GigReview

It’s a few weeks since I returned from SXSW and thought I’d take some time to reflect on SXSW. I’ve reviewed SXSWi on my work related blog. So I’ll concentrate on SXSW Music.

The first thing to say about SXSW Music is that it’s a cool festival. For many, SXSWi  is considered to be the ‘cooler’ but for me SXSW Music was far better. It’s just so chilled and everyone I met was there for the music.

SXSW takes place in venues across Austin. If there’s space for a stage, then it will be turned into a venue. Everything from courtyards and churches to the Austin Conference Center become temporary venues to a wide range of music.

I’d never been to SXSW before. With 1900 bands I wasn’t sure how to approach the festival. Do you concentrate on bands you know or go to random venues? My initial approach had been to listen to SXSW radio before leaving for Austin to identify bands to listen to. This approach didn’t last long.

The great thing about SXSW is that many of the venues are in clusters around the town. About half of the venues are clustered around 6th street so it’s easy to jump between venues. I’d expected it to be difficult to move between venues, and it’s true the bigger venues with the big big names bands can be difficult to get in. But I never experienced any problems moving between the smaller venues. I think the longest I waited was 10 minutes. This meant that I could catch many more bands each day.

The great thing is that during the day there’s numerous official and unofficial showcases. Many are country related or organised by companies such as Sonicbids. There were also a number of stages around the main Conference Centre and I found that I alternated between spending the afternoon around the Conference Centre and flitting between unofficial parties.

The full Music badge or the Platinum badge gives access to the SXSW conference. This featured talks about many aspects of the music business with several big named speakers. The only session I attended was the keynote given by Bob Geldof.

Bob Geldof

Many who lived through the 80s view Bob Geldof with an almost saintlike status. We know he’s a gruff, miserable bastard, but he’s also the person who along with Midge Ure managed to bring the world together to act over the distressing events in Ethiopia. He’s achieved things that no one believed could happen. The standing ovation at the end of this Keynote highlights that no matter what he says, you can’t separate this action from the man.

Bob Geldof’s keynote was a rambling but enjoyable monologue that touched on the terrible inequalities in the world, how America’s becoming tired and how rock and roll can change the world but that now it’s a bit crap. His belief is that that rock and roll is at it’s most powerful and dangerous when it’s used as a voice for the disaffected. Whether it’s Bob Dylan or the Sex Pistols, rock works best when it stands up and tries to change things. He wondered why, when the world is in financial turmoil and bankers who’ve caused it walk off with massive bonuses, today’s rock music isn’t challenging this. He has a point.

He also managed to annoy a large percentage of the audience by dismissing the power of the Internet to support actions. In his opinion, people writing on the Internet are all wankers who just want their voice heard. As there’s nothing pulling these voices together, as he did with music, these voices end up being noise. But it’s amazing how he managed to dismiss the power of the Internet with all everything that’s happening in the Middle East right before our eyes.

The thing I loved about SXSW was that it gave me a chance to listen to loads of new music. Overall, the standard was pretty good. There were only a handful of bands that  I didn’t like but it just gave me an opportunity to move on to a new venue. The quality of the venues varies considerably. Also with so many changeovers, there was the odd sound problem. But none of this distracted from the festival.

I think over the four days I saw around 70 bands. These are the bands I noted down, but there were many more:

Dutch, Dicta, Said the Whale, Boat People, Ximena Sarinana, James Vincent McMorrow, DeVotchaKa, Chapel Club, The Black Angels, Black Joe Lewis, Shilpa Ray, Woodsman, Erland & The Carnival, Harrys Gym, Blaqstar, White Denim, Adanowsky, Gustavo Galindo, DJ Yoda, Streets of Fire, Kinch, Matthew & The Arrogant Sea, The Black, Mr Lewis & The Funeral 5, EatLiz, Dry the River, Fences, Mr Heavenly, Jonquil, Clock Opera, Bobby, Bell Gardens, Josh T Pearson, The Loom, Twin Atlantic, Admiral Fallow, The Hounds Below, The Bangles, King Creosote & Kid Canaveral, Thavius Black, Pitch Blond, Screaming Females, The Joy Formidable, The Kills, Austra, Little Comets, Esben and the Witch, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Burning of Rome, Endless Hallway, The Black Cloud Collective, The Belle Brigade, Scars on 45, The Republic Tigers, Veronica Falls, The Jezabels, The Seedy Seeds, The Bangles, Suck Piggy, Joan of Arc, Dinosaur Pile Up, Pulled By Horses, Filligar, The Chevelles, Capsula

The highlight from this long list was The Joy Formidable. I’d been hearing that they were a great live band. Before heading out to Austin I’d purchased the album and a ticket for their London gig in May but it wasn’t my plan to catch them. But like many of the UK bands, they were seemed to be playing everywhere. Taking the opportunity to play as many gigs as possible while in the US. So I ended up catching two of their gigs. In both cases I just happened to walk past venues they were playing. Both gigs were warmly received and rightly so. The Joy Formidable were amazingly tight and despite being a three piece, have a sound that fills venues. Bryan the lead singer,  storms through the sets like she’s possessed. Definitely worth catching.

