crazybobbles » photography

Owen Pallett live at Union Chapel

crazybobbles — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:58:05 +0000

Owen Pallett live at Union Chapel, this show was ten times better than his previous Union Chapel one. I think with the album was more rehearsed, and the fact that we’ve all heard Heartland made this show enjoyable. The highlight was definitely when he played Lewis Takes His Shirt Off. Some skillz on the violin.

The beginning of the show was pretty lulz, apparently there’s a bar! :O Videos ensue…

Oh i was too lazy to label them all, you’ll figure it all out

Click here to see the video

Yeah it’s a slew of videos, will upload some more videos photos afterwards.

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Who would have thought Borderlands could be so addictive

crazybobbles — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:29:15 +0000

Haven’t been posting much on the blog but will hopefully get back on track with this bad boy. Right now i’m ploughing through a game called Borderlands which is sort of a first person shootemup mashed in with RPG. It’s very addictive and has got me off going on Mac land for a while (play it on Windows 7 you see!).

But yeah… i have loads of posts to update with, mainly those conclusive 2009 posts and uhm… yeah… should be updating this a bit more when i have the time. For now enjoy this photo of my Katamari t shirt. I’ve ended 365 last year and feel ever so relaxed that i don’t need to shoot something everyday nows. Though my poor camera feels every so neglected

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Holiday photos: Ghent

crazybobbles — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:27:08 +0000

Thought I’d share some holiday photos from Ghent, knowing that I have venice photos to upload means I need to get all these Ghent ones sorted before moving on! Ghent was an awesome holiday so there’s no need to neglect that bad boy, anyway, here’s the photos:

Hand over monuments

Tilt shift photography madness

Some negative space action

Nic’s buzzer

More gritty photos of windows and doors

My favourite kind of photography…. food!

More bokeh action

Just weird… barbie doll chandelier

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The Sounds at Electric Ballroom

crazybobbles — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:09:12 +0000

The Sounds live at Electric Ballroom, lead singer Maja really knows how to get a crowd going. This was a pretty ace show with Matt and Kim supporting and the fact that photographers got to stay in the photopit to enjoy the show ^_^ This show was nice and pumped, was nicer hearing the set after their latest sophomore album, Crossing The Rubicon was out. The highlight was most likely when they brought up a dude on stage to play the cowbell but he was all kinds of horrific in terms of whacking the cowbell in beat, I think he was a bit too excited. Lots of posing, jumping and dancing on stage (lame review i know! but hey, i hate writing with so little time available)

So yeah, Matt and Kim were fun! Their show was ecstatic and they were super enthusiastic and happy. Kim told us how they had a hotel for the night and she’s totally going to get some haha. Highlight was when they played The Final Countdown!

Click here to see the video

And here’s the photos for The Sounds, BOOYA, so many photos!

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Tickley Feather at Cafe OTO

crazybobbles — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:24:26 +0000

Tickley Feather live at Cafe OTO. Really enjoyed seeing them live, the atmosphere was chillaxing and the music was soothing and quirky. Singer Annie Sachs was lovely throughout the show, giving away free DIY instruments to the crowd, telling us funny anecdotes and evening singing about my socks halfway through a song ^_^. The audience were in giggles during the intervals with Annie’s crazy sense of humour and eeir vocals. Was definitely a great show. More photos..

It was nearly 2 hours to get there, but after the show, it was totally worth it. Good times

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Patrick Wolf at London Palladium

crazybobbles — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:23:45 +0000

When Patrick Wolf announced that there would be a special one off gig that would feature a full on string section, we were all expecting a full on no holds barred cage match submission only fight gig where everything goes, and that’s pretty much what happened. With a setlist spanning to several pages (3 on the sound desk guy’s setlist) we were expecting loads of guest appearances and old songs to pop up, afterall, it is a one off.

The venue, combined with the additional string backing really built a grandular sound for the entire set. It was also ace having the extra female vocals in the songs such as Oblivion, Thickets and The Bachelor. The Bachelor sported guest singer Florence Welch aka Florence and the Machine. Her voice really suited the song, especially near the end where she starts wailing.

Was hoping she’d appear in more songs but nope, just that one. Nearer the end we also have Alec Empire providing additional noises. Really worked well with songs such as Battle, which I believe was the song where folks started to stand up throughout the entire show. Sitting down was no longer an option. Patrick has about 4-5 changes of clothes and noted that he was keeping this a family show so no topless action i’m afraid.

