Alright then. Last night I went to see Modest Mouse in The Forum, Kentish town. Handily it’s one of the closer venues and I was able to walk there in just over half an hour. Of course I had expected it would take a little longer and I still got there early. A quick drink and then down onto the main floor. It was a little quieter than I expected. I wonder how many people missed it cause of the tube strike.
Anyway. It was a good show. Johnny Marr’s a hell of a guitar player and it really works for some of the live stuff…but I also think it distracts from a lot of the older stuff. I wasn’t sure at Glastonbury but I didn’t think that his guitar work really went all that well with the older perhaps more pop-esque songs, in particular I didn’t like the guitary version of Float On. Some of the newer stuff works very well and some of the songs get a boost from that extra riffs but for the most part yeah I’m not sold.
I was trying to figure out how many times I’ve seen them now. I think last night could have been the fifth time which puts them quite high up the list. Radiohead x 4 (same year I think), Pixies x 4 (also the same year I think), R.E.M. x 4 (maybe 5?), The Frames x 4 (at least), Bob Dylan x 4. Hmm what else, lets see Kings of Leon could be 5 or 6 times too. Arcade Fire will hit 4 (and that’s just this year) soon, British Sea Power too. I think I saw Hope of the States 4 times, Ryan Adams must be 3 or so, counting Live 8 U2 hit 4 (and so have to mention Pink Floyd there) and uh lots more.
I got stupidly, stupidly excited last night when I was reading up on my music feeds and spotted an upcoming Sigur Ros gig in London, not just that but an acoustic gig too. Tickets don’t go on sale for another week or so but I might actually cry if I don’t manage to get any.
I think I’ve seen the Polyphonic Spree 4 times too, would have gone again but they were playing last night too. Metallica is 3, Garbage could be 5. I think I’ve seen The Thrills 4 times, same with The Magic Numbers tho that was work stuff. Oh Bright Eyes x4, I think I’ve seen the Manic’s 3 times.
Okay enough of that, but Festivals account for a lot of stuff too, it’s not like every one of them was a single gig.
To go back to what I was saying. Sometimes a song really works with some extra guitars. I love love love Iggy Pop’s The Passenger and there is an excellent version he does of it all metalled up. It was kinda like that with Float On, it was still good but I miss my nice simple pop song. I did end up listening to it on my iPod on the way home and that was a little better.
Finally for now, I was on the phone while I was walking home last night. And just as I went down Kentish Town high street, I spotted a tenner lying on the path in front of me. So that was a nice bonus for the end of the evening.
It’s Wednesday already and this is quite nice. I realised as I was walking to Swiss Cottage station this morning that I had managed to go to work and get home from work without taking the tube yesterday. It was nice. As much as I like the tube and as handy as it is, sometimes I never want to get on the damn thing again.
I was in work fairly early yesterday and so I headed off early too. It was nice to have time to wander to the book shop (bad Dave!) and then still get home around 6.30. The evening was mainly quiet, I played around a bit but then I sat down to write a little about some music. Two hours later I was still going strong and working through some very specific tracks in my collection. It’s slightly odd to be writing about how much an affect a track or a moment of music has, thinking that I have to listen to the song again and then stopping writing for a moment because the moment has come around in the recording and it’s just glorious (Radiohead, Glastonbury 2003 and a hundred thousand people singing “For a minute there I lost myself”).
Anyway it was a lot of fun, more than I was even expecting and I ended up going to bed a little later than I had planned as a result. It must be nice to be able to write.
This morning, also on the way to work, was an odd mood.
