Thursday, March 15, 2007
Every time you close your eyes...
Last night Al and myself went up to London Village to celebrate his birthday in the honourable presence of Arcade Fire (look, Al, no definite article! :p) at Brixton Academy.
Supporting was Patrick Wolf, whom I'd heard of but didn't know all that much about. His voice reminded me of Jarvis Cocker, and his music isn't a million miles away either, except with more violins (his lead violinist made all sorts of crazy guitarry noises), but the man himself is a lot more of a spectacle -- some might say too much of one. He came onstage in a medieval nobleman's jacket thing, a shirt and skinny tie, braces, and unnervingly short shorts, with glitter both in his hair and on his legs. Various of these items were shed during his set (thankfully not the shorts!). I quite liked his music, and he's clearly got presence, but he came across as being possibly a little too outrageous for his own good... but maybe that's just the stuffy English male in me talking :)
The Fire themselves were as awesome as we'd been led to believe. Even more so than on record, each of their songs builds into an overwhelming wall of noise... but instead of being created by 3 guys with guitars turned up to 11, the 10 musicians each contribute a small amount to the whole. Three or four of them constantly changed instruments and stage positions, and at different times there was a double bass, a church organ, a hurdy-gurdy, a xylophone, an accordion... all sorts. The only downside was that between songs there needed to be a couple of minutes' gap while they prepared for the next song, during which the cheering would, understandably, gradually subside... but instead of bantering with the audience in these gaps, the lead singer tended to admonish us for not being loud enough. Maybe they're just used to crazy North Americans :p During the songs was a different matter, though -- there was some full-on jumping, moshing and crowd-surfing going on, especially towards the end when "Power Out" and "Rebellion" were played back-to-back!
All in all, a fantastic evening. Cheers, Al! Chal.
Supporting was Patrick Wolf, whom I'd heard of but didn't know all that much about. His voice reminded me of Jarvis Cocker, and his music isn't a million miles away either, except with more violins (his lead violinist made all sorts of crazy guitarry noises), but the man himself is a lot more of a spectacle -- some might say too much of one. He came onstage in a medieval nobleman's jacket thing, a shirt and skinny tie, braces, and unnervingly short shorts, with glitter both in his hair and on his legs. Various of these items were shed during his set (thankfully not the shorts!). I quite liked his music, and he's clearly got presence, but he came across as being possibly a little too outrageous for his own good... but maybe that's just the stuffy English male in me talking :)
The Fire themselves were as awesome as we'd been led to believe. Even more so than on record, each of their songs builds into an overwhelming wall of noise... but instead of being created by 3 guys with guitars turned up to 11, the 10 musicians each contribute a small amount to the whole. Three or four of them constantly changed instruments and stage positions, and at different times there was a double bass, a church organ, a hurdy-gurdy, a xylophone, an accordion... all sorts. The only downside was that between songs there needed to be a couple of minutes' gap while they prepared for the next song, during which the cheering would, understandably, gradually subside... but instead of bantering with the audience in these gaps, the lead singer tended to admonish us for not being loud enough. Maybe they're just used to crazy North Americans :p During the songs was a different matter, though -- there was some full-on jumping, moshing and crowd-surfing going on, especially towards the end when "Power Out" and "Rebellion" were played back-to-back!
All in all, a fantastic evening. Cheers, Al! Chal.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
They are all noblemen who have gone wrong.
I really must write a bit about Pirates of Penzance before the experience fades, but this post is going to have to be written fragmentally, in odd moments, as I'm ridiculously busy this week. So much for recovery! I even for-went (forgoed?) my planned evening off yesterday to go to the pub quiz... but we did come second, so it was worth it.
So, anyway, this weekend just gone saw the first, and quite possibly only, sightings of the PGD on stage (not counting the usual high school nonsense, that is). It wasn't as scary an experience as I feared it might be, but then I did spend a lot of the time hiding at the back! Also, the audience is in darkness, of course, so although you're aware of them, it's only dimly... and perhaps most importantly, you can't make out their faces. And as a chorus member, I always had chorus-mates nearby for support. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I'm extremely glad I stuck with it, so I guess thanks go to Jon and Dave for dragging me along in the first place!
The show itself went better than I think some of us were expecting ... in fact, it couldn't have gone much better at all. Almost-full-houses every night (apart from the matinee, which was a little bit pointless!), good audience reactions, principals all on top form, and all the "veterans" said it was one of the best LOpSoc shows for ages. Whoop!
The final night was utterly crazy. After the show, which finished at around 10pm, we had to immediately clear out the entire stage and set, and put everything away in various locations around campus. All that took the best part of four hours... only then did we finally get to party. Myself and James (who had very kindly come to support me, as had Rae the evening before) took a detour back to my flat to get booze, where my housemate Bob and friends were just about to conk out after their own evening shenanigans. This was gone 2am. If we'd sat down at that point, it would've been all over; but we resisted, and headed back out into the night, to the after-show party. And there we stayed, all night, getting steadily drunker, sleepier and sillier; which was, of course, excellent fun!
I now really must try to stop making Gilbert & Sullivan-based responses to anything anyone says....
(Pic courtesy of my Dad -- thanks, Dad!)
So, anyway, this weekend just gone saw the first, and quite possibly only, sightings of the PGD on stage (not counting the usual high school nonsense, that is). It wasn't as scary an experience as I feared it might be, but then I did spend a lot of the time hiding at the back! Also, the audience is in darkness, of course, so although you're aware of them, it's only dimly... and perhaps most importantly, you can't make out their faces. And as a chorus member, I always had chorus-mates nearby for support. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I'm extremely glad I stuck with it, so I guess thanks go to Jon and Dave for dragging me along in the first place!
The show itself went better than I think some of us were expecting ... in fact, it couldn't have gone much better at all. Almost-full-houses every night (apart from the matinee, which was a little bit pointless!), good audience reactions, principals all on top form, and all the "veterans" said it was one of the best LOpSoc shows for ages. Whoop!
The final night was utterly crazy. After the show, which finished at around 10pm, we had to immediately clear out the entire stage and set, and put everything away in various locations around campus. All that took the best part of four hours... only then did we finally get to party. Myself and James (who had very kindly come to support me, as had Rae the evening before) took a detour back to my flat to get booze, where my housemate Bob and friends were just about to conk out after their own evening shenanigans. This was gone 2am. If we'd sat down at that point, it would've been all over; but we resisted, and headed back out into the night, to the after-show party. And there we stayed, all night, getting steadily drunker, sleepier and sillier; which was, of course, excellent fun!
I now really must try to stop making Gilbert & Sullivan-based responses to anything anyone says....
(Pic courtesy of my Dad -- thanks, Dad!)
