Placebo @ Shepherds Bush Empire

I'm going to start my review of last night's gig with a rant: What the hell was that bloody 'no pictures' policy???? The security staff was really harsh with that, they wouldn't even let me take pictures of the supporting act with my crap mobile phone. Brian Molko did declare a 'photo amnesty' half way through his set, which is nice (even him was irritated by the security trying to pin on people), but still...

Anyway, the supporting act was Little Fish, which consists of a girl on guitar and vocals, and a drummer. I found them really good, the singer's voice sounded a lot like PJ Harvey and musically they were quite dark and heavy. The songs were basic but catchy, and had interesting lyrics as well (I caught some words in french I believe...). A good one.

Placebo's set started slowly with a few songs from the latest album, and some older songs as well but, the atmosphere wasn't great and even 'Every You, Every Me' sounded flat. But things started to pick up slowly, as the show progressed. Worth noting is the new single 'For What It's Worth', which sounds way better live; and also the played a new, more gothic version of MEDS. There were 2 encores, clearly the best moments of the gig (they played 'Special K', 'Song To Say Goodbye', 'Bitter End' and 'Taste in Men'...).

I should also mention that one of the songs that sounded best from the new album was a song named Julien: From what I caught in the lyrics, it's about a guy named Julien, who has no friends. Sounds familiar.

Here's my recording of the intro for MEDS (2009 version):

Franz Ferdinand Live

Franz Ferdinand's gig at the Apollo Hammersmith took place a while ago now, so I wont say too much about it. In any case, it was pretty much identical to their gig at the O2 a few days before: Really good, but 1h15 (including encore) is not enough for the main act.

One thing I really found interesting is the fact that the audience had the opportunity to buy a recording of the gig afterwards. Now that's something I have been wanting for a while now, as I knew the technology was there (and bootleggers have been offering that for years). Well obviously it's not quite ready yet, as I tried to find the place where to buy the recording after the gig but couldn't find it.... But at least the idea is around now, and hopefully it will become standard in the future to have the recording available after the show. In the meanwhile, it can be downloaded here.

And that's how bands should make money even though nobody's buying records any more...

Here's my recording of the song Outsiders:

Is Billy Corgan the meanest guy in Rock'n'Roll?

The official Smashing Pumpkins website just released a statement saying that Jimmy Chamberlain, long-standing drummer and original member, had left the band. Obviously, everybody's wondering why that is, with the most likely explanation being that Billy Corgan is a pain in the bum.

That being said, Chamberlain had stuck with Billy during Swan, and then for the Pumpkins reformation, so it was generally thought he could take pretty much any crap Billy could pull, but maybe this time he went over the top, who knows...

Anyway, the answer is probably yes, Billy seems like the meanest guy in Rock'n'roll. He's one musical genius though...

Look at this video here where he takes the piss out of his audience:

U2 tour

U2 are the only band that I really like but have never seen live. This is mostly because since the eighties they have only played stadiums which I used to hate (and couldn't afford), and haven't been playing at festivals.

So I really wanted to go see them this time, if only to check their box in my list of bands I've seen live. Sadly, pre-sales were reserved to subscribers of their fan club, and I'm afraid I'm a bit old now to belong to a 'Fan Club', so I had to spend half an hour this morning when the tickets went on sale.

Apparently there were no standing tickets for sale, so I only managed to snitch two seated tickets, most likely at the far back.

That'll do...

Get your Wacko Jacko!

It is now official: Michael Jackson will take a residency at the O2 this summer for his big live come-back. You can register here to get access to the pre-sales here (and probably also to receive ads for his complete discography and merchandising....)

I just registered, because you never know, I may want go. That being said, the rumor is that the tickets will cost £75; this may be too much for me. I guess I'll decide on the spur of the moment.

Oh well, who am I kidding... Of course I'll buy tickets if I can!

NME Big Gig

Thursday's gig was supposed to be a celebration for The Cure's Godlike Genius Award at the Shockwave NME Awards - which they fully deserve. In truth, it was just a shorter-than-usual Cure gig, with a particularly attractive support line-up.

It started with White Lies; I missed most of their set, only entering the arena during their last song. They seemed OK live, and as I quite like their album I will definitely go see them in a smaller venue when they next play in London.

That is not going to be the case for Crystal Castle, though. These guys are hyper-hype, and I must say that Iwas quite intrigued by them, having heard that they play some 'crazy electro stuff', which sounds like my kind of music. To be honest, their music is indeed quite good, but god-damned that singer is terrible! Either we couldn't hear her vocals at all, or she was just yelling incoherent phrases in her microphone. Bad, really bad.....

Franz Ferdinand were at their usual standards, extremely tight sound and really good performance. Plus, I really like their latest album, much more than the two previous ones, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them in a decent-size venue in two weeks.

Finally, The Cure's gig was very much like last year's show at Wembley: A bit boring during the main act, with the few highlights of 3 Imaginary Boys, Shake Dog Shake, A Forest, 100 Years and Want. But things really took off during the Encore, when they played most of the Boys Don't Cry album. Overall, the gig lasted 2 hours, which is a bit short for The Cure's standards, but I'm not sure they're worth a 3 hours show any more.
So, to summarize, The Cure deserve their Godlike award, even if in truth the supporting acts stole the show. As it should be for a band that started in the late 70's....

My poor recording of The Cure playing 100 Years:

Ra Ra Riot @ KCLSU

It's sad that my first real gig in 2009 was in mid-February. It's just as sad that I had never been to King's College Student Union before, even though I have been working at King's for four years... It is a very nice venue, small and cosy, but still with a decent bar and pretty good sound. I especially recommend stopping at the Waterfront bar two floors below, for a drink at student prices and an amazing view on the Thames!

The first supporting act (whose name I failed to catch) was OK, they sounded a bit like Sigur Ros except in English. And more boring. Nothing worth noticing.
The second band was called The Answering Machine. Pretty lame name if you ask me (but then again, so is Ra Ra Riot). They were very uneven: Some songs had obvious punk influences, and these were rubbish. But they also had a couple of songs that were darker and more reflective, which didn't sound bad at all. Their stage performance wasn't amazing though, so they may end up like The Cure (i.e. from Punk losers to Goth geniuses) but I doubt it.

Finally, Ra Ra Riot; I had discovered them supporting Editors at Brixton Academy, and had enjoyed their show enough to remember their name. The strings section definitely make their music sound unique, think the bounciness of Franz Ferdinand with the arrangements of Arcade Fire. The singer has a sweet voice but is full of energy, and in the end it makes a really good show. Some of the songs can really stand by themselves, I will definitely get the album.

There are better pictures of the gig here; and my crappy recording of one song below: