New Gig Thread

[Boy With A Problem]

Nice segway into my brief report on seeing the Sex Pistols last night at Brixton Academy. Johnny's voice was in great shape - sound was terrific - but we were poorly positioned to see very well - midway back in balcony (which was general reserve and we just couldn't put up with the pre Pistols never ending dj - so we hung out at the bar before the show - would have been able to see ok if everyone in the balcony wasn't standing - and you can't blame them - it would be stupid to sit for a Sex Pistols show - when I bought the tickets I thought they were downstairs). I did notice that Johnny had a lyric book at the foot of the stage - and he still struggled a bit with the material - which they ran through in under an hour - I left with my voice in tact and having not broken a sweat - so I'd call it a below average night. Johnny's between banter was what you would expect - "England has a McLaren for a manager; we had one of those - not a good thing...fucking cunts...."

[ice nine]

Saw another house concert. Cliff Eberhardt, a folk singer who toured with Richie Havens in the past, was very good. I was unfamiliar with him, but the host told me he was very good. I went and he was very good. There were about thirty people there and Cliff just sat facing us and played his guitar. No microphone, no ampilier, no theatrics. I'm sure most of you aren't familar with him (like I was) so here is a Youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFZ3w3q8duE

[BlueChair]

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings last night. Great show in the end, but hampered by major technical difficulties at first.

Jones sets up her shows like a 60s-style soul review, with The Dap-Kings warming up the crowd before introducing their frontwoman in a boisterous, enthused manner. It ended up being quite anticlimactic when Jones attempted to greet the Toronto audience with her microphone, which seemed to be powered off. The sound guys were scrambling to figure out the problem, switching microphones and everything.

Ultimately they decided to do an instrumental before bringing out Jones again. For the first 3 or 4 songs, Jones' microphone worked but wasn't nearly loud enough... either that or the sound was too flat. Which was a damn shame considering her voice is the most important part of the show.

In the end, however, the show was great. It was my third time seeing this act in two years, and the main difference was the addition of material from their new album, 100 Days, 100 Nights into the set.

For the encore, they did a fabulous rendition of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown.

[so lacklustre]

Went to see the Imagined Village (http://imaginedvillage.com/ ) last Wednesday and what a fantastic show it was. I have been loving the album, but when seen live the album doesn't really do it justice.

First off we went to the pre-show talk with Simon Emmerson, Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy and Chris Wood. This was to discuss the Imagined Village project and how it got off the ground, and also a bit by BB on his book The Progressive Patriot. This extract from the website explains a bit about the project

As a group of musicians and record producers we'd like to welcome you to this site. We started this project back in 2004 as a way of exploring our musical roots and identity as English musicians and music makers. Some of our names may be familiar to you whilst some of us swim hidden in the fringes of the big village pond; some of us have backgrounds in traditional music whilst others are as far away from the folk club as you can get.

There is a lot of discussion in the media at present about what constitutes the English identity, we hope to use this web site and our first record as a contribution to this discussion. We are not trying to re-invent the wheel or for that matter re-invent the English folk tradition. What we are interested in is building an inclusive, creative community were we can engage in the debate passed down to us by the late Victorian collectors of English song, dance and stories spearheaded by Cecil Sharpe and his contemporaries and brought into contemporary resonance by Georgina Boyes in her book 'The Imagined Village', Billy Braggs recent works 'The Progressive Patriot', academics such as Paul Gilroys in 'After Empire Melancholia or Convivial Culture' and the commentaries of musicians such as Chris Wood, Eliza and Martin Carthy amongst others.

We all walk in the footsteps of our Victorian song collecting ancestors but feel it is more relevant now than ever to question who decides what it is to be authentic and English and more importantly what it is that makes us proud to be English musicians. We are not providing a manifesto or for that matter any easy answers. We also understand there are a lot of people out there who have been discussing these issues a lot longer than some of us who are relatively new to the debate. As musicians the primary focus for our communication comes through our music and we hope you feel inspired by our first CD to come and see us play live. We also hope this web site provides a vibrant and creative arena for discussion and exchange of ideas. Thanks for checking us out, keep it positive and keep it rooted.

