Spring & Airbrake (Thursday 26^th November 2009)

Ash are one of those bands that never live short of delivering a confident and energetic performance, this record was not be broken as they flew back for their homecoming gig at their favourite Belfast venue, ‘The Spring & Airbrake’.

From euphoric melodies uniquely formed in their somewhat controversial ‘A-Z Series’ to the teenage simplicity of the likes of ‘Petrol’ and ‘A Life Less Ordinary’  the Downpatrick trio created an almost fulfilled atmosphere in their last date of their UK Tour with support from local act ‘Panama Kings’ who emerged to be far from a generic.

The mature ‘Ash’, composed of Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray boasted a thrilling set thriving on the crowds constant clapping and singing, even to new singles ‘True Love 1980’, ‘Arcadia’, ‘Joy Kicks Darkness’ and ‘Tracers’ .

The weaving of buoyancy between hard riffs that proved striking allowed the crowd to embrace the critically acclaimed live performers with a passionate reaction making most of the lengthy set memorable, even for those who had one too many. What made this spectacular gig – well spectacular was how Ash engaged their audience pulling them through resurrected classic punk hits to popish chart toppers to the colossal guitar screeching anthems.

Lady and the Lost Boys Nov 28,  The Old Fire Station, Windsor

Playing music from the Berkshire school of damp labradors, green wellies, moist Edinburgh woollens and  ‘Mummy Knows Best ’ attitudes, this band played a short but sweet set at the Firestation Arts Centre, Windsor on Sat 28t November.

The smallish crowd sat in patient lines, cross-legged on the wooden floor, humble like children in the school end-of-term concert.

Lady and the Lost Boys are a female lead five-piece band with chunky bass guitar, tantalizing percussion, emotive keyboards and a multi-talented muso who bounces between guitar, keys and even supplemental percussion, providing layers of texture as each song unfolds.

The introspective topics of the songs are based upon personal experiences and transparent memories – coming largely from a female perspective. Sipping a coffee in the breaks, petite dark haired vocalist Annabel Jones sings the Legoland, Camberwick Green, Technicolor songs from the Lady and the Lost Boys song-book.  Her delivery reminds me of ‘Alanis Morissette’ and to a lesser extent,  ‘Elizabeth Fraser’ (not so ethereal) and her voice is airy, high register and distinct enough to cut above the harmonic texture of music. Some of the songs ended with melodramatic yet creative ‘shoe-gaze’ blended sounds – others ended on a hand-clap or a jingle.

A few pared down guitar riffs are well hidden and tend to illuminate rather than detract from the amorphous sounds and add drama and insistence when required. The experience is fascinating and calming reminding me a lot of ‘Alison’s Halo’.

One of my favourites was the bass heavy (bass by Robin Pearson) song ‘That’s OK’. This is a song rippling with action, combining integrated piano tinkling and rat-a-tat percussion with honey sweet lyrical content delivered in a breathy, whisper-in-your ear style. The clappy and trilling chorus was nod-headingly joyful and the extraordinarily well-behaved and obviously well educated audience showed their appreciation with understated murmuring claps. Gently unfolding lyrics such as  “How many gold coins should I put aside before I’m out of debt in your eyes . . . “ demonstrate the band’s ambitions as poetic quality shoegazers.

This is a band for a damp autumn evening by the open-fire, or to listen to on your Ipod as you take your golden retriever for a walk down the leaf-fall winter lanes.  Thoroughly recommended.

© Neil_Mach

Link:

www.myspace.com/ladyandthelostboys

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There are a lot of great shows going on New Years Eve, so be sure  to check out what’s going on and mark your calendar accordingly.

