And update: I didn't find a co-host, so no radio show today. Which is too bad as it's also the end of term meaning that I won't have another chance to host a radio show.
I'll be hosting another radio show next Tuesday! So tune in to Rare.FM at 12 that day! At least, if I'm able to find a co-host, otherwise it'll be more chaos and random butting pushing than an actual show, but I guess that would have it's appeal as well.
And while I'm in the process of getting people to actually listen to 'my' show: Which song should I put on to make you listen?
Please bear in mind that it's the reviews show, so tracks should be fairly 'new' or 'relevant' (you can interpret those words in any way convenient to your choice of song) and that I'd like to actually present a show at some point. So as much I'd like to put on 'Station to Station' or half hour long tracks by Lindstrom, I would choose the sound of my own voice over those.
And before you start making suggestions, these tracks will certainly be featured in the show:
Foals - This Orient
The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
Zola Jesus - Night
And probably some Phoenix as I'll have seen them the night before
Remember that bit I wrote about Beach House/Grizzly Bear at the Roundhouse where I commented on the temperatures rising to tropical levels? Well, imagine that same venue, but now replace said bands with Phoenix, that French band who made one of last year's best albums filled with catchy music that would prevent anyone from standing still. Get the idea?
To make sure we reach the appropriate temperatures even before Phoenix come on, Two Door Cinema Club are given the opportunity to promote their recently released album Tourist History. Though their album appears to be released with the idea of, "Hey, people really seemed to like those singles we've put out! Let's copy those songs and call it an album!", they are a lot better live. The way they build up their songs reminds me of Editors' early work. As Editors' guitarist Chris Urbanowicz once explained, they use two different melody lines: the vocals and the guitar. But as opposed to Editors, Two Door Cinema Club are a lot more upbeat and danceable, and, regarding the last few years of Editors, sincere. Nice to see a band that thoroughly enjoy being on stage.
But band of the evening are of course Phoenix. I think I missed the part where they've become massively famous, and attained herds of screaming female fans. People are so excited to see them, that, once the lights go out, pictures are taken en masse of the white curtains that separate the audience and the stage. Once the first notes of 'Lisztomania' are played and the bands silhouettes are projected on to the curtains, visions are blurred by the sudden amount of photo-camera flashes and the cheers are deafening for just a minute. One might think it's a bit pretentious to open with one of your best known singles, surely that's to be left for the end of the set? But with Phoenix that's certainly not the case. From front to back, the set is filled with killer tracks, there's not a dull or lagging moment to be found. Okay, maybe the bit where Thomas Mars dives into the audience during the third song and has to find his way back to the stage which does take some time, but this also neatly leads into a rather sublime version of 'Love Like a Sunset', which is mostly instrumental so Thomas can take his time.
Throughout the entire set, Phoenix seem have the appearance one of those previously defunct rock bands that have gotten back together only to discover how much they actually love performing live and to harvest the cult-status they've build up over the years of their absence. It's just that Phoenix never have been away. Still, they perform like they've just conquered the world, or at least an entire football stadium. The herds of screaming fans are thus easily explained: those are just the people who've seen Phoenix perform live before and it's not long before the minority who were stunned at this unexpected enthusiasm join in.
Now, you'll often see Phoenix described as 'those French indie rockers', and yes, most of their set could be described as rock. But there are also those moments when they sound almost like fellow French men Daft Punk. Take 'Funky Squaredance' with its raving synths for instance, during which Thomas Mars suddenly appears in a cloud of smoke, almost like a God-like creature. And that's not the only song from the first album that makes its appearance on the set list: all four albums are covered tonight. 'Too Young' and 'If I Ever Feel Better' of United are absolute highlights, as are 'Consolation Prizes' of It's Never Been Like That and 'Run Run Run' of Alphabetical. The band balance the more danceable songs perfectly with some slower moments, like in the build up of earlier mentioned 'Love Like a Sunset', during which guitarists Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz show us some excellent call and reply riffs, ultimately leading into the song.
