It shows how out of touch I am with the young that I originally thought that the music on offer last night at the Hoxton Bar and Restaurant was nu graze. Something to do with Lambing Live? I thought, optimistically. Will Kate Humble be there? I googled it, but found no results.

Well, first of all, it is nu gaze, not nu graze, so certainly nothing to do with revolutionary farming. Apparently it is a revival of the shoegaze scene of the early 90s. What was that, you say? I have no bloody idea, but I’m going to go for emo, because it certainly started off that way.

The gig started with a very young band called Advert. I am not 100% sure what they were doing up on that stage. I felt like a very old lady indeed, standing there with my white wine and my Ted Baker coat. “It’s just a load of noise, isn’t it?” I mean, they didn’t even sing, apart from in their last song where they chanted ‘Listen to the sound’ over and over again. Sorry guys, but I don’t really want to. The members of the band were pretty sweet though. They looked about 12, but I guess they must have been in their late teens. The one in the middle had this style:

Which I saw a lot last night, on both men and women. But, I guess the look and sound were working for him. When I left at 10:30, he was sucking face with a cute teenage girl, so maybe he’s not too worried about talent. ‘I’m in a band’ still works for me and I’m almost 30 so…

The second band was called Lunar Youth and I actually really liked them. There were a couple of really good tracks and they looked as though they were having a really good time. Especially the drummer. He was AMAZING. He looked like he was having the time of his life. Smiling and laughing and singing and drumming. That’s the way all band members should be! Also the bassist was hot.

The third band, Hatcham Social, who we were actually there to see, were great, apart from their backup female vocalist who looked as though she would rather be anywhere else in life but up on that stage. We had many back stories invented for her: She had recently arrived from Estonia with grand dreams of becoming a star, but instead was being forced against her will to sing at a small Hoxton bar; She was on crack or heroin and didn’t even know she was on stage; She had just broke up with the lead singer and hated his very essence, but didn’t want to miss out on her £50 stage fee; someone had killed her kitten; the list went on. Poor girl. I hope she feels better today.

Other than that, the band were great. The lead singer reminded me of a friend I had when I was about 10, with a bit of a curtain hairstyle, and the guitarist had one of those horrible teeny moustaches that I thought died out with the end of Movember, but they had fantastic energy. They were bounding around the stage having a brilliant time and it was really infectious. Soon the whole room was crowded with people, not exactly dancing (you can’t really dance to that kind of music, can you?), but bobbing up and down energetically at least.

Very good night for a Monday, even if I am completely knackered today. Hoxton -> Ealing = far, far away.

Next gig (planned, at least): Phoenix on the 30th. I am SO EXCITED.

The friend I went to see Jonsi with is a massive Sigur Ros fan. I am not. I find the music incredibly bleak and depressing. Apparently ‘shoe-gazing’ is for teenagers, but I think Sigur Ros is the adult version of this – pretty emo, good for when you’ve been dumped and want to wallow in your own misery OR good background music when you want to take a nap. But I do actually like quite a lot of the songs on Go more than anything I have heard from Sigur Ros, so I was quite looking forward to this gig.

The first song he played was very pared back – him standing on a stage with nothing going on around him. The venue was really, really hot and my feet were starting to ache a little bit from standing, and the song had a lyric about something being endless. It was quite slow and I found myself looking at the audience more than the stage, and I thought to myself, ‘this night is going to go on forever.’ Luckily, it did pick up.

From the second song onward, the show really came into its own. Songs like Go Do, the single from the album, and Animal Arithmetic were amazing and the audience was obviously absolutely loving it. It is the only gig I have ever been to where the audience actively shushed people during the quieter songs, and there were several (male!) shouts of ‘I LOVE YOU JONSI!’ in between songs.

The stage direction was outstanding. The music most came alive for me when there were visuals running on the projection screen behind and next to the band. It started off with a simple image of a wolf and a deer, drawn in the style of a cave man. Then fire burned across the screen and with the next song we had the wolf chasing the deer in a beautiful black and white line animation where all of the muscle lines were drawn on to the bodies, giving the imagery a real sense of movement. Then the animals caught one another and turned into owls and suddenly we were soaring above the forest, rather than running through it.