Nearer the end, Patrick makes a few dedications and played some slowly songs including The Sun is Often Out.

I can’t recall the amount of encores this show had, but it certainly kept us clapping and wanting more, Patrick ended with Vulture in epic disco ball spinning style. Fans were cheering and singing along like crazy.

So yeah, really good choice of songs, and guests singing songs. If I were to choose to watch just one patrick wolf show, this would have been it! Hopefully we’ll see another show like this for the Conqueror. Good times.

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Muse at o2 arena – 13th November

crazybobbles — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:46:06 +0000

The 13th show was definitely better than the 12th, even Matt notices that and tells the crowd just that. Things were a lot tighter and the choice of songs were definitely more geared towards the fans and pushing the momentum the right way. Most likely won’t be writing a full on review on this night but it’s still worth noting a few things. Read on and whatnot…

After some eye damaging strobe action at The Big Pink, I made sure that it wouldn’t happen tonight, this meant lounging about at Starbucks in the o2 around 7pm and having a super large strawberry and cream frapper dappercino. The weather was chilly but that rarely stopped me from drinking iced beverages (especially when it’s strawberry flavoured!). It seems like most people I knew who were going were opting to avoid the Big Pink too. The time they entered the venue was bang on after the support slow. So what was left was the eagerly wait to see Muse play another night.

Best thing about seeing the show more than once is that you can somewhat start exploring the rest of the stage and really soak in the things happening. Muse shows are always full on! You’re either staring at the band play, or watching the clips being played and how they accompany the music.

The first 4 tracks were pretty much the same as the previous night, opening with Uprising, Resistance, New Born and Map of the Problematique. However instead of moving onto fist pumping Guiding Light, which personally is one of those cooling down tracks that should happen somewhere midway, Muse continued the momentum by playing Supermassive Black Hole and… wait for it.. MK ULTRA.

The feedback from the audience was terrifying in a good way. MK ULTRA only started emerging near the end of the tour which made it quite a real treat hearing it live for the first or second time. It was weird being able to spot the song just by hearing the whammy octaverfied notes on the first notes of MK ULTRA, sometimes I feel like Muse love giving hints on what the next song is going to be just so they can hear the smug fans who’ve seen a lot of Muse gigs tell their fellow gigging neighbours that it’s Hysteria because of Interlude or United States of Eurasia because he’s up on a keyboard after playing Nishe. Ooh best put a photo here, too much text

That’s the Helsinki jam photo but whatever :p, after United States of Eurasia we were more than happy to see the lack of megaphone meaning they were skipping Feeling Good for something else. Turns out it was the old classic “jazzy” version of Cave. This was once again well received. Cave and MK ULTRA replacing Unintended and Feeling Good seemed like good choices and were definitely better songs to make the setlist flow a bit more. Though I was hoping Unintended to be there just so I could take more eerie shots of the entire venue waving their mobile phones in the air like they just don’t care.

Around this time we get Guiding Light which seemed more appropriate to wind down. This was prompty picked up with Helsinki Jam and then their latest single Undisclosed desires. Matt made sure he showed even MOAR more moves for Undisclosed Desires just so people knew he was intentionally doing it .

The first part of the show pretty much ended the same was the previous night, with the band playing Starlight, Plug In Baby, Time is Running and ending the first half with moshtastic Unnatural Selection. This time you could really see fans going at it, with loads of dedicated mosh circles forming for everyone to collide in bumper car style (for free! none of the £2.50 bollocks).

The encore was pretty much the same as the first night, sporting climax building Exogensis: Symphony Part I (Overture), riff berserking Stockholm Syndrome and horsey riding Knights of Cydonia. I did more air guitaring than horsey riding this time which was a shame. The mosh pits were definitely more violent looking than the night before, but in an inviting way (if that makes sense)! After the smokey climax of Knights the band says farewell to everyone and exits the stage with Dom having the last words as always.

Travel home was wiser, people still took their time to get out of the building but I made sure I legged it back home to enjoy some lovely relaxing time and not getting stranded till 4am on night buses. Good times.

