March 18, 2005
Announced on the Friday, and sold out in 45 minutes, Islington Academy - a shopping centre store room with the soul sucked out of it - is the venue for the return of Beck Hanson. Ever since the Channel 4 sitcom Nathan Barley began, critical voices have complained that the East London fashionistas it satirises vanished years ago. You suspect critical voices would be immediately silenced upon entering the Islington Academy tonight. It’s a sea of lamentable headgear and bleeding-edge mobile phone technology. At any moment, a game of cock, muff, bumhole might break out.
I’d dashed across London for the opening time of 730 due to a misguided fear that he wouldnt have support and we’d miss him, unfortunatly Beck didnt grace us with his presence until gone 930. Still that gave me two hours in which to ponder if the badly mixed selection of tunes was the much feted Mylo on the wheels of steel, or if infact they’d just stuck on a Dance Hits 40 CD. By 9 a lynching party could easily have been mustered just to get Mylo off the decks so we can get on with proceedings. “Ooh a DJ set!” people sneer sarcastically.
Having heard about Becks famed stage antics, from the famous MTV lights outfit to Princeesque splits it was a bit of a surprise when Beck ambled on stage in a black jacket, baseball cap pulled over his head, like a famous person in the street trying not be noticed.
It has to be said that at first I didnt even notice Beck due to the presence next to him of what can only be describded as the bastard love child of Jamiroqui and Jackie Chan. Bez lopes around stage, this guy bounds about in White plastic shades, white anorak, and white jeans with a beard that makes him look strangely like Noel Edmonds whose soul has been possesed by. He jazz danced, he karate chopped, he generally distracted everyone from Beck. I have to admit I laughed out loud, and pondered if the poor fella had been raised him on a diet of Breakdance Electric Boogaloo, and Metal Mickey VHS’s.
Starting the set with a run of seven new songs, from an album that in theory no one in the audience had heard before (being law abiding citizens after all) is a tall order for any act let alone one struggling with a bad case of jet lag, and constantly fiddling with his vocal levels.
- ’Black Tambourine’
- ’Devil’s Haircut’
- ’Scarecrow’
- ’We Dance Alone’
- ’Guero’
- ‘Girl’
- ’Knock You Out’
- ’Missing’
- ’Go It Alone’
At this point an exasperated member of the audience starts to shout “Play an old song”, and something about having paid to come here, and not expecting to be treated as lab rats for his new material. The crowd murmured its disaproval, perhaps annoyed that someone had read their mind. Beck put up with his ranting for a while before curtly instructing him to “Shut Up”, adding “Shut the fuck up” incase he hadnt quite got the message. He then launched into another new track ‘Broken’, leaving the heckler to despairingly ask “Is this old!!??”
Then at last ‘Where It’s At’ is wheeled out, sounding as fresh and vital as it did in 1996, and dedicated tonight to Mr “Play something Old”
‘ Im baking a cake , im calling your grandma ‘ - Hell Yes is another great track from the superb Guero but live with a wilting, jet-lagged Hansen and a venue expertly designed to eradicate every drop of atmosphere from a gig, their languorous charms shrivel up a bit. Some have suggested that the new stuff is “little too mature, a little two worthy, a little too world… The frenzy and the fun substituted for funk that borders on muso. Think latter day David Byrne with a stick up his ass.”
Personally I think maybe its not quite as strong as his old stuff or perhaps it’ll just take time before we declare them classics.
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- ‘Hell Yes’
- ’Rental Car’
- ’Emergency Exit’
If some of the new material doesnt set the place alight, then new single E-Pro is a definate exception…its the most ridiculously catchy song he’s ever written. The audience pogo, the dancing DLT whirls like a dervish, and everone sings along as if they’ve known it all their lives. I just wish he could have played the amazing Gameboy themed remix.
Ending the set with a psyched up funked out version of ‘Get Real Paid’ which I have to admit I didnt recognise (I’m not a Beck afficianardo).