At other times there were simple beats translated into moving blocks, hummingbirds made of fire flying around plants that grew up as the song progressed, other animals like ants and rats crawling across the screens in huge numbers, rain falling and filling the backdrop with water, and the whole show ended with a massive storm – animated rain pounding across the backdrop with lightening flashing in time with the music and drums echoing thunder. It was absolutely fantastic. By the end I felt invigorated and awake, something I really did not expect at all from the show.

Unfortunately, despite the visuals being my favourite thing about the show, I have no photographs as my camera charger no longer works and Peter’s camera is shite. There is a group set up on Flickr though, just of photos of him playing live, so make sure you take a look. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but might give you a bit of a sense of what the experience was like. 

Jonsi – Go

I wanted to write a big long thing about this, but haven’t had time. I still don’t, so this will be brief.

Things that stood out:

1. Heat! 40+ degrees during the day - the walk from the hotel to the beach seemed to take an hour, even though it was only 10 minutes. I barely tanned as being in the sun was to be cooked alive.
2. Bodies everywhere - because of the heat, campers took refuge wherever possible, meaning every shady area of town was covered in sleeping bikinied bodies - a bit like a beach side massacre
3. Music - lots of good stuff - I loved Mumford and Sons, Ellie Goulding (who was amazing standing in for Lily Allen), Two Door Cinema, Vampire Weekend, Dizzie Rascal - so much fun
4. Food - a lot of oily food with a lot of garlic, but tasty - lots of squid and octopus and paella three times
5. Wine - a lot of this

Lots of pics and videos online on my Flickr

Field Day was a hipster watching paradise. There were so many unusual hair cuts! So many all-in-one jumpsuits! There was a woman wearing 5 inch heels and a bathing suit!

We got inside at about 3:30pm. I’m not sure who we saw first. I was told that it was Egyptian Hip Hop, but it didn’t sound particularly Egyptian or particularly Hip Hop, so not 100% sure about that. Possibly Fact? Whoever they were, they were really good. Much better than Simian Mobile Disco who was playing in the tent next door and who I had actually planned to see at 3:30.

Next we headed over to The Fall, who I did not rate at all. It sounded like an old crazy man shouting.

Then Hudson Mohawke was on. I saw him DJ before Phoenix earlier this year and he was fantastic. This set was really good but the tent was way too crowded. I think he has a lot more fans than the organisers anticipated. It was absolutely packed with people wearing t-shirts of the album cover. I tried to sneak my way in, but without much luck. So I bopped about at the back, enjoying the music and the atmosphere, which was pretty friendly.

We then had some pretty delicious food (although were SHOCKED by the prices at some stands. £1 for GRAVY?! Wtf?) and headed over to the Archie Bronson Outfit. I can’t remember them to be honest, I think because we were sat on the outskirts eating and chatting. We found a pair of Guess sunglasses at that tent, that is my main memory.

8:30 saw James Holden take to the stage and Peter patiently waited outside while my friend Eleanor and I went a little dancing mad. Dancing dancing dancing, breathe, dancing dancing dancing. He was awesome. I am going to download his album and pay actual pound for it, it was that good.

And then finally Phoenix were on. They were a bit disappointing, compared to the last time I saw them. I guess I just like their older stuff I lot better, so was disappointed that they didn’t play very much of it. I think they actually only played one old song, which luckily is my favourite, If I Ever Feel Better. Everyone in the crowd went wild for that one, so maybe they all felt the same way I did.

Once Phoenix was over, the festival was pretty much done. We did try to go dance in one of the dance tents, but that shut down about two minutes after we got there. That’s the trouble with festivals in urban areas – the noise pollution issue means everything ends really early. As a Victoria Park neighbour I am usually grateful for that, as you can hear the music pretty clearly when the wind is right, but on Saturday I was ready to go out and dance for the rest of the night. There was some kind of after party, but that was miles away in SE1. As it was, the park is a 5 minute walk from my house and the allure of my bed was calling pretty strongly once the dance tent shut down. Watching all the other trendies make their way to the tube, I was so glad that I just had to cross the canal to get home.

