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 was my big birthday celebration at Nag Nag Nag, and Knife handchop were conveniently enough, playing that night. So everyone was dancing to the usual fantastic-ness of Electroclash and other filth... and then it was suddenly pounding beatz and noize! Which was good and a bit of an intermission from the usualness, but I did see a few pounding fists in the air. Which was not good.
First let me say that I went to see Liberty X, and Mariah Carey was added later as a "special guest" (and boy was she "special"! read on...). Liberty X came on and did fantastic dance moves with loads of props, really seemed to get on well together, and played all their big singles, including the new remix with Richard X.
Mariah Carey was, umm, certainly different. Iain and I were joking about all her diva stroppiness in the extra hour before she came on (ie: hour late) - and then it all came true... She was brought through the crowd on a litter (a litter!!), held up by about 20-25 gorgeous, ripped, and oiled nubile young men (wearing only speedo boxer-briefs). Who then posed for her whole performance, alternating between various muscle-men poses every other beat. She was pretty crap at singing, and she didn't even know how to treat the few fans in the crowd: some brought her flowers and she took them, sniffed them, then threw them back at the crowd saying "Right back atcha!" (but then at the very end, her handler came out with THE BIGGEST BOUQUET EVER which she graciously accepted). Oh, but in between songs, she was clucking around in her tight dress and high heels and she actually said "Does my butt look big in this? How about my hair - is my hair okay?". Unbelievable. she needs a mirror permanently attached to her hand.
And, umm, that was my saturday night. and liberty x blew her offstage.
This was the first Singles Club show for the year and also the first in the new venue at The Barfly. Completely sold out (and thus, rammed with elbows), and for a good reason - all three bands were great, and very different to each other. Black Car contained ex-members of Headswim, but (breathe a sigh of relief) sound nothing like them. The Barbs were a fun and (s)punky guy-girl group with fluffy fun jabs without falling into the black hole that is the genre PopPunk. and aerogramme, well, they've taken a turn recently to sound more akin to labelmates The delgados rather than labelmates Mogwai, and tonight's gig was a mix of the two sounds, which was intoxicating, even without the prescence of the barstaff.
You can download free mp3s of all 3 bands from HERE.
This wasn't a full HC extravaganza, mind you - it was a special press-only acoustic session from Joel in a tiny venue the size of my sitting room. Joel completely charmed the crowd, myself included - he played everything I wanted him to, and his voice was just amazing, and yes.... he made really weird facial expressions throughout the whole thing, and overall, looked like the foster-raised lovechild of Jarvis Cocker and Erlend Oye! And when he went to leave a someone shouted for "Golden Streams", well, he got right back up again and played it for us (though it didn't work when we tried the same trick with "Ban Marriage" after that!). Now I really can't wait for the full band performances in May & June...
They were actually opening for Dirty Vegas, but I made a point to leave just after the Kahunas finished. It was more than a bit surreal to see them in a huge venue like the Astoria when only a few months before, I'd seen theirfirst EVAR gig. Whereas then they were very rough but absolutely bursting with enthusiasm, this time they were more polished, but absolutely bored. And I think I'd take spirit over mechanics any day.