The weekend

My extremely manic weekend turned into a just busy couple of days, after I decided that Friday and Saturday nights were a good time to spend asleep. (Well my body’s decision, following the lack of sleep during the week before) That meant I missed a couple of gigs I had promised to attend (sorry to the bands involved.. I AM useless). But Sunday and Monday more than made up fro the quiet start.

As the way Sundays tend to be now (how did they end up being a busy gig night? – Sundays are supposed to be quiet) the afternoon was spent in the Port Mahon. Yes, Little Cosmonauts are twee, but the way they dissolve into giggles at the end of every song, and how they utilise every single twee instrument (they could make a drinking game out of it) was utterly charming. Junkplanet were the surprise of the afternoon. Earlier, they had spent ages littering the stage (literally) with items you could pick out of recycle bins. But their performance turned out to be a great balance between improv (without ever becoming too indulgent) and songs. The Keyboard Choir (minus Woody) were as good as ever, even if they thought they had played a rubbish set. The afternoon was rounded off by an introduction to brother James’ cover of Wuthering Heights. Wow… After a quick dash to the Zodiac (and just missing the Rock of Travolta.. whoops) Sunday night was spent watching teenagers idolising Foals.

Monday was spent in London, watching the Shins. Of all the shows I’ve seen of theirs, this was the best. The band seem to be enjoying it a lot more, and the room was filled with people who wanted to dance and sing along. Even though I was knackered after a day walking about in London, it was still a great show to watch.

Watching electro pop in Punk

Last night, I made a journey down to London for 3 hours to see 20 minutes of Trademark (+a great pizza and an introduction to maltshakes) but it was fun. This was the debut of their new set, and new it was, made up of songs off their new album. This album has been ready since last summer, but due to distribution troubles it has been pushed back until this coming April. Raise the Stakes is probably my favourite release on Truck since the albums by Black Nielson. It’s so influenced by the 80s synthpop of the Pet Shop Boys, but there’s a tinge of more recent pop/house production values.

The live performance also fits into Trademark’s now very pop sound. There were seamless links in between the songs, and if they had performed later (instead of first on, with people wandering in throughout their set), no doubt the room would have been full of people dancing along.

Trail of Dead… are my favourite live band ever

Watching live bands over the last eight years or so, I’ve gone in and out of love of live music. The initial excitement of gigs wore off after about two years, and now I find that I rarely get that feeling of excitement about a band after a live show. However there is one band who have always produced a great live show, and prove that sometimes live music is just breathtaking. Maybe it’s because I only watch them once every couple of years, but every single Trail of Dead show has been memorable.

The first, is one of the gigs I trot out as ‘my legendary gig story’. In the Point, only half full, when I was 17. They were one of the first bands I saw that revealed another world of live music. The world where bands don’t stay rooted to their spot on the stage, and where anything could happen. This show ended with Jason and Conrad spraying their rider at the audience.

The second was the last gig I saw as a 17 year old, the night before my 18th birthday. 8 months on from their under attended Point show, this time the room was packed, and I was entirely caught up in the show, hanging onto the barriers at the front.

After this, the band disappeared off my radar for a while. The albums they released became more and more disappointing. They played at the ATP at Christmas 2004, and out of curiosity (and probably because there was nothing interesting on downstairs), I went to see them. That show blew me away, and led me back four years, capturing that energy I used to have just watching live shows.

And this most recent show is no different. Although the band’s line up might have changed over the years, the band has remained the same (but in a good way). There is still that relationship between Conrad and Jason, while Conrad may remain seriously concentrated on the music, Jason’s running around just enjoying the moment. And for that they are a great band to watch.

January

After my failure to remember what records I enjoyed in early 2006 for my end of year list, this year I will write short summaries of each month. This is mainly to remind myself of what I had done.

January was quiet, as Januarys usually are. After going to my normal number of January gigs (2), I filled the rest of the month by rewatching all 3 series of Arrested Development and playing computer games. According to iTunes I listened to Jonquil, Final Fantasy and Trademark, while on the CD player I revisited old CDs, Arthur Russell, Ultrasound, Ninja High School and Glissandro 70. In fact, January turned out to be a good month to find music that I previously overlooked, especially as I bought no (yup, no) records.

Maybe January is more of a ‘lull before the storm’. February already looks packed, so it was just nice to have some time to hide and sleep a lot.

PS None of the cinemas here are showing one of the films I desperately wanted to see this year