115th
Nov

Last night I went to see Patrick Wolf at the Roundhouse, and it was a lovely evening for a number of reasons. Firstly, I had somehow won a meet and greet for before the show, so I eschewed the queue in order to huddle with a small group of people by the entrance to be let in early and meet the man himself. It was a bit of a strange setup with Patrick standing over by the merch stand, and the rest of us stood in a nervous bunch while we waited to go up one by one. I got my ‘The City’ vinyl signed and had a quick photo before I skipped out of the venue and back into the queue. I’m not great with meeting my idols so I kept the chat to a minimum, which suited me fine really! When I got back outside, I discovered that an old friend was also there for the gig and so I joined her and we spent the evening catching up.

The gig itself was the usual audio treat I have come to expect, with a nicely varied setlist and a wonderful backing band, but the stage setup was also a nice surprise. They had made use of the large Roundhouse space with a giant hand-drawn backdrop and some eclectic props scattered amongst the varied instruments. Add in Patrick’s penchant for over the top outfits and it really was quite the spectacle! I also got quite close to the front so I have some decent compact photos for once. I think this was a very grand, fitting gig to end the Lupercalia tour, although I’m certain that I won’t have to wait long before the next Patrick Wolf gig.

Setlist:

Armistice
Time Of My Life
Time of Year
The Bluebell / Bluebells
Pigeon Song
House
The Gypsy King
The Bachelor
Tristan
Accident & Emergency
Godrevy Point
The Days
Get Lost
The Future
The Falcons
Together
——————-
Bermondsey Street
The Magic Position
The City


(I like how much he had to bend down next to me!)

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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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