Sigur Ros

Friday, November 7, 2008 ~ 3 comments so far

Just home from the Sigur Ros gig at the Carling Academy. Not quite sure what to make of it to be honest but let’s get one thing out of the road first.

I left early.

I have never, ever, ever, left a gig early before.

So I’m trying to figure out if that means that it wasn’t a great gig, or whether it just wasn’t the right gig for me.

When I bought the ticket for the gig I spent sometime listening back through the Sigur Ros albums I have, enjoying the subtle tones and instrumentation, the changes of volume and pace, and realised that this could be a very special gig. The emotional range of the music is quite broad and due to the nature of the language used is entirely open to interpretation so whilst I couldn’t quite picture how they’d convey the rich textures and tones of their music, it’s fair to say I was quite excited.

However, somewhere in the maelstro of sound that was swirling round the Carling Academy tonight, something got lost and, as yet another barrage of noise hit me I decided to leave.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad gig, far from it. When they got it right the music soared and swayed the hearts of the room, but if I’m honest those moments were too frequently lost amongst the next wave of distorted feedback. It’s a shame really, cos this should’ve been a wonderful gig.

I’m not discounting the fact that it might’ve been me, that perhaps I wasn’t in the right mood, or perhaps I’m not as big a fan of Sigur Ros as I thought. Certainly everyone else seemed to be having a good time.

Maybe next time.

Aimee Mann

Monday, October 27, 2008 ~ 1 comment so far

It was my first visit to the Old Fruitmarket venue in Glasgow last night, to listen to ‘that woman who had several songs on the soundtrack of Magnolia’, Aimee Mann.

I can’t quite remember how I discovered her, but it was only recently that I purchased her previous album Bachelor No.2 and, quite liking it, I soon found I was a bit late to this party. She won’t tick the boxes for everyone and if I’m honest I’m surprised I like her enough to go and see her live.

Still, she has a way with lyrics that I like and a knack similar to Guy Garvey for capturing gorgeous imagery even if she is overly preoccupied with the freaks and failures of life. She does have a great ear for a tune and last night she picked several songs from her new album which does feel a little more upbeat than previous offerings.

The Old Fruitmarket is a small venue so the night had a nicely intimate feel to it, although it probably helped that I was four rows from the front. Aimee has a nice laidback on-stage persona which lends itself to a low key gig that felt well paced and never rushed. I admit I was expecting things to be a little ‘rockier’ than they were but it was far from a disappointment.

Halfway through the main set, she asked for requests and considering how they stumbled through “Dear John” (it took a member of the audience to remind her of the opening line) it was certainly a genuine performance. Supported by a very slick band it was a surprise when they reached the end of their main set, time flies and all that.

Back out for four songs, all requests and then off to politely raucous applause (everyone stayed seated), it was an intimate if somewhat removed show. Highlights included the requested singing of one of my favourite songs, 4th of July, and a solo acoustic version Red Vines which was mesmerising and hauntingly gorgeous.

Elbow - Carling Academy

Monday, October 20, 2008 ~ 2 comments so far

Last night I stood in a crowd of people, rapt and in awe of a band that, frankly, can’t get much better (although I’m sure they’ll prove me wrong).

I’m not going to write a review per se as SwissToni has already done an excellent job, but I did just want to capture some thoughts about last night.

1. It’s the subtle things that make you realise this is a slick outfit, well seasoned. Guy Garvey comes on stage wearing a jacket. As the first song starts up he takes it off and lays it down. At the end of the evening, as the last song winds up he puts it back on. End of show.

2. As others have touched on, part of the charm of the band isn’t just the lush melodies, or heart wrenchingly beautiful lyrics, instead you are drawn into the gig by a frontman that feeds off of what he sees before him. He reacts to gestures and shouts, and whilst he will have a set of stock questions there is never the feel that he is reading from a script. He is as much there as we are, all joined in the same glorious moment.

3. And what moments. I realised last night what it is that has just a pronounced impact on me when seeing Elbow live, it’s that I’m rarely ever so THERE, so in the moment to the total exclusion of everything else around me. I’ve never experienced that at other gigs, always finding myself realising my feet are sore, or that I’m thirsty or ‘did I lock the car?’.

But not last night. Tears trickled down during the sadder songs, and during Mirrorball you could’ve stripped the place of the rest of the audience and I don’t think I would’ve noticed, so complete was my attention on that moment.

Amazing, brilliant, wonderful. So many words yet I find myself struggling to put my thoughts into words. So I’ll steal some from SwissToni:

very few bands can convey such a broad emotional palate so effectively. They deserve to be cherished.

Seriously, go read his review he captures most of my thoughts perfectly.

A few final notes.

