Phoenix and Noah And The Whale Live

Noah and the Whale’s set was a mere six song short. It left me wanting so much more, but not because they underperformed. Quite the contrary, they completely blew me away. I knew it would be mainly depressing songs from their second album, but I was surprised by how much energy was thrown into the down tempo songs. They were loud, sweeping and as epic, as the songs deserved to be. They managed to pull all this off with only four band members. My highlight (which also is the highlight from their wonderful second album) was Love of an Orchestra. It produced a warm feeling which filled the soul, something even those there for Phoenix understood.

Phoenix started really dull. They could have lip synced and it wouldn’t have mattered. The audience weren’t effected though, the seemingly teenage dominated crowd, went crazy. It wasn’t until Love Like A Sunset that they forced me to start routing for them. The instrumental beauty was absolutely gorgeous and enthralling, and the light show didn’t help. They kept this momentum with Napoleon Says, the harsh but constant beat making for an even better track live. Consolation Prizes kept those positive vibes, and they finished with Rome, my least favourite track from their newest album. They couldn’t redeem themselves, with two acoustic pieces for an encore. His voice, and their musical style isn’t suited for it. They bounced back with a second encore of 1901. It was obvious they were going to pull this, so did you really have to wait?

Perhaps it was their music, but Phoenix were a bit boring. They just didn’t have a hook to make up for their excellent, but musically uninteresting catalogue. Noah and the Whale made me so excited for a return as a main act.

More picture here.

Passion Pit Live

Want to win a Passion Pit t-shirt? Go here!

Passion Pit opened with a bang (or to be more accurate, a high pitched sound which had quite an after effect on my ears) and launched into Eyes As Candles. The first thing I noticed was how much more dynamic and louder their live sound was, and this wasn’t just because they were playing in a venue, not a studio. They had obviously taken some time to create a solid set, one which would be more interesting than just playing through the album. The drums were heavier, the synths harder, everything was harsher, but the pop hooks remained, with the crowd joining in when needed. A lot of the time, with five people playing instruments at once, the sound was muddied. This really sucked, because as soon as parts of the songs were stripped down to just drums and bass, or two synths playing off each other, the experience was magical.

Unfortunately my favourite track, Better Things, suffered this problem the most. It made it no fun at all, but they redeemed themselves with a great rendition of Sleepyhead. The highlight of the evening was definitely their encore, Moth’s Wings and The Reeling. Though I liked those tracks on the album, live they took on a whole new level, created by the amount of raw energy given by the band.

More pictures can be found here.

And here’s a little bonus, an awesome cover of Sleepyhead by Run Toto Run.

I Heart Sharks Live

Packed (but not uncomfortably) with The Streets blasting through the speakers, it seemed there were good signs the gig was going to be interesting. I Heart Sharks then stepped through the crowd and got their instruments ready, while the singer nervously slipped in and out of German and English. Since they were previously unknown to me, I’ll just throw some random observations out there.

1. The drummer was the most enthusiastic percussionist I’ve had witness to see. He seemed to be having more fun than the entire crowd combined, he was constantly getting up and his face was always changing from one expression to the next.
2. The sound in this venue seemed perfect (so I guess props to the sound technicians), not too loud, not too quiet, with everything the band playing easily slipping into the ear, quite hard for a band with a harsh electronic sound (think Does it Offend You, Yeah? or Friendly Fires).
3. My statement of hipsters not dancing, was once again proved, but fortunately this time it did not make the gig any less fun.

I can’t say their studio sound, which was given to me fresh ripped the night of the gig, is too special, but if you get the chance, catch them live, because they have enough songs to really get a party started. Here are my favourites from the evening; Dots Dots Dots and The World is Yours.

See more pictures here. And you can watch a montage of all the photos with Aerobics playing in the background here.

The XX and Holly Miranda Live

Holly Miranda was the best opener I have ever seen at a gig. She was completely unknown to me, but proved herself as an artist to look out for and she managed to impress everyone in the room, not just me, which is a rare thing to happen. It was simply made up of Holly, her guitarist, bells and a really old mic. She would switch between the normal mic, to the older one, in and out through the songs and occasionally loop her vocals (with the old mic’s sound reminding me of the one from Yellow Submarine by The Beatles). But what really made their concert so interesting was the use of effects. Holly would keep the basic riffs and the rhythm, and her backup guitarist would come in with every effect you can think of (harsh blues distortion, dreamy swirls and ultra clean sounds), and always playing with the style that best fit his effect. The mp3s I found online give her live sound no justice at all, so here is a youtube link instead. I hope she goes into this direction more with her studio sound, because it is breathtaking to listen to.