The talk was interesting and thy took a few questions from the audience (mainly made of trad folk looking people with beards and chunky jumpers) and explained how they were trying to make folk current.

The warm up act was Chris Wood (also part of the main set) who I am not familiar with, but he was very good, doing a mixture of trad folk with some updatd versions and funny stories related to them.

The musicians for the main event were as follows:
Billy Bragg - Vocals (also played saome electric guitar)
Eliza Carthy - Vocals/Fiddle
Martin Carthy - Vocals/Guitar
Sheila Chandra - Monsoon (some may remember her from Monsoon (or even Grange Hill))
Simon Emmerson - Guitar/Cittern
Andy Gangdeen - Drums
Francis Hylton - Bass
Johnny Kalsi - Percussion
Barney Morse Brown - Cello
Sheema Mukherjee - Sitar
Chris Wood - Fiddle/Vocals
The Young Coppers - Backing Vocals

Plus contributions on screen from Benjamin Zephaniah and John Copper

The full ensemble pieces were totally fantastic, with the mixture of trad fiddle/cittern melding with the Sitar and Indian beat of Johnny Kalsi. Billy Bragg came on after the opening track to his England Half English meets Johnny Barleycorn. He was dressed in what he described as a pearly suit (basically black velvet suit with pearl trimming, he explained back in the day this was traditional wear in East London and was the forerunner of the full pearly suits as worm by the pearly kings and queens (the first full pearly suit cam about after some spark collected all the bits that had fallen off all the other suits).

Some other highlights of the show were:
Acres of Ground – Eliza Carthy has a great voice and fantastic stage presence.
Tam Lyn – A fantastic reworking featuring Benjamin Zephaniah reworked vovals of a trad folk song.
Hard Times of old England – Billy Bragg leading on his reworked vocals, with the whole troup joining in the chorus.
Sloe on the Uptake – an instrumental track but brilliant mixing of trad and modern sounds.

There was much much more but I’m sure you realise by now that I quite enjoyed it (definitely better than staying in to watch the England game anyway!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Sounds great. I ain't had a chance to say how simply awesome Arcade Fire at the Ally Pally were last Saturday. I've seen them on TV several times, heard several bootlegs, loved the records, but seeing them live is the only way to really understand their majesty. I hadn't really appreciated just what a sing-, clap- etc, along band they are, chants such as Wake Up, obviously, the 'heys' in No Cars Go, just loads of participation. Shortly before going I saw a description of Funeral in a record store as both 'dark' and 'euphoric', and live you get loads of the euphoric. I would say the mass choral chanting of Wake Up was euphoric, cathartic, and pretty much this century's equivalent of mass religious worship in previous centuries, or equivalent to seeing England hammering Croatia, etc. All the action and instrument switching is great, especially the mad rampaging throughout Laika. So many of their songs sounded awesome, in fact the whole gig. I could probably wax lyrical for hours about just how goddamned exciting it was seeing them - they deliver enormously. Two great covers too: New Order's Age of Consent, which I have on bootlegs in a very straight style, but hear was stripped down to a gentle Unplugged style that was great, and an unexpected Still Ill, which sounded fabulous, especially after 'Am I still ill?' and the rising swell of strings and brass.

I could probably write for an hour without stopping about the details of why this was such a great night out, and how it's left me feeling a happier person, still a week later, but let's just leave it as 'If you're remotely interested, make sure you see them live.' The instrumentation came over beautifully, their sense of revelling in what they do, their connection with the audience. Just wonderful. I'm downloading this plus the following night from Dimeadozen, which will be a good memento. They played all their great songs, and it brought home just what a richness there is in their two LPs, the only exception being that My Body Is A Cage was omitted, which surely would have been a show-stopper. Still, finishing on Wake Up, it was hard to wish for more.

Took my teenage son, and felt thrilled to be able to give him the experience. Surely in 30 years, when he's older than I am, he'll be telling people 'I saw Arcade Fire in 2007 and they were awesome'.