Acknowledging the fact the band will be back for an encore, Guy Garvey challenged us to sing “We Are Sailing” and if we did they’d come back out. I’m not sure if there was anyone in the hall that WASN’T belting it out at the top of their voice and I’m certain the big grins on the faces of the band members were genuine (even if they were of the ‘what a bunch of fabulous nutters’ type).

And lastly, during Mirrorball, Guy broke into a small smile whilst pointing right at a couple that were embracing, lost in their own thoughts. I hope that little smile was at least a small payback for him for providing us with a wonderful, wonderful night.

The weekend that was

Monday, June 30, 2008 ~ 2 comments so far

Friday was damp. Friday was wet. Friday was a pretty fucking good day mainly because a band called Radiohead was playing at Glasgow Green and, whilst it there was a light drizzle for most of the evening I really didn’t care. I was just happy to be there and listen to them blast their way through most of my favourites; 2+2=5, There There, Everything In Its Right Place, Paranoid Android, Just(!), Fake Plastic Trees, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, and more.

As usual there were several knobs who did their best to spoil it but it didn’t work. Why do these people go to gigs? Regardless a good time was had by all, even if by the end of the second encore we were all kind of huddled together and beginning to feel a little sorry for ourselves.

Still, that was only part one of the evening, part two was a joint leaving night for my boss and our receptionist, both of which will be missed. Having joined the throngs of people leaving Glasgow Green, we all managed to cram onto the Underground for a quick spin round to The Loft in the west end of Glasgow. The first beer was a good one, and was soon followed by another and a couple of G&Ts. Then it was onto Boho for a wee boogie and then my lovely wife picked me up at 2.30 in the morning…

… which was mainly because on Saturday we were back out to spend the day socialising with friends and family in a late birthday celebration for Louise. We kicked off at 2pm, cocktails were involved and it was only the addition of a rather nice steak that stopped me being completely dead on Sunday. As it was we got home around 3am, quite glad we had no plans for the next day.

I won’t mention that my mother phoned and woke us up… it was 11am after all.

Sunday was spent dozing and munching, sofa-bound for the day, watching crap movies (hello Enemy Within and Jumper) and enjoying Spain’s win over Germany.

And this morning? This morning I ache, with all that standing around on Friday finally kicking in. I feel like I’ve been set on a rack and stretched by some infernal torture device or something, twisted and contorted in ways for which my body was not built. All that from standing about in the rain.. time marches on, eh…

Elbow

Monday, April 14, 2008 ~ 4 comments so far

I really don’t know why I didn’t do this last week, and since a few other bloggers have since been to see them, and they share my view that this is very much a band to see live, I feel chagrined into writing up my thoughts about the Elbow gig I attended a couple of weeks ago at the ABC in Glasgow.

Elbow are one of those bands that kind of snuck up on me, I remember hearing some of their second album, including Fugitive Motel, nicked from someone at work and thinking they were OK. Next time I saw them was on TV when they were at Glastonbury a couple of years back, around the time their third album came out… and it was this appearance that prompted me to buy that album.

I’ll happily admit that after the first few lessons I put it to one side but quality refuses to be lost and it was soon back in rotation. The more I listened to it to the more I got from it, and the more I realised that this was a band that could soar along on some glorious melodies and that lyrically they were tantalisingly brilliant. A few choice lines here and there (”and coming home I feel like I, designed these buildings I walked by”) seemed to spark off my surroundings as I used them to buffer my daily commute.

I revisited their second album and found it deeper than I thought, and then ‘discovered’ their first album (I’d been under the presumption that Cast of Thousands was their first album!) and shortly after that they released their current album (which is number 4, do keep up). Then I heard they were touring.

I’ve made public statements that I will not be revisiting the SECC so, frankly, it doesn’t take much to tempt me to a gig elsewhere (which essentially means King Tuts, ABC, Carling Academy or the Barrowlands), so Elbow ticked the list when I heard they were playing at the ABC (a converted cinema).

Not entirely sure what to expect what I witnessed was a stunning gig, which switched easily from rocking tracks, to gloriously heartfelt lump-in-the-throat ballads, interspersed with some witty banter to keep the crowd going and even singing the bass guitarist happy birthday (which I fear is part of the ’show’!). A few stand out moments include being able to hear the lead singer over the amplified voice from where I was near the back of the hall (might’ve been The Stops? not sure which track), and the confession that the track Mirrorball (on the new album) was actually named “The ABC Glasgow Mirrorball” after the “biggest fuckin Mirrorball I’ve ever seen” which is about 20ft in diameter and hangs from the ceiling in the ABC… “but don’t worry, that’s just between us, everyone else will think it’s just called Mirrorball… but we’ll know the truth!”.