SXSW Photos

EatLiz

Jonquil

Fences

Shelpa Ray

James Vincent McMorrow

Streets on Fire

The Loom

Erland and the Carnaval

Harrys Gym

Harrys Gym

DeVotchaKa

Chapel Club

Austra

The Kills

Adanowsky

Jezabels

The Burning of Rome

The Black Cloud

Little Comets

Thavius Black

The Joy Formidable

Esben and the Witch

Bombay Bicycle Club

Dinosaur Pileup

Pulled Apart By Horses

Videos

The Blues evening at theforum University of Hertfordshire have been sparse affairs. It seems out students aren’t interested in Blues. So I was surprised to find the venue packed when I turned up. It seems the Uni’s marketing team have given up trying to push something they don’t understand and have given the evening to a local blues promoter. A very welcome improvement.

Tonight’s gig was from ‘James Hunter’, an English R&B singer (as in traditional not the modern crap). The music ranged from full on blues through to more soul and funk type numbers. Throughout he was ably supported by an excellent backing band. Although it was too ‘soul’ for me, he was very good.

Rhythms of the World is two day ‘town’ festival in Hitchin. It markets itself as a ‘World Music’ festival but it’s increasingly becoming a festival that’s based around indie and rock and roll, as represented through the large number of local bands. The festival has grown substantially over the last decade and has become an important date in Hertfordshire’s calendar. At £7 per day, it’s cheep, however, it’s expensive compared to the free concerts many towns now provide.

I’m from Middlesbrough and both Middlesbrough and Stockton provide free festivals featuring known acts. This year Stockton’s Riverside Festival included British Sea Power, Human League, Mercury Rev, along with many up and coming acts and comedy acts. These festivals are organised and supported by the local councils and attract large crowds from outside of the towns.

ROTW used to be a free festival, based within Hitchin’s town centre. But unfortunately Hitchin is a posh southern market town full of middle-class families who, rather than controlling their kids, blamed the festival when their children got pissed during the festival weekend. So a few years ago, a decision was taken to move the festival to Hitchin Priory so that the it could be policed. Since the council doesn’t finance the festival, this meant a charge had to be introduced. Unfortunately the move in my opinion has had a detremental effect on the festival because this changed the nature of the festival and to be honest it also means the music has to justify the admission price, and this year there were slim pickings.

One problem the festival suffers from is an over familiarity of the acts, with many returning each year. Some of the local acts often aren’t good enough for such a large stage and the ‘introducing’ stage is full of ‘college bands’ playing skater rock, or bland indie. The ‘world’ aspect is often covered by white middle-aged middle-class people playing ‘ethnic’ music, or some so called ‘traditional’ north African band playing electric guitars, along with a few bands playing some sort of eastern european ‘roots’ music. This year in particular seemed to be devoid of world music. Some of the acts are just plain wrong – with one act in particular turning up each year with a different ‘world’ artist in tow. Maybe I’m just too cynical but I suspect that they’re not doing it to make people aware of different styles of music but use these artists as a means of touring summer festivals. This may sound harsh but I hate people who present themselves as ‘new age’, when instead they using other people to freeload.

I know this is sounding pretty scathing and it’s not meant to be, but I guess the point I’m making is that I no longer see an unique selling point. Afterall £14 is cheap for a two day festival, but once on-site you cannot leave and return without paying for re-admission, so you are reliant on the on-site concessions and it all starts to cost. Many people seem to turn up, find a stage and stay there and this leads to feeling that the event is overcrowded. In the town centre, this wasn’t a problem, people would move around and it never felt overcrowded and it was easy to drop into a shop or pub for food and drink. Although the organisation is really effective, hosting 6 stages in a big field means doesn’t have the same atmosphere as holding the events in different ‘nooks and crannies’ around Hitchin town centre and the new stage layout discourages unamplified music (they used to use Hitchin’s church for acoustic music – while the equivalent stage suffers badly from sound leakage). This year, with more and more bands selected who play music of ‘american’ origin (rock, blues, rap, country, ‘americana’), seemed to really lack the ‘world’ music that gave the town centre festival it’s fantastic mix. Unfortunately this year’s festival was more Radio 1/2 than Radio 3/6. Hopefully next year, they’ll find a way of restoring the balance.

