Right, sorry I’m being a bit slow in doing this, but I’ve been revising for my exams, which actually I should be doing right now but I have just lost all bother, it has run away somewhere, hopefully I’ll coax it back by tomorrow as I have to do alright in my exam on friday and once friday is done, which actually now I’ve finished writing this it is over and I have finished for the summer. I have to then find a job somehow, er, where will that come from? Anyway, last week from Wednesday to saturday was the Liverpool Sound City, and amongst my revision I decided I could go to a couple of gigs, reasoning with myself that I don’t really work in the evenings anyway so what did it matter.
Well the first of the two was on Wednesday at the Masque, and was to see British Sea Power, a band that I have loved for a while now, first listening to them when my brother recommended their debut album ‘The Decline of British Sea Power,’ to me back in 2004, when I started my obsession with music, and I first saw live at Latitude a couple of years ago. So anyway, the gig, well the two support bands were rather good, the second was definitely better than the first, which I can’t actually remember their name, but the better of the two was Bicycle Thieves, a native Liverpudlian band, heavy guitars and bass, singing reminiscent of Doves but heavier, but a style clearly influenced by Queens of the Stone Age, a good band, one that will get bigger I’d say. Anyway, back to the main thing then, British Sea Power. They were on great form, arriving on stage waving branches, and opened with Lights Out for Darker Skies, an epic about light pollution, they then carried on to play a lot of their old stuff and three new songs, which are called, Zeus, Pyrex and rather cryptically RNF, it stands for something but I’ve no idea what, my highlight was when they played Canvey Island, quite possibly my favourite song of theirs. The end of the set was their typical raucus, loud, energetic style, with Noble climing on top of the speakers and them all singing ‘Spirit of St Louis’. So after the gig we continued on out for a friends birthday and who did we bump into other than the drummer and trumpet/keys player and the soundman from BSP, I was far too drunk to make any meaningful conversation but managed in a totally embarrassing way to say you’re great, and shook hands, I am that cool, er, no. So good gig number one.
The next couple of days were scantily filled with revision but then Saturday rolled along and the other of my two gigs, Fionn Regan at the Static Gallery. First things first, the sound system here was not great, the mike kept cutting out and speakers weren’t always working but apart from that it was a really good gig, especially value for money, four bands for £7.50, rather good I think, and the fact that all the bands were rather good at least, was really worth it, and I only got to the venue at 9pm. The first band I saw were called the Staves, three sisters singing with Crosby, Steels and Nash type harmonies, rather nice to walk in to. The next band was one I’ve meant to see before but never managed it, the Random Family, a folk group from Liverpool, check out Lonely Mountain, thats my favourite song of theirs. The next band on was Danny and the Champions of the World, who deserve credit for the name alone, and were also really good, they had such a good confident stage presence and played so enthusiastically and pationately. And when the left hand speakers came on it was really really good, one highlight was what essentially was a jam on stage, they just played around for about 5 minutes, it was amazing. Then came the headline act, Fionn Regan, walking on stage with a scarf over his head, which soon was discarded with the energetic music making that followed, he seemed upset at the quality of the sound at the venue, which was a fair point, it was a bit shoddy to say the least. At one point because the mic was playing up he decided it was easier just to play fully accoustically, coming to the front of the stage and singing the first part of Put a Penny in the Slot with no electrical help, he then went back to being plugged in and played a good set, it was just a shame the technology wasn’t that good, if it had been at the Masque it would probably have been brilliant. Anyway that was that gig, it went on literally five minutes after the last bus went at midnight so I had to walk home but it was such a warm night and I was buzzing from the gig, like I always am after live music, the journey seemed to take no time at all.
Now for a little bit of music news, Arcade Fire, one band that I adore, have announced the release date of their next album, which is titled ‘The Suburbs’, and that date is the 2nd August. You can currently download a single which has the title track and Month of May on, on their website, you can also listen to the songs on the strange vinyl record thing on the site. The songs are quite different from Neon Bible, a bit more mellowed out perhaps, but they are definitely still Arcade Fire in sound and quality. If you listen again to Steve Lamacqs Roundtable that was on last Thursday you can hear them discuss the songs. I really like these new tracks, which are the first for a couple of years, and so I am really looking forward to the new album.
I’ve also just downloaded a new song from Elbow, well actually it’s not new, it’s a cover of a Peter Gabriel song, but it is a new single from Elbow which is quite exciting, but I’ll talk about that next time.
We Sat Staring at the Stars 