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Muse at o2 arena – 12th November

crazybobbles — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:53:12 +0000

Muse were the first band i saw when I was growing up, back in the days when they were playing at Brixton Academy for two nights. Now they’ve headlined all the major festivals and played at Wembley Stadium, it seems like their growth is limitless (they’re playing Wembley Stadium again, looks like there’s no other venue more suitable for their fanbase in London). Anyway, enough mindless banter… bring on the review and photos for the 12th night.

Support came from The Big Pink, I saw them playing at Field Day beforehand and kinda knew what to expect. However the strobe lights really didn’t do them any good since frustrated giggers were forced to squint or close their eyes throughout their ravelike show. After the Big Pink it was a case of waiting around for Muse to appear.

The seats I had were bouncy and I was with great company (muse board/wiki staff). I managed to speak to a lot of folks who i keep seeing at Muse aftershows/shows and got to catch up with them about life and such. Halfway through the interval me, Olly, and two other ladies managed to orchestrate a full on mexican wave with the crowd which lasted about 4-5 revolutions before dying out. It kinda felt awesome being the person who started it off for the evening. The long 360 LED banners showing endless advertisings kept throwing me off on when Muse were about to start. Typically the show starts when the lights go out but throughout the wait, we were misguided by those damn LED banner things which sometimes stopped showing ads for a few seconds, the luminance wasn’t there forcing you to look up only the find no band around just yet… grr curse you advertising.

Anyway, eventually the lights go off and BOOM! Muse are about to begin… BOOM

The three towers on stage start to illuminate and show silhouettes of people climbing up an escalator to the song We Are The Universe which consists of synth arpeggios sounding similar to their first single off The Resistance, Uprising. The show begins when the folks climbing the escalator starts tumbling down and the cloth/curtain covering the stands descends, revealing the band (man that’s hard to explain, go watch a youtube video).

Hmm.. a photo of them three on the stands would explain things more wouldnt it?

Uprising is definitely a nice way to start the show, people are chanting and singing the words to the song as front man Matt Bellamy sings and pouts with his futuristic blue space glasses that flashes uncontrollably (even during bedtime!). The sound in this venue was spot on, nice thumping bass with tight drums accompanying the vocal wailage.

The set continues with Resistance and then New Born. This is where the stands starts descending down to ground level for the band to rock on the rest of the stage. Shows are fun when there’s levels involved, a good example would be crazy german metal(?) band Rammstein

After New Born comes Supermassive Black Hole which guarantees to get crowds started, riff wise Matt continues to rock out with the kaoss pad, allowing more dancey influences into the music rather than just pure rock riffage. After that comes Map of the Problematique, followed by Guiding Light. I quite like Guiding Light, it’s the “Invincible” of the new album and just has that stadium feel. Though it’s still no epic rock out track like Stockholm Syndrome or Knights. Sometimes i feel like i’m only liking Guiding Light because others don’t, who knows?

Funny thing about seeing Muse an ungodly amount of times is how easy it is to spot what the next song is based on the little riff or sound they make before the song. Hysteria becomes quite an easy one these days since they’ve introduced Interlude back into the song. Was surprised why they never played it beforehand though.

After some guitar rockage, in comes some piano keyage. The piano setup is carefully spliced between instrumental B side song Nishe, a good’un for the oldies during the Showbiz period. Once piano and whatnot are setup we are greeted with United States of Eurasia. This song heavily grows on you live, though it can be slightly corny at times, it carries a lot of anthem esque characteristics that you see in bands like Queen. The end is obviously the most epic part where everyone in the venue starts singing “EURA SIA, SIA, SIA, SIA!”. Heck even the security guards are doing it! (Well not really, but their polo shirts have the words SIA embroiderised on it )

After a piano song we get another piano song (makes sense since it took an interlude to get the thing out there in the first place). Feeling Good comes on predictably (megaphone instantly screams inclusion of Feeling Good). Though a good song and very well known, old muse fans would prefer something less mainstream. Ho hum, i still like it, the cherry blossom video still gets me (Not to mention being in the music video(Gargh it’s weird using smilies and brackets at the same time ))