After exactly an hour, the stage is cleared, but of course only for a short while. Surprisingly, the crowd's cheers are so loud that I at least can't really distinguish an increase in volume when Phoenix finally do appear on stage again. To start of the encore, Thomas Mars proves himself a real chansonnier, by choosing to for once sing a French song. Even though the entire show has been packed with amazing singles and highlight after highlight, there's still that one song that hasn't been played yet. So once those first chords of '1901' sound through the Roundhouse, a dancing frenzy is inevitable. At the end of that song one would think that it's really over now: Thomas Mars has left the stage and the lights on the stage lower. But there's still that bass line lingering in the background, and the rest of the band's silhouettes are still distinguishable on stage. And then suddenly people start looking over their shoulders, as Thomas Mars has just appeared in the back of the venue and '1901' starts all over again, all whilst Monsieur Mars makes his way to the stage again, only to finally end one of the most memorable gigs of the year. Merci beaucoup, Phoenix, merci beaucoup.
Okay, so I had a bit of a slow week with only one gig, but still there’s plenty of other stuff going round to fill this little columny thing of mine with. And yes, I’ve once again failed to write this on Sunday: I blame that on the midnight price increase on cider. But honour where honour’s due: the live bit first.
Sleigh Bells/Visions of Trees/New Yoga @ White Heat/Madame Jojo’s In the few months I’ve spend in London so far, ‘White Heat’ has become one of my favourite features. As a weekly happening set in a former brothel in the heart of Soho, the organisers are able to gather an impressive line-up of soon to become the new indie-darling-of-the-week bands almost every single week. The directions to get there will give you an excellent idea of what to expect from that particular area: from Leicester Square tube station walk towards ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ and turn left at ‘Jersey Boys’, past ‘G-A-Y’. When you hit the edible underwear store turn right and immediately left again and then it’s just across the street from ‘Snog’ (which surprisingly is a store selling frozen yoghurt).
As I’ve been to this little indie hipster night before, I thought I knew by what time I ought to get there in order to not look like that loner that has no friends or sense of door times but still be able to catch all the bands. Well, not so much. New Yoga just finishes his set the moment I descend the staircase into the dark realms that are Mme Jojo’s. Better luck with Visions of Trees: another English boy/girl duo. And yes, they’ve managed to find a niche that wasn’t yet occupied by a mixed gender duo with their electro/hip hop beat fuelled dream pop, but apart from having a somewhat original idea about what music should sound like, they sound rather bland. Singer Sarah does not have the most amazing voice, but they find ways to work around that. Lowlight is a song that goes by the name ‘Solid Rainboes’ (and I whish I had misspelled that), which is merrier than your average Kate Nash song, and anything that brings Kate Nash to mind should be banned. However, they do manage to close their set with a promising sounding track, of which I’ve unfortunately forgotten the name.
A name that you’re much more unlikely to forget after seeing them live is Sleigh Bells, who are, to put in their own words, a little “up front”. As another boy/girl duo, again with a vaguely original idea, they manage what Visions of Trees cannot so far: be entertaining live. Vocalist Alexis (singer would be stretching it a bit too far) ‘owns’ the stage, as much as you could ever ‘own’ a stage. And yes, for this review I might have to reach a bit more into my urban vocabulary (and we’ll soon discover whether I even master such a thing as opposed to urban dance moves which I certainly do not), as urban is certainly a word I’d use to describe this musical partnership. Another way might be Crystal Castles meets American Apparel, as they combine the screaming lyrics and raging synths of CC with aggressive guitars and thumping hip hop beats straight of the streets of LA (or the American Apparel stores where I’ve based this theory of mine on).
As if the crowd wasn’t into it enough, Alexis decides to spice things up just a little bit more and descends into the pit of dancers at the forefront during ‘A/B Machines’, causing a mixture of excitement and fear with here aggressive appearance. The tracks that are featured in the set vary between killers (aforementioned ‘A/B Machines’, ‘Infinity Guitars’ and set closer ‘Crown on the Ground’) and a lot of fillers. Live they make up for this with sheer stage appearance alone, but how that will work out on an actual album remains to be seen.