Very tempted to get Morrissey (not all nights sold out on first day, amazingly) and Bjork tickets for Jan and April London shows, but am going to have to hold back prudently. This gig will stay with me for a long, long time, though.

[so lacklustre]

I was thinking of going for Bjork tickets but it seems to be standing at Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo, nver been there with the seats out and I'm getting to old for all this standing up business.

Friend who went to see AF at Ally P said the sound was shoddy and that a lot of the instruments were just being drowned out, maybe you went on a night when they got it right.

[Otis Westinghouse]

The vocals were a bit too submerged, but then they aren't always that clear on the recordings. It's a bit of a hangar, but I like it as it's up on the hill with great views and it's historic, and actually the sound wasn't at all bad. I was focussing on particular instruments like glockenspiels and you could pick them out well. I think their sound is very much a mix of a somewhat amorphous, thrusting full band and lots of specific details. Yeah, not too bad from where I was standing.

Meant to say that the other thing that makes them so exciting live is that so many of their songs build to a climax, and live it seems completely uncontrived, that's just where each song is heading. God it was good.

I'm happy to sit for e.g. Lloyd Cole solo or EC & SN, but anything with drums on requires standing. Hope to feel the same in my 50s. I was really knackered after a long week, out every night but one, trudging through a very full London inc. Nat Portrait Gallery and Zavvi or whatever they call virgin now, and waiting in place for an hour or so, but the moment they came on, the adrenalin hit my legs and I forgot they existed.
London

[colrow26]

Otis wrote

Hope to feel the same in my 50s.

Otis i reached the big 5-0 the Saturday before last (17th). the plan was for a group of friends to meet up in manchester City centre at 12 midday and enjoy a pub crawl around town ending up back at my house for midnight. Mate of mine turns up with a ticket for the sex Pistols on the same evening so I sloped off from my own party and went there instead!! Great to finally see the Pistols on stage and i did manage to rejoin all my mates back at mine to continue partying until 3 in the morning.

See, nothing to being fifty

[Otis Westinghouse]

Sounds like one to remember. Happy 50th. Were they playing at the Lesser Free Trade Hall?

[Who Shot Sam?]

Went down with my wife to New York last night to see Richard Hawley and his band at the Bowery Ballroom. What a show! This was hands down the best gig I've attended in years. Incredible musicianship (the band has been playing together for a few years now and is very tight), great singing and a real rapport with the audience made this something special. Man, Hawley has the most gorgeous assortment of guitars and he plays the hell out of them.

Here's the setlist as I remember it (in no particular order):

Valentine
Roll River Roll
Something Is...
Dark Road
I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me
Coles Corner
Tonight The Streets Are Ours
Just Like The Rain
Lady's Bridge
Hotel Room
Serious
Darlin' Wait For Me
Our Darkness
The Sea Calls
The Ocean
Born Under A Bad Sign
Tonight

There may be a song I'm missing, but I think that about captures it. Highlights for me were The Ocean (simply overwhelming), Streets (God this one hit home with us - on record it's a great song but live it is something else) and The Sea Calls (beautiful). Easily the best show I've ever seen at the BB - it sounded fantastic. I would love to have heard Can You Hear The Rain, Love? or It's Over Love, but you can't have everything.

I'm hoping I can get a recording of this one.

The only negative was the lack of a merch table, but we did manage to snag a couple of these boss beer mats from the bar downstairs...



If you're anywhere close and want to see a great musician at his best, dont hesitate to see him live, even if you're not that familiar with his music. We payed just $15 for our tickets - what a bargain! I've payed 3-4 times as much for gigs and left disappointed.

Here are his tour upcoming dates (and no I'm not his manager). If you can, go!!

