We started the festival by going to an instore with James Yorkston. His music is very gentle and simple and a young violinist accompanied him. He did about five songs, very self effacing.
We then walked down to the Zap Club arriving in time to stand in line for Kubichek. They did an excellent set, I realized that I was completely ignorant of the fact they come all the way from Newcastle. It was amusing to hear their Geordie accents. Nightjoy was ebulient though I would have suggested that they finish on a more upbeat song.
We then headed off to downstairs at Oasis to position ourselves for the 1990s. We stood through the kissaway trail. They are being hyped as arcade fire like- perhaps thats why I thought they were only mediocre. We managed to manouevre to a decent spot for the 1990s who were running late. Oh boy is their singer UGLY with a capital U. But though they have little musical substance they were fun bouncy and musically competent. The set included yours supposed to be my friend plus cult status and all the better songs from cookies. We then dashed off to Hectors House and got here in time for a break before Sergeant. Sergeant were incredibly good and we were very impressed - totally a new myspace friend and we will hope they come over to the USA. but they are SO young - startlingly so.
The Dykeenies came on next and finished the night with a fun set, but I preferred the Sergeant set as the songs were much better.
We got setlists from Kubichek! and The Dykeenies.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Pigeon Detectives London Astoria May 23rd
With the threat of having to choose between The Holloways and The Pigeon Detectives at the Great Escape, we decided to blow off the relations and spend a day and night in London seeing the Pigeons in their own gig with the faithful. So this was the third time, once at SXSW with music biz folks being cool, once at Great Escape with 18 yr old indie fans. This was a 14 plus show so quite a few little girls all set to scream backed by a set of 18 plus Indie lads set to crowd surf.
The first band was a dire Cheap Hotel, please if you see this name run as fast as you can. Awful trite dire music. But we managed to suffer through without cutting off our ears though that did seem like a feasible action at points.
Then we got Air Traffic, I definitely like this band and they are getting good press, but I would say that their music isn't really dance able but they put on a nice show and their enthusiasm for playing The Astoria is cute.
The Pigeons! starting with Romantic Type the show got off to a rowdy start, in fact it was pretty rowdy through out with regular crowd surfers being removed. All the hits were played including Dick'ead and Stop and Go where Matt chided everyone who knew the song as being illegal downloaders and told us to go buy the alum come Monday. Matt climbed the side extorting people to clap, climbed the drum kit several times and basically performed himself to exhaustion. Just another regular Pigeons gig. Me, I like to watch the interactions of Dave and my favorite Pigeon Ryan.
I came out wet, sweaty and generally knackered. It is fun to see how these bands are received in their native element.
NOTE to the silly inefficient girl in the box office who kept us waiting a good three minutes while folks were pouring into the gig, thanks so much for being inefficient you meant we were further to the side than we would have liked and beside some complete idiot little boys who didn't dance and managed to let some silly little girls in beside them then tried to push me aside. If you guys let your sex drive to tell you to allow some girls in then give up your place do not push to the side pissing off the people beside you.
photos and a scan of the set list to follow.
The first band was a dire Cheap Hotel, please if you see this name run as fast as you can. Awful trite dire music. But we managed to suffer through without cutting off our ears though that did seem like a feasible action at points.
Then we got Air Traffic, I definitely like this band and they are getting good press, but I would say that their music isn't really dance able but they put on a nice show and their enthusiasm for playing The Astoria is cute.
The Pigeons! starting with Romantic Type the show got off to a rowdy start, in fact it was pretty rowdy through out with regular crowd surfers being removed. All the hits were played including Dick'ead and Stop and Go where Matt chided everyone who knew the song as being illegal downloaders and told us to go buy the alum come Monday. Matt climbed the side extorting people to clap, climbed the drum kit several times and basically performed himself to exhaustion. Just another regular Pigeons gig. Me, I like to watch the interactions of Dave and my favorite Pigeon Ryan.
I came out wet, sweaty and generally knackered. It is fun to see how these bands are received in their native element.
NOTE to the silly inefficient girl in the box office who kept us waiting a good three minutes while folks were pouring into the gig, thanks so much for being inefficient you meant we were further to the side than we would have liked and beside some complete idiot little boys who didn't dance and managed to let some silly little girls in beside them then tried to push me aside. If you guys let your sex drive to tell you to allow some girls in then give up your place do not push to the side pissing off the people beside you.
photos and a scan of the set list to follow.
Monday, May 21, 2007
great escape brighton in a nutshell
pretty damn good. Last gig we went to (twilight sad) we ended up on one of the nme photos standing at the front.
We saw; james yorkson, kubichek!, kissaway trail, 1990s, sergeant, the dykeenies, passenger, the runners, midway state, oh No ONo, Pigeon detectives, mechanical bride, battle, foals, holloways, the answering machine, noisettes, Maths Class , ripchord, the rev, strange death of liberal england, mumm-ra, winterkids, rank deluxe, charlottefield and twilight sad.
not a bad haul. We also bumped into and talked to Ryan pigeon, last gang, ripchord, keith the mumm-ra manager, Noo and the twilight sad guitarist and bass player.
