Late Gig Reviews
Some shows that I went to a while back but have been too lazy to write anything about until now:
The Wrens - Borderline and Camden Barfly
They were absolutely great. The Meadowlands album has finally been released in the UK, and was getting some good press in the NME, so they came over to play 2 shows (1 in London and 1 in Nottingham.) At the end of the first show at The Borderline, they announced that they were doing an extra show in Camden, so I had a fun scramble getting tickets for that afterwards.
They’re one of the most high energy bands I’ve seen; bouncing around the stage, jumping off amps and desperately trying to get to the mic in time for the next verse. There was that glorious feeling that the show could fall apart at any second while somehow always hanging together. For the second show there was an extra support act, so their set was shorter than intended and had them singing while walking out of the stage door. The atmosphere was better for the second night; almost everyone in the crowd seemed to be enjoying it. The band hung around at the club night that followed the show, and I would have gone and said hello, but, you know, Hello! Shy nerd here!
Support was by The Favours - who were good but could use a new bass player, and some others whom I either missed or weren’t very good.
The New Pornographers - Borderline and 93 Feet East
Another band that I’ve wanted to see for ages coming over and doing 2 shows in 1 week! The second show had some problems which killed the mood a bit: It was at 93 Feet East and so was filled with people who were there to be seen rather than hear any music, and one of their amps crapped out towards the end (while playing “The Blown Speakers” - arf.)
Both shows were still lots of fun though. They play really catchy power-pop that just drives its way into your skull and makes you sing along with a huge grin on your face. I was measurably happier for a couple of weeks after this show.
They didn’t have Neko Case (one of their singers) with them for the trip, so they had Kathryn Calder from the support act Immaculate Machine filling in who did a great job (and I enjoyed IM’s set too.)
Completing a trio of North American indie-pop band shows. I didn’t know all that many of their songs, but most of their stuff was fun to jump along to. Sadly I got stuck behind “That Guy” for most of the gig, you know, the one who came to hear one particular song and will bitch and whine until it gets played. I never figured out what he wanted them to play since he was basically too drunk to speak. Also, Scala is a pretty neat venue. Much better than I was expecting, what with it being right next to King’s Cross and all.
Killing Joke - The Astoria
\m/
Fun, heavy, political rock gubbins. I think I was the youngest person there and the band and crowd seemed a bit lacklustre. I’m glad I’ve finally got to see them, but I was expecting it to be a little better.
I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as the show in March. I don’t know whether it’s just that the spell has worn off, or whether they were just off form in a crappy venue. I decided to cut my losses and leave a couple of songs early to miss the rush for the tube home.
Jeff Tweedy - Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Wilco’s frontman doing a solo acoustic show playing his own stuff and various songs from his Woody Guthrie cover project. While I think I’d have preferred to see the whole band, he still played and sang really well. The one downside was that since it was a quiet acoustic thing, we had to put up with the crowd yelling out some really weird, random stuff throughout the night. He mostly took it in his stride, but I ended up with that really weird feeling where I wanted to apologise for the whole country. “Don’t listen to those guys, we’re not all complete dicks!”