Anyway highlights:

17 Hippies – excellent german band playing a wide-range of European styles

Trailer Trash Orchestra* – A country/rock sound with attitude

Dodge Brothers – Mark Kermode’s skiffle band

Rapides * – Rock and roll band

Bare Bone Boogie Band – Electric Blues

* Returning bands

Photos

Flickr Album

My second encounter with British Sea Power in the space of a week was their three day mini festival ‘Sing Ye From the Hillsides II’, at the Tan Hill Inn. Tan Hill Inn is the highest pub in the UK, situated in the North Yorkshire Dales.

BSP had managed to put together a wide range of talent for the festival:

Friday

Goodnight Lenin, John & Jehn, Bo Ningen*, Race Horses*

Race Horses

Saturday

Sharp Tongues, My Sad Captains, Tom White, Basia Bulat*, Phantom Band, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis* and Modern Ovens

My Sad Captains

Tom White

Basia Bulat

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Sunday

Alessi’s Ark, Matt Eaton*, Rose Dougall, Erland & the Carnival*, I Like Trains, Metronomy

Matt Eaton

Rose Dougall

Erland & the Carnival

I Like Trains

and of course British Sea Power headlining the Friday and Sunday nights.

The whole weekend was fantastic, if a little cold. With Tan Hill’s staff doing an fantastic job of keeping the food and drink flowing. BSP’s choice of bands (ably helped by Mark Riley) was absolutely spot on. Although some of the music wasn’t to my taste, none of it was bad. Some, such as Rose Dougall had previously failed to impress me, yet here with a full band, worked. Matt Eaton without his band, preformed a random set in the bar accompanied by Noble that could have been a disaster, but turned out to be a refreshing ‘down to earth’ set. Everything just seem to work.

The standout performances for me was ‘Race Horses’ with their energetic indie pop sound. Tom White’s amazing performance where the stage wasn’t big enough for him, was a performance where even if you didn’t like his music, you couldn’t help but enjoy. Basia Bulat’s amazing voice helped the Americana inspired indie sound lift the audience (she’s Canadian). Probably the biggest surprise was the amazingly talented Kitty, Daisy & Lewis who brought us a big enjoyable slice of rockabilly. All the members of the band are from the same family, including Mam on double bass and Dad on Guitar. With the kids able to move between all the instruments, I wonder what home sounds like in the evenings.

Most of the bands were so good, that since returning, I’ve bought several of their albums (indicated by * in the lists above).

Moving on to the main event. British Sea Power played two sets. The First on Friday night and a second set on Sunday. Despite Sunday’s set being affected by a power cut, both sets were more than up to par. On both nights, the highlights were the fantastic encores. Sunday’s included Yan and Noble crowd surfing and then hanging from the rafters during the energetic 20 minute performance of Lately.

The song ’5 Years Time’ was one of those songs that got into my head forcing me to buy an album for a band I wouldn’t normally consider. (Obviously I bought it in the sales – just in case). The album ‘Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down’ was a pleasant album of what I term ‘summer music’. Full of well written songs with a fairly jovial acoustic sound. It provided a nice distraction from my usual rock and indie diet. It seemed to fit perfectly with bright sunny days. So with Noah playing the Roundhouse, I thought that I’d give them a try. It’s quite an intimate venue and surely should suit their sound?

The night started badly. The support act that appeared to be two separate bands pushed together and it didn’t work. The two lead singers looked like they were rejects from a boy band audition while the other two members of the bands were rejected from a rock band.The lead singers had no presence and maybe I missed it, but I don’t think they even said who they were. All four played acoustic guitars and on one song, one played an accordion. The last time I saw that many acoustic guitars was at a school concert with the RE teachers playing ‘happy clappy’ music. Whoever they were, they were awful.

So then on to the main event. ‘Noah and the Whale’ entered the stage with a whole troop of supporting personnel. There hardly seemed to be enough space for them, their backing singers and brass section.

First impressions of the gig weren’t good. The audience had slowly filled up and around half the audience appeared to be young middle-class teenagers. It hadn’t occurred to me that ‘Noah’ are more pop than indie. I had thought the audience would have been full of 20 somethings students, the kind who study philosophy and watched arty films. I’m not sure if this put me in a bad mood but the next 90 minutes will not rank amongst my memorable gigs.

The things I liked on record didn’t seem to work live, even in a smallish venue. Noah’s sound didn’t fill the Roundhouse and the distortion, especially by the bassist, unpleasant. Their new drummer, managed to spend 90 minutes gurning his way through successive songs and was very off-putting. The lead singer cam across as just very ‘wet’ with little presence.

To be honest, I doesn’t help a band if you can hear the conversations around you and the teenagers in the audience were either sucking each others faces off, shouting ‘I love you’ to the lead singer, or talking incessantly. As a 30 something, it just made the whole experience unpleasant. I go to a gig to enjoy the music, jump around and have a good laugh with mates. I’ve never understood why people go to  a gig and then don’t listen. This audience isn’t unique. Even at the one-off Zeppelin reunion concert there was a group near me who spent most of their time talking through that gig – but Zep were so loud, you couldn’t hear them. So maybe I’m being unfair on teenagers who’ve probably never been to a gig before.

