Super Furry Animals and the passing of the years

Super Furry Animals, a few years ago, originally uploaded by jellybeanz.

So, last weekend I made my first visit to the Zodiac for five months, the first since they’ve spent thousand and thousands of pounds ‘improving’ the venue. I haven’t had such a depressing experience at a gig for a very long time, if ever. It was the sad realisation that the venue I’ve known for the last 8 years really doesn’t exist anymore, and in its place is a new place, full of people who are there not for the music (who would pay £20 for a gig ticket and then chat all the way trough it?), and frankly just over priced. It made Brookes look like a great venue. With the limitations of a low ceiling, they made the stage low, and as a result no one standing after the 4th row from the stage can really see anything. And if they spent thousands of pounds upgrading the venue, couldn’t they find somewhere better to put the sound booth but slap bang in the middle of the room?

Super Furry Animals, on the other hand, made the best out of the crap venue. The mixture of old tracks with the upbeat songs from the new album, quickly passing by the tracks from Love Kraft, made for a great set. However the venue couldn’t show them at their best. The only disappointment of the set was the finale, only playing a short version of The Man Don’t Give A Fuck followed by Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy rather than just performing the longer version of TMDGAF.

Overall the gig experience was so awful, I had to go out to another gig on Saturday, just to erase the experience from my memory of this weekend. Luckily, The Evening performed a storming set at the Wheatsheaf, and at least restored my faith in some venues in Oxford.

Edited to add: I’ve just realised, I paid $58 (£29) to see Daft Punk this summer. I paid almost as much (approx £27 if you include the taxi I got to get to the Zodiac on time) to see SFA. I know where I’d rather spend my £30.

Los Campesinos!, Last Year

Los Campesinos!, Last Year, originally uploaded by jellybeanz.

Again continuing the theme of watching only bands I’ve seen before, the last four days have included a gig with The Applicants and the Walk Off, and tonight’s show with Los Campesinos!

Briefly, the gig on Saturday was memorable for all The Walk Off sticking Copydex all over their face, looking slightly terrifying and funny at the same time. The Applicants were great too, but they spent quite a bit of their set rolling around on the floor with the audience.

Tonight’s show was the third time I’ve seen Los Campesinos! The first was just under a year ago at the Port Mahon in Oxford, and although the other times I’ve seen them have been great, no LC! show will ever quite match that first one.

What was clear from their performance tonight, was no matter they fell into being a band, LC! clearly know what they are doing. While many new bands often fail to live up to the expectations from their early material, LC! didn’t have any problems. The new songs still have the clappy moments, and the great guitar melodic lines, but they don’t sound like any of the old material either.

Of the gigs from the last month, I haven’t left any show as happy as I was tonight. And we really do need a lot more happy music around.

I don’t take photos at gigs anymore, so here is one from the archives. You can see more from that gig here.

Hurrah! Some gigs

There’s so much going on in London, that there isn’t anywhere to go to for a full gig listing to find out what’s going on. Instead, I rely on finding out about shows from bands I already know, or through contact with people in Oxford. Still, it has been exciting to see bands I’ve watched for the past few years, grow to playing sell out audiences down in the big city. This was the case with Foals a couple of weeks ago at the Scala; they even had fans waiting for autographs at the end!

This week, I went to two very different shows. Last night, I headed out to Kilburn to watch Youthmovies, not having seen them since April. At the time when they first began to redefine their sound, around the time of Ores, I was pretty disappointed to be losing the YMSS sound of old. However the new songs are great, and it’s a sign of the band’s confidence that they are happy to challenge their ‘style’ and keep moving on.

During Eugene McGuinness’s supporting set, I began to realise what sets him apart from most other singer songwriters. I would normally run away from most other solo singers, but with Eugene his songs are always engaging and different. While other singer/songwriters tend to have one style, and stick to the same pace of songs, Eugene’s style is varied, and a lot more fun. And just like Youthmovies, he too has a sense for how to structure songs well.

Tonight, I headed up to Koko to watch a couple of acts I hadn’t seen for years. Opening was Chris T-T, who used to play regularly at Trailerpark. What was surprising was that the majority of his set was made up of old songs, songs that he was playing several years ago. And the saddest thing about the songs was that, although they were relevant back when they were first written (anti war, anti-anti hunt and so on) they are still relevant now, and our world hasn’t changed very much at all.

Watching the headliners, the Broken Family Band, was very, very strange. A few years ago, we were promoting shows for them in Oxford, and barely filling the venue, and now here they were, performing to 700/800 people for almost two hours. I always forget how beautiful some of their songs are, and just quite how many albums they’ve made. But when did they get quite so rock? The first reason why I liked the Broken Family Band was for their country twinged songs, that made up most of their early albums, but it seems that in the last few years (since I last saw them live) they’ve really notched up their live shows. Although the singer, Steven Adams, had a cold they still performed an entertaining shows, throwing fake flowers into the audience and even featuring a dancer on stage at one point. That’s one thing we never had when we put them on…

Two more days till pay day

And in anticipation, I went record shopping, and finally got hold of Lions by Jonquil. Since early this afternoon, it’s been on constant repeat. Yes, Sunny Casinos was great, but by the time that came out Jonquil were already playing the more song based tracks that make up Lions, AND they made us wait a whole year for the album as well. But, blimey, is it worth the wait.

I first listened to the entire album in full on a walk around Regent’s Park, and it was perfect. The harmonies and dense layers in Lily and Pencil, Paper were a glorious soundtrack for strolling through the fallen leaves and autumnal colours. While the simple, joyous songs like Sudden Sun and Whistle Low just made the sun appear to shine that much brighter. And of course, there’s the untitled track leading up to Lions which is perfect for whatever time or season.