Tuesday 30 April 2013

GIG REVIEW - Two Door Cinema Club, Alexandra Palace, London


Alexandra Palace, 27th April 2013
Support: Chvrches, Everything Everything


It’s not every day that you’re blessed with the good fortune of finding out that a band you’ve been wanting to see for a while is supporting a band you already have tickets for. I was already really pleased to discover that Everything Everything were supporting Two Door Cinema Club at Saturday’s gig at the Ally Pally, but when I found out on Saturday morning that Chvrches were also supporting I was over the moon. I’ve been trying to see Chvrches for a while but diary clashes had conspired against me. And so I found myself in the crowd, with 17 friends, on Saturday night, eagerly awaiting their arrival on stage.

Kicking off their set with a slowed down version of the intro to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy was a promising start and Chvrches soon got into their stride, playing a selection of their electro-infused tracks, and swapping vocal and synth duties between the threesome. By the time they struck into their latest EP, Recover, a large number of people in the crowd were bobbing and singing with them.

All too soon they disappeared backstage, leaving the scene set for Everything Everything, who drew whoops and whistles from the crowd with their opener, Cough Cough. Speeding through their more popular tracks, including old favourite My Kz Yr Bf and new track Duet, the audience were enthusiastic and eagerly clapped and uttered more whoops of encouragement. Both support acts received a great reception, which was well deserved as they really set up the party atmosphere that was ignited as soon as Two Door Cinema Club took to the stage.

With a huge roar from the waiting crowd Two Door started as they meant to go on, building on the electric atmosphere by playing their first four glee-inducing tracks almost back to back, with minimal crowd interaction in between (Sleeps Alone, Undercover Martyn, Do You Want It All and This Is The Life). At this point lead singer, Alex Trimble, addressed the crowd for the first time, humbly thanking the crowd for coming to their biggest UK show to date (which, incidentally, had sold out weeks in advance), and stating that while they were “super-excited to be here” they were also “shitting themselves”.

Next up was Wake Up from the latest album (Beacon), followed by You Are Not Stubborn and Come Back Home from the first album (Tourist History), and the crowd was partying so hard it began to feel like we were part of a big carnival (and actually, a huge conga procession would not have been out of place at all!). The lighting and laser show only served to heighten the carnival feel whilst the band ploughed through more material from the new album in the shape of Beacon and Sun. As the kick drum and spangly guitars of the intro to Pyramid began the lasers came into their own, trapping the smoke from the stage into a mesmerising, laser-lined pyramid. Then came “Ah! Oh! Ah! Ah! Oh!”, signalling the start of I Can Talk, and sending the crowd into a whooping frenzy.

I noticed that there was a slight dip in the dancing activities during Costume Party, although this could be because it was released as the B side to I Can Talk and it does not appear on their albums, so it’s possibly less well known. Nevertheless it’s a great track that continues their knack of producing jangly, grin inducing tunes. In any event, a singalong was next on the agenda, with Trimble asking the audience to fill in for one-time vocalist Valentina on The World Is Watching, and the crowd continuing this theme into Next Year, Something Good Can Work and Handshake.

After thanking the crowd again, the band launched into their final two tracks of the set Eat That Up It’s Good For You and It’s Too Late) releasing a net full of large white balloons onto the dancing crowd below. The atmosphere was almost indescribable. The band disappeared offstage but the crowd continued to cheer, chase the balloons and party. Within moments they were back, and launched into Someday in a maze of lasers and balloons, followed by Cigarettes In The Theatre. The band then addressed the crowd once again, thanking them for a “truly life-changing, unforgettable experience”. And then, amid a plethora of showering streamers, they played the final track of the night, What You Know to the elated party goers in front of them.

If I could give the entire gig 11 out of 10, I would. The support acts were great and really set the crowd up for the main event, Two Door Cinema Club completely outplayed themselves with an absolute sack load of party friendly tracks, and the atmosphere was electric and akin to being amid a carnival (helped by the balloons, lasers and streamers of course). The only thing missing was that conga procession.

My voice was shredded, my feet were throbbing, and I had that hangover feeling the next day even though I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol. That is the sign of an exceptional gig!

My review score: 11/10 (....ok, ok…rules are rules I suppose....10/10 then)

Monday 22 April 2013

Exciting news! Check out my new "Reading Randoms" column at Strictly Reading & Leeds!


I’m really excited to announce that I have a new column over on the Strictly Reading and Leeds website, called “Reading Randoms”. It’s based on my popular “Unearthing Hidden Gems” series that I’ve been publishing on this blog for some time, but is mostly focused on Reading and Leeds Festival bands, with a weekly “Curveball”.

So every week I randomly pick four tracks by bands that have played at Reading and Leeds Festival over the years. Like my “Unearthing Hidden Gems” posts, selection is completely random, with tracks being plucked via my itunes shuffle feature from the huge number of tracks released by the vast array of bands that have graced the stages over the years. The fifth track is a “Curveball” from a band that has not played the Festival.

The aim is to spark some great memories of past festivals and bands, and to introduce some new music to those who have not seen or heard of the bands or tracks.

Head over to the Strictly Reading & Leeds site to see this week’s edition by clicking this link . I hope you like it!

