Live Review: London Calling Festival, The Paradiso, Amsterdam. 14&15/11/08

This was probably one of the weekends I was looking forward most this year, with the possible exceptions of Glastonbury, Latitude and Leeds festivals. The London Calling festival, held twice a year at (in my opinion) one of the best venues in the world, the stunning Paradiso in Amsterdam (before you question that, name me another music venue with stained glass windows), brings together the best new and upcoming British music. I’ve been twice before, to both of the editions in 2007, and seen some memorable performances. The Pigeon Detectives headlining one of the nights in April 2007 and blowing the audience away, and John McClure of Reverend & The Makers leading about 40 of us out of the fire escape for an acoustic sing-along in the street, are just a few of the memories that spring to mind.

Due to the lack of rather decent British music at the moment, I have to admit I was hardly optimistic that the line up could meet it’s previous heights (over the previous two times I’ve been I’ve seen The Wombats twice, Reverend & The Makes, The Pigeon Detectives, The Rakes, The Maccabees, GoodBooks among others). However, this festival is about more than just the bands on, there’s always a special buzz about the crowd in this venue, it feels a bit different from other gigs and festivals. The crowd are up for anything (I’ve seen circle pits for Foals) and the bands appear to have the same attitude for it. However, the promise of The Courteeners, Late Of The Pier, Bromheads Jacket and Glasvegas, my hopes of another quality festival improved.

The first night, I arrive in time to see Edward Larrikin’s new project The Pan I Am. Being a huge Larrikin Love fan, and also impressed by the demos I had heard, I was looking forward to seeing them. Unfortunately they were less than impressive, in fact I left. Unfortunately, the festival operates over two rooms and if you leave a band in the small hall and walk into the main hall to get a drink, the band are being broadcast on a large screen, so I couldn’t escape the turgid, groaning mess that was The Pan I Am. I was so disappointed about this, and following acts Ladyhawke and FrYars did little to improve my mood. However, up next was, recently announced for next years NME Awards Tour, White Lies, and from the moment they started, I lightened up. Described by my uncle (who put me and my mate up for the weekend) as “four boys who’ve spent a bit too much time watching Control”, they do have that Joy Division-esque darkness about them. Still, they were very impressive and I think their debut album To Lose My Life, released next January, will be one to look out for.

Following White Lies and a few others were the main bands (in my eyes) of the evening. First off, The Courteeners, who I was converted to after being persuaded to watch them at Glastonbury. I now love the album and was looking forward to seeing them, and unlike The Pan I Am, they did not disappoint. Their sound is hardly new, but they are far better than most of the rest of the crap in England at the moment. Frontman Liam Fray has genuine charisma and is lyrically top, and after this performance I’m starting to believe that Manchester can finally start to get over Oasis. For the first time of the weekend, I felt that buzz only the Paradiso on London Calling weekend can give you, and as closer “What Took You So Long?” comes to and end, another memorable performance at this festival is lodged firmly in my mind.

The final band of the evening for me (I did not stay for the after party) was Late Of The Pier. Not a band I was familiar, but my friend who went over with me had filled all his non-Courteeners speak filled moments with talk of this band, so I waited expectantly. Again, they did not disappoint. Their pure indie electro chaos had the Paradiso in rapture, the same kind of reception as Foals got last November. If these boys keep it up, they could be challenging Foals by next summer. They certainly have the music to, as, compared with Foals; they appear to have a lot more variety. So, as a conclusion to the first nights festivities; The Courteeners could easily be the next Oasis and Late Of The Pier, with any luck, will be headlining academies across the countries within the year.

The second night’s big acts were Glasvegas, another band I have recently fallen for, and, band whose new album I recently slated, Bromheads Jacket. However, I had a feeling that tonight would be the night Bromheads would remind me why I loved their debut. However, before all that, their were various other bands to keep me entertained.

Now, we have all spent summer being tortured by Noah & The Whale’s slit-your-wrists catchy “5 Years Time”, but excluding this track, they sounds like a less exciting British Sea Power. However, they are far better than I expected them to be, if a little repetitive and despite the attempted to sound more epic that then can. No one else caught my eye really. Esser was boring, Bombay Bicycle Club initiated the most embarrassing stage invasion ever, where by after being asked to climb up, the indie kids didn’t really know what to do next and just stood around. Magistrates sounded alright, if a bit generic.

Up next, the moment we’d all been waiting for, and there was real electricity in the air as the crowd awaited for Bromheads Jacket. From the moment they kicked into “Woolley Bridge”, the crowd and the band were so together. Huge circle pits as the on lookers, me included, lose their minds to the indie grunge, and as the drummer and bassist thrash closer “What Ifs & Maybes” to it’s end, guitarist time covers his guitar in lighter fluid, sets it alight and smashes it to pieces. As he falls to his knees and bows to the crowd, it’s clear this gig meant something to everyone in the venue. After my disappointment at their second offering, I was so happy at how amazing they were. The bands posts of Facebook since the gig, stating how special it was to them, and their plans to air the recording of it at a Christmas party for those who couldn’t make it sums up that this was a performance that will live long in their, and my, memory.

After that show, Glasvegas had a lot to live up to. In contrast to Bromheads Jacket, they had barely any interaction with the crowd. Most of the crowd, including my uncle, appeared to have left by halfway through the set. Despite others reaction to them I personally thought they were amazing. Brilliantly emotional epic rock combined with a perfect light show that made the atmosphere. My mate and me may well have been the only two people singing along to the album tracks, whereas singles Geraldine and Daddy’s Gone got a slightly bigger reaction. They were the exact opposite of Bromheads in every department appearance wise, but they were far more about the music than the reaction they got, and they blew me away. Next years NME Awards tour, headlined by Glasvegas, is definitely something I’ll be attending.

Overall, a weekend that far surpassed my expectations of it. Possibly the best edition of the festival I’ve been to, though maybe not as consistent as previous occasions, the big bands came through. The Courteeners, Late Of The Pier, Glasvegas and most of all Bromheads Jacket, made the trip easily worth it, I’ll certainly be attending again.

Live Review: Coldplay, Sheffield Arena. 29/11/08

Q Magazine recently named Coldplay “Best Band In The World” today. The amount of bands I could name who deserve that award more than Chris Martin & Co didn’t affect how much I was been looking forward to this gig. Latest album Viva La Vida/Death And All His Friends was a fantastic return to form after 2005’s disappointing X&Y.

Admittedly, Sheffield Arena is not my first choice for a gig. It’s too big, and the sound system is nowhere near big enough. Still, if the band can sell it out in less than 10 minutes, who can blame them for playing it. With the amount of huge sing-along hits Coldplay have, entertaining this many people wasn’t ever going to be a problem.

The band open, as the latest album does, with Life In Techinicolour. Disappointingly, they only played the instrumental album version, not the version with lyrics that opens the recently released Prospekt’s March EP. Throughout the opener, the band are blocked from view by a set of black curtains, which are lifted as soon as the track finishes, rendering them a bit pointless really. The short opener is quickly followed by a host of singles, including first single off the new album Violet Hill, the classic Clocks and the epic In My Place, all accompanied in full voice by crowd.

The rest of the set comprised nearly all the new album, highlighted by the classic singles. New songs 42 and Cemeteries Of London sound most impressive, as does a beautiful solo rendition of Trouble by Chris (apparently he originally planned to play The Hardest Part) and the mandatory Fix You sing-along. “Holy shit that was good” Chris whispers as the crowd finish the job for him.

The bands first number one single Viva La Vida is arguably the highlight of the night, the strings (played on a keyboard) and thundering drums easily fill the venue, as they fade the spot light falls on Chris Martin who is left holding the microphone to the crowd as they sing the backing vocal part (“whoa-whooaa-whoa-ooh”). New single Lost! follows this, and seems to be lacking somewhat after the grandness of the previous track. For the final two tracks of the set, the band move to a balcony towards the back of the venue and produces an perfect rendition of The Scientist, followed by new track “If Death Will Ever Conquer Me”, sung by drummer Will Champion, before the band disappear back stage.

The stage is kept pitch black before the encore starts, a remix of Viva La Vida is blasted out over the speakers until Coldplay crash back into life with Politik, accompanied by a assault of strobe lights and lasers. The encore is one of the highlights of the evening with album track Lovers In Japan involving a shower of coloured paper as Chris Martin dancing around. The show ends, as the new album does, with the crashing finale to Death And All His Friends. A perfect ending to an epic performance. However, theres one treat left as the band return for one last mass sing-along to the timeless Yellow. £46 for poor seats? Who cares?


Coldplay played:

Life In Technicolour
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Speed Of Sound
Cemeteries Of London
Chinese Sleep Chant
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face/Talk
Trouble
Viva La Vida
Lost!
The Scientist (Acoustic)
If Death Will Ever Conquer Me

Politik
Lovers In Japan
Death And All His Friends

Yellow

Live Review: Vampire Weekend, Carling Academy Sheffield. 22/10/08

After seeing the New York “Upper West Side Soweto” four piece three times over the summer, I have finally fallen for them. Their self-titled debut is so refreshingly different in the times of generic, guitar fuelled indie where anyone can get radio play, providing they don’t dare to experiment. However, having only one album, the task of laying to a sell out crowd (touts were selling tickets for £40 outside the gig) at Sheffield’s still relatively new Carling Academy, is a tricky one.

