Wednesday, March 25, 2009

damo suzuki + leeds friends
the only other leeds gig i've seen this month was almost a couple of weeks ago now - damo suzuki - once member of 1970s band can. i didn't know any of his stuff, although maybe at some point in the past i have listened to some can without quite realising, who knows?? i had heard his gigs are generally pretty entertaining, so went along intrigued to find out what it was all about. support came from napolean iiird and quack quack, the collective four individuals from both of which were to join damo on stage again later on - along with two other leeds musicians. cos that's what happens at a damo suzuki gig. a bunch of local musicians get together and play for an hour or so without ever all having been on stage together before, whilst making it sound like they play together all the time... it was quite something to behold.


















admittedly i reckon i might have got bored if i hadn't been taking photos, but it was entertaining all the same. i didn't get bored with the supports - never seen quack quack before and i did enjoy what i seen. moz (on the keyboards) was most most entertaining. i wanna have that much fun!




and first on was napolean iiird who i enjoyed muchly. i hadn't seen napiiird for some time...(just checking my archives)...since may last year in fact. and i don't think i've ever seen him with two of them-there tape-things (very technical term!). i recall one of the last tunes he played - which seemed to be quite different to the rest of the set - reminded me of animal collective (well i thought so anyway). which is very apt, cos animal collective are playing in leeds this very night as i type! ha, and funnily enough, reading that archive post from last may there was also an animal collective link (if you read all the way to the end)...












more shots from this gig in f-land.
now, will i get to any more gigs before this month is out i wonder? my gig quota for march hasn't been so high. hmm. i hope it's not a sign that i'm turning into a hermit.
x

Sunday, March 22, 2009

marmaduke duke: blood, sweat and feathers
marmaduke duke are "the atmosphere" and "the dragon", plus pals. i didn't know anything about them until the day of the gig when i read about them in the metro and then i found out some friends were going, so i ended up joining them at the brudenell that night. (more background on them in this DiS interview)
it turned out to be a fun gig during which i spied blood, sweat and feathers... and coloured tights...and random masks....and lots of other stuff too. i didn't spy the lead singer's face, or much of him at all that wasn't his back.


















i take it as a failure on my part that i only got one shot from the whole gig where you can actually make out the lead singers' eyes! yes i was probably on the wrong side of the stage for frontal shots, but i was a bit scared about getting covered in blood (one busted nose spied) and feathers (of which there were lots about) if i'd gone over into the scrum.














and just as he took off his mask and unveiled himself, my battery died. typical!
x

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

february outings: the durutti column, crystal stilts and passion pit
february was quiet enough to start with, then i had a flurry of gigs in the second half of the month - in fact, probably more precisely, in the last week. from established bands to new kids on the block (sometimes sounding like old bands), i hadn't actually heard much music from any of these before the gigs.

the first (and most likely not the last*) factory band to play the beloved brudenell in recent times (ever?) - the durutti column - had a loyal following, plus an annoyingly young girlfriend of mr vinny riley onstage, and a slightly crazy drummer. Support came from the declining winter (alas, no shots), but there is a review of the gig here. (*rumours abound that another certain band has been booked; there's a clue there, innit!)


























next came crystal stilts. droneyness abounds, which i enjoyed so much on the night i bought the album. (of which, by the way, track 7 reminds me of jens lekman...) there is a review of this gig here.











































and the month was ended on a busy friday night gig, which was pretty much the antithesis of the crystal stilts gig in some ways... i missed the first band (bearhands), except when they invaded the stage later. shame i missed 'em as i heard good things about their set. the next band was hockey, who i really didn't care for. then came passion pit, who i enjoyed but have no recollection now what they even sounded like. must have a listen online somewhere.























it all got a bit wooaah crazy, in "it's the last night of our tour with one of our support bands so lets have a stage invasion with a bear" kind-of way.... and why the hell not indeed.

more shots from all the gigs, all of which were at the brudenell, on flickrooni. am beginning to wonder, will i venture to any gigs that are at other venues in leeds this year? am thinking, yes...surely at some point. i almost went to a gig in a house tonight (i really wanted to see sleepingdog) but i ended up chained to my computer.

x


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

the national (and scandi fest memories)
the national have been on my mind a lot recently. they have curated a charity compilation album (dark was the night) that i intend to buy very soon. and i made my first purchase of one of their albums not long back and have been listening to it quite a lot in my ears on trains and buses travelling to and from different cities. i resisted the national for quite some time, after seeing them at the cockpit in leeds a while back and not really being that taken with them (for some reason or another). i then saw them last year at a festival in sweden and i had an about-turn. i'm not sure if this had anything to do with the scandi crowd being so attentive - both at the 'way out west festival' in gothenburg and 'oya festival' in oslo that's the one thing i noticed being so different to crowds in the uk - everybody seemed like really they wanted to be there to watch and listen to the bands.























of course another reason i liked the national in scandinavia last august is, because of them, i won the 'spotting famouse people in the crowd' competition that i was having with ingunn and dave. (i spotted one of the brothers in the crowd at oya the day before they played there; my compatriates can vouch for this although, as it turns out, there is no photo evidence.)

after returning from said festivals, i promised i would update on my thoughts of both. but i never did. my highlight (of the trip, and the year) was sigur ros...but also fleet foxes were pretty amazing (the crowd was going crazy for them). and seeing wayne coyne in a bubble floating over my head whilst tellytubbies filled my peripheral vision was quite something.

some photo memories here and here. and some words by dave about oya here.

will i get to scandi for any festivals this year? i'm not sure, although i heard beirut just got attend to the oya line-up, so it's tempting. i do hope to get to stockholm in may (non festival, but fun all the same i hope), so that's a start for my foreign jaunts this year!

x