North America Dates (Dec.)
Sun 2nd Philadelphia, World Cafe
Tue 4th Boston, TT the Bears
Wed 5th Toronto, Horseshoe Tavern
Thu 6th Chicago, The Abbey
Fri 7th Minneapolis, 400 Bar
Mon 10th Seattle, Crocodile Cafe
Wed 12th San Francisco, Cafe du Nord
Thu 13th Los Angeles, Troubadour

UK/Ireland Dates (Feb.)
Sat 2nd Hull, City Hall
Mon 4th Cambridge, Corn Exchange
Tue 5th Oxford, New Theatre
Wed 6th Southampton, Guildhall
Mon 11th Leicester, De Montfort Hall
Thu 14th Galway, Róisín Dubh
Fri 15th Dublin, Vicar Street
Sat 16th Belfast, Mandela Hall
Mon 18th York, Opera House
Tue 19th Buxton, Opera House

[Who Shot Sam?]

I'm hoping I can get a recording of this one.

Wow, that didn't take long! Excellent!

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=91

[StrictTime]

Sun 2nd Philadelphia, World Cafe

Thwarted again!

[so lacklustre]

I would love to go and see Hawley, but the gig nearest to me is a Wednesday school night so not much chance of being allowed out.

Have you seen him before WSS? If so how has he improved?

[Who Shot Sam?]

I would love to go and see Hawley, but the gig nearest to me is a Wednesday school night so not much chance of being allowed out.

Have you seen him before WSS? If so how has he improved?

No, this was my first time, so I don't have any way to compare. I was lucky New York was on a Saturday. Otherwise I probably would not have been able to make it.

He has a great group of musicians playing with him - nice lap steel by Shez Sheridan - and everything is very tidy and well-rehearsed while still being spontaneous. He's a great vocalist, does a good job of pacing his set, and though I could have gone for another encore or two, there was no filler in there.

I think he'll probably tour the UK again before he gets back here, so if you miss Soton I'm sure you'll get another chance later in the year.

BTW, I uploaded the show as 256kbps MP3s here...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I88UGWSE

[Jackson Monk]

We went to see Crowded House at the NEC on Monday and they were absolutely great as per usual. Crowd singing along and a really powerful performance.

However, they had an Irish support act called Duke Special and he and his band were really quirky and quite wonderful in an eccentric, yet melodic sense. Anyone who recalls the brilliant 90s band Jellyfish will love them. I'm definitely going to pick up the latest album this week.



Website link below

http://www.dukespecial.com/index.php?section=1

[colrow26]

After much haggling on ebay i managed to get hold of tickets for the Arctic Monkeys in Manchester tonight (12/12). So me and my daughter (19) and son (17) are off to see the greatest band in the world right now (IMHO)
Not looked forward to a gig so much since the Jam in 78 or the Smiths in 84.
Bring it on!!!!!

[verbal gymnastics]

Indeed!

I went to see Arctic Monkeys on Sunday at the Alexandra Palace. They were excellent even though the venue was huge. The sound was surprisingly good though.

Have a great night!

[mood swung]

oily slick!!! g2s!!! Todd Snider at The Shed 5/31. Look what I missed last summer.
http://www.eighteenminutes.com/setlists ... 70804.html


Be there.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Lloyd Cole returns to The Junction in April after his excellent gig last August. This time I think it's in the main stand-up venue not the smaller sit-down one of before. Either way it will be fabulous. Fifth time.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Well, with snow on its way to our little corner of the Northeast, we are on our way down to my dad's place, which should make the drive to Atlantic City tomorrow a little less painful. Hopefully I'll get to see a few of you at and around the gig. Happy New Year to all and best wishes for 2008, and here's hoping Elvis has a few surprises up his sleeve tomorrow!

[verbal gymnastics]

Booked to see Hard-Fi at London Koko on 6th February.

[mood swung]

Henry Rollins is doing a spoken word gig in Knoxville. I'm thinking about it - anybody been?

[Boy With A Problem]

I was in Knoxville once for about 3 hours. Just to change Greyhounds downtown. I met a couple of Australian girls and we played trivial pursuit. This was about 1981 - things may have changed.

[mood swung]

40 miles away and not even a phone call? YOU are off my Xmas card list.

Actually, in 1981, in one of those things that make you go 'hmmm', *I* might have been Across The Pond myself.

[verbal gymnastics]

I met a couple of Australian girls and we played trivial pursuit.

A threesome with two Australian girls. That takes me back...