Tag Archives: gigs

Speaking of gigging

The unfeasibly lordly and betimes oft-mentioned…

I’m sorry, I appear to have fallen down a linguistic hole of some kind. I’ll start again.

You’ve all heard me go on about Flipron from time to time, or possibly more often than that. Well, good news! They’re playing in London, not once, but twice this month – The Notting Hill Arts Club on the 12th of March (which I can’t make), and The Watershed in Wimbledon on the 16th, (which I can and will). I endorse this product and/or service, and recommend you go to see them. They will sing you songs about old people, two-headed dogs and sentient cars, with a sense of end-of-the-pier menace that you will enjoy.

In less concrete news: The even more fantastically fucking marvellous Jason Webley will be playing in Guildford on the 30th of March, although I don’t know where exactly yet. I know it’s out of town and a weeknight, but if you can possibly drag yourself there (it’s not hard to get there from the centre of town, anyway), then I really, really recommend you go. I will, and if you go, and do not enjoy it, I will personally refund your entry fee. If you like mentalist cabaret, Tom Waits, Firewater, The Dresden Dolls, drinking songs, pirates of any kind or are really just alive in any meaningful way, then I think you will like his show.

“Don’t Need No Freaky-Deaky Fractal Geometry”

You know what’s sexy? Confident people having fun.

I mention this because I am back from the Alabama 3, and this description applies to the band, the dancing girls on stage, and the crowd of people I was dancing with in the audience.

It was a very good gig. Country and Gospel music for a chemical generation, this is the cleverest dance music I know. If the KLF have successors, the Alabama 3 are very much it[1], only they’ve gone one better. The KLF were just very clever. A3, on the other hand, put a bit of soul and passion into what they do, and it pays off all the better for it.

I was idly thinking about another music type that sounds like it’s basically a weld of late 80s/early 90s dance and another genre (goth) – EBM (and I’m sure a few people are about to leap on me for that generalisation, but I don’t really care) and how the A3’s brand of music really shows that lot up as a bit basically joyless. Something to come back to another time, perhaps. The important thing is that D. Wayne and Larry and their friends preached a very fine gospel tonight, and I for one am quite prepared to shut down my chakras and shift Shiva offa my shelf. Yes indeed.

[1] And I note the most of the serious KLF fans I know are also A3 fans…

Gig warnings:

I’m not seeing Nick Cave this week, so to cheer myself up, I have been buying tickets:

autosmile, alexdecampi, papamoomin: Tickets are booked for Flogging Molly at the Astoria on the 2nd of November. I’m pretty sure you all said “yes, sort me out with a ticket”, didn’t you? Turns out it’s some kind of big tour thing with a bunch of other bands – headline are a bunch of scandinavian pop-punks that sound like they’ll be a laugh.

I’ve also booked myself a ticket for The Alabama 3, also at the Astoria, on the 11th of October. Anyone who was thinking about going last time, but didn’t get around to it: you should come this time, because the live show is cracking.

And, so’s I don’t forget, I’ve also got Garbage at the Hammersmith Apollo on the 17th of October.

Now all I have to do is wangle photography passes to any/all of the above. Wish me luck. :)

I’m sure I had something to say a minute ago…

But I’ve forgotten why I opened the bloody LJ client, now.

Ah, yes, that was it. Anyone want a ticket to go see Nick Cave at Alexandra Palance on the 25th of August? It was pointed out to me tonight that I’m not going to be in London, since I’m off to a family wedding in Belfast instead. So, 25 quid to you. I would prefer to meet up and do a proper exchange, if humanly possible, rather than arsing around with cheques and posting things, because I’m a complete shambles at anything involving envelopes and stamps.

Last Train To Mashville

Shane MacGowan was “stuck in Dublin Airport” last night, so The Popes did not perform. This was, well, a bit rubbish, but still, they were only the support act for the Alabama 3.

The Alabama 3, in case you’ve been living under a rock, play “sweet, pretty, country acid house music”. A dance/country/rock fusion, I guess. (If you watch the Sopranos, then it’s them that did the theme tune.) They are, like any band worth the bother, even better live. I don’t know if they extended their planned set list to make up for The Pope’s absence, but it was an excellent set – all the big singles, and several storming numbers off the new album.

It wasn’t all perfect – the sound quality was a bit iffy, especially for a couple of the mics, not helped by the fact that joint-lead vocalist D. Wayne Love was clearly extremely the worse for something. I ran into an old mate on the way there, who’s been to see them many, many times before, and according to him, the guy was as wrecked as he’s ever seen him, but still, they did an excellent set. The amount of energy in their performance was impressive – I don’t think lead singer Larry Love ever stopped moving, and the various guest vocalists/musicians were clearly out to match him. And when you’ve got four vocalists, two guitar/bass players, a drummer, a percussionist, a digeridoo player, and a man with a harmonica all on stage, giving it their all, that’s some pretty impressive stuff right there.

I am, however, getting fucked off with venues that don’t allow “professional” cameras in. I don’t own a professional camera, just a very good consumer one, but I’m not allowed to bring it into gigs at Carling venues, it seems, because the door monkeys can’t tell the difference between it and a pro camera, and will not take my word for that fact that it isn’t one, which leaves me stuck with the Ixus, which isn’t up to the job.

Anyone out there ever tried to get permission to take a half-decent camera in to gigs in advance?

(Oh, and I got hit with a flyer for the Nouvelle Vague, playing the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the 11th of July. My ticket is duly booked. Anyone else interested in some bossa nova/jazz covers of old New Wave stuff?)

Pretty Like Drugs

And madder than a particualrly lunatic crop of badgers.

Queen Adreena were storming. I might attempt a proprer review tomorrow. electricana watchers will almost certainly get a few photos from the gig over the next few days. Short version: rockier than a very lumpy rock garden, and sexier than the second coming of an extraordinarily sexy messiah.

I think I may have sprained the bit of my brain that does the metaphors.

Home again.

Menlo Park: good. Sound quality: rubbish, so it was a bit of a let down. Support act were a cross between Frankie Goes To Hollywood and The Streets (I quite liked it). I may write it up properly tomorrow. (It’s not Sunday until I’ve gone to bed.)

Stopped in at Slimes for an hour or two on my way home, but wound up remaining entirely sober, in a shocking break with tradition, and opted for an early nightbus after a couple of hours dancing. It’s a sufficiently nice morning that I hopped off the bus in Balham, and walked home from there, just to enjoy the dawn. I’m such a fucking hippy.

Zzzzz….

Unwind

Mmmm, endorphins. Hurrah for healthy exercise.

I appear to have tomorrow night free. I’m sure I was supposed to be doing something, but I can’t remember what.

Menlo Park gig Saturday night. Who actually got tickets in the end? Does anyone fancy meeting up somewhere for a quiet drink beforehand, since it’s on late?