Now the belated May (and June) gigs

One thing about a busy month is that it means I am even less likely to write about those shows until much later. (I used to be good, and did these on returning home right after a gig.) So my excuses for not writing anything in May is as follows:

April summary

It’s been a while since Gonzales, and so here’s a post about the shows I went to in the rest of April. The next post will cover all the gigs I went to in May (a lot).

Monday 19th April – Wegottickets 10th Birthday party with Jonquil at the Bull and Gate

Apart from those gigs I went to in the States during my trip up the West Coast, this has possibly the longest journey I’ve made for any gig. Before the weekend, I had been in Copenhagen, arriving in Denmark before the volcano cloud struck. The journey back from there to London took me two days, four trains and a ferry arriving back at St. Pancras via the Eurostar at 8pm. An hour later, I was in Kentish Town watching Jonquil. Unsurprisingly, I can’t remember much of the detail of the show now, but like their support slot a couple of weeks before at the Youthmovies gig, they played a set consisting of entirely new songs. Taking a less mellow outlook than before, it really showed the band shifting up a gear to focus on breaking through properly. It’s a shame that they don’t play songs from the Lions era anymore, but then when they moved on from Sunny Casinos I probably said the same thing. What’s interesting is to see what they do next.

Wednesday 21st April – Efterklang at the Shepherds Bush Empire

Since seeing them with at the Barbican last year, I’ve grown to like Efterklang more and more. To such an extent that I almost considered going to see them while I was in Copenhagen even though I already had tickets to see them a few days later in London. In the end my bank account won out and I only went to the London show. To start with, it was a bit of an odd show. The venue wasn’t full, the atmosphere was lacking and there were far too many drunk young Scandinavians chatting their way through the set. It took a while for the show to really get going, but when it did, it showed why Efterklang just require your full attention. Eventually everyone was under the spell, and Casper even managed to create a moment when everyone in the audience and the band were silent. I guess that doesn’t happen in the Shepherds Bush Empire very often.

Gonzales @ the Bloomsbury Ballroom, 08/04

Gonzales @ the Bloomsbury Ballroom, 08/04, originally uploaded by jellybeanz.

No one quite does a live show like Chilly Gonzales. While last time was all about the fun and entertainment, this time with only Mocky and not the full live set up it was a lot darker, with more ‘Angry’ Gonzales.

Still no one quite entertains like Gonzales. It started with him putting on white gloves to give the air of formality of some classical performance and it ended with a short song performed by standing on the piano, playing with both feet, whilst wearing slippers. Whilst he gives off the air of a gentleman of leisure, performing in a dressing gown and slippers, the projector display showing the piano keyboard revealed his piano playing.

Throughout the show Gonzales swings from being a serious performer and improviser to adding some strangely silly bits and overacting. Rather than watching a Gonzales show just for the music, it’s the whole package, you never quite know what he might do next.

Farewell YMSS

Youthmovies, originally uploaded by jellybeanz.

There aren’t that many bands left from 2002 who are both still a going concern and whose music still interests me today. With the end of Youthmovies/Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies/YMSS/Youm it’s another one crossed off a very short list. Partly it’s me, over the last eight years my interests have moved on, and whilst many of those bands from 2002 haven’t moved on very much, Youthmovies were one of the few who had felt the need to constantly reinvent their sound and challenge themselves.

Thinking back to my first impressions of the band, at the Wheatsheaf in November 2002, I wasn’t entirely convinced by them. What were four guys roughly my age doing wearing nurses outfits onstage? By the second time, in December, I had already been converted. At the time I wrote ‘It’s a bit awkward jumping from one style to another, once they settle down to one they could be very interesting.’ Memories of Youthmovies phase 1 is a blur of shows (generally at the Wheatsheaf) featuring them and other kindred spirits, Cat on Form, 65daysofstatic, Edmund Fitzgerald and so on.

With the release of ‘Hurrah…’, Youthmovies phase 2 developed into a far more interesting prospect. It is from this era that I have some of my favourite memories of the band. There was the house party in Oxford in April 2007, where I made everyone drink Chinese white wine freshly brought back from a trip to Hong Kong, and the show on Brick Lane where the band played a more experimental show linking their songs with lots of improvised noise in between.

The final show downstairs at the Zodiac was never going to be a classic performance for the band, it was too emotional for that. And when Al whacked himself in the face with his guitar second song in, we knew this show was going to be remarkable in a different way. What was great about this was the atmosphere. By performing in the round, the audience were looking at each other and also cheering on the band. Everyone sang along, savouring every last moment of this remarkable live band.

As a final thought, here are some ‘What Ifs’…

-What if they were luckier, how far would they have gone?

-What if they kept going, what would they sound like in ten years’ time