crazybobbles

Fanfarlo and Kill it Kit bandstand busking

crazybobbles — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:13:32 +0000

Not much of a review since they only played 3 songs each, here’s some photos of Fanfarlo and Kill it Kid playing at Northampton Square’s bandstand. So yeah, click for moar!

Really loved Fanfarlo, nice and relaxing stuff to listen to on a Sunday afternoon after running like a running monster to the bandstand due to tardiness. Kill it kid were equally amazing, the voice from the main singer was just powerful! It was surreal watching him sing since the voice and face don’t match up! But yeah, here’s kill it kid, no videos since Bandstand Busking will be providing them with awesome sound quality:

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Patrick Wolf at Selfridges

crazybobbles — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:08:11 +0000

No not shopping/shoplifting. But at one point he does jokingly tell everyone to grab a bag and start shoplifting during one of his songs in his mini instore gig at Selfridges to celebrate the store existing for quite a long time.

Fortunately this is an instore so I can keep it simple, he comes in donned in a black shirt with braces and leather pants and starts playing a nice relaxing tune on the piano to get people going. He was told by the store that he should start off gently so people aren’t too overwhelmed by OBLIVION (hehe). Here’s him playing Bluebells:

Click here to see the video

The show was filled with familar faces, many of which were from the Heaven gig, this included photographers as well (well, at the Electric Ballroom gig, but ssh otherwise we’ll create a time paradox). It appears that Patric has quite a loyal following who you’ll not fail to recognise at each show (again, ssh time paradox). He played a few songs from his upcoming album (well, it’s out now) The Bachelor including Oblivion, Hard Times and Damaris, here’s a video of Hard Times:

Click here to see the video

I can’t stop comparing the violin part is the same melody for Stop the Pigeon! Patrick found performing at such a brightly lit store surreal due to the fact that he’s used to dark venues with epic lights. I kinda like it, mainly for photos, here’s a photo

Patrick ends with Accident & Emergency but before starting (well, he did start it at first but told people to stop) he made a quick speech celebrating his father’s 60th birthday which you can view here (so much easier explaining with videos):

Click here to see the video

Now on with the final song, Accident & Emergency, this is where he tells people to start shoplifting (I feel silly telling you this when you’re about to watch it) It ends with a really nice cover of a popular artist. He managed to actually do 2 mini micro song clips from that one artist too. So yeah, enjoy the video, thats about it, I loved the show, it was nice and yellow instead of dark and filled with harsh red or blue lights During the show he needed a plectrum which I was able to supply him with, at the end of the show I managed to get it back (wet from when he had it in his mouth) and the roadie guy gave me a broken mic stand too for lending him it, I later on gave this to another Patrick Wolf fan, good times.

Click here to see the video

You’ll notice i’m on a blogging roll atm so yeah, quick posts…

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Sonic Youth live at Scala

crazybobbles — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:51:06 +0000

Oh boy this gig was quite an epic one. It was quite a buzz to not only see the band play, but to actually take photos of them playing. New York rockers Sonic Youth return to play a nice and ickle intimate gig at a venue I love, Scala.

Knowing they were playing one would need to make sure that they turned up early to get a good spot, the queue was rather epic at 6.30pm despite the doors opening in an hour. Once inside we managed to watch the support band Chora play. They were alright, but didn’t stick out too much (especially when Sonic Youth were up next).

The stage was filled with guitars and gear, almost to a point where they could play a guitar for each song (which they probably did). I stood next to some annoying smug folks which happened to only be in front because I couldn’t hold my bladder long enough (damnit).

Sonic Youth were quite an aural pleasure, they rocked and they rocked hard. Most likely everything was set to 11 on the amps as I suddenly became glad that there was a barrier between me and the band at this event (usually there’s no barriers). The gig photographers managed to block most of the noise for me whilst we enjoyed a nice length set of thumping music. Kim looked wild as ever whilst Thurston looked like he was still 18 donning a boyish stripey top.

