Monthly Archives: June 2009

Bloc Party at The Garage. June 25, 2009.

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As I am writing this, I am watching Bloc Party’s Glastonbury 2009 performance which is the best possible way to bring back the high I was on last night (Thursday) which was the best Bloc Party I’ve ever been to.

Third time’s a charm so they say and it was definitely the case for Bloc Party.

To kick things off, let’s talk about the venue, The Garage which is right across Highbury & Islington Station. The venue had been previously closed for major renovation and officially opened on Friday. Yes, we got in a day early and together with Bloc Party, had the chance to crack open the place.

The venue was quite small which according to their website lists the capacity at 630. There is one long bar at the end, and the stage on the other with small booths for merch and the DJ. Also, it was quite pleasant to use toilets which didn’t smell like urine but instead lingering paint fumes.

Bar service was also noticeably new as the bartenders tried to get their scanners working properly. It probably took me 15 minutes to pay after getting my drink. Then again, there was an error in the scanning and I did pay a quid less which surprised me when I ordered my next pint.

As for the sound, I am not the strictest of audiophiles, but I have to say it was pretty superb. Everything can be heard just about right and at a reasonable volume for the size of the place.

Wet Paint was the support band for the evening which was something we only found out at the last minute, ie, upon entering the door. I saw Wet Paint when they supported Bloc Party during their Olympia show. They are ok, but nothing really special about them.

At past 9:20 in the evening, Bloc Party finally took the stage and fired up the crowd with One-Month Off. This really lit up the crowd and sent everyone into a frenzy. After a few words from Kele, they then played Positive Tension followed by Hunting For Witches. Personal favourite of mine from Intimacy, Halo, came next with the now popular part were the crowd copies the riffs of the guitar which was pretty damn fun.

Bloc Party

With 4 high energy songs, it was time to slow things down which they did with Signs. With Gordon already on the gloc, it was only fit to continue with Waiting For The 7.18. Singing the chorus “Let’s drive to Brighton on the weekend” never gets old. Note to self: This is one of the first things to do when we get a car.

Then it was time for the ever popular and epic combo of Song For Clay (Disappear Here) playing straight into Banquet.

Russell

However, a highlight for the night was played next, Two More Years, a song I’ve never seen live but one which they play quite often. It was played during the second date of their Olympia gig. This almost made me tear up.

It was back to A Weekend In The City after with Uniform followed by the heavy hitting Mercury which along with Ares are two of my least liked songs.

Kele and Russell

The crowd was given some breathing room which really meant less dancing since So Here We Are is more of an anthem for fans.

They then finished off their set with a terrific trio which included The Prayer, Helicopter, and Ares.

Bloc Party

Of course, they weren’t done yet and came back for an encore which started of with the first ever live performance of One More Chance, a song which when I first heard puzzled me a little on how it would be played live. Surprisingly, it sounded pretty superb and clear. The crowd was pretty into it as well which is always a good thing. They coupled this with another song which was not originally included in a studio album, Flux which has become quite a popular song left for encores. A personal favorite of the band perhaps.

At this point, the lights were turned on and everyone started to move away from the stage. Heck, I decided to head to the merch stand to buy a shirt when the band came out for one finaly song which had everyone rushing back to the front. From the start of Bloc Party’s set, there was one song everyone was chanting for them to play, Skeleton, which the band did and much to the delight of everyone.

To sum up, this was the best Bloc Party gig I’ve been to. The venue was top-notch with great acoustics which made every instrument clear especially with the songs which used less guitars and instead other instruments like the gloc and keyboard. The crowd was small for a Bloc Party gig and this meant the people in the crowd were real fans, singing and dancing to pretty much every song, a very intimate gig. Being included in a few “firsts” was another, such as first gig at The Garage and first to hear One More Chance live. And let’s not forget about the playlist, Two More Years and Skeleton pretty much made the evening although they could have swapped Ares and Mercury for Trojan Horse, Talons, or This Modern Love.

**Apologies for the super blurry pictures. The setlist may be a bit mixed up but this is the best I could remember it to be.

The Mars Volta at ICA. June 18, 2009.

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This is the third time I’ve seen The Mars Volta after Brixton Academy and The Roundhouse last year. Still, this gig was quite different.

If you’ve read my other The Mars Volta posts about the previous gigs, you would know what to expect from this one. Cedric dancing and hardly saying anything other than good night and thank you. Omar doing some crazy riffs. Their relentless assault of song after song. The bands loudness compared to others. And, no encores.

So I’ll try not to bore you and will keep this real short. I will try.

Their soldout show at ICA was quite special as the theatre was real small (around 350+ only) and as such, was quite intimate. I watched Asobi Seksu here earlier in the year, and really enjoy the place as a music venue.

This should have reminded me of one very important thing which I will be considering next time, wear some bloody ear plugs. The Mars Volta is a loud band live but this mixed in with a sound system which is clearly too much for the sound venue will really destroy your ears eventually. Ears were still ringing until the next day.

