Ayatollah Hermione 12799 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Sufjan Stevens was properly amazing. I Want to be Well was the dogs bollocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I thought he was utter wank. Rarely been that disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayatollah Hermione 12799 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Really? What didn't you like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Really? What didn't you like? The half arsed dancing, the witless banter, the amateur video, the tron outfits, the jarring shifts from folk to bad pop. The contempt for the 'rules' which he forgets for the big, Singalong, horn blaring parts,the autotune... Dm stith was good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayatollah Hermione 12799 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Really? What didn't you like? The half arsed dancing, the witless banter, the amateur video, the tron outfits, the jarring shifts from folk to bad pop. The contempt for the 'rules' which he forgets for the big, Singalong, horn blaring parts,the autotune... Dm stith was good. Aye, the dancing was shite Didn't mind the little bits of chat in between, thought they had a quaint little vibe about them. I was disappointed that there wasn't more from Illinoise or Michigan but I like the latest album, overblown nature of it and all. Got hit in the head with a giant balloon though and the drummer on the left looked like a right miserable bastard but I really enjoyed it. Different strokes, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChezGiven 0 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 He was mint at the Barbican about 5 years ago. Didn't rate the last album so didn't bother trying to get tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 He was mint at the Barbican about 5 years ago. Didn't rate the last album so didn't bother trying to get tickets. I wish I had seen an earlier tour, because I thought the latest album was hit and miss too and I probably wouldn't have bothered if I'd seen him before. I hoped the live performance would lift the new material, but it didn't. It dragged the old stuff down with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 (edited) Really? What didn't you like? The half arsed dancing, the witless banter, the amateur video, the tron outfits, the jarring shifts from folk to bad pop. The contempt for the 'rules' which he forgets for the big, Singalong, horn blaring parts,the autotune... Dm stith was good. Aye, the dancing was shite Didn't mind the little bits of chat in between, thought they had a quaint little vibe about them. I was disappointed that there wasn't more from Illinoise or Michigan but I like the latest album, overblown nature of it and all. Got hit in the head with a giant balloon though and the drummer on the left looked like a right miserable bastard but I really enjoyed it. Different strokes, I suppose. I was on my phone when i answered last night, but I can give you more than pithy one line reasons this morning. During one of his chats with the audience he lamented the constraints of a common language, of grammar and the rules that restrict us. He was envious of babies that don't have that constraint and equated the music on his new album with his desire to break the rules, start with found sounds and put them together. I took that as him wanting to crawl around in his own shit. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the approach whatsoever, I do think it's strange that a lyricist of his quality can't see the beauty and unending possibilities of the English language, and doesn't embrace that it's the constraints that make a well written lyric so pleasing, as opposed to a guttural shriek. That's not to say a shriek doesn't have value, there's plenty of experimental music I can enjoy if there's ideas being explored that are interesting and if it's done with conviction. Stuff like Sunn o))) I mentioned in another thread, or OOIOO. They go out of their way to break the rules too. Unfortunately SS has no conviction about it whatsoever on this album/performance. He has a go at it for a bit, most songs start out 'difficult', but then he doesn't take the initial idea to any conclusion, he bottles it and brings in the horns and the melody that follow all the most basic time honoured traditions of music that is instantly pleasing to the ear and uplifting. He knows this and is constantly apologising for it. He kept saying stuff like "Thanks for sticking with me". He knows there's little of value there, but he's couching it in terms to suggest what he means is "aren't I daring and difficult, and aren't you clever for understanding and aren't we great?" And it wasn't just the music that showed it. As we agree the dancing was woeful. He makes reference to the dancing classes they took and how awesome his backing singers' moves are. Has he never seen the James Brown revue? That's "awesome". Those people worked incredibly hard at getting their routine as tight as they could. What was on the stage last night was like my dad after a few pints at a wedding mixed with a challenge on the Generation Game. If he's taking the piss, that's very funny...but he's taking the piss out of excellent performers or he's taking the piss out of his own audience. The story of the "outsider artist" sign painter summed it up for me (which he intended I suppose). He sucked the plums of this "outsider artist". A bloke who can paint the perfect road sign, technically spot on, but in his spare time he does the terrible sci-fi art he loves (which was so bad the audience and SS were laughing at it). SS wants to tell us that the terrible art is the real deal, it's the pure good stuff, worth much more than the highly proficient signs. He used this art as his backdrop much of the time, but it looks like a 5 year old did it. Not in the kandinsky, or Pollock sense, but in the sense that he draws Godzilla poorly and goes over the lines with his crayon. His half arsed attempts at music, dance and artwork all tied up, it was all equally poor. I couldn't believe the standing ovation he got from the floor. Up in the balcony people had been walking