The gig was filled with hardcore fans, at which one point the band told them to keep it in their pants (say, not spray as they say). Here’s a video of them in action, you can tell from the distortion it was a loud gig:

Click here to see the video

They came back and played The World Looks Red which was suiting for the set since the lights were mainly red, after that they played Brother James which got the crowd going. They came back once again (only bands I’ve seen do multiple encores are big ones) and played Kool Thing. It was a super tasty show which left my ears ringing for the first time (well, in a while anyway…).

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65daysofstatic can’t light up camden!

crazybobbles — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:29:27 +0000

It was the first time I saw 65daysofstatic, and man was it an eventful gig. The music was thumping and the events that occurred made it quite a fun night, including macbook pro failage and the climatic power outage.
It was quite a tight schedule today as I was munching Nando’s at Euston with musers, clearly I was going to miss the first support band but it was worth it, mainly because I was starving that day. Arriving at the sweaty and packed venue I slowly advanced my way to the front of the stage for photolising. I brought my 28mm and 50mm lens for the event since the tele was a bit hectic for a gig like this… glad I didn’t bring it.

The support band I managed to see a bit of were pretty cool. There seemed to be quite a few people in front who only came here to see them as soon after they finished they left with them.
Not long when 65daysofstatic appeared on stage, their gear all up and ready for some thumping instrumentals.

Man did they rock hard, it was like a man made wave at the front as people were moshing and rocking out to the band. I was placed strategically in between two boxes so was able to avoid most of the madness, it got so frantic that the monitors were constantly misplaced which required roadies and band members to push back into place.

Later into the gig, the keyboard started to fail (EPOC?). It looks like the macbook pro ballsed up a bit, it took a while for everyone to fix the issue which required some machine restartery. They continued to power (funny how i say “power”) through all their songs, playing some new ones and whatnot. Here’s a video of a new one:

Click here to see the video

Things were getting a little too climatic and suddenly BAM, the lights went out, all you could hear were the drums still going at it but that was all. It was a power outage (wasn’t too hard to realise that). The crowd weren’t at all pissed about the situation and continued to cheer, I kept requesting an unplugged set (but was later on told that they didn’t have their acoustics with them ). It was quite chaotic as noone knew what to do at situations like these (usually I’d opt for ransacking the place, but this is camden, there wasn’t much to take).

It was just a waiting game for someone to tell everyone what was going to happen. Eventually some progress was made as we were told to pass on the message about the power cut. One girl took it into her own hands to scream the news to the crowd (it was a destiny she HAD to fulfil), she did shout with much gusto as her voice was breaking from all the screeching (kinda like a bad distortion but on vocals). “POWER CUT” eventually turned into a wave of people from the crowd just telling her to shut up. I joked around and said it sounded like she was shouting “PIZZA HUT” (we did do the pizza hut song afterwards if anyone’s asking).

There wasn’t much progress coming and eventually some order was restored as a megaphone was brought to the front of the stage, they couldn’t wait any longer so they declared it the end of the show and ensured people evacuated the venue due to the power outage, just to clarify another point, the ENTIRE block in Camden was wiped out, it wasn’t just the venue (though it probably was caused by them, rocking out requires a lot of power. to power through).

Personally I found it a nice end but then I wasn’t able to listen to a few songs that was on the end of the setlist.

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Squarepusher at Chloe Ballroom

crazybobbles — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:13:54 +0000

After a wave of Ether Festival related gigs came another show that was unforgettable, good old Squarepusher has always been on my list of gigs to see and it was definitely worth being on that list.

The venue was at Royal Festival Hall, but the idea of him playing at the main venue seemed a bit silly since it wasn’t really appropriate. The gig itself was hosted at the Chloe Ballroom where they hosted many aftershow events and film screenings during the festival. They had turned the ballroom to a nice and intimate stage fitted with epic spacey staging lights.

