crazybobbles

Now don’t get me wrong, the Sigur Rós gig was amazing, the location of the venue wasn’t (more on that later on). I don’t think I really need to introduce Sigur Rós here, I’m sure it’ll be just as silly as saying “hey, this band is called radiohead, they did this song called Creep and were called “On a Friday”. All my gigs I’ve been to as of late are usually under £15 which makes mass booking ok (mmm mass booking), Sigur Rós was about £30 but was one of the gigs I’ve never seen before but wanted to see before I die. After a painful travel to the Palace of Doom I was finally able to see them and they were out of this world!

After a chilled out dim sum day with Inn and Wince (more on that another time, gigs first :p) I went off to Alexandra Palace, situated at Wood Green. It took me about an hour to get from my place to Wood Green since it was the opposite end of where I lived. I cannot stress how much I hate travelling to Alexandra Palace (of Doom), not only was it situated in the outskirts of London, you needeth take (does “needeth” work?! haha) a shuttle bus to the venue (luckily it was only 5 minutes), it almost felt like going to a festival (except you’re seeing two bands and the numbers were significantly lower, and there was less unprotected sex in tents).

Once we were outside the Palace, the next bit was getting inside the place, the queue was pretty huge and there were loads of security guards shouting and ordering people with megaphones (well, one megaphone, otherwise that would be chaos). I don’t think the cold and dampish weather helped with the queuing either (all adding to the “festival” experience).

Camera smuggling was a piece of cake again, I used the same ninja technique for Shepherds Bush but found this quite unnecessary since all they did was have the quickest gander at the contents of my bag, I think when you’ve done about 400 bag searches before me, you kind of lose enthusiasm (though I’d of thought they’d be well pumped if they caught me with my DSLR). Anyway, once inside the palace, it was now about getting into the venue (so many steps for a gig!!)

The queue was immense, there were three doors into the main stage (left, right and centre), the middle queue was by far the longest (which made sense) but all of them looked pretty painful to queue up to. Fortunately I met John and Adam who were queueing up on the left side of the doors and they were pretty much at the front. I cheekily came over to say hi (and yeah… push :$) and talked about the gig (since they’ve all seen them a couple of times already). Banter was cut short when the security man opened up the gates of doom as fans darted from the door to the front stalls.

John and Adam obviously knew what they were doing in terms of queuing up because you’d assume the middle would be the one to the front row, but turns out the left door was the closest, it felt like recess in a primary school as all the fans ran as fast as their little legs could whilst the security guards told everyone off for running (though I do remember a case where people getting trampled, NIN We’re in this together now style). Fortunately none of us got detention (I was wondering, did they allow you to read books during detention? because that would have been alright, I never understood how detentions were disciplining kids since I could do a lot of stuff in my head to keep me occupied, though my college soon found that out and banned me from playing the piano (bastards!)… yeah sorry for the sidetrack, this would have been a footnote kinda thing but I need to do some ninja coding to get something like that working )

Turns out people were waiting around 5pm for the gig (in the cold). I did feel quite guilty for managing to get to the front row of the gig whilst those who waited longer than me didn’t, but hey I was taking pictors for everyone (that includes you ) and needed to be close for that (so it’s ok ). The stage was pretty high up (almost like a festival) and the gap between barrier and the stage was pretty far (again, almost like a festival). I was separated from everyone else due to the front row scramble so I either had to make friends with the people around me, or stand there quietly. I chose the former

I began conversing with some girls who started talking about Muse (woohoo best way to get into a conversation, “HE USES A MANSON GUITARRRGH!”). We had a lovely chat about everything ranging from bands, to what people were studying at uni to working out how to get out of the crowd for a pee and coming back without getting denied access or given the EVILS (we’ve all done it before ). I told the girl who needed the toilet to simply go backwards instead of sideways and for every person you meet say “remember my face, i’m going for a pee”. It was done in an awfully cute way that she actually made her way back to the front again (and yes, she said the same line to EVERYONE). I was able to give out some more mini cards which was cool and then do some more conversing about music and whatnot (can’t ever imagine talking about sports or something other than music with people from a music gig).