Wednesday, Dec. 2

Bela Fleck @ the Classic Center

Derek Trucks Band, Col. Bruce Hampton @ the Variety Playhouse

Thursday, Dec. 3

Derek Trucks Band, Tinsley Ellis @ the Variety Playhouse

Saturday, Dec. 5

Pride Parade, Gold Standard, Swamp Ape @ Club 529

Raekwon, Capone & Noreaga @ the Masquerade

Monday. Dec. 7

Pelican @ The Earl

Wednesday, Dec. 9

EOTO, Bluetech, Eskimo @ New Earth Music Hall

Thursday, Dec. 10

Whores, Grids, Burden of Vision @ 529 ($3 show)

All the Saints, Crystal Antlers @ the Earl

Friday, Dec. 11

Baroness, Torche, Pig Destroyer and Iron Age @ the Masquerade

Athens Face-Off part 6 @ the 40 Watt

Saturday, Dec. 12

HAPPENSTANCE @ The Earl

Odist @ Highland Inn Ballroom

Saturday, Dec. 19

The Jungol, Stokeswood, The Zou @ Drunken Unicorn

Monday, Dec. 28

Fox Trotsky (final show) @ 529

Thursday, Dec. 31

Black Lips, Missing Monuments, King Louie One Man Band @ The Earl

Yonrico Scott Band, Laura Reed @ the 5 Spot

Perpetual Groove @ the Variety Playhouse

Gringo Star, the Coathangers, the Judies @ the Star Bar

Dubconscious, Telepath @ New Earth Music Hall

“Ah, The Troxy, we meet at last”.

After two aborted attempts to get to London’s newest swish venue, The Troxy, in the past two weeks – missing The Flaming Lips due to a prior engagement (hey, Kate!), and Monsters Of Folk due to illness – it was nice wandering down Commercial Road to see Frightened Rabbit there. Well, when I say nice, I mean it was nice not getting mugged. Let’s just say the Troxy is a salubrious venue in an insalubrious part of town. The barstaff are nice, if somewhat disorganised, and the vast team of people working in cloakroom seem cheery enough.

I was at the Troxy to watch Frightened Rabbit support Gomez, seeing as I’d managed to miss them at The Lexington earlier in the month¹. Now, I’ve only known about Frightened Rabbit for about a month or so when I was sent a link for the video to their new single, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”. To say I was gobsmacked is not even the half of it. I’ve played that bloody song 43 times according to my iTunes, and their last album “Midnight Organ Fight” has been played rather a lot in the past couple of weeks.

Since recording that album, they’ve expanded to a five-piece, and they shambled onto the stage and launched right into “The Modern Leper”. The audience was bigger than you’d normally expect for a support act, and they were treated to Scott’s impassioned yelling of the final chorus (“Well, are you a masochist, to love a modern leper, on his last leg?”), joined by his brother Grant on drums who was happily yelling away too. The band then tumbled through “Old Old Fashioned”, with Grant again going, frankly, a bit mad. The reception was positive, if somewhat muted.

But if the crowd weren’t quite sure about the Rabbit after the two opening tracks, they should have had their minds made up by “Good Arms vs Bad Arms”. It’s a great song on the album and it’s even better live, with the rest of the band providing lovely backing vocals to Scott’s entreaties to his ex to “Keep her naked flesh under your favourite dress”. That song got the hairs on my arm standing to attention, I can tell you.

During “Fast Blood”, Grant’s attitude veered between frantic and laconic, which is quite a trick if you can manage it. There’s a lovely thick richness to their sound, with various band members swapping guitars, keyboards, odd pedal things and a lone bass. Not sure the sound guy was quite up to it, though, as the sound sometimes descended into swampiness².

Then came “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”. As Scott introduced it, there were more than a few cheers from the audience, which got him looking up at the crowd, astonished. Slower than on record, it’s still best song you’ll hear all year. There’s a gorgeous Calendonian melancholy to it that perversely lifts the soul. 43 times in my case.

The last pair of songs – “My Backwards Walk” and “Keep Yourself Warm” – show the band’s darker lyrical side. Now, when I first posted about FR, I said that they were much lighter in tone than their compatriots The Twilight Sad, which prompted a comment from a lovely chap called Drew pointing out that their lyrics were somewhat darker than I’d realised. And indeed, he is quite, quite right. For example, “My Backwards Walk” starts off with Scott talking about how he keeps returning to a woman he shouldn’t return to, including the great line “These trousers seem to love your floor”. The song then ends on a far darker note of the repeated line “You’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it”. I wonder what the massed hordes of Gomez fans thought about that one?

Even better, the last song has the great, bitter, twisted line “It takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep yourself warm”. Oh, and then “I’m drunk, and you’re probably on pills, if we’ve both got the same diseases, it’s irrelevant, girl”. Charming words for sure, and part of the reason why they are such a cracking band. They say things that your brain might conjure up in dark, desperate moments, and chuck them on top of songs filled with tunes and hooks. It’s a combination many bands grasp at and by and large fail, but Frightened Rabbit succeed with aplomb. What’s better, they can do it live too.

When leaving the stage they got a huge cheer, and hopefully won over a fresh set of new fans. On collecting my bag, the cloakroom staff (and someone in the queue) asked why I was leaving. I told them I’d only come to see the support act, had to rush home to babysit parent³, and then gushed over-verbosely for a couple of minutes. One guy said “That’s quite a testament to how good they are, I’ll check them out”. Mate, do it. There aren’t many better bands in the UK right now.

Catch them on tour now round the UK, supporting Gomez (on some nights) and Modest Mouse (on others). One day, with any luck, they’ll be bigger than both of them. And if “Swim” is anything to go by, new album ‘The Winter Of Mixed Drinks’ (out next March) will be a real treat.

MP3: Swim Until You Can’t See Land by Frightened Rabbit

MP3: Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms by Frightened Rabbit

¹ Even though it may seem that way, I’m not totally and utterly disorganised or anything. Honest.
² Which, curiously enough, my friend S mentioned about the Monsters of Folk gig. Though she put it more along the lines of “I was going to punch the soundman because he was shit”.
³ A shame, because I wanted to see Gomez again. I love their singer, and the quote I once heard of “Somewhere, in the Mississippi basin, there’s a grizzled old blues guy who sings like Morrissey”.

Buy “Midnight Organ Fight” (CD/MP3)

Sunday Night at the London Palladium

Sunday November 15, 2009

My first gig at this famous London Theatre since Kate Bush in 1979. Though I might have seen a family musical about a big flying car at this venue a few years back. Moving swiftly on.

In fact, parallels could be drawn between both these shows and Patrick Wolf’s performance. Fair enough, there were no child-catchers or flying cars in the Wolf show, but the performance really had a feel of musical theatre, with plenty of costume changes, glitter and atmospheric lighting.

I think Kate Bush is certainly an influence on Patrick’s music, particularly in some of the arrangements. Kate made good use of the large stage back in 1979, and so did Patrick in 2009. The first three-quarters of the show was remarkably restrained and intimate, with Patrick’s vocals really given the chance to breathe.

Highlights of the first half of the set included two of my favourite Wolf songs, Wind In The Wires & the haunting Bluebells.

“Deep in this dream
I let the calmness keep spinning”

Thickets from 2009’s The Bachelor made full use of the accompanying musicians, expanded on the night to to include a choir and string section.

“Just a little further up the hill boy
you’ll be home soon enough”

And then came the promised guest appearance. Marc Almond was unable to perform due to illness, and Patrick kind of gave the identity of the guest away on his Myspace blog “I’m sure my amazing duettist will raise it up! If you know what I mean.” So it was no surprise to see Florence Welch (without her Machine) duetting with Patrick on The Bachelor.

German techno uber-lord Alec Empire brought his box of many synths and trailing wires onto the stage for Battle & Hard Times. The latter song saw the whole crowd rise to their feet, where they remained for the majority of the evening.

The lush, string-driven forthcoming single Damaris was surely made to be performed in an ornate venue such as the London Palladium. The delicate The Sun Is Often Out was dedicated to two departed friends, and the show ended on a real high-note, with the decadent electro-pulse of Vulture, featuring Wolf spinning under a glitter-ball, adorned in sequins and looking like he had stepped straight out of Velvet Goldmine.

A clearly emotional Wolf kept referring to this show as being the best he had ever performed, and how he found it hard to believe that he was headlining the venue after being turned away from the Palladium 10 years ago, where as a teenager, he had had hoped to review a Bjork show.

The was a real air of celebration at this gig, and a feeling that Patrick Wolf is shifting up a gear. If finances permit, I’m sure Patrick will want to use strings again in a live setting, as it brought a real depth to the live show. Heres to 2010, a new album and more shows of this quality.

“The Boy is doing fine”

Set-list

Divine Intervention / Overture / Wolfsong / Wind In the Wires
Oblivion / Paris / Thesus / Who Will / The Shadowsea / Bluebells
Pigeon Song / Thickets / The Bachelor / Epilogue / Count Of Casualty
Battle / Hard Times / Libertine / Damaris / Tristan / Eulogy
Magic Position / The Sun Is Often Out / Vulture

All pictures on this page © Ravenblakh

To see the full set of Ravenblakh’s pictures of
Patrick Wolf at  London Palladium please visit Flickr

Patrick Wolf CD’s on Amazon UK
The Bachelor
The Magic Position
Wind in the Wires
Lycanthropy

Fresh from touring the UK supporting Scottish trio Biffy Clyro, quickly followed by two headline shows in Germany, Atlanta band Manchester Orchestra return to the capital for their second London headline show since officially releasing their second full length album ‘Mean Everything To Nothing’ in April this year .

It has been a solid couple of years for Manchester Orchestra; racking up an ever growing fan base, pleasing the critics and touring relentlessly throughout the US, Australia and the UK with the likes of Brand New and Kings of Leon. Due to this growing success they are being handed more and more opportunities to headline larger venues, this is pretty evident at the Heaven show.

The band give a musically flawless performance and appear to be totally in their comfort zone, unfortunately the same cannot be said about the crowd. A mixed array of die hard fans, avid listeners and complete new comers are scattered around the venue in a sea of confusion. It’s safe to say Manchester Orchestra are on the the hot list for up and coming ‘indie rock’ bands of 2009, yet when the first song and the last three songs of the set consist of front man Andy Hull alone on stage twanging his guitar and singing songs from Manchester Orchestra and his side project Right Away, Great Captain! completely solo, sadly a high percentage of the audience appear bored and vent this boredom by talking relentlessly throughout. Aside from this, the main bulk of the 13 song set shows the band doing what they do best; crashing out impressively big and raw sounding songs, with the likes of ‘Shake It Out’ and ‘Pride’ from their second album, and even updating some older fan favourites such as ‘Where Have You Been?’ to coincide with the bands obvious evolution onto a new and larger sound.

The approximate 1 hour and 20 minute set the band performed would have been more than enjoyable to their loyal followers, but I feel avid listeners and new comers would have come away slightly confused as to whether they should describe the evening as face meltingly massive when talking about the bands perfromance as a whole, or calm and subdued when thinking about Andy Hull’s solo tear jerkers. This eratic shift from loud to quiet is something Manchester Orchestra fans have grown to love about the band and is undoubtedly fixed in the backbone of their song writing and live performance. New listeners that night have the choice to love it or hate it but should know one thing; talking through it is really annoying. 4/5

SETLIST:

Unknown (RAGC! Song)
Pride
Shake It Out
I’ve Got Friends
My Friend Marcus
Wolves At Night
I Can Barely Breathe
Where Have You Been?
Everything To Nothing
The River
The Only One (Acoustic)
Unknown (RAGC! Song)
Sleeper 1972

Mute Math (L to R: Greg Hill, Paul Meany, Darren King, Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas)

On Friday night, Mute Math performed their last show on the Armistice Tour at The Nokia Theatre Times Square. I cannot divulge too much information, all of the juicy details must be saved for my AQ review. What I must say, is that they continue to become better, more inspirational, and more inventive, in leaps and bounds. I’ll leave you with a short and vague pro/con list. As you will see, the con list is very short. I’ll post my photos and my review when they are done.

PROS
• Front man Paul Meany did a fantastic Sting impression – whether or not he meant to, will remain a mystery.
• Bassist Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas played a stand-up bass with pure perfection.
• Drummer Darren King – as I was aware he would – crowd surved via standing on one of his drums, then leaned back, and let go.
• Guitarist Greg Hill’s melody is still unwavering and gorgeous.
• Their ability to jam, rearrange songs, and play them completely unlike their recording is something I will NEVER tire of hearing and watching. They do it unlike any other band I have ever seen and have definitely trademarked their style.

CONS
• It felt like there were 200 other photographers in the pit with me, and there was not much room to move. I hate it when that happens.
• So many of the lights on stage were pointed AT us, and not down on the band. That can sometimes make for not-so-great photos.
• The band played my favorite song as of late, “Armistice,” the title track off their current album – but without the horns. You have no idea how upset I was.

http://www.myspace.com/mutemath
http://www.mutemath.com

xoxo
Olivia

Live Review by QuitterDan

Fast forward to August this year, I get a text from my friend that Devo is coming & wants to know if I want to see them. I say yep, because I’d never had the pleasure of seeing them live yet. When I hear that they will be performing the entire “Are We Not Men?” LP at this show, I nearly ended up in a ditch 25 miles east of Ellensburg.

The Show opener was REGGIE WATTS, performing solo with a loop effects machine, and some pretty witty banter between tunes. Entertaining to say the least. Devo opened the show with the film that launched their career “The Truth About De-Evolution”, and segued into the first album in its entirety, “Are We Not Men?” My first impression was how much older they looked! But with the incredible Josh Freese on Drums, they were rejuvenated, with plenty of Pep & left of center on-stage antics, all the while jerking back n forth to the opening track “Uncontrollable Urge”. Singer Mark Mothersbaugh stumbled around, dazedly, ripping everyone’s yellow jumpsuits, running through the crowd, providing robotic blank stares & changing uniforms. These were all a part of Devo’s master plan, all while the first album continued in its glory. “Satisfaction”, “Gut Feeling/ Slap your Mammy” & “Come Back Jonee” all set highlights.

At the conclusion of the LP, the band left the stage briefly, returning for 2 encores “Smart patrol/ Mr. DNA” & “Gates of Steel”. When the house lights came up after a brisk 1 hour set, the mood was part confusing and part satisfying, but everyone got what they came to see.

Devo.

image by Lorenzo Marvulli

Local bands Rocket In Your Pocket, Red Rash Rosie and newcomers Beaks of Eagles, pathed the way for passing-through art-punk duo, Violet Violet on Wednesday night at Bristol’s gig-a-night venue, The Louisiana.  In the midst of their “The City if Full of Beasts” album promo tour, the girls are no strangers to these parts and drew an impressive mid-week crowd out of hiding.  Opening with the lyrical spelling test, V.u.l.t.u.r.e.s., after a much needed scream and smash around the kit, at no point during the ensuing set do these two retreat into themselves for quiet and introspective contemplation.  Their approach is brash and unrestrained and their objective is outspokenly reached. 

Violet Violet are two luscious ladies from Norwich, Cherie (guitar, effects and vocals), whose stature and piercing eyes compliment her theatrical facial expressions and are comparable to that and those of Nicole Kidman, and Fliss (drums and vocals), whose lovely face we seldom see behind dark, swirling hair, which adds to the drama of her own performance.  Their combined flare, prowess and dominance are an impressive trio of virtues and there’s no warm up or messing about with equipment.  Their set is tight, rehearsed and, for just two people, explosively captivating.  They don’t sing about boring politics or rubbish feelings; they sing about animals and sambucca.  And seriously, who’s to stop them?  Someone needs to cover these important niche details in life.  Riffs and rhythms are weaved together with simple and catchy lyrics and while they may not rehearse scales, rudiments and harmonies as a ritualistic form of daily worship, their mathy uniquness gives them something over such formulaic convention, fit for any alternative crowd.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; come back and visit soon, ladies!

Going to a concert whilst wearing a suit is an interesting experience, especially after previously being at a do at the Polish Embassy (yes, really). Ignoring the puzzled glances from my fellow gig-goers at the Shepherds Bush Empire, I settled into the capacity crowd, sadly not at the front. What, you think I’m going to get creases in these trousers?

Mew, in case you didn’t already know, are one of the most adventurous rock bands around these days. Their songs blend heartstoppingly brilliant bits with slightly more tedious bits. Their best songs blend heartstoppingly brilliant bits with even more brilliant bits. If you get bored at any point, you are safe in the knowledge that in a minute or so they will change the tempo and the key, and probably everything else they can think of. Sometimes their songs go from strange to utterly fantastic gradually, so you are suddenly aware that a tune that had only moments earlier made no sense whatsoever had become akin to the music played at the gates of heaven.

Having seen them live before, I kind of knew what to expect, so my main concern was whether their new material would stand up to the live treatment. And my other main concern was, do they still have the freaky videos?

To which the answers were yes, and oh sweet Mary mother of Jesus, stop it with the mouths.

Kicking off with “Intro/Reprise”, they soon kick into gear with “Hawaii”. What shocks you immediately is their ability to translate their hugely complex songs into a live performance. Jonas’s voice is a truly wondrous thing; crystal clear and pitch perfect. And they are loud. Properly, knee-shakingly, chest-tremblingly loud, almost up there with The Twilight Sad. Which is good, as I don’t have to listen to the people behind me wittering on. About halfway through, the screens behind the band suddenly flash to life, showing men dancing around with deer’s skulls. It’s really quite odd. And up go the hairs on my arms for the first of about fifty times.

Scary Dancing Things!

Next up comes a sequence of songs that a less talented band would have broken up and scattered throughout the show, but Mew have such utter confidence in the strength of their material that they can joyfully play four of their best songs in a row without worrying about keeping folks interested. Those songs are, of course, the New Order-esque “Special”, “The Zookeeper’s Boy”, “Am I Wry? No” and “156″.

“Special” kicks off with a down and dirty guitar riff, far rougher than on record, and during the song everyone starts clapping. You can’t beat a bit of audience participation. “The Zookeeper’s Boy” is played with a backdrop of dolls, with toy animal heads with human mouths, singing along. It’s really quite, quite disturbing. And odd. The song ends with four of the band singing counterpoint¹, and it’s really quite, quite astonishing. I was at this point standing there with my mouth hanging open. I can only hope there wasn’t any dribble coming out.

Then the opening riff to “Am I Wry? No” starts, and the place goes, as they say, mental. Now, this being the first song of theirs I ever heard, it’s got that special place in my heart, and I love it when a band can translate everything you love about the song on record into an even better live version. I had to stop myself singing along (not that this would have mattered, frankly). And “156″ is stripped down – yes, Mew can strip songs down, believe it or not – until about half way through when the guitars come in and tear through the ominous quiet of the first half.

Scary Children!

After that, songs came thick and fast, and unfortunately I don’t have an accurate set list (despite those marvellous people at the Mew Forum). “Introducing Palace Players” has such a bizarre, discordant riff that it makes me wonder how the guitarist introduced it to the rest of the band at a practice. “Hey, Jonas, it’ll sound much better when you start yodelling over the top, honest”. I would dearly love to walk past a guitar shop and hear some spotty teenage axe hound trying to play it. Maybe that’s why this lot aren’t selling out the O2 like Muse – whilst the latter also make hugely complex, ornate music, you can still just about knock out one of their riffs. This lot? No hope. Still, I’d much rather be here than at the O2.

There was even an exceedingly odd moment with a talking bear thing. I really have no idea what the hell was going on – see if you can make sense of it yourself.