So, a great gig from an excellent band, with a talented yet self-effacing frontman, delivering some well-honed tracks. Can’t ask for much more than that really, can you.

Portishead

Sunday, April 13, 2008 ~ 7 comments so far

After a fairly epic night out on Friday (why do I drink vodka shots when I don’t really like vodka…?), I was a little fuzzy round the edges on Saturday. I was also completely knackered having spent most of my week facilitating meetings, which is far more tiring than both it sounds and that I expected.

Frankly the thought of driving through to Edinburgh to stand in a crowd for a few hours wouldn’t have been my choice except for one reason. It was to hear Portishead, remember them? Two albums (three if you count the live one) and then.. nothing. Those two albums are part of my staple choice, my backup when I get bored and want something comfortable to listen to, music that I tend to have on in the background when I’m at home.

So when I heard (via a Twitter from Paul) that they were touring again I snapped up a ticket within the hour. The anticipation of seeing Portishead live, hearing THAT voice live started and I remember thinking that I needed not to let myself get too carried away, that it might not live up to the expectation I was setting in my head.

I was wrong. They were amazing.

It was one of those gigs that will forever change the way I listen to their music, it was one of those gigs that had moments when the entire place was silenced and in genuine awe of what they were hearing and watching, it was one of those gigs that you talk about with reverence in years to come.

It’s also one of those gigs that I’m struggling to capture with words. The way it veered from a ferocious assault to a genuinely heartfelt, lump in the throat moment, outlined their ability to deliver something much more than their album tracks. The way the atmosphere shifted through the gig, and how such a slight woman can hold a room of thousands in her hand and she rips emotions from within, delivering them with a snarl or a smile.

I’m wary that every gig is a good one, and that I take few risks when choosing which concerts I go to see, but I really wasn’t sure what to expect last night. I’ve held off writing this post to try and distant myself a little but I think I’ll stand by the Twitter message I frantically typed out, with slightly shaking hands, as I tumbled out of the venue. It may not be eloquent but it encapsulates my emotions at the time, and my feelings about the gig that still linger.

Pretty fuckin awesome.

Arcade Fire

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 ~ 2 comments so far

“Leave your jacket in the car” they said. And so, that is how you find the author, standing underneath the flashing neon facade which slowly cycles through the word Barrowland, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. He is cold.

When his friends finally turn up, replete with jumpers and jackets, the buggers, they troop in and head upstairs. Before they reach the main ‘ballroom’ music starts pulsing through the building. The support act, Patrick Wolf, is on stage. As we head out into the gathered crowd we catch glimpses of the man himself, and after a brief discussion we agree that, whilst the gold sequinned leggings are NOT a good look they do at least match his eye makeup.

The author pauses at this point and decides, fuck it, and returns to his normal writing style.

So yes, Patrick Wolf was pretty good and went down well. Not a huge surprise really, his stuff is pretty catchy and most of the audience probably have his albums as he sits alongside (underneath?) Arcade Fire in the musical genre tree.

Now, at this point I’ll pause and confess that I’ve only listened to the new Arcade Fire album a couple of times and have yet to be fully won over. This seems to be the pattern though as it took me some months to fully appreciate their first album. However, as their new album was only released a matter of days before the gig last night, well it didn’t leave me much time to ‘fall in love’ with Neon Bible.

That said, the band are a fairly awesome site on stage. With most of the 10 members chopping and changing instruments in a, frankly, insulting manner. How dare they be so talented!

And it was on stage that the new album was really sold to me. It may be a production issue, but to me the album sounds awfully flat, not so live. Pounding drums set most songs to a frantic pace, and provided the heartbeat of the gig. However, it was when they headed to their first album that things really got going, with some rousing performances of Power Out, and Tunnels soon transforming the audience into one huge singing, yelling, clapping and bouncing mass. My friends and I weren’t even that near the front but still got swept along as the songs crashed over us.

Arcade Fire are a very accomplished band but unfortunately were let down a little last night. The PA wasn’t that well balanced which reduced some songs to little more than a noise and a beat, and whilst the energy the band expel is palpable, they lack a true frontman or anyone who will grab the crowd, involve them, and haul them along for the ride. At times it did seem a bit like it was ‘another performance’, which I guess is understandable.

That makes it sound like it was a bad gig, it most certainly wasn’t.

The music lends itself mass participation, and the closing song (Wake Up) includes a crowd friendly chant during which the lead singer gave up trying to wrestle with his microphone and dove headlong into the audience. It’s possible that it was simply an act of frustration, or perhaps, just maybe, he thought it would help cement the gig in the hearts of the fans.

He needn’t have bothered, we were already lost in the moment with him.