This page is a running tally of all the concerts I've been to - half to inform you as to who's great, mediocre, or shitty live, and half to remind me where I've been (you know how the mind starts to go...). So enjoy!
This might well be the ultimate double bill of the year - Nebraska's The Faint (Omaha??) and NYC's Radio 4. They've been touring the UK for the past month or so as double headliners, swapping positions each night and bringing fans of both into complete hysterics over the "headline" spot for that night.
Tonight was Radio 4's chance to end the night, but first we had to endure Parva (but I must admit, as terrible as they are, at least they'd improved from the last time I'd seen them).
The Faint came on next, starting with the creepy slow builder, "The Conductor", gradually bringing up the synths until the evil was practically dripping from the ceiling. They played most of Danse Macabre and a handful of songs off Blank-Wave Arcade, and had the crowd in a state of frenzied dansing (sic) from minute one. Every single band I'd loved in my teen years came back blended with all my current electro favourites in the form of The Faint on stage - Primal Scream, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, bits of Fischerspooner, and generally everything dirty and evil you shouldn't like but just lurrrrve anyway. Complete highlights were "Glass Danse", "Worked Up So Sexual", "Agenda Suicide", and the fists-in-the-air "Your Retro Career Melted".
I haven't been this excited about a gig in MONTHS, and I haven't bought a cd at a gig in YEARS (I picked up their second album, Blank-Wave Arcade). So I was in complete post-coital bliss when Radio 4 came on.
If they'd been playing on their own on any other night, I would've hailed them as new saviours. But as that title was already taken for the night and my mind just kept wanting to hear more Faint at every opening note, so, shamefully, the whole performance passed me by. I recognized nearly all the songs as being from Gotham!, but they just didn't grab me the way their predecessors had. And to be honest, I'm not sure anyone could've.
Summary:
The Faint - in a year where I hadn't seen Fischerspooner, it'd be gig of the year. trembling hands down.
Radio 4 - admirable performance with a fantastic bassist.
By the time this final night of the festival hit, my liver was definitely screaming for mercy. Soooooo, with a pint in hand, I walked in to see Capitol K, and was heartily impressed, but also shocked to hear they'd been dropped from their label. Fun electronic - meets acoustic guitars full band setup, with perty customised iBooks. Alec Empire then made all us ladies drool with his bronze bodypaint and perfect physique. I couldn't stomach his rock set, but this electronic set was a bit more bearable, if not entirely enjoyable. Richard H Kirk ended the night with some trademark squiggles and bops, but didn't provide much eye activity beyond the low-tech video screens... This was the Electro Night of the PlayLouder @ the ICA Festival
Trash Radio night started with guitars and ended up with wigs, pimpsuits, and lipstick. Fitting, really. klang contain Donna Elastica, and for that, they had a following of their own, even though it's only their fourth gig. Great rhythm section, and a few standout tracks. My Computer ended up being my favourite performance of the entire festival - just absolute magic. Max Tundra and his sister have a joy that you or I will never fully achieve, despite the infectious desire to congo-line around the stage. And Crack Village, well, they packed the bar and kept it heaving until they chucked us out. This was the Trash Radio Night of the PlayLouder @ the ICA Festival
This was a secret warehouse gig organised by a friend of a friend, and ended up being quite the experience. Having come directly (via an hour-long search for a minicab willing to take 5 drunk people at 1am across London) from the Playlouder @ the ICA festival, we were already chock full of bands and booze, which made blagging our way in and up to the front as easy as possible. BRMC played loud and fast in the short concrete box, with no stage but plenty of enthusiasm and reverb. At points it was hard to tell if the noise was coming from the amps or the crowd. As underground as you can get for a London gig with Brixton-sized headliners...
I think I was least excited about this night, but hell, even the ones I didn't think I'd like was hardly a loser... Jarcrew were absolutely fanastic (except for their vocals, which needed t stop with the screeching), and reminded me of Tool from around 1992, which is clearly a good thing. Techno Animal were a brutal assault on "my freakin ears", which resulted in my retrieval of many pints from the bar. With red lighting, more fog than I've ever seen, and constant strobe lights, Ian put it best when he said "Isn't this how the Bible describes Hell?" :) And Alec Empire, well, I'd already seen him open for Nine Inch Nails and I knew I couldn't stomach his set, but I did walk in for 2 moinutes in an attempt to give him another chance... Let's just hope his electro set on Saturday is more to my tastes. This was Rock Night at the PlayLouder @ the ICA festival
This was Pitman's first-ever performance, and the entire place was mad with excitement for the rapping miner. No disappointment, either, since he came dressed in full mining gear with a torch hat, coal dust, flask of tea, and biscuits! His sharp wit, no holds-barred dissing, and irreverant style all gained force feeding off the crowd, and it was a fantastic thing to behold. Blak Twang followed with a slightly smaller yet more hardcore fanbase, and continued to prove why they're the best MCs in Britain. This was the Hip Hop Night at the PlayLouder @ the ICA festival.
All three were the best I'd ever seen them! The Beatings were so at ease on stage, really making the proper rock star attitude to accompany their already brilliantly rough live sound. I was able to fully enjoy Ikara Colt this time around (after the sauna that was the 100 Club last time I'd seen them), and The EMBLD played like rock gods stuck in a dememented fairy-tale land - complete with Santa suit... This was, of course, 'No Name' Night at the PlayLouder @ the ICA festival.