nastyfest ix (& animal collective)
two weeks ago today it was. i enjoyed it. and i saw: spodni pradlo, napolean iiird, paul marshall (no pics tho), slow club, lord auch, a place to bury strangers (not many pics due to the band playing in complete - and i mean complete and utter pitch black darkness for a lot of the set, hehe, ace!), dinosaur pile-up, no age, the mae shi and yeasayer. . . .



there's a collection of shots of all the bands here, and a random selection of shots in one tidy little set here.

most of all i enjoyed the mayhem that was the mae shi towards the end of the day. can't remember much about yeasayer after them. and i missed the madness of monotonix at the start (see pics here taken by fellow photographer gary w).
i also missed headliners in the back room pulled apart by horses who i wanted to see, which was also a bit of a mad set so i heard.

later that week i saw animal collective whose opening song (peacebone) was the the most enjoyable opening song of any set of any band at the brudenell that i've ever experienced - maybe helped along because of the crazy lights that just transported you somewhere else. i didn't shoot any of the gig, mainly cos the lights and the heat and the busyness put me off a bit. would love to see any if anyone did get any photos tho! ta. x

noisier gigs on saturdays!
two weeks ago i hung out at 'live at leeds 2008' - had a fun day, although didn't quite get to see as many bands as i should have. this was a city-wide event and i only got to about 50% of the venues. . . started off with eureka machines at the well, then headed to the pit for a long sesh - napolean iiird, dinosaur pile-up (my new fave leeds band it would seem!), the debuts, mi mye, some of i concur and grammatics and then the final 'pit band for me was this et al, who were stormin! then i raced up to the fav (on me tod) to see white rabbits, who i enjoyed thoroughly.



twas a lovely day, and loveliest of all was mi mye. more shots from the day here (and more will be added when i get around to sorting them). . .

and tomorrow it is the turn of the noisy nastyfest at the faversham, where dinosaur pile-up are playing again along with lots of others that i've been wanting to check out.




the full set of dp-up pics from live at leeds is here.

so this will be nastyfest number nine. i've not been to them all - the one last november was my fave so far (some pics + ramblings here). let's see what tomorrow brings. x

quiet gigs on thursdays. . .

it seems thursday is the day for quiet(ish) gigs of late. i have been out every thursday for the last three weeks, the first of which was low, at the wonderful city varieties in leeds. this is a lovely old music hall, with teared seating and ice-cream at the intervals. low was a fantastic gig. tonight it was the turn of the silver jews at the same venue - a gig which really wasn't what i was expecting. the support act was much more enjoyable than expected though (adrian crowley) - with his two violin players (and no siblings or wives on stage). . .

last thursday it was the turn of iliketrains at the equally wonderful brudenell social club. no getting up on stage for us this time (twice is probably enough!) - but we did get treated to death is not the end + choir (superb) (see here) and stainless steal (a rare treat).

but my highlight of the year so far gigwise (or otherwise) was phosphorescent at the faversham exactly two weeks ago tonight. fantastic gig after which i came away with two lots of lovely vinyl . . . (he is a vinyl kinda guy really). . . just as i'm posting this i'm listening to 'cocaine lights' (from his latest album pride) and at the end it's reminding me of haunting/tribal sounds of adjagas - one of my favourite gigs of last year. . .

more pics here.

http://www.last.fm/music/Phosphorescent