Also nice: Benjamin John Power of Fuck Buttons DJ'd in between sets. Without his hat he appears to be virtually unrecognisable.
Save 6Music Protest @ Broadcasting House I’m not sure whether you’ve heard anything about the plans of the BBC to axe 6Music, but here in London it is a very big issue. Due to possible cuts in the budget of the BBC in the future, the Beeb has decided it has to cut down its services. Those cuts include taking down half of the web content, axing BBC Asia network and, unfortunately, axing Radio 6.
As 6Music is the only radio station that can still claim any credibility when saying it gives new and exciting music a platform to gain listeners, there was quite some opposition to this idea, leading to a fierce Facebook campaign, online petitions and angry e-mails to the BBC Trust telling them to Save 6! All of this accumulated in a protest that was organised to take place at Broadcasting House last Saturday. As a regular 6Music listener (where would I be without my weekly portion of Jarvis Cocker on Sunday afternoon?) I of course couldn’t stay away (and was also secretly hoping that Jarvis himself might be there to support this good cause as well). And I wasn’t alone in that thought, as about 2,000 people turned up to stand in front of the building and stare at several persons shouting undecipherable things into a megaphone for about two hours, in the rain (or as Ilse described it: “God is angry as well”).
Results: so far some extra media coverage in the Guardian, as the BBC is blatantly ignoring all the criticism of its decision to axe its services. How’s that for being objective? The final decision on whether 6Music has a right to live will be taken somewhere in May, so there’ll probably be some more protests coming up.
St John Passion (by Johann Sebastian Bach) @ St MaryAbbotsChurchYup: classical music. With two flatmates at the Royal Academy of Music I’m broadening my musical horizon. And of course there’s also the part where I can get in for free to these things now, though I did have to pretend to be part of the orchestra to get actually get in.
I’ll not pretend that I know anything about classical music that grants me the expertise to write anything sensible as a review on this particular piece; I can just say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially the opening bit where the entire choir (yes there was a choir) backed the orchestra up. I was told by my expert flatmate that this was indeed the best bit of the over two hour piece, though the fact that it was sung in English rather than the original German did attenuate the enthusiasm of the crowd a bit. What I found most surprising was more of a personal experience: when I listen to ‘my’ kind of music, I tend to focus more on the instrumentation. I think that might have something to do with the fact that I play guitar and keys a bit myself. But in this setting, the vocals appeared to be the main attraction. Lowlight: sitting on a wooden bench for over two hours doesn’t do wonders for one’s bum.
(I know they worked for me) I'm here: A Love Story in an Absolute World.
It's a short film by Spike Jonze (if that name means anything to you) and it's brill. But then again, how could a film with robots and Of Montreal not be amazing? I'm Here/
More of this free stuff please!
Some Scottish comedy. I think it's rather brilliant, and by now can almost understand what they're saying (almost).
The Daily Mail song.
Lastly, something that's sadly only available on the iPlayer (so not outside the UK): Lizzie and Sarah. It's a bit of a dark comedy and again absolutely amazing. I bet you could find it outside the UK as well if you'd try (and it's certainly worth the trouble!)
As I have been participating in diet related research for the past five months, I’m starting to get a grip on the issues that surround this type of research. The department I’m working at mostly focuses on diet in overweight children and adolescents, and one of the problems that comes up most is portion size. ‘Cause how big is one portion supposed to be? And is an adult portion the same as a portion for an adolescent or child? This is particularly important when you try to send out a questionnaire asking how much people actually eat as one portion of chips can be very different from one person to the next.
One other problem is the size of portion throughout time. There are some indications that portion size has increased over the years: people put more food on their plates than they used to. But how can you actually measure this as no one really weighs the amount of food they put on their plate on a daily basis? Well, some researchers in Ithaca published a paper today with a very creative solution: art. As people have always been rather obsessed with food, there are a lot of paintings with food as its main theme. But of course, you want some control over your study; you don’t just want pictures of any food! Standardisation! Randomisation! Well, luckily there’s this one scene that has been painted over and over again over the last thousand years and it also happens to be documented pretty well: The Last Supper.