The XX opened by illuminating the crowd with their giant glowing “x”s and bombarding them with the engulfing bass drone of Intro. With a few wonky notes, they took a while to warm up. It was a shame, because they played my favourite track Crystalized second, and it felt very sloppy. However, they really hit their stride towards the middle of the concert; with the songs far out passing their debut. Towards the end, Infinty and Night Time recieved elongated instrumental outros which were wonderful to bear witness to. Though I can’t say they were spectacular, they created a great atmosphere and really helped me appreciate their debut album so much more, with the best example being Stars, the highlight of my evening.

More pictures can be found here.

Flowerstreet Festival

On Saturday I attended a small “festival” and heard a couple of bands completely unknown to me. The Coxx were first and they were a dull all-girl rock/blues/pop band. Their music, nor their energy, managed to keep my interest. The Fog Joggers (above) were the opposite, with a true passion for their songs and a solid performance. Their recordings definitely haven’t managed to capture their energy live. If you want an extremely explicit song, try out Split Another Fuck, while Autumn Girl is held together by a killer bass line. Their sound is stuck between indie pop and indie rock, with sparkling clean guitar sounds, overlayed with an organ and tight drum patterns. The last band that I watched was a duo, who called themselves Tuo. They came in with bare feet and played a set of acoustic numbers with intertwining vocals. Though I enjoyed the tempo and aggression of the guitar, the rest of their music didn’t grab my attention enough for a worthwhile look.

The Virgins and Pretty Lightning Live

Though the local band Pretty Lightning weren’t the greatest choice for The Virgins, they swaggered their way through a number of songs. Their bluesy, psychedelic rock did manage to get some of the old school heads tapping their feet. They were certainly a lot more interesting than I imagined. Even though it seemed to drag on after a while and Pretty Lightning produced some rock which I tend to not to normally listen to, it was still thoroughly enjoyable.

The Virgins came on and they pumped out song after song with lots of energy. Even the more poppy songs from the album, which I really disliked, sounded really great performed live. The Virgins left the stage and the crowd reached unbearable levels of hysteria through screaming at incredibly high pitches and the Virgins were back on. My personal highlight was Fernando Pando, which even with its slow beat, the crowd managed to fall about and mosh to. Highly recommend for a fun night out.

Love Is Colder Than Death, Rich Girls, Fernando Pando

The Virgins: myspace, amazon, iTunes

Pretty Lightning: myspace

Thanks to Hanan for the EP and convincing my friend to go!

If you want more pictures from the night you can find them here.

The Subways Live In Dresden

Dresden isn’t a small sized city, with 500,000 inhabitants, but it’s close enough to Berlin that we barely ever get any bands here. So when tickets to the Subways show became available, they were sold out in no time.

They played in a venue called the Alter Schlachthof- literally the “old slaughterhouse”. It’s a really huge, high ceiling building close to the river Elbe. My friends and I got there at around 8, and the place was packed even though the actual gig started at 8:30. We quickly put our jackets away, bought some drinks, and squeezed through to the front of the stage. The supporting band, One Fine Day, was relatively unknown, and the audience wasn’t very supportive. Most of the people just watched the band lazily, and hardly anyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. My friends and I tried to start a mosh pit a few times, but the people around us got annoyed. After a while we went to the middle where the people were more cooperative and seemed more intent on having a good time. I was worried that the audience would be like this for the rest of the show and completely ruin the mood. Luckily, I was wrong.

As soon as One Fine Day left the stage, everyone in the room started crowding toward the front. While I watched the former mosh pit slowly fill up with people, I remarked to my friend that as soon as the first note would be played, it was going to start up again and it was way too crowded for that. I couldn’t have been more right. Billy came on stage, opening with Rock ‘n’ Roll Queen, and the crowd went berserk. I was separated from my friends in an instant and was pushed around the whole room. The rest of the show was just as great. The trio played all of their songs energetically and played many of them without even stopping. At one point, Billy, the guitarist, climbed up a giant metal pole and stage dived into the crowd from a couple of meters up. I got to hold him up both times he did it, but it seemed like the others just wanted to take his clothes. Towards the end the Subways rated us a 9.3 out of 10 for craziness, a score that deeply disappointed the crowd. We all decided to prove them wrong and by the end of the next song they agreed that we were a perfect 10.

