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
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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

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1115th
Feb

So yesterday was Valentines day, as most of you will know, and I was actually busy for once. I went out for dinner with my wife (hetero life partner) and after consuming some delicious steak and a jug of long island iced tea we went to the cinema to see Paul. For some reason my expectations had been pretty low (probably a combination of no Edgar Wright and it being set in America) so I was pleased to find it was hilarious. When we got back I had to quickly finalise designs for blue and yellow acrylic sheets, and then we spent the rest of the evening drinking and watching Dude, Where’s My Car?.

Look out for the new blue designs in the next few days, there’s some really great ones which I predict will go quickly.

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1112th
Feb

I did this last year and it’s pretty amusing to see how not much has changed.

Glasses, book, fineliner pen, purse, iphone, mirror, lush lipbalm, Lomo fisheye 2 camera, oyster card holder, mini notepad, gloves/mittens, sennheiser earphones
(My umbrella and keys are missing because they are downstairs by the door)

Benefit Hello Flawless powder, MAC Studio Sculpt concealer NC15, Benefit Browzings kit, Benefit Dandelion blush, MAC Knight Divine eyeshadow, MAC Blacktrack Fluidline eyeliner, Urban Decay Primer Potion (taken out of the stupid bottle), MAC 239 brush, MAC 217 brush, MAC 210 brush, MAC 266 brush, MAC Softwash Grey pigment, MAC Silver Fog pigment, MAC Milan Mode lipstick
(This is only my general everyday makeup. As you can tell, I like MAC!)

And this is where my most-used makeup is stored. I used to have it all in a makeup bag but I could never find anything, so I got this small shelving unit from an office supplier. I have compartments dedicated to eyeliners, eyeshadows, pigments and lipsticks.

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1111th
Feb

There have been gigs and other shenanigans this week, but firstly I have my most exciting piece of news this year.

Death From Above 1979 have reformed, are playing a gig at the HMV Forum, and I have a ticket.

Because I am incredibly slow I only actually got into DFA1979 last year. After hearing a few tracks I went straight out and bought their album and the remixes disk, downloaded the EPs, and then proceeded to listen to them non-stop for two months. It was like someone had plugged into my brain and got exactly the kind of music I would make if I were actually musically inclined. I resigned myself to the fact I would never see them live as when they split it wasn’t very amicable, and their side projects were doing quite well. Now that has all changed! Hurrah!

On Sunday I went to Colchester Uni with some friends to watch the Superbowl. Note to self: Never watch the Superbowl again. I had figured a night of drinking with a large crowd would be fun, but it really wasn’t. The football was boring, the half time show was awful and I lost my Canon S90. I don’t think I can afford a new one at the moment (the S95 is £300) so I’ll have to stick with my Lomo Fisheye for a while.

I started watching Glee on Tuesday because I was terribly bored, and because I have a recent obsession with Jonathan Groff. I didn’t want to watch his episodes out of context so I decided to watch the whole thing, and I find myself now having watched the entire first season plus everything of the second season that has aired. It’s pretty addictive, I can tell you that. I could do without all the crap cover songs but the rest of it is pretty interesting and funny. Although let us not speak of the awful Heads Will Roll mashup. No-one touches my precious Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Last night I went to see White Lies at the Shepherds Bush Empire with my mum and stepdad. How cool, I know, but it means I get some free drinks along the way. As is typical with the more trendy indie bands, the crowd didn’t really start to fill out until the band were basically on stage, so we bagged ourselves some awesome spots right at the front. I quite enjoyed the first support act, First Child (avant-garde chillwave) whereas my mum preferred the second, Crocodiles (lo-fi newave). White Lies were pretty good. They’ve always performed well whenever I’ve seen them, but it wasn’t anything to get excited about. I haven’t listened much to their new album yet but it seems in the same vein as before, although slightly more 80s tinged. The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves at any rate, as they were singing along to everything despite the album having only been out for a few weeks.

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115th
Feb

Heartbreaker

Posted in gigs | life - (0 Comments)

After years and years of wanting to go, I have found myself with a 4 day pass for the 2011 San Diego Comic Con! Unfortunately I don’t know if I can go yet, as a quick scan for flight prices came back with £700 for a return from London. Plus I imagine hotels will be pricey and I will need some spending money. I’ll have to budget over the next few months and see if maybe the prices go down a bit. It will be quite easy to sell the ticket if I can’t go. But it’s a possibility which is still exciting! Maybe when the panels and booths start getting confirmed I can decide if it’s worth it or not.

There was a gig this week, and it was Metronomy at Heaven for the NME Awards. I first discovered Metronomy when they supported CSS at Bristol Academy in 2007. They were a kooky band with interesting electronic music and poundland nightlights stuck to their chests, and I was instantly intrigued. It wasn’t until late 2008 when their second album was released (‘Nights Out’, much easier to find than their limited first release) that I started to listen to them properly, and since then I have made the effort to see them whenever they are at one of my festivals.

The support acts were by far the worst I have seen in a long time and seemed so ill-fitted to Metronomy’s music (I blame the NME). There was the Cocknbullkid, who made music that sounded a bit like Florence and the Machine crossed with a soul singer, and then there was Giggs who was a bland rapper with some dj beats in the background. Yawn yawn yawn. Luckily the venue packed out by the time Metronomy hit the stage and they showed us a good time. There was quite a lot of material from their upcoming album ‘The English Riviera’ and it seemed quite mature in comparison to their earlier work. Still very nice and danceable, but I think they have lost some of their quirkiness from before. I did enjoy the new single though ‘She Wants’ and they blasted out some favourites in the form of ‘Heartbreaker’ and ‘Radio Ladio’. All in all it was a very enjoyable night, if I block out everything that happened before Metronomy, and I even managed to convert my friend to their awesomeness.

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