Last Gig You Went To?

[Monster Zero]

Shellac @ SWG3, Glasgow

Was supposed to see Motorhead but it got cancelled, hotel was non-refundable so a quick search to see what else was on uncovered this, which worked out well as I had been wanting to see them again and didn't know they were playing. Support was a lass called Helen Money, looped cello, veering between Sunn O))) sounding drone, almost Dirty Three type melancholy and drum machine driven neo-metal. With cello. Pretty cool. Shellac played a good spread of stuff, some new material from an album due to arrive at some point called "Dude, Incredible" allegedly. Hung about after, got a t shirt, ticket signed and pics with Albini and Trainer. Ace guys all round.

[Moon Moon]

its been a while 9th august uniform gig in the tunnels.

[Lemonade]

They Might Be Giants, Vicar Street, Dublin.

 

Things got off to a bad start as soon as I arrived at the venue. My girlfriend is on the short side, so when we go to gigs we normally book seats, otherwise she can't see a thing. For this one I'd booked seats on the balcony, front row, off to the side, so we should have had a pretty decent view from there. Unfortunately when I picked up my tickets at the box office, they said "Ground floor". When I asked the guy what had happened he just said "Balcony's closed" and left it at that. The ground floor seats in Vicar Street are atrocious, they're literally 3 rows of seats at ground level so when you sit in them, you're lower down than the people standing. At least I hoped we might be at the sides, but nope, the sides were closed as well. They sat us right at the back of the venue, in some of the worst seats imaginable. For the support band, Wonder Villains, who were fucking AWESOME by the way, this was my view.

 

 

Between bands, I decided to go and find somebody to have a moan at about it, so I got up and started walking up the other side of the venue, and realised the left hand side was completely empty. I walked right up to the barrier, leaned against it, nobody told me to move or asked to see my ticket, so I just stayed there. Things got better at that point as TMBG took to the stage my view was now this:

 

 

TMBG were fantastic. Musically, absolutely spot on, they played a ton of stuff off their new album, which is really good, and a good few off Flood, plus a lot of other well known stuff, Dr Worm, Mesopotamians, Istanbul Not Constantinople, You're Not The Boss Of Me etc. They were great entertainers as well, a lot of chat with the crowd, stories, messing about etc. Even a puppet show! Made the gig a lot more enjoyable. The crowd was small and very quiet, which the band themselves actually commented on, but it wasn't a bored quiet, it was a respectful quiet, people were hanging on every word and actually wanted to hear what was being said. Chatters in the crowd were routinely shushed, and remarkably I looked around several times and did not see one single camera or phone being held in the air (except mine, ever the dick). Played for a full two hours as well. Superb gig.

[Guest E.C]

They Might Be Giants, Vicar Street, Dublin.

 

 

 

 

I guess they really were giants!

[Teabags]

Iron Lung - Holy fucking wow.

[Eupraxia]

I went to see Shellac at the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh last Friday; what an astonishingly good band, who have clearly mastered satisfying and meaty tone; there was so much clarity, and the frequencies they gravitate towards are seriously smile-inducing. They played pretty much every song I wanted them to play, and the setlist was impeccably executed. Three seriously tremendous musicians who know their gear very intimately. Easily one of the best bands I have ever seen play music.

 

It reignited my interest in Steve Albini and Bob Weston, and I have been devouring archives of Albini articles and interviews since Friday, along with many of his lectures at sound engineering schools and conferences. He strikes such a chord with how I feel about being being in a band and how to go about doing things. I have felt thoroughly inspired since about ten seconds into the concert.

 

Whilst walking home from work today I had 'Spoke' on repeat, and I just had a smile on my face the whole way home, especially at 1:24 when it provides that satisfying tone they have been teasing me with until that point. What a stoater of a tune.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkzphTIBjV4

Edited November 27, 2013 by Eupraxia

[Alkaline]

I went to see Shellac at the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh last Friday; what an astonishingly good band, who have clearly mastered satisfying and meaty tone; there was so much clarity, and the frequencies they gravitate towards are seriously smile-inducing. They played pretty much every song I wanted them to play, and the setlist was impeccably executed. Three seriously tremendous musicians who know their gear very intimately. Easily one of the best bands I have ever seen play music.

 

It reignited my interest in Steve Albini and Bob Weston, and I have been devouring archives of Albini articles and interviews since Friday, along with many of his lectures at sound engineering schools and conferences. He strikes such a chord with how I feel about being being in a band and how to go about doing things. I have felt thoroughly inspired since about ten seconds into the concert.