Some of the highlights of the night were the very first song, Rock ‘n’ Roll Queen, which they sang in German, I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say, and Oh Yeah. They played Oh Yeah as an encore, a cappella, letting the crowd sing, and then finishing it as an extended version full of breakdowns.

You could tell it was a great show just by watching the people leaving the venue at the end of the show, everyone was exhausted, drenched, but still smiling and looking very satisfied. Even if you don’t really know the Subways or their music, their live shows are amazing. I saw them once before, which was a great show, but this time they were even better. I would definitely recommend anyone to go see one of their shows.

Oh Yeah, I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say

Myspace, Official

Philip Budney

Foals, Friendly Fires and Cut Off Your Hands Live

MGMT or Foals? Quite an easy choice for me, and having asked my friends who went to MGMT, a well chosen one. We missed most of Cut Off Your Hands, to my friend’s dismay, who had only been there for them. From the two songs we heard outside (Still Fond to Expectations) and then You and I from inside, they did a good job. Sweating everywhere, they went off to a quiet crowd, which is unfortunate for such a great band.

Having never really go into them, the Friendly Fires did come on and put on an impressive show. I enjoyed nearly all their songs, highlights were In The Hospitol and their amazing jam at the end with their famous single Paris. It was stunning to watch as the bass player put down his bass and started playing the amazing cow bell section for the whole song. Friendly Fires proved that they are a great band , not perhaps enough to buy their album, but they put on a fanastic live set, with furious amounts of energy, perhaps only being shadowed by the mighty Foals themselves.

Walking through the crowd, and brushing past me, they came on to huge amounts of cheers and whistling. Walter, the bassist, took a swig of beer from a nearby ticket holder. Jack started it off with an amazing amount of percussion work as the band started to increase in tempo and in volume. It soon became just lots of high pitched noises which started to become unbearable, until the release into Two Steps, Twice. Whenever he got the chance, Yannis was bobbing, weaving and dancing about with the rest of the band. Perfect musicians, they did not falter once.  Moving into Olympic Airways without stop, they managed to persaude my friend, that is was not so bad that had missed Cut Off Your Hands. Today he stands a Foal convert. With racusious enthusiasm, the crowd was screaming along with Yannis; “Dis-A-Ppear!”  The songs kept coming and the crowd was hungry. Hanging on Yannis’ every word, the crowd shouted requests throughout, all which seemed to be fufilled.

Half way through Jimmy (pictured above left), jumped onto the pillar, clambered two meters up and banged his guitar for distorion, right above us! Jumping down he dropped his guitar. Hummer, the crowd pleaser, started and it seemed Yannis’ mike had broken. Then it became obvious, the crowd was just singing louder than his amp could go. Red Socks Pugie came on (a song which has been negelected by me of late) and it instantly made me fall in love again. The drum beat was amazing, as were the lyrics, the rise and then the quite fall to nothingness. Yannis took a trip to the bathroom, through the crowd, and with his guitar. Even songs which I didn’t really enjoy on the album, Big Big Love (Fig. 2) and Electric Bloom, were incredable. Perhaps the best live show I have ever witnessed, actually no, Foals’ polyrymthic rock, Friendly Fires’ cowbell and Cut Off Your Hands’ power pop made it the best gig I have ever been too.

See more photos here

Watch the end of their concert from the next night (two steps, twice), in great quality, here.

Buy; Foals, Friendly Fires, Cut Off Your Hands

Blood Red Shoes Live

This is Philip, my friend from north Germany, and he is hear to explain about the Blood Red Shoes gig he recently went to:

Living in Dresden, a pretty small city in former East Germany, I don’t really get to see very many good bands. So, one day I was sleepily cruising the web, when lo and behold, Blood Red Shoes were coming to Dresden! I obviously gathered a few friends and had the tickets bought in less than an hour.
Blood Red Shoes were playing Beatpol, a really awesome venue that I’d never been to before. It’s this really old house that has been renovated and it has a really great feel to it. My friends and I made sure to arrive early and get places right in front of the stage. The venue filled up quickly, and by the time the support act, 1984, started playing, the place was packed. 1984 played quite well, better than when I saw them at Frequency Festival, and got the crowd going a little bit. However, when Blood Red Shoes came on at 9 o’clock, everyone went wild straight away. As soon as they played the first note, people started dancing and having a good time. I didn’t see anyone bored, just standing there, and not having a good time.
All of the Blood Red Shoes songs are perfect for shows. They are all super, simple punk songs, usually with a slowdown and a really wilder part. They played their whole album “Box of Secrets” and played a couple new songs as well. These new songs were great, and sounded just like the classic Blood Red Shoes songs: lots of energy and fast paced. Steve and Laura Mary didn’t really say much, but they made up for that by playing with a truckload of energy and passion. After the concert I only managed to get half of the set list, as some girls standing next to me ripped off the other half, but the last five songs were:
You Bring Me Down
Forgive Nothing
Count Me Out
This Is Not For You
I Wish I Was Someone Better
‘Count Me Out’ was one of the new songs they played, which was great: I can’t wait for the new album. Everybody enjoyed every single song, with almost everybody singing along and rocking out as best they could. But the crowd really went wild for ‘I Wish I Was Someone Better’. The whole venue simply turned into one giant mosh pit within a few seconds of the song and there was no escaping it. Blood Red Shoes left the stage right after, but the crowd was just screaming for an encore, so they played another new song and then ADHD.
I left Beatpol half deaf, soaked with other people’s sweat and my own, with a Blood Red Shoes t-shirt in my hand and a huge smile on my face. I hadn’t listened to much Blood Red Shoes for a while, but after seeing the amazing way they played their songs, with all the energy and emotion, it seems like all the songs are stuck in my head again. After talking to lots of people after the show I heard the same thing – Great gig, and it was super fun.

It’s Getting Boring By The Sea

I Wish I Was Someone Better

Buy; amazon, itunes

Thanks for the picture, Nicozz

The Wombats Live

In the crowded venue, The Wombat’s fanatic fans were out in force, being perhaps better performers than The Wombats themselves. They were far from bad, though. They started off with their a capella opener, Tales of Girls, Boy and Marsupials. A bit wavy, but the audience enjoyed it with everybody, I mean everybody, clapping along to the easy beat. I jumped into the mosh pit that started with my favourite song at the moment, Kill The Director. The fast drum tempo and the breakdown seemed ideal, and I was right. Once again, the whole crowd seemed to be singing along, I could barely hear the singer. I hastily retreated back to the safety of my companions for some pictures and to truly appreciate the unfolding scene. The pace increased with Lost in The Post and The Wombats really seemed to hit their stride with “Go Santa! Go Santa! Go Go Go!” being my favourite lyric from The Womat’s performance that evening. Adding their unexpected Christmas song, the crowd tried to get into the rhythm, but it certainly wasn’t as feverish as the rest of the show. Here Comes The Anxiety had some crowd members singing the song before it had started. Noting this, The Wombats tried again, with some lighters up in the air, and they gave it a great amount of energy. Afterwards, donning an acoustic guitar, the singer introduced us to Duck, who was replacing the old mascot who was lost in an airport. Duck, the rabbit, danced and flapped his ear, through out Little Miss Pipedream’s twee piano dots and catchy lyrics. With an impressive light show, Let’s Dance To Joy Division has certainly become less interesting to me, after listening to it a hundred times or so, but went really well with the crowd. Shouting for the encore, the crowd went insane, everyone chanting “Wombats! Wombats!” One of the loudest calls for encore, I have ever heard. With their quirky humour, the drummer said, “You didn’t have to do that, we were going to come on again anyway. But, it is nice to be appreciated” as the started to play First Wedding, my least favourite Wombats song, The Wombats finally managed to equalthe crowd’s energy. They finished with a well-placed Backfire At The Disco, leaving everyone very content with the gig.

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Setlist:

• Tales of Girls, Boys And Marsupials
• Kill the Director
• Lost In The Post
• My Circuitboard City (?)
• Party In The Forest (Where’s Laura?)
• Moving To New York
• Here Comes The Anxiety
• Little Miss Pipedream
• Let’s Dance To Joy Division
• My First Wedding
• Backfire At The Disco

More Pics

Kill The Director

Little Miss Pipedream

Myspace

Official

Buy; Amazon, itunes