Support comes from an American duo who’s name I can’t recall, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Imagine tonight’s main entertainment minus the guitar, drums, bass and (sometimes too) clever lyrics and you’re pretty much there. Following them are Animal Kingdom, who start of with an Editors-esque epic indie ballad but they quickly fade into a string of heavily Sigur Rós influenced prog-indie. Still, they aren’t bad, if a little dragging.

Vampire Weekend themselves open, as their album does, with Mansard Roof, which is quickly followed by a host of album tracks, plus a couple of b-sides and a new track. Biggest cheer of the night (predictably) comes as singer Ezra announces we are moving into the more upbeat “part 2” of the show and the band kick into the soon to be re-released A-Punk. Other highlights include album tracks Campus and M79 as well as latest single Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, which is apparently about Yorkshire, “liberally speaking” of course.

It’s surprising that a band with so few tracks would bother doing an encore, but the band depart after a mass sing-along to Oxford Comma. They return quickly and start back up with a well-received cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere and finally wrapping up the night with my personal favourite album track, Walcott, which gets arguably the most physical response from the crowd, everyone jumps along as the band thrash themselves into silence and depart.

Playing such big venues off the back of just one album is a challenge to say the least but Vampire Weekend, helped by the mesmerising bopping around the stage of Ezra, not only hold the audience interested, but captivated. A well thought out set list, with the singles positioned well. They are helped by the crowd clearly being packed with fans of the whole album, not just the tracks Radio 1 has played, as is unfortunately found at many a gig these days. The call and response part in album track One (Blake’s Got A New Face) is met with much enthusiasm and the chorus line is shouted back at full volume.

You can’t help but wonder if they should have played a smaller venue, the short length of the set would definitely have suited it better. However, tonight the Academy was as packed and into it as I’ve seen it (with the possible exception of Milburn’s last gig in May) and the NYC (“the Yorkshire of the USA” Ezra announces to much applause) succeed better than more accomplished, better supported bands have.


Vampire Weekend Played:

Mansard Roof
Campus
Cape Code Kwassa Kwassa
I Stand Corrected
White Sky
Bryn
Ladies Of Cambridge
A-Punk
One (Blake’s Got A New Face)
M79
The Kid’s Don’t Stand A Chance
(new one)
Oxford Comma

Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
Walcott

Live Review: The Streets, Leeds Academy. 19/10/08

“Do you think your weekend could get better?” Mike Skinner asks the crowd as opening track (also the opener, title track and latest single from his new album) Everything Is Borrowed comes to a closer, and he is greeted with euphoric response from the crowd packed into the new (though you wouldn’t know it from the state of the floor) Academy in Leeds.

Personally, I’m still sceptical about the venue. Not so much as a gig venue, the sound is great though they seem to sell far too many tickets and as a consequence it’s a bit crowded. I’m more concerned about how it will cope as a club, especially if they pack that many people into it. Anyway, tonight is not about the venue as it quickly becomes obvious that wherever Mike Skinner is one stage, whether it be a tiny club or the main stage at a festival (memories of Leeds Festival in 2006), all eyes are going to be on him.

Following the opener, Skinner and backing band kick straight into Don’t Mug Yourself and it’s instantly apparent that this is going to be a sweaty night to say the least. With everyone clearly really up for it, Skinner rattles through an hour a bit of his back catalogue, drawing heavily from debut album Original Pirate Material, and indeed, it’s the older tracks that get the best reception. The likes of Has It Come To This, Let’s Push Things Forward and Could Be Well In are of course present, but the inclusion of album tracks such as Turn The Page, It’s Too Late and Same Old Thing is great.

Other highlights included On The Edge Of A Cliff, from the latest album, Weak Become Heroes and, the only track to be played off 2006’s The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, Never Went To Church which ended with a rendition of Daddy’s Gone by Glasvegas from Skinner’s backing vocalist Kevin Mark Trail. There’s also the mandatory “Go Low” during Has It Come To This, whereby everyone crouches as the music slows down, then jumps up as it kicks in again, this time accompanied by Skinner shouting out the chorus from Hot Chip’s Over & Over. The main set is closed with a spine-tingling mass sing-along to Blinded By The Lights.
The encore encompasses single’s Dry Your Eyes and Heaven For The Weather and closes in rapturous fashion with Fit But You Know It, followed by the chorus of Who Knows Who, a track Skinner recently recorded with Muse.

