Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Gigs 2011

to misquote from 'A Tale of Two Cities'
it was the best of years for gigs and it was the worst of years.
2011 was the year LiveNation came in puts its brutal finger round the neck of live music in Boston and throttles it to a horrible mangled mess.
FUCK YOU LIVE NATION MAY YOU ROT IN HELL.
We are way down in our concerts only 69 this year.
We saw gigs by our absolute favourites Twilight Sad and The Wombats and that included very special SXSW gigs from The Sad and an amazingly wonderfully intimate sets from The 'bats.
We saw Mystery Jets, Telekinesis and Bear Hands again
We got to finally see Bombay Bicycle Club after listening to them for five years and MANY MANY times so much they now recognize and joke with us.
We also got to see Yuck, weird situation the progenitor of Yuck Cajun Dance Party makes me foolish in adoration. So amazing to talk to Daniel, who seems shy and Max was so amazingly friendly Iam for ever in his debt.
We got to see Admiral Fallow,Kid Canaveral, withered Hand and King Creosote for the first time and fell in love. King Creosote in Boston astounded me beyond words so that their gig is seared in my mind in awe. Weird because Kenny is such a down t earth bloke and not someone we would be normally throwing back pints with but I bow before his musical genius.
We saw Alessi's Ark many times and loved her down to earth humility and honesty, she went from nice music to must go see her when she is near.
We got to see Emmy The Great in a random CMJ hit and run gig and found she lived up to her hype. I find it impossible to dislike a woman who treats the subject of date rape as an opportunity to show a man that a woman has control of her body and should be treated with respect.
We saw the death of Glasvegas, the gig in Boston was brutal and humiliating in its awfulness.
We got to see Pulled Apart By Horses and loved their huge energy, sorry still dont love their music.
The Indelicates hit the USA and my love for them grew in leaps and bounds, when I saw them at SXSW Simon scared me, this time I realised he is a sweet teddy bear.
I realised The Vaccines and Brother were a total hype taht we coudl forget.
We got to see Eddie Collins again, wow what a comeback and he played my favourite song, Don't Shilly Shally - oh wow fan girl time!
so my quick review less than I wanted but the highs were high so perhaps I am not so sad.