 

Whilst walking home from work today I had 'Spoke' on repeat, and I just had a smile on my face the whole way home, especially at 1:24 when it provides that satisfying tone they have been teasing me with until that point. What a stoater of a tune.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkzphTIBjV4

 

Do you have any links to the cream of the crop of those articles?

[Eupraxia]

Sure! I failed to bookmark any of them, but here are some of the more retrievable ones, which ought to get you started:

 

http://propertyofzack.com/post/62393450427/steve-albinis-four-page-in-utero-proposal-for (Albini's response to Nirvana's approach to record In Utero)

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/td90c/i_am_steve_albini_ask_me_anything/ (a genuine ask him anything session)

http://www.markprindle.com/albini-i.htm

http://louderthanwar.com/steve-albini/

http://www1.chicagoreader.com/hitsville/pander.html

http://hardcorefornerds.tumblr.com/post/457486357/velveteenrabbit-abloodymess-slint

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/10/steve-albini-odd-future

http://www.avclub.com/article/steve-albini-integrates-the-history-of-music-fads--88812

http://www.epitonic.com/features/interviews/interview-steve-albini/

 

He also absolutely fucking slated Let It Be by The Replacements, but my cursory research has yet to uncover the review. Apparently it is pretty damning, and although I actually like that record, I am itching to see Albini's take on it.

[Eupraxia]

And the man even has a cooking blog. It's amazing!

 

http://mariobatalivoice.blogspot.co.uk/

Edited November 27, 2013 by Eupraxia

[Alkaline]

 

Sure! I failed to bookmark any of them, but here are some of the more retrievable ones, which ought to get you started:

 

http://propertyofzack.com/post/62393450427/steve-albinis-four-page-in-utero-proposal-for (Albini's response to Nirvana's approach to record In Utero)

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/td90c/i_am_steve_albini_ask_me_anything/ (a genuine ask him anything session)

http://www.markprindle.com/albini-i.htm

http://louderthanwar.com/steve-albini/

http://www1.chicagoreader.com/hitsville/pander.html

http://hardcorefornerds.tumblr.com/post/457486357/velveteenrabbit-abloodymess-slint

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/10/steve-albini-odd-future

http://www.avclub.com/article/steve-albini-integrates-the-history-of-music-fads--88812

http://www.epitonic.com/features/interviews/interview-steve-albini/

 

He also absolutely fucking slated Let It Be by The Replacements, but my cursory research has yet to uncover the review. Apparently it is pretty damning, and although I actually like that record, I am itching to see Albini's take on it.

 

 

Cheers Phil. His approach to music fascinates me.

[fertuiee]

I read a brlliant interview with Dave Grohl once, who said Albini wouldnt allow metronomes on In Utero as they were "facist" i think was his description??  .........He made him play to a Strobe light instead. Brilliant.

[scottyboy]

A couple of random jazz gigs around Soho. But before that, Gary Lucas... I noticed he was playing the Lemon Tree, not sure if anyone caught it but it was worthwhile, if a bit short and an odd format. He was here mostly to plug his book about Jeff Buckley (Lucas wrote and played a couple of the tracks on Grace, including the titular one), so he delivered a monologue recalling writing and playing with Jeff in the run up to Grace (in Lucas's mind, Buckley was going to be the new singer in the former's own band; obviously didn't quite work out that way).

 

At relevant points in the story (e.g. when he'd described writing Grace), he'd call out a guest singer (all of them female) and play a track. The opening bars of Mojo Pin were really eerie, as the singer was briefly very reminiscent of Buckley. Highlight though was the encore of 1920s-30s Shangai pop, pretty wonderful. Here's an idea (first track is the same at least):

 

 

This is what Grace originally was, although I imagine the FX and freak out section is a later addition:

 

[ca_gere]

Never heard of that fella. Quite interesting but not sure I could stomach a whole set. I do like an old storyteller guitarist. That's maybe an interesting discussion: who is as worthwhile to see for their music as for their in-between-songs stuff?

[kirsten]

Never heard of that fella. Quite interesting but not sure I could stomach a whole set. I do like an old storyteller guitarist. That's maybe an interesting discussion: who is as worthwhile to see for their music as for their in-between-songs stuff?

Jens Lekman explains a lot of his songs and the stories behind them are often pretty funny. His one about drunkenly stalking Kirsten Dunst is pretty great. Jeff Lewis too, especially when he does gigs with Peter Stampfel. It's basically, "Tell us about your 70s acid days in the studio, Peter..."

 

On topic - we won tickets to a four day festival in Utrecht, just outside of Amsterdam. My cousin stays there and it's such a lovely place, so that and the fact that Yo La Tengo, JC Satan and the Fall were playing was what made us enter the competition initially.

We saw a mixed bag of things.... Dirty Beaches, King Khan and the Shrines, The Fall, The Dodos, Linda Perhacs, Disappears, White Fence, Magnetix, JC Satan, Scout Niblett, Dump, Crystal Stilts, The Thing, METZ, Theo Verney, TRAAMS, Hanni El Khatib, Yo La Tengo.

 

The best bands were King Khan and the Shrines, Magnetix, JC Satan, TRAAMS and Yo La Tengo. I didn't enjoy Dirty Beaches or Scout Niblett.

 

What I said in my last post about wanting Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav to form a super-group with Har Mar Superstar and Damian Abraham, I would like to amend that to include King Khan. The Shrines could be the backing band. They sometimes go by the name The Supreme Genius of King Khan and His Sensational Shrines and it's totally accurate. Just the most fun. They are a ten-piece party machine with a three-man brass section that blows you away (puns!). The nine non-Khan members came onstage first in matching black shirts with silver capes on and began playing, then King Khan himself appeared with a giant wig and gold cape on. He parted the cape to reveal that he was only wearing pants. From the start, everyone was dancing and having an amazing time, but it looked like the most fun was being had onstage. At one point, the guy on keys lifted up his giant keyboard and placed it above his head before coming into the crowd, whilst dancing with it like that above him and playing a solo. King Khan came in and made sure everybody kept dancing and at various points. When the three guys on brass instruments didn't have anything to play, they took tambourines and danced into the crowd with them too. This would probably have been enough for me, but the songs were catchy as hell and I'm a sucker for a band who look like they're having the time of their lives, especially when they've been going for ages and can still enjoy playing so much. They're playing Glasgow next year and we're all going, right? Although I've genuinely no idea how they'll fit in Broadcast or wherever it is they're playing...

 

Magnetix are a French duo who make a racket whilst also looking like they're having a blast. I don't have much more to say about them but they were excellent and I'll be keeping my eye on them. JC Satan followed them and continued the noise. I love those guys so much, so so catchy and all over the place, but in a good way. TRAAMS were just enjoyable. I'm not great at write-ups but the stuff I recognised from their album that came out this year sounded especially good. Whiny, but ace. Yo La Tengo can't ever go wrong, in my opinion. Also they played Moby Octopad really early on and that made my night. They finished with a 12-minute freak-out of The Story Of Yo La Tengo where Ira threw himself around so much that I was worried he'd die. Awesome. The encore was Autumn Sweater (yaaaaas!) and they were joined by Glenn Jones and Michael Chapman for a lovely Daniel Johnston cover. Splendid.

[scottyboy]

Never heard of that fella. Quite interesting but not sure I could stomach a whole set. I do like an old storyteller guitarist. That's maybe an interesting discussion: who is as worthwhile to see for their music as for their in-between-songs stuff?

 

I also saw Mavis Staples recently, and she went on a fair bit... Her musician-svengali dad was good friends about Martin Luther King and she recalled being at the Washington march I think. Being an African-American in her 70s she's from a whole other world from the Royal Albert Hall audience, which combined with her gregarious wit and (perhaps age-related) eccentricity meant she was an interesting character to whom to listen. Even as she regaled everyone about overcoming her recent hip replacement as much as racism.

 

Gary Lucas actually has an English degree from Yale and was once upon time a rock critic (I'm pretty sure he said he was the one to originally coin the expression "the only band that matters" regards The Clash but can't confirm this with a quick Google) and I don't think the Buckley book is his first. His other best known gig was a stint as Captain Beefheart's guitarist and manager. He offered some other interesting tidbits about there being several unreleased songs recorded with Buckley and being the one to get him into South Asian music. He played the first (chronologically) unreleased song - a blues - as well as a track he (Lucas) did with a Pakistani-British singer, which alongside the familiar hits and the Chinese pop made for an eclectic set (he also played Grace as it was on the album rather than the extended version).