Despite all this, I think in an outdoor venue, on a sunny summer, I’m sure Noah are brilliant. I guess that’s the risk of going to watch a ‘summer’ band during the winter.

Flickr Photos

This was my first gig at the Roundhouse. It wasn’t a good start. With doors opening at 6pm, I arrived in Camden early afternoon figuring that I could walk round the market, have some food, take some photos and grab a pint or two. Instead, I arrive to an empty market with many of the stalls closed due to heavy rain and discover I’ve left my camera’s battery at home. (So apologies at the quality of the photos – they’re from an iPhone)

First impressions of the Roundhouse were positive. It’s an old converted railway ‘shed’ and looks from the outside looks like a massive corn exchange. Inside it’s equally as nice. The main auditorium is high but still feels intimate.

As with all benefit gigs. The night was a mixture of music, comedy and charity.

The evening started with a bunch of videos from celebs who couldn’t be bothered making the trip down saying ‘what a good cause it was, but not good enough for me to give up an evening, especially as it’s not being broadcast on TV’.

The host for the evening was Marcus Bridgstocke who did a great job of keeping the evening flowing, including a unplanned ‘beat box’ competition with a member of the audience (I suspect he was a plant). I think many in the audience weren’t sure who he was and clearly don’t stray too far from BBC1 or Radio 1.

With such an early start the crowd was pretty thin for the opening act, Nate James. As I’ll admit several times during this review, I know nothing about Nate. I don’t really listen to soul music. Soul for me ended with Motown. But despite this, I enjoyed Nate’s performance. He’s clearly got a good old fashioned soulful voice, i.e. one that doesn’t try and do vocal hurdles jumping between keys whle waving his hands up and down.

Introducing the next band, the Humans, was the rather lovely Sophie Anderton and Nicky Clarke.

The Humans, featuring Toyah Willcox on vocals, are an art-noise type prog rock type group. Unusually, they don’t feature a drummer, instead have two bassists and guitarist. Like all art-rock type groups. They had their moments. Clearly very talented musicians but at times they were a little bit too talented with some of the music overblown. The surprising thing was how good Toyah’s vocals are which are as strong as they ever where.

Another act I’m not too familiar with is Mr Hudson. I’d heard a few of his songs when he had a library but none since. They songs were fairly bland. Apparently he had been ill, but I think he gave the best vocal performance of the evening.

Bombay Cycle Club, fresh from their success at the NME Shockwave awards, were next. Looking like the maths class had been pushed onto stage. They’re an unusual little band. They do not look like a rock band. The lead singer’s vocal style is almost ‘shy’. They seem a geeky kids pretending to be rock stars but don’t get me wrong, their set was excellent and I’ve since bought their album. So they obviously did something right.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, are another band I know nothing of. In fact I’d never heard of them before this gig. They appeared to have a number of fans in the crowd. There’s was nothing particularly interesting about them.

The Futureheads played a very short set and I think most in the crowd would have been very happy for them to play a few more songs.

The singer of I Blame Coco – looked like a surly teenager who had snook out of her house when her parents weren’t watching. Her voice really didn’t appear to come from her. It’s one of those ‘contemporary’ Lilly Allen type voices. She only played one song and left almost as quietly as she walked on the stage. I search for more info after the gig and she’s apparently got a six album deal with Island records. She also has a famous dad, Sting. On the basis of this performance, I think there’s a bit of nepotism going on.

It was clear as the evening went on. A large portion of the audience were only there for Paul Weller. Although I wasn’t there for Paul Weller, since I’ve never seen him before I was pleased to see him on the bill. He didn’t disappoint. Playing a short set he managed play some new songs and to squeeze in a number of classics such as ‘Town Called Malice’.

The other half of the crowd appeared to be there for KT Turnstull. Again, she’s not somebody I would listen to. I’ve never really known where to pigeon hole her. She’s clearly very talented with a nice voice but there’s nothing in the music that makes me want to listen to more. This was her first gig for several years so her set was a mixture of old and new (all new to me). Her fans seemed to appreciate her performance, so that’s what’s important.

The final act was Seasick Steve. This guy as far as I’m concerned is a legend. I’m not sure I’m convinced about the tall stories he tells but like all good blues singers, a little bit of exaggeration only improves the song. Steve’s set suffered from the over run of earlier acts. But in the 30 minutes he played, he blew away the majority of the crowd. As I left the venue there was a group of Paul Weller fans saying that they weren’t sure they would like him, having only attended for Paul Weller, but they all agreed that he was by far, the best act on the night.

Fruit Machine

Photos on Flickr