We saw; james yorkson, kubichek!, kissaway trail, 1990s, sergeant, the dykeenies, passenger, the runners, midway state, oh No ONo, Pigeon detectives, mechanical bride, battle, foals, holloways, the answering machine, noisettes, Maths Class , ripchord, the rev, strange death of liberal england, mumm-ra, winterkids, rank deluxe, charlottefield and twilight sad.
not a bad haul. We also bumped into and talked to Ryan pigeon, last gang, ripchord, keith the mumm-ra manager, Noo and the twilight sad guitarist and bass player.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
The Cribs Reviewed May 2nd Mercury Lounge
So three days of The Cribs. I am a very happy person.
We drove down on Wednesday and went down to the Mercury Lounge for about 5:15.
When we got there we saw Chris, their guitar tech, just before the cribs walked in. As they walked past we said hi, but kept back. They played I'm a Realist,Moving Pictures, Mens Needs, Our Bovine Public and what we finally figured was 'Be Safe'.
When they stopped, I loudly said 'the new songs are really amazing. I managed to talk to Gary then Ryan talking about the new songs, asking Ryan what he thought of current bands in the UK. He said he didn't really like anything so I specifically asked about the pigeons. I suppose it was telling that he didn't know who I was talking about until I elaborated to The Pigeon Detectives. Ryan just stated it wasn't his kind of music and made a comment about being a punk band. I mentioned the thread on the cribs board and about Franz and Kaiser chiefs and asking his thoughts. while making clear I knew he liked Ricky but what did he think about the music. He says that Kaisers and Franz are open about making commercial music and that was better than bands that thought they were punk rock but hadn't done their time.
All the guys asked if we were going on Thursday as they were hoping to have Lee Ranaldo play Be Safe with them, the only chance they would have for this. They also said the album is going to be a really sweet packaging and the DVD will be ace, telling us to pick it up when we are over in the first week.
Note the guys had asked for hot tea instead of the vodka that Ryan is normally seen drinking.
The gig that night was pretty good, but I must be getting more anti-social as most folks were just bugging.
Support bands were The Jealous Girlfriends, who were OK and White Rabbits. White Rabbits are getting a lot of blog attention. They seem to be trying to be like Cold War Kids but were fun to watch.
The set included Our Bovine Public, I'm A Realist (which is just amazing),Girls Like Mystery, Moving Pictures,Womens Needs and Ancient History both of which I will really need to listen to the recorded version and get more into,Mens Needs as well as the old favorites. Ryan was relatively well behaved didn't seem that drunk, he did do the playing the amp pushing it over and throwing the mike stand around. Chris seemed to appreciate the fact we periodically moved the mike stand back to solid ground.
Great gig, afterwards we went off to what was being touted as a cribs after party but turned out to be the worst scenester party where bribes were required to get through the door, we bailed on that without paying the bribes.
Picture of Gary
We drove down on Wednesday and went down to the Mercury Lounge for about 5:15.
When we got there we saw Chris, their guitar tech, just before the cribs walked in. As they walked past we said hi, but kept back. They played I'm a Realist,Moving Pictures, Mens Needs, Our Bovine Public and what we finally figured was 'Be Safe'.
When they stopped, I loudly said 'the new songs are really amazing. I managed to talk to Gary then Ryan talking about the new songs, asking Ryan what he thought of current bands in the UK. He said he didn't really like anything so I specifically asked about the pigeons. I suppose it was telling that he didn't know who I was talking about until I elaborated to The Pigeon Detectives. Ryan just stated it wasn't his kind of music and made a comment about being a punk band. I mentioned the thread on the cribs board and about Franz and Kaiser chiefs and asking his thoughts. while making clear I knew he liked Ricky but what did he think about the music. He says that Kaisers and Franz are open about making commercial music and that was better than bands that thought they were punk rock but hadn't done their time.
All the guys asked if we were going on Thursday as they were hoping to have Lee Ranaldo play Be Safe with them, the only chance they would have for this. They also said the album is going to be a really sweet packaging and the DVD will be ace, telling us to pick it up when we are over in the first week.
Note the guys had asked for hot tea instead of the vodka that Ryan is normally seen drinking.
The gig that night was pretty good, but I must be getting more anti-social as most folks were just bugging.
Support bands were The Jealous Girlfriends, who were OK and White Rabbits. White Rabbits are getting a lot of blog attention. They seem to be trying to be like Cold War Kids but were fun to watch.
The set included Our Bovine Public, I'm A Realist (which is just amazing),Girls Like Mystery, Moving Pictures,Womens Needs and Ancient History both of which I will really need to listen to the recorded version and get more into,Mens Needs as well as the old favorites. Ryan was relatively well behaved didn't seem that drunk, he did do the playing the amp pushing it over and throwing the mike stand around. Chris seemed to appreciate the fact we periodically moved the mike stand back to solid ground.
Great gig, afterwards we went off to what was being touted as a cribs after party but turned out to be the worst scenester party where bribes were required to get through the door, we bailed on that without paying the bribes.
Picture of Gary
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