Fans were starting to pile up in the front, I opted to shoot from the right tonight (loads of racks and whatnot in the way on the left ). I originally was expecting him to produce most of his music through his laptops (and felt a bit cheated if he did because he could easily press play on itunes) but the presence of a bass guitar and drums gave me faith that it wasn’t going to be “those” kinda shows.

Tom arrived on stage to much applaud and got down and dirty with the bass. It was a real build up as the bass riffs became more and more fiddly and fast! The guy had over 5 expression pedals! He definitely made sure all of his limbs were put to use. At times it sounded like he had several pairs of hands available as he dished out a super fast bass solo, filled with wah wah and other modulation effects that he carefully managed with his feet. I was in bass wank awe.

It was a fun gig, twas funny to see some chick in the gig smoking hash and then getting all moshy, everyone referred to her as “that girl”. There was also another fairly stoned/drunk guy who managed to push his way to the front just to speak to Tom, it was funny because it seemed like he thought he was brothers with Squarepusher, only to have Tom ignore him throughout the gig and refer to him as “that guy”. Granted he was rather annoying, his constant waving developed into a major distraction and even if they were brothers, it honestly wasn’t the time to say hi and banter whilst an intense gig was going on, he was absurd enough to write his feelings on a note and wave that said note around for 10 minutes. It was rather embarrassing, Tom took no notice of his note (why would you? you’re pumped up in a middle of a gig) and refused to read it. Despite me making it like a rant, it was definitely fun to watch and added to the drama of the gig. Most of the time was spent moshing and enjoying the show anyway. The highligt was when he played Come on my Selector, here’s a video of it in action, sorry for the camera shakes, but try filming that bad boy with now image stabilisers :

Click here to see the video

After the stunning performance more DJ stuff came on and people were dancing in the ballroom, it was funny watching people consciously avoiding the plastic cups in the floor, I tried giving the floor a spin but found it too sticky and not dance material… especially after trying to dance ON the cups and almost falling over :$ aah good times.

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Gotta love HD

crazybobbles — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:26:55 +0000

Gotta love Indexed

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Amanda Palmer covers “Marry Me”

crazybobbles — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:47:12 +0000

Click here to see the video

didn’t notice this cover, amanda does a pretty ace cover of St. Vincent’s “Marry Me” with Beatboxers and backing tracks

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St. Vincent at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen

crazybobbles — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:36:48 +0000

“We’ve never heard it” cries the fans to the sold out St Vincent show at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, it was obvious that most of the folks (well, at the front anyway) has heard Annie’s latest album Actor and love it (based on the cheers to the songs she announces). It was an exciting and playful show down at East Lundun.

Annie Clarke came out on stage sporting a big long coat covering her pretty black dress underneath. She was bubbly and friendly to the audience, perhaps due to the fact that it was quite an intimate venue and being in close proximity with the fans (not to forget that she’s just a friendly person).

She starts off the show by playing a nice chirpy backing sample of her going “bum bum bum, bum” as she plays Jesus Saves, I Spend from her debut album Marry Me, though it was obvious this show was about her latest upcoming album Actor. She announced the next song, Strangers and suddenly the crowd goes wild, fishy. Annie reacts with a surprised wow since the album isn’t out yet.

She then follows with Actor out of Work, where she explains about the music video which features her as a director auditioning people and making them cry (fake cry), but then she goes on to tell us that people on the interweb mistook her for just some lady who made people cry.

Click here to see the video

Next up Annie went into “slow jam” mode and played Marry Me, in which my friend John was smug throughout the show (no prizes for why). Next up was Landmines. Slowly the charade was getting more and more obvious as the audience cheered at her next song Black Rainbow with someone telling her it was his favourite track off the album that he has “yet” to listen. The audience chuckled as annie confronted some of the sly folks and questioned whether some people went naughty with the downloads. It was all very tongue and cheek

Annie then unleashed some top tracks including Your lips are Red and Marrow (insert super boogie mode when she spells HELP). She ended the show with a Party, Anika tempted me to shout “PAAAAARTAE” Bender style but I opted not to. The funny bit afterwards is how Annie was a bit stuck in terms of how to do an encore. As you know they typically walk off stage, chill out, get fanned by the manager, banter and whatnot, this time she was stuck with the crowd (including me) blocking the exit, so instead of teasing and making the crowd want more, she comes back on stage and finishes the show with a fan requested Paris is burning.