While it was a privelidge to see Beck in such a small venue, it did seem a little lack lustre in places to me and to the audience as a whole judging from the reaction. Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe the shopping centre venue…but i’d love to see him when he’s had a good nights sleep.
March 12, 2005
After seven years away the Camden Crawl returned to….well Camden mostly. A chance for only 15 english pounds to catch 40 of the hottest upcoming bands at ten venues spread across NW1, or to look it another way, your unique opportunity to miss 35 of the hottest upcoming bands in one fun filled evening.
The Crawl ignored the unwritten gig laws of putting all the crap on early, and kicked off at 7pm sharp with Art Brut, 80’s MatchBox, Departure, The Others and Hot Chip. This is unfortunate as we rocked up fashionably late at 7.30.
After collecting our wrist bands, the slightly unwise choice to see Hot Chip was made, and after much walking a steady realisation came over us that the Camden Crawl was a fairly loose label, and that “The Camden and almost all the way to Kentish Town tube crawl” would have been a more accurate if slightly unwieldy title. Anyway we arrived at Bullet just in time to see Hot Chip announce….
“and this is our last number…thank you”
From what i heard I wish I’d caught the rest of the set as they sounded much like they do on record only with added man on moogtastic duty turning as many ancient synthlike knobs as fast as is humanly possible with only two hands.
For the 8pm slot we headed back into Camden, initially to see Sons & Daughters, but after seeing the size of the queue made the decision to check out Maximo Park at KoKo, and perhaps stick our heads round the door of a few other venues on the way. I’d never heard of “Drive like you stole it” before but based on the proximity of the door to the pavement we ambled in.
DLYSI certainly injecting a bit of Rawk into an otherwise indiefied atmosphere reaching a creshendo when having whipped up a “mighty storm of rock”, the venues electricity supply took a strop and deceided that frankly it didnt need this kind of hassle and could just as easily have a quiet night in providing the sophorific Magic Numbers with 40 volts. The venue was plunged into darkness to the delight of the crowd.
Mel & Simon Young who together witha drummer I didnt notice on the night, obviously abandoned an early ploy to pretend to be brother/sister/husband/wife on the grounds that such a dull ruse would never get them any publicity, concentrating instead on creating a Foo Fighters-esque noise with tunes thrown in for good measure. At five foot nought, lead singer Mel produces a sound with tardis like qualities…that is to say hidden behind in her case a beautiful yet bonsi like figure lies a sound “powerful enough to knock God off his throne in the sky and send him tumbling earthwards” http://www.drivelikeyoustoleit.co.uk/.
Simon is also gifted with the ability to create a noise that makes it appear that his head retracts back at the jawline, like somekind of crazed rock sunroof, with his words free to propel out unfetered by the restrictions of the upper part of his head…..but perhaps I’m exaggerating a little!?
Anyway they were a pleasant surprise, and caused us to arrive at KoKo just in time to hear the catch phrase of the evening “Thank you, this is our final number”. Again from the sound of just one number Maximo Park seemed pretty good live but who can tell with only one track.
Realising that the beer to walking ratio was badly out of kilter we decieded to stay at KoKo and catch The Magic Numbers followed by headliners Goldie Looking Chain, not to mention taking in what is a beautiful old venue. A couple of songs into The Magic Numbers however we realised that they were really quite dull, and an attempt to get to see Graham Coxon was the only option. To be fair i’ve liked the few bits of Magic Numbers i’ve heard before, but on stage they seemed a bit like the Polyphonic Spree only stripped of their capes, numbers, joy, and most impotantly the tunes. The only point of interest seemed to be that all four members had long hair, but ZZ Top tried that with beards and even they shaved them off eventually, and at least their tunes had legs!