More exciting news to come shortly….. :-)

Tuesday 2 April 2013

GIG REVIEW - Biffy Clyro, LG Arena Birmingham


LG Arena Birmingham, 21st March 2013
Support: City and Colour


Having been elevated to headline status for Reading and Leeds Festivals this August, Biffy Clyro are working hard to prove that they are ready and worthy of their coveted headline spot, starting the year with a 24 date European tour (11 of those in the UK), then jetting off to the US and Canada for another 11 dates, and finally playing 6 European festivals before taking to the Main Stage at Reading and Leeds. Given their usual style of being quite insular when they play (in that they are so into what they are playing that they go into a “band huddle” and they forget they have an audience) and the fact that, despite having six studio albums under their belt, they are fairly new to the UK’s mainstream music chart (although they have been on the rock circuit for years), it is perhaps understandable why there is scepticism as to whether they will be capable of being a memorable Reading and Leeds headliner.

Taking to the stage at the LG Arena in Birmingham for their second UK date, amid the crowd’s cries of “Mon the Biff!” (being the fans’ usual affectionate chant for the band), the band burst onto the stage in their usual topless state to open with Different People, the first track of their latest album, Opposites. They the thrashed their way through That Golden Rule and Sounds Like Balloons to the obvious joy of the crowd, who went into a moshing frenzy. It wasn’t until the start of Black Chandelier that lead singer Simon Neil said a rather sheepish “hello” to the crowd before leading the first of a number of calmer mass sing-alongs, which befitted the arena setting perfectly.

As the gig progressed, the band emulated the sentiment of Opposites perfectly by expertly steering the crowd through instants of ferocious moshing and “lighter in the air” moments, with the set list veering from one extreme to the other in a dizzying, but gratifying, haze. A frantic Modern Magic Formula was followed by a beautiful rendition of Opposite , before bassist James Johnston cheekily tried to stoke up a fight between the fans of the previous opening night (in Newcastle) with the Birmingham fans with the usual baiting of “they were good but I think you’ll be better”. After playing Justboy from their first album, Blackened Sky , the band launched into Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies from Puzzle , at which point a massive circle pit opened up in front of the stage and the fans went ballistic. The stops and starts of this track were played by the band so tightly that you wouldn’t have even got a gnat’s whisker in between them. It was absolutely breathtaking.

On a roll, and obviously warming to the task of bringing the audience into the band, Neil declared that he wanted to see the whole arena bounce for Bubbles, and the audience duly obliged, jumping and singing this popular track as if their lives depended on it. After calming the pace down with Victory Over The Sun, the band jokingly berated the fans in the seated area of the arena (most of which had been alternating between sitting and standing, but who were almost all seated for the last track) by stating, “You in the seats! You need to get up! This is a fucking rock concert!” And to the opening bars of A Day Of... from the album The Vertigo Of Bliss, the seated fans leapt up and went for it!

Following another mass sing-along for their newest single release, Biblical, and Spanish Radio, the band launched into There's Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake from Infinity Land, at the end of which Neil scrawled the number 26 on a backboard and showed it to the crowd before the band perfectly executed 26 chops to close the song. The band, including the backing musicians but excluding Neil, all exited the stage while Neil walked out onto a runway and into the crowd to play an acoustic version of God and Satan. His performance was so captivating that it was almost as if he was playing to just me in a room. He was then joined by bassist Johnston for The Thaw and Machines, with both band members providing an equally entrancing acoustic performance.

This didn’t last long, however, due to the sudden frenzy of dance-style lazers, bass and beats that introduced Glitter and Trauma, which led the audience into a 3-track mini-mosh including the brilliant Who's Got A Match and The Joke's On Us. And then it happened: the “Coldplay moment”. The band struck up for Many Of Horror and the crowd blew the roof off of the arena as they joined in with the band, singing at the tops of their lungs. Finishing the set with Picture A Knife Fight and an absolutely outstanding rendition of The Captain the band retreated backstage to more shouts of “Mon the Biff!”

After some frantic rearrangements of the stage area by the band’s techies, Neil reappeared for the encore at the top of a set of stairs, to a spot which appeared to be at the base of a spine. The band then played Skylight and the more upbeat Stingin' Belle before saving Mountains for their last track of the night, which elicited more singing and bouncing from the crowd.

Playing a wide range of tracks from all six of their studio albums, and performing a perfectly balanced set list ranging from heavy rock to sing-along ballads, the band were fantastically tight and threw themselves completely into the gig. They have obviously worked on the “insular effect”, and whilst they still have these moments (which have obviously benefitted the band’s tightness, and which are necessary to maintain that tightness) they are now more mindful of the fact they have an audience too, and are more comfortable and adept at bringing the audience into this world. This, coupled with the interesting nature of many of their tracks due to their trademark of mixing unusual time signatures, can only lead to one conclusion…

Is Biffy Clyro worthy of a headline spot at Reading and Leeds, and will they be memorable?

Absolutely, especially if they perform as fantastically as they did at this gig, mixing moshing with sing-along material, and providing a tight performance whilst making the audience feel that they are part of the band. If they do, their slot is sure to be a hit with their fans and should also bring many new fans into the fold.

My review score: 10/10