By looking at the 52 most famous depictions of The Last Supper, all produced over the last 1,000 years, researchers were able to compare portion sizes of a main meal, bread and plate size (as these all happen to be mentioned in the Bible). Over time, the size of a main meal increased with a staggering 69%, while plates became 66% larger. The size of a loaf of bread increased a modest amount with 23%. Several studies have already proven that, when offered more food, people will eat more, regardless of hunger and satiety. Moreover, the speed with which portions increased accelerated over time.
A subtlety that ought to be mentioned here is that this concerns ‘normal’ meals. It is well known that fast food portion have increased over time: take for instance your average McDonalds burger. Since its introduction, it has increased over 500% in size (in the USA of course, in Europe it’s ‘only’ about 300%). And that’s just burgers. As the whole portion size issue seems to be implicated in the surging obesity epidemic of the last few decades, this study seems of particular interest. Maybe we could compare what James Bond has been having for dinner next?
Cold Cave/Talons @ the Old Blue Last
Maybe this wasn't the best choice of gig to introduce my flatmate, who plays violin and only listens to classical music and Michael Bubble, to indie music, but believe it or not, it was free and that always works for me. When she spotted the two violins that make up one third of the line up of Talons, I think she even became a bit excited. Until they actually started to play. Instrumental lo-fi post-rock, especially at the volumes reached in the Old Blue Last, is not the kind of genre that should be used to gently make someone acquainted with the subtleties and melodies of indie music. But she made it through the entire set, and even managed to appreciate the skill of the lead guitarist. The two violinist were not that impressive according to my accomplice, and even I have to agree on that.
As Cold Cave are able to sell out Cargo, the Old Blue Last is just a bit too small for them, let alone the part where the entry was free tonight. Combine that with the absence of a working air conditioning system and the temperatures rise to levels where you could easily start a banana farm. Nevertheless, Wesley Eisold insists on appearing in his dark collared coat on stage and persist on wearing it throughout the entire, abruptly ending set. Fortunately for him, he is one of the very, very few men who miraculously look better when they sweat. And Eisold does a lot of that. Yup. Since the last time I saw them, female vocalist Caralee McElroy has been replaced and a live drummer has been added to the line up. The latter of these really adds to the live performance, and Jennifer Calvin fills the void left by Caralee perfectly: if I hadn't seen them before I probably wouldn't even has noticed this inconsistency.
Eisold is not a man of many words, directed to the audience at least. He just walks on stage, starts doing his thing and doesn't even glance at the people trying to catch his attention right in front of him. But for Cold Cave, this works excellently. Most of Love Come Closes, their debut album, is featured on the set list and almost causes a dancing frenzy on the first few rows. The dancing quietly dies down when songs of Cremations are included and the set then suddenly end with a short "Thank you" from Eisold. After some initial confusion (the band have left the stage before the word "Thank you" even had time to sink in), it becomes clear that the performance really has ended. What my classically orientated flatmate thought of it? I don't know, she left after the first two songs as she couldn't take it any more.
Times New Viking/Cold Pumas/Prize Pets @ the Dome
I've been having a real noise/lo-fi music revival lately. If you can call it a revival, as I don't seem to remember having had a distinct 'noise' phase before. So seeing Times New Viking again was something to look forward too (and does anyone else now crave a font by this name too?).
Both support acts complied with the lo-fi/noise/garage band theme, but opposed to most bands in this genre, they were English. And yes, I know they are not the only fish in this endless grey sea of flannel wearing bands-that-don't-care (take Lovvers for example), but still, I am quite intrigued by the use of an English accent in this niche of the musical spectrum. And opposed the two times I've seen Lovvers, no obvious signs of alcohol intoxication! The most distinctive feature of Prize Pets is their guitarist, who appears to suffer from restless leg syndrome. There is not a single moment in the entire set when he is able to stand still for longer than the time it takes to use an effect pedal. It certainly adds some comedy value as he frequently becomes entangled in the wires and has to figure out how to untie himself whilst keeping on playing and moving (which he is surprisingly good at).