In all honestly I didnt rate our chances of getting in to see Graham Coxon given that the Dublin Castle is just a pub, and as expected the 4000 plus punters that had been milling around Camden, had by 10:15 made the decision to form an orderly queue outside. Gutted at not seeing Coxon but determined to miss the rest of The Magic Numbers we tried to catch the end of “The Black Velvets” at the Bull&Gate. We joined the queue, and could just about hear the set from within, peaking through a side door to see the drumkit in action, but a muffled “thank you london, this is our final number” filtered out through the door, and we opted to skip Hope of the States (good, but seen them before) and return to the GLC at KoKo.
Goldie Lookin’ Chain seemed to be the ugly duckling of the headline acts and the grand old Camden Palace was barely half full when they bounded onto the stage. It seemed like an odd choice to pick a rap act (albiet a novelty one) and put them in one of the biggest venues on an essentially indie or at least guitar fest of an evening. GLC seemed uneffected by the sparse crowd, and worked their way through their reportoir of gags, singalong chorus’s, and clever references to long forgotten hiphop tracks, although this being an NME reading audience perhaps that should be never heard of hiphop tracks, leaving them pondering if Scott La Rock was a Glaswegian metal act. They were entertaining, certainly put on a good show, and the singles together with the hillarious “Shit On You” & “Man Machine” brought a big smile to the face…unfortunatly it seemed to just go on a bit, becoming very samey..and although the smile was still there as they headed back to Gosforth services it was a little forced.
Being a lite weight, and also due to the queue at the Electric ballroom, we decieded to catch the last tube, and call it a night. I hadnt seen many, actually any, of the people I wanted to see, but somehow that didnt matter that much. I’ll definitly be crawling again in 2006, where else can you fit in as many “and this is our final numbers” in one night?
March 7, 2005
I dont think Virgin anticipated the numbers that would come to this free Rufus Wainwright gig/signing as by the time he came on stage the place was cramed to the rafters and desperate latecomers were fluttering eyelashes at the security (and that was just the men).
First time i’d seen Mr Wainwright and as i’d heard some poor reviews of his live shows - I was told he was wack live, which i think is bad - I wasnt sure what to expect.
He played a short but raptourously received set, and I have to say I was impressed, although he is one of the campest musicians i’ve ever seen (perhaps beaten only by Rammstien).
Thanks to abstractboy for the pic uptop.
Set list:
The One You Love.
This Love Affair
The Art Teacher (next single??)
Crumb By Crumb.
The next song Gay Messiah was introduced as being about a ‘Gay armageddon… armaGAYdon’ He was well amused by that..and uped his campness to the max with his delight. He also said it felt like he was playing in a pub on a Saturday afternoon - said it felt ‘very Commitments’.
Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk closed the set.
I then queued up to get my brothers CD inlay signed with explicit instructions to sign the inside not the cover. As I was ushered through by security I grabbed a copy of the album to sign but found myself as the next person to meet Rufus…and then in front of Rufus as I wrestled with the security tag and wrapping on my new cd. I handed him my brothers inlay and mumbled about the inside, as I continued a fruitless fight to free my cd..eventually leading to a very red faced me as Rufus waited patiently while I eventually managed to get the damn cover off. Never mind, a tad embarrassing but at least I know that I could never thieve cd’s for a living.
I’ll leave the last comment to Damascus from the Rufus Wainwright forum:
“I thought his outfit looked deliciuos! Honestly, the chocolate browns, and the shiny striped trousers made me think of yummy things, like caramel and chocolate mousse. mmmmmm. Rufus, dahling, you make me drool!”
Well I thought the er..music was very good.
All I Want: A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright will air on Channel 4 (UK) on March 12, 2005 at 11:30 PM.
On the way back to the tube I nipped into HMV, and what do you know but Kaiser Chiefs were doing a sound check for a free gig later in the evening. Sounded ok from the couple of songs I heard, and according to NME they went down a storm.
http://www.nme.com/news/111639.htm
Two free gig’s in one evening - reminds me why I love living in London sometimes.