In late 1999 I discovered Metallica. Quite late to the game, I know. I had just started working for a company in their tech support area and well piracy wasn’t rampant *but* there was a fine selection of music on a number of the computers. The old Apple next to me (OS 7.6!) had some tunes on it and I started to listen. There was a ton of Nirvana which was good of course and a good amount of Metallica. It was my first introduction to Napster *sniff*
Fuck, those were the days. And so I listened to some songs and I liked them, a lot. And so, as it works, I went out and bought some Metallica, eventually building up the back catalogue (including St. Anger, so fuck off, I’ve paid my dues!) and I’ve seen them several times. Two of those times are worthy of note actually. The first time was a “secret” gig. They were playing Reading Festival in 2003 and were under contract not to be advertised to play anywhere else. But of course, with Donnington hosting a metal festival and the availability of the internet, it was fairly well believed that they’d do a “secret gig” on the second stage at 3pm on the Saturday. Armed with this knowledge we headed towards the second stage around 2.40…to find the road starting to be lined with security. At which point the atmosphere very noticeably changed, Metallica were about to play in a tent that would hold a couple of thousand people at best. It would be tiny! So we ran and we made it in and we made it a good way up the front and then Metallica came on and played. They opened with Blackened and that’s all you really need to know. It was the first time I’d seen them and I can’t imagine a better way to do so. It’s still a joke going on five years later between the two of us that were there, “do you remember that time we saw Metallica’s secret gig”? and it annoys some of the lads to no end.
I would see them again at Download the next year, this time on a full headlining slot on the main stage but it was to be a little different. The drummer was “ill” (very badly fallen off the wagon as rumour would have it) and instead they took a selection of drummers from other bands. Starting with Slayer’s Dave fuckin’ Lombardo (to give him his full name), widely considered one of the greatest drummers in the world, he came on and did Battery and The Four Horsemen and just nailed it. So after waiting for an extra 90 minutes for the set to start we were quite pleased to see them still playing to to have the extra benefit of Lombardo on drums. Now when you start with someone like that, it’s going to be pretty hard to keep the momentum going. Or so we thought. Earlier on despite all scoffing to the contrary we had seen Slipknot, mainly because we didn’t want to move after Slayer and they blew us away. Excellent live band, I’m not really one to listen to their albums but I’d now see them live anytime.
So when they bring out Slipknot’s Joey Jordison (in full mask of course), we didn’t think he’d be so bad. We could not have been more wrong, bad? Well to put it in context around 70,000 Metallica fans proceeded to spend the rest of the set not chanting for Metallica but chanting for Joey. It wasn’t that he knew all of the songs (grown up learning the drums to Metallica) and that he came on and just played them perfectly, but he added to them. He’s drumming away and adding his own little flourishes to the drum beats. You could almost see the rest of Metallica turning around, realising they could just play away and he was with them. Wonderful stuff. So with 1 exception for Lar’s drum tech to play a below average Fade to Black, they cancelled the other planned drummers and stuck with Joey.
Download says: Slipknot hero saves Metallica’s day! Joey Jordison makes Rock History
When I’m feeling out of sorts in work, I almost always fall back to Metallica. Usually …And Justice For All although I do recognise that Master of Puppets is the better album, there is just something about Justice for me. My favourite though is S & M. In 1999 they played for two nights with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Symphony & Metallica, what were you thinking???), it was filmed for a DVD release and released as a double album and it’s good stuff. I’m a sucker for orchestral stuff mixed in with metal or rock etc and here it just works perfectly well. So that’s my favourite Metallica album, thanks for asking, and it was what got me through the journey into work this morning.
Now I’m listening to that 2004 Download performance and remembering. I do have to run out for some lunch soon. Then this evening we are having a morale boosting team event…
Alrighty then. It is a bank holiday Sunday and I have done nothing at all so far. I feel much better for it.
So yesterday I had a day ticket to Reading Festival. I bought it months ago because I wanted to see Arcade Fire. This was pre Glastonbury lineup/tickets etc and I wanted to be sure to see them. So I got a day ticket. I had been once before a few years ago when work were a sponsor. I wasn’t really, and am still not, sold on it as a festival but for a day trip it’s pretty good.
There was one slight problem, I hadn’t slept very well on Friday night and I was really really tired heading there on Saturday morning. But, after a little while listening to some music and drinking lots of energy drinks I felt much better. I was more worried about keeling over from heatstroke than from tiredness at this point. The weather was beautiful. Blue skies, not a single cloud and just sunshine. Slightly too hot but seen as my lineup was pretty clear, I was able to spend the day wandering from tent to tent.