Skinner puts pretty much any indie frontman I’ve seen in a long while to shame with the way he can play off and manipulate the crowd. The heavy emphasis on his first album, despite it being the tour for his 4th, is hardly a bad thing as with the live band, these tracks themselves are almost reinvented. The choice not to play singles Prangin’ Out and When You Wasn’t Famous shows Skinners recognition of public opinion that his 3rd was by far his worst album, and as I agree with this opinion I’m not complaining. I’m not sure the gig was actually a sell out, which possibly helped the venue. Do I think my weekend could get much better? Well, if you’ve got 1500 people and Mike Skinner in a room, it’s pretty much a fact it’s going to.


The Streets played:

Everything Is Borrowed
Don't Mug Yourself
Let's Push Things Forward + Out Of Space (The Prodigy)
The Escapist
Same Old Thing/The Sherry Ends/Sharp Darts
It's Too Late
Could Be Well In
Never Went To Church + Daddy's Gone (Glasvegas)
On The Edge Of A Cliff
Has It Come To This + Over & Over (Hot Chip)
Weak Become Heroes
Blinded By The Lights
----------------------
Turn The Page
Dry Your Eyes
Heaven For The Weather
Fit But You Know It + Who Knows Who? (Muse & The Streets)

Album Review: Bromheads Jacket - On The Brain

2006’s Dits From The Commuter Belt was one of the best albums of 2006. An album that sparkled with the witty genius of Tim Hampton’s social commentaries, infused perfectly with the trios indie, punky grunge. So, saying that, the bands follow up, On The Brain, has a lot to live up to.

Having heard new tracks live over the summer, it was with interest over the bands apparent change of sound, as well as excitement that I waited for On The Brain. A promising start, with Tim hammering out a few heavy power chords on opening track Clear To Some before launching into a classic Bromheads style fast paced chord pattern. However, at 38 seconds it starts to go downhill when the band star just kind of squeaking over the chords, and I can’t really tell why. The music itself is fine, though nowhere near as heavy as before, and when he’s speaking, the lyrics, though not his best, are still far above average. I had prepared myself for a different sounding album but it’s not that the sound has changed as such; they’ve just turned everything down.

Clear To Some fades (well, it has to be said) into Speakerbox, which would be perfect if it didn’t have the organ part or the stupid “Ah ah aaahhh”. The single is followed by Turn Me On, which I just plain don’t like. It’s far too poppy and the lyrics are poor. So, 3 tracks of 12 down, and it’s a bit of a disappointment.

The tracks seem weak and thin compared with the classics, and while You’ll Loose It and Where are definite improvements on the opening tracks, and probably the best tracks on the album, but they both full of stupid “oooo’s” or “na na na na’s”. I can’t help thinking that theses parts would have been replaced by witty one-liners had it been 2 years ago. The interlude is easily the closest Bromheads get to Dits… on this record, and while I do like it, it’s a bit long and repetitive.

Promises Promises is a slow ballad but I’m really not sure of the sound they are going for, and I’m not sure they are, theres nothing to it that grabs you in the way Poppy Bird did the first time you heard it. “Aint it funny how people change” croones Tim, you can’t help wondering why they have. JFK Vs USA sounds back on the right track but they have once again insisted on adding a vocal part that’s just not needed, the same can be heard on the next track, Black Lions, and by this point in the album it just sounds like the band couldn’t find the words to fill a gap, at times it doesn’t even properly fit the music. A Fuzzy Feeling would be great if there wasn’t another bit of what is either backing vocals or a kazoo, either way it sounds stupid.

In a shocking turn of events, I really quite like album closer Yesterday’s Antics, but it that’s probably only because I quite like The Streets. This track would fit far better a long side the likes of Dry Your Eyes than some of the tracks on here.

There is nothing wrong with having a bit of instrumental in a song, but on On The Brain, Bromheads seem mortally afraid of it. Every bit of every song that isn’t filled with Tim’s, to be honest, mediocre (given his track record) lyrics is filled with incessant humming or whatever it is they are doing. I’m not sure what happened with this album, I expected a change but if you want to change your sound theres no reason to completely remove everything you were good at. Bromheads were good at witty, sometimes genius, lyrics and thrashing out a series of power chords that would put some of the best punk bands to shame, whereas On The Brain just sounds thin and dull. Yeah, I don’t really like it, so if you’ll excuse me I’ll return to Dits… and leave it there. Bring on the backlash.

Reviews & stuff

Basically, I'm going to post every gig review I write here. I've decided I quite enjoy this music journalism thing, and as I end up writing a review of most of the gig's I go to, I might as well put them on the internet. Might put the odd album review up as well.