out. Edited May 17, 2011 by Happy Face Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 But maybe it's just me... “Hi, I’m Sufjan Stevens,” said Sufjan Stevens as his show, the first of two nights at the Festival Hall, got under way. “I’m your entertainment for the evening. I’ll be singing a lot of songs about love and death and the apocalypse. But it should be a lot of fun." This was quite an understatement. Fun? It was one of the best nights of music I’ve ever witnessed, a torrent of captivating songs and visuals from the Michigan oddball who combines a prodigious musical talent with a deliriously unfettered imagination.Take the mad frenzy of a Flaming Lips gig, the whole mothership shtick of George Clinton, plus the beardy weirdness of Roy Wood’s Wizzard, add more than two hours of music that was at times exquisitely delicate and at times darkly menacing, and you have an unforgettable night. To begin at the beginning: with a gauze screen between the stage and the audience, Stevens, on banjo, and his 10-strong band (two drummers: fantastic!) delivered a gently unfolding “Seven Swans”, with Stevens, as well as two dancer-singers at the back of the stage, wearing wings, which somehow made them look sad, and everyone on stage wearing fluorescently patterned clothing, which somehow made them look like deep-sea creatures. Projected patterns skittered across the gauze, while Stevens, his voice sweet and pure and clear, sang about seeing a sign in the sky. Slowly the gauze was raised and the scene became vivid and real, the fluorescence glowier. From here the night grew and it grew until it ended with the audience on their feet as Stevens, by now dressed like a man who had raided the dressing-up box of a troupe of surrealist interplanetary clowns, danced and bounced and sang the irrepressible refrain from “Impossible Soul”: “Boy, we can do much more together”. Sensational. I’d never seen Stevens before and had heard glowing reports of his live shows, but nothing prepared me for this. He makes music that’s really quite complex, multilayered, polyrhythmic - it's difficult, doubtless, to play, and sing, with its tight harmonies. But here he and his band and his singer-dancers handled it with enormous expertise, paying absolute attention to detail – a squirt of squelchy synth here, a shimmer of guitar there. And what a revelation the two trombonists were, bringing this neglected instrument to the fore in all its lustrous parpy vigour. Stevens’s recent album, The Age of Adz, provided much of the material; this could have been a miscalculation, as it’s a tricky collection of often dark and doomy songs in a largely electronic idiom, a big shift from his previously folkie-orchestral-pop-rock stuff. But in one of Stevens’s compelling monologues (what a pleasure to hear a musician say more than “How ya doing, [insert city here]?”), he explained how the album emerged from long improvisational sessions and that tonight he was hoping to present it for us in three dimensions. As the show progressed, I realised what he meant: music that sounds at times claustrophobic on CD was unleashed, liberated in a live setting; it became real. He also spoke at length about a formative influence on The Age of Adz, a Louisiana artist and paranoid schizophrenic (now dead) by the name of Prophet Royal Robertson, whose eccentric theology featured numerology, spaceships, the Bible, sex and strangeness in roughly equal measure, and whose visionary comic-book artwork provided some of the visuals for the show. He and Stevens are a good fit; after all, as Stevens explained, he himself was told by his restless fad-seeking hippie parents that he was a “starchild”, while naked family yoga sessions were a regular feature of his upbringing. All of which helps to explain why Stevens’s oddness, his geeky innocence, did not come across as remotely self-conscious or calculated or contrived; it’s not something that he does – it’s the way he is. Anyway, there was darkness and there was delicacy, there was dancing and there were dazzling visuals. And right at the end there was the gloriously, vividly, brilliantly alive “Chicago” from the Illinois album, complete with cascading balloons and fluttering confetti. Surveying the scene after the mayhem had ended, Stevens said, finally, “Sorry about the mess.” http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?optio...w&Itemid=27 I thought the first half of Seven Swans (the opener) was incredible like. Hairs up on my neck stuff when the chorus blared and the backing all came in. I was really looking forward to the rerst of the show at that point...but by the end of the song I was already having doubts, it degenerated into a mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trophyshy 6441 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 (edited) Me and my old man at the Big Country gig last month. Last gig I went with him was Big Country in 1985. The shit that has gone on in the interim is mind boggling. Check shirts FTW! edit: concert was amazing btw. Such powerful music AND emotion. Edited May 17, 2011 by trophyshy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marko 0 Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Took me ages to find this thread! Went to see Arctic Monkeys on Friday at Don Valley bowl with Dead Sons, Vaccines and Miles Kane supporting. Was a fucking quality gig and the first time i've been to a gig where I've liked all the support acts!! Monkeys were on top form playing a wide range of material, They ended on A Certain Romance (first time they've played it since 07 apparently!) Tonight I'm seeing We Are Scientists at the boro empire. I saw them a couple weeks back at Rock Am Ring in Germany but they're not really well known over there so although their set list was good, the atmosphere wasn't brilliant! Should be superb tonight though, they suit smaller venues, Boro Empire is one of my fav in the region. Still got Foo Fighters to see next month also at MK Bowl Planning on getting tickets to: Bombay Bicycle Club @ Newcastle Academy 01/10/11 Chapel Club @ sunderland Independent 12/10/11 Miles Kane @ Middlesbrough Empire 13/10/11 Arctic Monkeys @ Newcastle Arena 5/11/11 (Saturday so