First up was Brakes who were okay. I had heard a lot about them and seen the lead singer in his British Sea Power days a while ago so I was expecting good things. But they were okay, no real urge to see them again or to pickup any of their stuff. Straight after them were The Noisettes who weren’t bad. Decent enough live but still no real urge to have more. Then my third band, Good Shoes. They were pretty lively and I made a note to check out some of their stuff. So that wasn’t too bad of a start.
Grabbing some lunch, I wandered around the site for a bit and eventually took shelter from the sun in the Comedy tent. I sat there for a while listening to some average jokes until I heard a song coming from the tent nextdoor that I knew. It took me a moment to realise it was live and not a between performances recording. So I wandered in there and caught a few songs by Irish four piece Director. They weren’t bad, don’t think I’d go and see them but I still give the album a listen every now and again.
So another little wander before deciding that I wanted to sit down in one of the tents for a little while and recover a bit for the evening. Comedy seemed in order and so I wandered along into that tent. I seem to have timed it perfectly for Hugh Lennon & Hypnodog. I laughed so much that it actually hurt. It was all very silly stuff, convincing someone the person next to them was a Martian and other such things but a couple of the volunteers were just so funny in their reactions that it was hilarious. I laughed until I cried and it hurt too much to laugh. Pure genius, I’m so glad I caught that.
So after that I went off to find a band and caught who I would later find out were Tokyo Police Club on one of the smaller stages. They were pretty good, the crowd were well into them and so that helped. I did grab some of their stuff from emusic this morning. While the show was good, I’m not so sold on the album. Worth seeing at a festival I think.
Next up it was off to the main stage and a slog through the crowds to get upto the front area for Bloc Party. Hugely fun. Great set, pretty much a perfect band for lovely sunshine, a happy crowd and some dancy/rocky singalong stuff. I was really surprised by how much I got into it, they were excellent and I’ve been listening to some of their stuff today. One thing that did add to it, when you have a bass drum and sound system so loud that you can feel the vibrations through your body about 30 people deep, it’s gonna to be a hell of a sound.
Then it was Arcade Fire and it was everything I had hoped for. Opening with Keep the Car Running and No Cars Go to a wildly enthusastic crowd who just kept going and going. The last four songs were Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels),
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) with that so wonderful 1-2-3-4-segue into Rebellion (Lies) and a massive Wake Up. It was about as crowd pleasing a set as you can get. When you get the crowd really going and singing along to something it really does make me forget how shit crowds (and indeed people) are generally, it’s about as close as I’ll ever get to being overcome with love for the human race. The sun set as they played and it just added that little more to the show. It just didn’t quite seem right that they played the first couple of songs in full sunshine. I am giving very serious thought to getting a ticket for the third night in November. Glorious.
Anyway, I could go on about it more or better still you could just go here and watch most of it from the BBC. If you have any joy in your heart at all, I cannot more strongly recommend that you click that link, turn the volume up and enjoy. I’ve just watched it twice again and it’s just glorious.
So that was it for me, or at least that’s what I thought. I wasn’t going to bother with the Chilli’s and so I was making my way off site to the sound of the crowd still “Uh-oh, oh, oh, oh, oh…”ing. Imagine my surprise when a day at a festival totally straight edge sees me running into the Dance tent because as soon as I walk past, !!! come on and straight into All of My Heroes are Weirdos. Great stuff, looking forward to seeing them in a few weeks.
Now that must really be it and I’ll go get a train..but no! Yet again I’m wandering past a tent I heard something I knew and found a band I liked playing, this time Battle I was only in time for a few songs but that included Takuya and Tendency (which I love) so I was very pleased.
And then that was really it. I walked back into Reading town centre, caught an early and empty train back to London where after about 2 minutes thinking I’m too tired for this, I got a cab home from Padington and went to bed.
So all in all, a pretty decent day at a festival. Some crappy photos here.