Times New Viking, devoid of stage exercise routines, have a large back catalogue to rely on during this gig. Apparently, this is not enough for singer & drummer Adam Elliott who sneaks a full bottle of Jack Daniel's onto stage, only to leave with the bottle over half finished. Hmm, this sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? Well, opposed to that other band, Times New Viking are able to deliver an outstanding performance even while under the influence of alcohol. I guess that's the experience you get with years of touring.
Throughout the gig, Elliott becomes increasingly more talkative and energetic, but still manages to flawlessly supply the songs with an appropriately tight beat. Jared Phillips and Beth Murphy, who both seem surprisingly sober next to Elliott, leave their lead man to take the spotlight and provide him with the necessary background vocals and melodies. A simple nod is often enough to create an understanding among the three people on stage. They play their songs back to back, with Elliott screaming "Thank you"s and other encouragements during the very short intermissions. "It's Saturday night! Let's get pissed together!" are the uplifting words he uses to announce the end of the set. Thanks for the more than apt set kind sir, but no thanks, I believe you're already there.
DM Stith/Mechanical Bride @ the Slaughtered Lamb
I've been to the Farringdon/Clerkenwell area a few times now, and I still don't really know what to make of it. It's a very un-London-like area in that you never, no matter what time of day you are there, meet any other people. Unless you count the lorry drivers who are unloading the carcasses of dead pigs.
But no decaying animals today as DM Stith is the reason I'm here, and by now I know some detours to avoid having to look dead in the face. And may I start by saying: well done David Michael, his performance was of such excellence that it prompted me to quietly sneak my pint glass in my bag to keep as a souvenir. In hindsight this might not have been such a good idea as it prevented me from finally buying the album (I couldn't just take out my purse without displaying the stolen goods I had on me).
The support act, Mechanical Bride, is mostly missed by yours truly, due to certain detours undertaken to reach the venue without feeling physically uncomfortable. The moment I enter the venue (comfy couches everywhere and carpets on the floor), there is a silence as if someone just dropped dead. After wondering for just a second whether this is why I didn't ran into a dead pig man this time round, Mechanical Bride start to play their melodic but minimalistic folk and the mystery is solved: the audience is simply completely captivated by this duo.
The fact that DM Stith even made it to the Slaughtered Lamb tonight -- a name even more appropriate if you take a random stroll around the area I might add-- is quite impressive: only 30 hours ago he was at SXSW (and who wasn't?), and only managed to get half an hour of sleep whilst trying to get to London, which can be pretty tedious if you're flying from the USA and forget to take your paperwork with you. As opposed to the last time he performed on this side of the Atlantic, DM Stith is performing solo. But even without the strings and piano, his songs are as amazing as on his album Heavy Ghost. Besides his own work, Stith also decides to do a Mark Linkous cover, which might seem as an odd choice, but somehow it really works in the entire set.
There is also some new work featured in this show, though there are currently no plans of releasing them any time soon. That's what this tour is all about: just trying out some new material. The songs go neatly with his previous work: the same unusual chord progressions combined with his singing that almost sounds as a whisper. Certainly something to look forward to.
So, I went to Cambridge last Friday with my flatmates, and I must say: this city has restored my belief in England as a country. It's just an hour by train from London, but it's completely different. No people running so fast as if they were trying to go back in time, no six lane streets that are so wide you can't even see the other side and maybe best of all: you can buy both drop and stroopwafels there. Hooray for that.
And as you can see in the picture, the university (Cambridge university, not the other one that is being advertised on the train station, buses and every flat surface area of a certain size) is absolutely amazing. My flatmates took some pictures, so I'll try to post those somewhere next week, when they've uploaded them. The day started out great with sunshine and a temperature which didn't necessitate winter coats any more, so we rented some bikes and biked through Cambridge and some of the surrounding country side (whilst discovering that the lack of exercise in London really has had a negative effect on my ability to ride uphill). Biking on the left side of the road didn't create any problems for me, as opposed to one of my Hungarian flatmates whom we had to keep reminding that right wasn't the right side here.
