It’s been a busy week for gigs for me! Not only did I go to The Prodigy at Milton Keynes Bowl over the weekend, I saw Klaxons and Ok Go on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Klaxons, Village Underground – 27/07/10
Klaxons were playing the intimate venue of Village Underground in Shoreditch to test out material from their forthcoming album ‘Surfing The Void’. By the time they took to the stage (after a curious punk support act called Flats) the room was packed with eager fans. Klaxons launched straight away into a frenetic rendition of new song Flashover, which set the pace for the evening. The crowd instantly turned into a sweaty mass of dancing bodies and were cheering and screaming loudly inbetween each song, which seemed to please the band as they kept thanking everyone profusely. The set consisted of a good mix of old and new, with fan favourites ‘Magick’ and ‘Golden Skans’ flowing seamlessly into the new sounds of ‘Valley Of The Calm Trees’ and ‘Twin Flames’. They saved the best for last with a rousing encore of the thundering title track from ‘Surfing The Void’ and closed on ‘Atlantis To Interzone’, which ensured that not a single pair of feet in the room were static.
Overall it was a fantastic return to form, although while the new material sounds heavier and more mature, it’s still very much in the tried and tested Klaxons style. I can’t help but wonder what was on the album they uncermoniously dumped last summer.
See the rest of the photos and a setlist here
Ok Go, Electric Ballroom – 28/07/10
Ok Go were playing the Electric Ballroom as continued promotion for their current album ‘Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky’. I have reviewed them previously for GigJunkie, but this time I was just there as a fan, and I still came away totally enamoured. A lot of people would think of them as a bit of a gimmicky band, what with their low-budget viral videos and penchant for confetti and furry laser-covered guitars, but they pull it off with such a great enthusiasm that it’s hard to not enjoy it. It was pretty much the same set I saw before, with a large amount of the songs taken from the new album and a smattering of old fan favourites, but it was still a joy to watch. ‘This Too Shall Pass’ got a great reception due to the fantastic video that has been doing the rounds on youtube with the crowd helping Damian out on vocal duties, while ‘Last Leaf’ saw him head out into the crowd with his acoustic guitar.
I highly recommend that everyone sees Ok Go at some point in their life, or at least go and check out their Youtube channel for now.