The support band came on at around 8pm, they were called A Minor Reflection and originally were playing in small venues with only 15-25 people present (bless). After some careful eavesdropping I believe one of the band members is related to the bassist so that was why they were slotted to support Sigur Rós (damn it’s annoying typing the o). They were a progressive instrumental rock band which kinda fitted in well with Sigur Rós. They were pretty fun to watch but with the lack of singing it felt like there was no lead (which explains why I sometimes fall asleep to orchestras). During the show the guitarist (was going to say singer because he used the mic but that’s a LIE) told the fans that they went from playing to small venues to this place and wanted to film the crowd just to prove that they were in a big venue (bless).

After the support band left we were left to converse again, usually they’d play some music in the background whilst people are doing soundchecks but tonight it was just a very low bass thud travelling through the crowd in a slow rhythmic pace, it felt rather good and moody. After the soundchecks and whatnot Sigur Rós arrives on stage, they start us off with Svefn-G-Englar. I used to describe this song as the “CHEEEEEEEEEWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” song since that what it sounded like when I heard it during the chorus hehe. It was my favourite and was a perfect opener to the gig. Below is a video:

They then played Glosoli, Ný Batterí and then more tracks (sadly I didn’t get the setlist for the gig but Max helped out in working out what was played it was damn hard considering so many people wanted it and the venue was large with security guards ushering you to go.) My favourite was probably Hoppípolla or Scefn-G-Englar. The music was touching and gentle, Jónsi Birgisson’s angelic (see photo on right) voice was soothing and mesmerising, it wasn’t a gig to mosh out and go crazy (it was probably a gigging faux pas if you did so shame on you), more of one to just sit back and let the music massage your tired eardrums. It was a whisper to the heart (to be put cheesily and to subtly use a film reference to explain the music).

The instruments they used were both unique and intriguing (including glocks (not the guns, though that would be fun!), the iconic bow’d guitar with crazy high sensitive pickups and that keyboard thing Jónsi used that he had to peddle to get the sound going, apologies for my musical ignorance (hopefully someone can enlighten me of it’s name ). The music was uplifting and glacial, if you were to pick a soundtrack of songs to have an “outter body experience”, this would probably be it. At one point Jónsi started talking to the audience, it was cute hearing him shly speaking in English in his Icelandic accent (kinda made you wanna cuddle him and give his hair a good ruffle).

Before the show, one of the girls I was talking to mentioned how he could hear water running, like it was raining, it confused to quite a bit since after a quick check on google it wasn’t raining at all, but during the set things started to make sense. Half way through the show something awesome happens, water begain pouring / jet spraying down to the ground as if it was raining indoors. This was like the exact juxtapose of what I’ve seen at a Rammstein gig (teehee, flamethrowers). Not only was it refreshing to see, but it was also refreshing to feel the cold air slowly linger around you (people were getting stuffy you see), it was a breathe of fresh air added to the already fresh air of music (man I should stop getting to cheesy with the description).

The show ended with a lovely encore (and confetti, don’t forget confetti!) and the band came out to do one last curtain call which you hardly see these days. The music made you feel good and uplifting and that feeling still lingers as I type it. I said goodbye to a few folks (seeing some today) and went home (didn’t get to say goodbye to the girls but ah well they have my mini card) Travel was once again a ballache, I had to push and cheat my way out of the venue in order to catch the last tube back home. It was a hectic shuttle bus queue and the cold weather didn’t help one bit. The travel wore me down quite a bit I must say now I’m all sleepy and tired from blogging, ah well, booked another gig today which is cool

Next up, Shearwater at St Giles in the Fields, I originally was going to see Sigur Rós at a signing in Rough Trade East too but turns out they cancelled a few days ago (ho hum). Now I need to meet up with a few folks and have some tasty korean BBQ lunch (nom nom). Hope you enjoy my review of the show and that the photos and video help describe how amazing the gig was. It’s’ definitely a band I would definitely go see again (but not in Alexandra Palace )