should be a day on the drink) Wild Beasts, Antlers, Yuck @ Leeds Uni 12/11/11 Anyone else planning on going to any of them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angrysteve 0 Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Amon Tobin on Friday @ The Roundhouse. Looks absolutely fantastic judging by the trailers, obviously not gonna be everyone cup of tea though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idioteque 0 Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Update: Foo Fighters at MK Bow w/ Biffy Clryo and Jimmy Eat World The Music at Leeds Academy w/ Whip. (Last EVER Music gig) Getting tickets for Arctic Monkeys at Echo Arena and Bombay BC at Manc Apollo on friday Ocean Colour Scene and Ash + A few shit bands at Ben And Jerry's 1 day festival, Heaton Park Manc Noah and The Whale 02 Liverpool in October Shed Seven 02 Liverpool December Ocean Colour Scene Manc Apollo December Looking at going to Bingley Music Live festival in Bradford September; Athlete, Chase and Status, Feeder, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Maximo Park, Mystery Jets + Few others not announced I want to go and see Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire and Bon Iver but all sold out so will need to ebay/tout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marko 0 Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Update: Foo Fighters at MK Bow w/ Biffy Clryo and Jimmy Eat World The Music at Leeds Academy w/ Whip. (Last EVER Music gig) Getting tickets for Arctic Monkeys at Echo Arena and Bombay BC at Manc Apollo on friday Ocean Colour Scene and Ash + A few shit bands at Ben And Jerry's 1 day festival, Heaton Park Manc Noah and The Whale 02 Liverpool in October Shed Seven 02 Liverpool December Ocean Colour Scene Manc Apollo December Looking at going to Bingley Music Live festival in Bradford September; Athlete, Chase and Status, Feeder, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Maximo Park, Mystery Jets + Few others not announced I want to go and see Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire and Bon Iver but all sold out so will need to ebay/tout See you at Foo Fighters and The Music I'm going to both gigs Saw W.A.S. last night absolutely superb gig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonGoodwyn 1 Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Off to Hellfest in France tomorrow, should be good. http://www.hellfest.fr/artistes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 System 7 were excellent. Great to see them performing with such sincerity and a sense of fun at their age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idioteque 0 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 City and Colour playing Manc Academy in October Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angrysteve 0 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 (edited) Amon Tobin on Friday @ The Roundhouse. Looks absolutely fantastic judging by the trailers, obviously not gonna be everyone cup of tea though! Was amazing, never seen anything like it before. The level of production that has gone into it was astounding. Edited June 20, 2011 by angrysteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Amon Tobin on Friday @ The Roundhouse. Looks absolutely fantastic judging by the trailers, obviously not gonna be everyone cup of tea though! Was amazing, never seen anything like it before. The level of production that has gone into it was astounding. Jammy Bastard. Mate of mine was saying tickets weren't even selling out either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angrysteve 0 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Amon Tobin on Friday @ The Roundhouse. Looks absolutely fantastic judging by the trailers, obviously not gonna be everyone cup of tea though! Was amazing, never seen anything like it before. The level of production that has gone into it was astounding. Jammy Bastard. Mate of mine was saying tickets weren't even selling out either. they were still on sale till the weekend before but it did sell out eventually. ITK has it they are trying to organise another one in November, you heard it here first! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Never quite understood the fuss about him although I've never seen him live so maybe he puts on quite a show. Don't think he does anything particularly original though. Been done before and better by DJ Shadow and various drum and bass producers imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angrysteve 0 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Never quite understood the fuss about him although I've never seen him live so maybe he puts on quite a show. Don't think he does anything particularly original though. Been done before and better by DJ Shadow and various drum and bass producers imo. that's fair enough, it's a matter of taste at the end of the day. I also like DJ Shadow but I prefer Amon, his sound is constantly evolving and the new album is much less 'music' than it is some sort of audio-art if there is such a thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angrysteve 0 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Never quite understood the fuss about him although I've never seen him live so maybe he puts on quite a show. Don't think he does anything particularly original though. Been done before and better by DJ Shadow and various drum and bass producers imo. that's fair enough, it's a matter of taste at the end of the day. I also like DJ Shadow but I prefer Amon, his sound is constantly evolving and the new album is much less 'music' than it is some sort of audio-art if there is such a thing? and the live show is immense, check out the link above! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Looks canny mental that like. Still not convinced about the tunes though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meenzer 14112 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Off to this tonight: http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/fin...-and-song-55987 Not quite Amon Tobin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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