After “feeling good” (mmm bad puns), Dom requests the crowd to get out their mobile phones for some major LCD/LED backlight swaying. Makes me wonder whether people use lighters still for these occasions.. or muse have simply adapted this old gig habit into a more modernised approach to categorise a “slow” song. Anyway, I spent forever guessing what song it will be (being open minded and thinking it can be ANY slow song rather then basing it on previous setlists) it turns out to be Unintended. I preferred this song the first time I heard it live where Chris plays acoustic guitar and bass pedals whilst Matt simply adds wavey effects on his Aloha Chrome Fender, shining it on people’s faces at the same time. Wasn’t too keen on unintended, would have preferred something like Soldiers Poem or even better, Blackout (with flying ladies). Anyway onwards…

Next up is Helsinki Jam (mmm jam). This was one of the best parts of the show where Chris and Dom just jam it out whilst the stand rotates for everyone to see like a music box. Makes you wonder if Muse would release a music box with Chris and Dom jamming/rotating inside of it(this is the point where I send an email to Muse Management suggesting the idea). This rotating jam interlude is followed by Undisclosed Desires. I’m a bit confused as to why a jam is needed before Undisclosed Desires, setup wise, not musically. For Nishe it was understandable there so people can setup the Kawai piano on the stage but for Undisclosed Desires it’s merely Matt strapping on a keytar. Perhaps he’s taking the time to practice his “moves” during the song?

Undisclosed Desires, the second single off the album The Resistance sexes up the venue, though it might be Matt’s robot dance during the interludes… don’t think we’ll ever know mind. After a new’un we get back to some old classics including TITS clapping Starlight, major jumping Plug in Baby and grooving Billy Jean style Time is Running Out.

Muse play a “final” track Unnatural Selection which gets everyone all kinds of pumped up, it’s one of those reminder songs that reassures you why you still love the band. The track is just pure rocking out-age which we’ve all grown to love, bring on the mosh pits.

The band comes back for an encore, starting off with Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture). The eerie track is accompanied by videos of people free falling from the skies, giving you an “out of body” experience when listening to it. However instead of jumping into the second part of the symphony (wait for an orchestra to hear Exogensis in full) they rock us out some more with Stockholm Syndrome. The finale ends with Chris playing Man with a Harmonica (on his harmonica) before breaking into Knights of Cydonia, THE song to go out in (unfortunately, the Resistance didn’t really have a good live ending song that could top Knights of Cydonia). Fans in the know start galloping like mad in their pretend steeds (or even better, their spouses) whilst seating fans bounce on their ever so bouncy chairs (THAT’s if they’re still sitting down, most seating fans were up from the beginning). The show ends with a lovely spray of man juice smokey smoke smokerson and it’s “cheers” from the band.

Despite the predictable setlist that fans have been commenting on throughout the tour, I felt it was nonetheless a stellar show. It doesn’t take a genius to see how much effort was put into making the set and crafting the songs which they hardly had time to rehearse in the first place due to supporting u2 in the states. The videos were eerie and fitting with the music and the transitions from song to song were nice and smooth. Muse have done a good job in satisfying both the new and old fans for this show, not to mention proving to us that they’ve still got the innovation in designing sets that you would not see in ordinary shows. Keep up the good work and see you at Wembley Stadium (or the review for the 13th date haha)

More photos on flickr
More gig info on musewiki
More muse on muse

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Upright Selection [Muse Cover]

crazybobbles — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:35:09 +0000

Man it’s been a while since i sat down and recorded some music. Today I just felt like playing the upright bass on garage band (because i dont have a real upright bass, neither can i play one hahah) and felt like doing a song most unsuiting for it. Unnatural Selection. So yeah… did some more layers over it, everything except the damn classical guitar took one take (keeping it lo-fi baby). I should really learn the melody before launching into a recording! It’s pretty hilarious how I guess most of the notes. But yeah… cover ahoy, thought I’d add a pretty photo of Muse live at o2 too.

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St Vincent – Paris is Burning

crazybobbles — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:46:25 +0000

St Vincent live at the ICA. Hey look, an old photo i found lying at some run down hard drive avenue (or something metaphorical and deep about run down places for digital photos to dwell in). That show was still all kinds of awesome, was looking at videos i took a few days ago and stumbled on one of her playing Paris is Burning which we didn’t get when she was supporting Grizzly Bear. I haven’t heard a full band version of this, but it sounds ace solo anyway which she did at the ICA, so yeah, enjoy the video

Click here to see the video

Enjoy the damn thing in HD