Click here to see the video

The crowd were definitely loving the show, she’s definitely popular amongst the fans judging from the cheers, applauds and even epic 5 minute clapping participation as she plays Your Lips are Red. After the show Annie was once again stuck with the same situation… “ack, how do you exit the stage when the fans are all over”. Nevermind, she just sits by the stage and wait about whilst the crowd leaves, all buzzing and happy over a great show.

Click here to see the video

Me and Anika managed to banter with Annie until a queue of fans started forming asking for pictors and autographs. I managed to quickly swipe the setlist which happened to be a hand written one by Annie herself on a hanky, cue the jokes of sneezing into it before giving it to someone.

Definitely look out for her upcoming album Actor when it’s out, the tunes are mesmerising and well worth your hard earned pounds (or currency of the local variety).

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PJ Harvey & John Parish at Shepherds Bush Empire

crazybobbles — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:12:10 +0000

I’ve been quite a fan of PJ Harvey, she has an amazing voice and her songs are beautiful, so here I am standing inside Shepherds Bush Empire watching her showcase her latest album “A Woman a Man walked by”

This is the second album they’ve collaborated and produced an album on, John would provide the music whilst Polly provides the lyrics. Together you get a musical bliss in front of your eyes. Nom. The queue to the venue already started to sliver round the back and curl back to the venue again, people were eager in seeing her play at such an awesome and fairly intimate venue.

The support act was ace, he was very friendly and joked around about how this will only take 30 minutes and then its over. He also noted on the striking resemblance of him and Giovanni Ferrario, the bassist / guitarist for our headline act. His music was nice and had loads of crazy wah wah and whammy effects added onto the vocals which was quite unique.

After an impatient wait in the audience PJ Harvey and the band came out to grace us with Black Hearted, the first song off her latest album. This was then followed with 16, 15, 14. She also played a few songs from the first album including: Rope Bridge Crossing, Civil War Correspondent and Un Cercle Autour du Soleil. She sported the same dress featured on her latest album whilst the other band members wore cowboy outfits.

She ended on Pig Will Not which featured her on the distorted vocals and going “woof woof” occasionally (like on the album), the crowd goes wild and demands an encore (which they gladly provide). Polly finishes the set with False Fire which she taught everyone to play and ended with April.

http://www.pjharvey.net/

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Marianne Faithful at Rough Trade East

crazybobbles — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:37:09 +0000

I managed to catch Marianne Faithful play a few songs at the intimate venue that is Rough Trade East. It was one of the biggest Rough Trade East instore I’ve seen (the other two big ones included of Montreal and Franz Ferdinand). Marianne did a few covers in her own way including Morrisey and Neko Case, Neko Case’s cover of Hold on was definitely one worth watching, unfortunately I wasn’t able to film that, I have some that ill upload in the future so stay tuned for that.

Marianne was very friendly and talkative and encouraged people to just talk to her whilst she was on stage. The set was very short but nonetheless a cool one, after the show me and Anika managed to bump into Patrick Wolf a second time, he was there for the show too but obviously missed it, i told him that they were goign to do a signing and he popped in the venue to check that out, was surreal meeting him again. That’s it, click below if you want photography related banter

Photographer related banter

The event was flocked with photographers, it made me chuckle at how over the top some of the photographers were at the event though, was totally unneccessary carrying 2 bodies and some crazy flash frame thingy just for an instore. The icing on top was watching some of the smug photographers compare each other’s cameras (Canon vs Nikon). It was a packed event but fortunately me and Anika knew what we were doing by waiting right in the front of the queue to ensure we could see something during the show.