On Saturday, I participated in a flash mob. Ilse was supposed to join me in this organised mayhem, but a slight drizzle of rain (and weekend closures at the tube) got the better of her, so I went by myself. The event was supposed to take place at Trafalgar square, at 1.15pm, somewhere near one of the fountains (there are two ginormous fountains on that particular square). As the square is pretty big, is home to loads of tourists every day and there were serious doubts about the amount of people that were gonna turn up, I wasn't quite sure I'd be able to find the right place in time, especially since there was a guy preaching some bible related stuff in front of the two fountains. Luckily, as I got closer to Mr Bible guy, I suddenly found myself surrounded by indie kids with an above average amount of camcorders in stead of the usual Japanese tourists. The results you can see in the vid below. The thing was started by one guy and his friend re-enacting a scene from spaced, which then resulted in a slow-motion finger gun fight (which was supposed to take about 10 to 15 minutes, but in reality lasted under a minute). Bible guy (in the far left on the vid) didn't even falter, like people start dying in front of him on daily basis. I conveniently 'died' against the fountain, as I the idea of lying on Trafalgar square wasn't that appealing to me. The faces of the people who were standing in the middle of the group but had absolutely no idea what was going on were indescribable and absolutely priceless.
Let me excuse myself beforehand: this is not going to be a very interesting post. No stalking of semi-famous people or other intriguing business this week. The only maybe mildly interesting thing that happened might be the part where I applied for a job at Rough Trade, which is one of the most amazing record stores in existence. Though I do ought to check out some more record stores in stead of hanging round there every Sunday. But they have vinyl, massive amounts of vinyl. And waterproofed copies of albums that haven't even leaked yet! (I heard a few bits of the new LCD Soundsystem today! Yay!).
But I've planned for this to happen: a week in which I wouldn't have anything worth posting here. So I am prepared. In stead: something maybe even less interesting: things I cook in London. Some people seem to have an unhealthy interest in this particular matter (guess who...), so I thought I should take some pictures of some of the things I managed to come up with. In the picture above: scrambled pancakes with cheese and rockets (and no, scrambled pancakes is NOT a good idea). Other, slightly more successful attempts:
Fish finger sandwiches with cheddar, tartar sauce and salad (tastes a lot better than the picture might suggest)
Banana porridge-cinnamon-apple pancakes with lemon curd (again, better than it sounds)
Baked potatoes with cheese and beans, and a side salad
Some piping hot pasta
Risotto with mushrooms and spinach
You might also notice in these pictures how I tend to eat my dinner whilst sat behind my laptop. Not sure whether that's a good habit. Next week, I'm planning a trip to Cambridge with my flatmates, so I might have something more interesting to blog about then. And following the 'success' of my trip to Salisbury, I've planned another trip out of town. And again, I'm aiming for the South West: Bristol this time. But for a much, much better cause: Foals are playing there. At this point you might ask yourself: a band? You're travelling half way across the country to see a band? (I used to do that at least once a week in Holland anyway, but in England it just sounds slightly more impressive). And I must confirm this suspicion. And it's not even that they're not playing in London, or anywhere near London, they're playing both Cambridge and Oxford, a mere stones throw away from London. It just so happens that on their London date, Pavement are playing Brixton Academy, on their Cambridge date, The National are playing London, and on their Oxford date, Cold Cave are playing London. So the only logical consequence of that would be to travel to Bristol on a Saturday to see Foals as it is absolutely vital to see all these bands perform live.
The week in gigs, or: how to avoid having a social life
March 11
Panda Bear/Kode9/Kurt Vile @ Heaven If there was any gig this week which you had attend if you considered yourself to contain even the slightest spark of indie hipster credibility, this was apparently it. And as I so much enjoy conforming to the opinion of others, I was of course at the forefront of this happening. And though it is a nice idea to go to Heaven to see a gig, there's always the question of whether you'll be able to return to Earth afterwards. Luckily, the local bouncers eventually allowed us to leave premises, though with some reluctance and after being tempted by the toilet lady who points you to your toilet, guards your door for you if it won't lock properly and starts a polite conversation whilst providing you with both water and soap to wash your hands. Interesting at the very least.
Kurt Vile, a man as vile looking as his name implies, was first to take the stage this evening which was filled with lone wolf performers.Apart from his long hair that looked as if it hadn't seen shampoo for some time now, his performance wasn't very memorable. A man and a guitar just need something more than a lack of personal hygiene to stand out from the vast crowd of singer-songwriters.
In stead of opting for a DJ to play some music mildly related to the main act of the evening, Heaven choose to put Kode9 on, a dubstep/grime DJ of sorts. If someone can point me in the direction in which he or his music is supposedly related to either Kurt Vile or Panda Bear, please, do enlighten me. He might be a perfectly apt performer, but dubstep surely is a genre that is not appreciated as much as it ought to be when it is planned in between some lo-fi guitar music and an Animal Collective spin off?
With his fourth album well under way, Panda Bear thought it time to do some one of performances, just to get everyone that extra bit excited for his new album. Noah Lennox, the man behind this moniker, is of course better known for his partaking in last year's highly acclaimed (mostly by Pitchfork that is) Merriweather Post Pavilion, the so far most successful album of his band Animal Collective. As his former album, Person Pitch, was said to be the most important inspiration for said album, that might have something to do with the attention Noah has been getting lately. Let alone that Person Pitch was of course an excellent album on its own. Live, Panda Bear is a true solo-project: Noah Lennox is the only person present on the stage, unless you count the persons appearing on the screen set up behind the stage. Even more so than Animal Collective, Panda Bear is an electronically orientated music act which necessitates its repetitiveness to be concealed through distracting the audience with the screening of short films seemingly filled with subliminal messages. Except for the part with the sharks, that was not subliminal or subtle in any way, nope. Helped by this film screening, the set turns more into a DJ set than into a real concert: the songs flow into each other in a way which causes one not to know where the first one ends and the second one begins. No room for applause then. Maybe it's just me, but I was expecting more 'songs' in stead of live DJ-ing. Nevertheless, everything sounds very promising for the new record, especially as it does not sound like Animal Collective at all (which is definitely a good thing coming from me).
March 13
Grizzly Bear/Beach House @ The Roundhouse Now there's good poster! Two of my favourite bands on the same evening! And at the Roundhouse, which I've been told has incredible acoustics. Much to look forward to thus. Beach House immediately prove the claim being made about the acoustics: with this being the third time I've seen them while in London, the sound has never been better. Victoria LeGrand's warm and endearing voice manages to fill the room with an atmosphere that makes one totally forget about the tropical temperatures causing some people to faint before the main act is even near the stage. Save one song, they only perform tracks of their latest album, Teen Dream. And though that may be one of my favourite albums of this year, and certainly their best yet, it would have also be nice to hear some more of their older work. If the local climate hadn't made it physically impossible, 'Norway' would have certainly caused me some goose bumps.
Grizzly Bear had something to live up to, as last time I saw them they were backed by an entire symphonic orchestra. And though it may be unfair to expect a similar performance this time, one just can't help reminiscing about that. To compensate for this loss, Grizzly Bear have upped their game by providing us with an incredible light show and inviting Victoria LeGrand back on stage to make 'Two Weeks' an even more magical moment. I'm very much conflicted at the moment whether I prefer her over a strings section. All the songs you'd expect them to play were of course present in the one and a half hour set: an absolutely incredible version of 'Knife', personal favourite 'Ready, Able', 'Colorado' and the absolute highlight of the show: 'While You Wait for the Others'. The set also contained a splendid version of 'Deep Blue Sea', which was recorded for the Dark Was the Night compilation (and yes, I know it also appeared on the Friend EP, but that was not a proper recording (the song, not the EP), so hold your horses!). As an encore, we were treated to an acoustic version of 'All We Ask', and what more could one ask for? For me, perfection went by the name of Grizzly Bear this week.
PS. is it just me or are my capsule reviews getting more elaborate by the week?
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