So, on went the wonderful songs, and the bonkers videos. Wolves, lampreys, more dolls with animal heads, and the guitarist dancing around with a mask on was a real eye-opener. “Silas The Magic Car” was a gratefully recieved quieter moment, and I was struck by just how great this lot sound singing together. Take that, Fleet Foxes! “Repeaterbeater” swooshed by like a train filled with mutant guitarists. The icy ferocity of “Snow Brigade” shook us to the core, and then the band left the stage. But we all know what was to come next; well, at least those of us who’d seen them before.

A Cat! Playing A Violin!

On came Bo Madsen to play the “Comforting Sounds”, and Jonas sauntered on just in time to start singing. Then, as his singing reached the climax, the rest of the band came on, and anyone in the venue who had even the slightest doubt about Mew being absolute masters at this lark had those doubts thrown into the skip outside. The starfield behind the band suddenly changed to more animals, but this time they were actually cute little things, all playing violins. Look, a teddy with little round glasses! A bunny with a twitchy nose! A strange corpse skull thing! I was struck by the thought that this is possibly the best gig-ending song I’ve ever experienced.

All I have to say about Mew is this. They should go on tour with someone properly, massively huge, like U2, or Coldplay, or the aforementioned Muse, as they would blow the headline act totally and utterly out of the water. Whilst I wish huge success on all the bands I love, I really wouldn’t want to see Twilight Sad or Tindersticks or whoever play Wembley Arena or the O2. But Mew could just fill a place like that with a song like “Comforting Sounds”. And whilst their music is complicated and sometimes bizarre, so are Muse, and I know who I’d much rather go and see. Please go and see them for yourself and find out what I’m on about and why I have written this huge article. You won’t regret a second. Except the bits with the mouths. Stop it with the mouths, will you?

MP3: Silas The Magic Car by Mew

MP3: Comforting Sounds by Mew

MP3: The Zookeeper’s Boy by Mew

¹ At least I think that’s what it’s called. They all sing different bits, not like a round. Oh, you know what I mean.

Buy “Frengers” (CD)

Buy “And the Glass Handed Kites” (CD)

Buy “No More Stories” (CD)

Note: All photos courtesy of kind people posting them on Flickr.

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It’s half six in the evening on a fateful, drab Friday night as damp as Louis Walsh’s sinking optimism at a lonely hearts club and queues spew at every possible angle from the jarred mouth of the Empire. Jackie McKeown of inconsequential Scot lo-fi trowels 1990s once stated that it’s their cult status that keeps them alive and whilst they may have dropped off the radar into further obscurity, tonight sparks the starting gun of a whistle-stop UK tour for ‘queer’ siblings and darling queens of the LGBT musical corner, Tegan and Sara. As streams of fresh-faced bi-curious pilgrims stream past the condescendingly chauvinistic tendencies of the neighbouring Walkabout, backpacks in tow, itching to tack onto the end of the now-cobra like hoard snaking past the stage door, a bizarre, somewhat unnerving ambience settles in. Gazing out over the enamoured congregation in the belly of the venue, it’s at least 89% female. Heterosexual males, perhaps the predominant gig-goers (and prime detractors) are most certainly merely subordinate accessories to a veneration not seen since The Beatles. And Twilight.

Scuffling on to Mama Cass’ Dream a Little Dream Of Me, a saccharine-sweet calm erupts into a harrowing shower of shrieks bellowed as from above as below, before the duo launch into the vocal swoons of The Con and pandemonium ensues. And continues. Until the final chord’s struck. Dotted throughout in its entirety is latest record, Sainthood, lacing an absolutely vast setlist to varying effect; the glitchy 80s-tinged Someday blows holes in beating hearts whilst the frantic urgency of Northshore devastates to desperate effect in the rapturous wake of the obsessed. The wily wines of The Cure are splendiferous in the hallowed setting of the Empire and the futuristic funk of Alligator is far more enticing than the kangaroo curries rustled up next door. Elsewhere however, the emo hooks and bland thrills of Hell translate to little more than an off-cut of a One Tree Hill soundtrack and the static road to nowhere that is Red Belt bores. Tonight, Tegan is unquestionably the ringleader, grabbing the reins on sumptuous set-closer Call It Off in the most gut-wrenching moment of a part-sublime, part-monotonous Friday the 13th. However, feigning nerves and translating it into hideously awkward not-so-sweet nothings at every possible opportunity, any endearing allure evaporates as jokes reverting to the vague sexual innuendo that is Shepherds Bush fly, of course only permitted from the mouths of Sapphic lovers, before going on to discuss excremental patterns whilst on tour. And the saccharine sheen vanishes. Whilst their extensive back catalogue is well and truly ignited live, The Ocean washes wondrously over the front few rows and Living Room explodes into a kaleidoscopic creation composed of slippery sliding guitars and chimerical stomps, the numbers still don’t quite compute with Tegan and Sara, as much as 2,000 devoted, backpacking pilgrims may have hoped they might whilst sat in school waiting for the final bells to ring just hours ago.