Edited December 2, 2013 by scottyboy

[Mr Owl PhD]

Dean Blunt, The Arches, Glasgow: This was a gig I went to at least in part because I was intrigued to see what Blunt would do.  He's been involved in making some of my favourite music of recent years, both solo and as one half of Hype Williams, but I've often wondered how that music would translate live.  I also strongly suspected that the music, however it sounded, wouldn't be presented in any sort of conventional or obvious way.  In that respect I wasn't to be disappointed. 

 

It should be said that most of the music seemed to come from a backing track, which sounded great but didn't allow for much spontaneity.  A trumpeter added some live music, which also sounded fantastic and helped to flesh out the tracks.  His new collaborator Joanne Robertson was also there, singing and playing guitar.  There was also a bloke just standing on stage, hands clasped together.  Just standing there.  Looking after stuff I guess.  Blunt himself paced around doing understated vocals.  At times the music sounded great, at times it sounded a little bit weak, but there were a number of unsettling aspects to the show that made it rather incredible. 

 

The set begin with several minutes of a recording of what sounded like heavy rain.  Then, towards the end, the lights went down to blackness, a very low pitched throbbing drone started and a white light began to flicker rapidly.  It continued for perhaps five minutes, with the startled crowd looking at one another in the flashing light.  I half expected someone to have a seizure.  After Blunt had left the stage at the end, giving a sort of 'black power salute' as he did so, Robertson continued playing the guitar with some virtuosity, eventually moving into the song 'Imperial Gold' from Blunt's 'Redeemer' album.  And that was it.  No encore, no banter, no pausing between the songs for applause.  I can easily see why people would think it was rubbish and style over substance, but the music at times was amazing and the approach to performance unique.

[scottyboy]

Bump - nearly 3 months no posts?

 

The Aristocrats at the Garage. On record their stuff hasn't really blown me away (especially as the guitarist is a favourite of mine) but it was a whole other level live. There was one bluesy, Hendrix-y piece improv in particular which was probably a whole other level of chops and taste than anyone (alive) I've heard. And a side of his playing that the youtube ninjas haven't replicated with depressing accuracy.

 

Also, at one point he was playing with one hand while doing "vocals" with a squeeky pig toy, in chorus with the bassist doing the same thing with a rubber chicken.

 

And another point where pints were bought on-stage, and the audience started yelling in Father Jack voices - "drink! feck!" - and proceeded to heckle the guitarist as he described cracking his head open after a fall ("arse!"), yet still finishing the demo ("demo!") on which he was working.

 

Awesome.

[Lemonade]

I'm really surprised this thread isn't used. We all go to gigs, right?

 

Slipknot / Korn, Dublin Three Arena.

 

The Three Arena is a cavernous soulless arena with shit sound, a bit like most arenas. I got a free ticket to this, not really a fan of either band but went along to hang out with mates and let loose a bit. Korn were on first and they were a fun nostalgia trip but also kicked fucking ass live. It's actually got me back listening to them again. Freak On A Leash bitch! Slipknot were a bit too metal for me. I didn't really enjoy their music much, my mates are big fans, we sat on the balcony and drank beers. Lots of fire and shit on the stage, but musically a bit of a racket. Great atmosphere. A really fun gig even though I didn't actually like one of the bands. 

[James Broonbreed]

Saw Min Diesel in Sleazy's last night. Really fucking superb.

[Skacel]

Alvvays @ king tuts a couple of weeks ago. Reckon they have a bright future ahead of them.

[Adam Easy Wishes]

Alvvays @ king tuts a couple of weeks ago. Reckon they have a bright future ahead of them.

 

OMG I WAS THERE TOO.

 

They were great, Molly is so cute.

[Skacel]

OMG I WAS THERE TOO.

 

They were great, Molly is so cute.

 

Aye, she is.

[Skacel]

The Decemberists @ Glesga o2 Academy. Another fine gig. Great sound and interaction with the crowd. Especially on the last song.

[Paranoid Android]

I saw Saint Vincent and Eryka Badu at the Hollywood Bowl last night, definitely one of my favourite shows ever. Only disappointment was that Badu didn't play longer. I was really surprised by how much of a show Saint Vincent put on. Her saving definitely shows signs of having spent a lot of time with David Byrne.

I also saw Allie X the night before and I'm going to Miguel on Wednesday.

[robkevertson]

Not been to a gig in over a year, saw Neil young and crazy horse at Hyde park. Scared to go to.another one because it could never be as good as that last one lol