Good points: James Holden; Gucci Sunglasses; really good burrito; Hudson Mohawke; hanging out in the beautiful weather; hipster-watching

Bad points: The Field Day website is ATROCIOUS; gravy = £1; terrible reception, which meant I didn’t find some of my friends for the whole festival and had SEVEN voicemails when I got home; ending too early

It feels like it has been ages since I posted so this might be a long one!

On Friday I went to see Ellie Goulding for the FOURTH TIME THIS YEAR. For someone whose album I didn’t like at all the first time I heard it, that’s a lot! But once was as the opening act and once was at a festival, so I suppose it’s only really two actual shows. And if someone invites me to a gig, I usually say yes unless I really don’t like the artist. Anyway. It is definitely the last time.

The other time I saw her perform properly, it was at Heaven, which is a small club. There was nothing fancy, just a bit of cool lighting and some amazing drumming and singing. This time there was video during the songs, showering glitter, a little video message from Ellie and lots of talking. It was meh.

The Hammersmith Apollo is kind of gross place to see a show - I’ve never been there before for a gig (just for shows with seats) but BOY is their floor sticky. Ew.  The opening act (Sunday Girl) was featured in Wired this month (not sure why), but they were terrible. The lead singer had a look of St Trillian’s about her - all short shorts, tall socks, flippy long hair, and totally indecipherable lyrics. She got me thinking a lot about how some women are only attractive to men, whereas others both men and women think are beautiful. She was very FHM glamour model sexy. But my (male) friend and I were only really talking about that as she played. The music itself was pretty bland. Her acoustic version of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok was the highlight, and that is saying something in itself…

Ellie Goulding was good, but I think I have just seen the show one too many times, as my friend really enjoyed it but I found it a bit disappointing. I didn’t come away thinking “wow she is amazing” which is what I have thought every previous time. I thought the video message (“I mean, really I’m still just a regular girl”) was a bit nauseating and self-indulgent and her constant talking to the audience in a really… breathy… way… pausing between.. like… almost… every… word… was damn annoying too.  Oh well, now I know I won’t see her again. Although she did two new songs and they were pretty damn catchy…

I may have enjoyed it less because I was so hungover from the first Christmas party of the season. Oh dear, there was some dancing…

But I managed to get it together in time for Saturday, when we had a housewarming party at the flat. I got my hair done for the First Time Ever. Definitely doing that again. £15 at the Powder Room and I loved it. Worth every penny.

We also had the leftover sparklers from Fireworks Night.

In other news I went bowling on Monday and kicked some ass! (Ok, that is a lie, I didn’t do anything of the sort. It was really fun though.) Also got to eat at an amazing restaurant called Baltic in Southwark. Delicious pickled herring to start and then some really soft scallops with an amazing curried chickpea thing for mains. Yum. Definitely worth a visit.

Then, last night (it’s been all go this week), I went BACK to the Hammersmith Apollo to see Jason Manford with a big group of people (this time we were seated and upstairs, so no sticky floor issues). I have to say some of us were not that keen at all given his recent sex pesting issues. Then, the support act was ABSOLUTELY DIRE. Holy hell - every now and again there would be a lyric that was funny (they were a comedy band), but too little too late. Not impressed. But when Manford did eventually come on stage, he dealt with his ‘indiscretions’ early on and managed to win everyone over. He was just really, really funny. And seemed nice. There was an annoying encore thing (do comedians have to do encores now too? Really? I hate the encore - unless people are literally standing up screaming for 10 minutes, don’t come back on stage), but overall, I really enjoyed the show and definitely hope I can see him again when he’s back in London next year!

Phew. It’s been a busy week so far. Tonight it’s just The Apprentice and some leftovers. Then it’s off to Birmingham tomorrow for the Good Food show (anyone else going?), followed by thanksgiving with my parents at the Modern Pantry (LOVE THIS PLACE), and a burlesque trapeze show (Madame Pain) on Friday. My social life is nothing if not varied, right?