Live Review by SRG

You’d think after having written a descent amount about Brothers of the Sonic Cloth recently it would cause a drought of ideas. Normally I would say this to be the case, but having the opportunity to see Tad Doyle’s Brothers of the Sonic Cloth for a second time in just over a month was everything this heavy music fan could ask for from a Friday evening. It was especially great to see the band upgraded to a bigger venue than normal as well as playing for a very enthusiastic, and much deserved larger audience.

On a side note: When Tad plays, his face says it all– the proud as hell ‘I play music heavier than a Mack truck and am detaching your ear drums’ look always brings a smile to my face.

According to the superb fansite Mudhoney: Tourbook, this was the longest Mudhoney show to date not only by length which hit the 2 hour mark, but also by shear amount of songs played, which reached 27! I don’t know what was in the air last Friday, and I don’t know what had gotten into the normally stagnant Seattle concert crowd but the show pure magic. The strong bond between Mark, Steve, Dan and Guy and this city is something that is amazing to partake and awesome to behold.

Mudhoney’s setlist:

It’s no secret how much Wonderful Noise adores the Wonderful Andrew Bird. He’s probably one of the most innovative and exciting performers out there at the moment and it’s almost impossible to get over the thrill of seeing him create full-blown melodic miasmas all by himself, armed with only a looping pedal, violin, guitar and glock (and you can trust me on this – I think I’ve seen him 8 or 9 times now and the novelty is yet to wear off). His London gigs are now regularly selling-out, and his two-night stint this week at the lovely Union Chapel was no exception. Full details after the JUMP!

The Chapel was an ideal location for a performer whose audience often watches in a reverential hush – so much so that on Tuesday Bird confessed that he was unnerved by the lack of heckling. The room’s acoustics, which wrapped sound around the audience much like a rather sophisicated surround-sound system, complimented his multi-layered compositions exceptionally well and made sure that anyone watching was as fully immersed in the music as they could possibly be without climbing inside Bird’s violin.

By all rights Andrew Bird should be insane, or at the least intolerably arrogant, as a result of his total genius, but not only does he come across as neither of these things, he could even de described as rather bumbling. Dressed once more like Oliver as he tripped out of stage he frequently botched the beginning of songs and twice even completely forgot his lyrics during the seldom-performed MX Missiles - but instead of casting a pall over his performance, these idiosyncracies seem to only make the audience love him more and present him as a charming, fumlbing and ultimately shy man, unaware of his own talent.

The setlist was an interesting one, with few of the Bird stalthwarts bar the always performed and always unique rendition of Why?. Instead we were treated to a couple of new tracks around a nautical theme and some older, original versions of tracks such as Noble Beast’s Natural Disaster. Instead of sounding like a cop-out, this fascinating resurrection of retired material showed a Bird who was both brave and comfortable enough with his audience to wander off the well-trodden path and challenge them with previously unheard and unfamiliar tracks. Though this may have been a disappointment to some audience members, Bird has been so loyal in frequently visiting the UK over the past few years that it feels as if he deserves to select material on his own terms at this point.

Bird’s always a solid, fascinating and beguiling performer – and this gig only served to reinforce this impression. When he comes back to these shores, we’ll be the first to let you know and really can’t recommend him enough.