotous set that was not in any way hampered by Alice’s injury, as she threw herself around the stage as usual and even clambered into the crowd towards the end. I was worried that Crystal Castle’s sound would seem out of place in the large venue (as had happened when they supported The Cure at the O2 Arena) but the bass was apparently turned up to 11 and each beat vibrated through the crowd as if we were in an intimate club. It was a fun, if fairly short, setlist and they ended the main section on their massive hit ‘Not In Love’, with a two-song encore following to appease the ravenous audience.

Fainting Spells
Baptism
Courtship Dating
Doe Deer
Crimewave
Suffocation
Alice Practice
Black Panther
Celestica
Empathy
Reckless
Not In Love
——————
Intimate
Yes No

The Carl Barat gig was another NME awards show (as seems to be the case with most of my February gigs) and it was originally scheduled to be at the Shepherds Bush Empire. For various reasons the whole of Carl’s UK tour was either cancelled or rescheduled, with this gig being moved to the 100 Club on the same day. Our best guess was that the gig didn’t sell enough tickets, so they moved to a smaller venue, although we were pleased with this turn of events as the 100 Club is a lot more intimate. The support acts were rehashed from the previous tour so we were familiar with quite a few of their songs already. By the time Carl and his band came onstage, the tiny room was packed to the back and we were crushed against the stage barely inches from the famous frontman.

The setlist was pretty much the same as the last time I saw him but it was bolstered by the fact that we were a lot more familiar with his solo album by now. There were Dirty Pretty Things and Libertines tracks scattered throughout, which of course got the biggest reactions, and we also got treated to an impromptu rendition of ‘What A Waster’ as requested by an audience member. As he ended on ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ the room went insane and bounced around so much that even my mum was encouraged to join in.

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
What Have I Done
Up The Bracket
Death Fires Burn At Night
What A Waster
Death On The Stairs
Bang Bang You’re Dead
——————————-
9 Lives
The Ballad Of Grimaldi
France
The Fall
Don’t Look Back Into The Sun

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
—————————-
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.

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!