The Mars Volta

In typical The Mars Volta fashion, there was no support band and sometime after 8:30 in the evening, the familiar Mexican/Western intro they use played, with the band following shortly.

The Mars Volta

They started their relentless assault with Goliath, followed by a new song, Cotopaxi. I’ve never good with song titles and remembering them so I will cheat and grab the setlist from Setlist.fm again.

  • Goliath
  • Cotopaxi
  • Wax Simulacra
  • Viscera Eyes
  • Halo Of Nembutals
  • Ilyena
  • Teflon
  • Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
  • Desperate Graves
  • Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus
  • Luciforms
  • The Widow
  • Drunkship Of Lanterns

It was a great set being a mix of songs from all five albums. Almost 2.5 hours of The Mars Volta.

The Mars Volta

A few things were a bit different though. Cedric seemed to dance less than he did before but he did sound much better especially on the new songs. Also, they somewhat had more breaks between songs now. In the past, someone would be continuing a guitar riff, a drum roll, or an effect over into the next song.

The Mars Volta

Omar’s quitar solos were still pretty intense and you really see the emotion and passion in how he performs and handles the guitar.

The Mars Volta

Cedric did talk more than just a simple good night and thank you though. Sometime towards the end of the evening, there was some technical difficulty with the lights which he requested repeatedly to be turned back on.

Cedric on vocals

The Brixton gig is still the best in my book, but this gig allowed me to get closer to the stage and see them better. It was pretty wicked to see each member of the band do their own stuff. In the past, my view was almost restricted to watching either Omar or Cedric.

This was an intimate evening with The Mars Volta shared with a small number of true fans. As you may have guessed, I’d rank this right after the Brixton Academy gig.

Octahedron Drumset

I may be preluding myself since on July 13, I will be seeing The Mars Volta for the fourth time, this time at Somerset House.

Practical Driving Test. Take One.

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Last Friday, I took my first practical driving test in the UK and failed it on the dumbest of errors.

It was nothing forced onto me. Nor was it an error due to pressure from some crazy driver or biker. It was an error which is pretty basic and quite elementary. It’s an error I should have known and remembered since taking the theory test.

After joining a dual-carriage way from a roundabout, I stayed in the right hand lane which is only supposed to be used for overtaking. While doing this, I had no idea I was doing something wrong. It only dawned to me when the examiner told me I failed my exam due to this serious fault. At which point, I resisted hitting myself on the head.

Being the pessimist that I am, I knew I’d fail but had no idea I’d get this close to passing it on the first try. This was mostly due to not confident enough plus based on my drive last Monday, my instructor thought I’d be better off pushing it further. As such, he was also surprised at how close I almost made it.

Still, “almost” does not cut it. It is still a failure which means retaking the exam at a later date and with the wait time being around 2 months, this is going to be a problem. Wasting 6 hours a day traveling to Slough is not good in any possible way.

Initially booked for August 19 but upon checking earlier, a slot was available for the 10th of August so I changed it. With two more allowable re-schedules, I will be checking the site everyday hoping an earlier slot would open up.

Facebook URL

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Over the past week, Facebook finally opened the gates for having a personal URL so one could quickly have a home for their Facebook account which is easier to remember and most importantly, share with others. Other social networking sites already had this before and from the get go, but it was something Facebook didn’t for some reason.

If you haven’t choosen one for yourself, you can do so by visiting Facebook Username.

Previously, the easiest way to find someone on Facebook was to search for their email address or other information such as name and then trim it down by location. In reality, this was not easy at all unless you had pretty specific details of the person you are looking for.

I’ve always considered Facebook as one of the more professional social networking sites so I went for my name instead of my typical Internet handle as stingeyes.

So, with that said, you can visit me on my personal URL, http://www.facebook.com/simonsabapathy.

Tegan And Sara

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The last time I was introduced to new music which really blew me away was when I read about Arcade Fire on Questionable Content’s list of recommended artists several years ago.

The same thing happened to me around a month ago when a blog post mentioned and recommended Tegan and Sara’s The Con as an album one should hear in their lifetime.

However, this was not the first time I came across one of their songs. Back in February, Amanda Palmer did a cover of Tegan and Sara’s Like O, Like H . It sounded like a good cover but forgot (didn’t bother) to check them out when I got home.

Do watch the video as Amanda Palmer does share her story of discovering Tegan and Sara.

Upon hearing Tegan and Sara’s The Con, I immediately fell in love with them and had them on repeat for the last few weeks as seen in my Last.fm profile.

stingeyes last.fm playlist

Sure, it says “Last 3 months” but in reality that’s 1,287 plays in less than a month and consists of only two of their five albums, If It Was You and The Con.

The Con is a brilliantly made album and it is so easy to keep on listening to it for days on end. If I had to recommend two songs of the album aside from Like O, Like H, it would be The Con and Call It Off.

The Con is their second single of the album after Back In You Head.

Call It Off is the last song from the albumand their third single. I doubt there could be any other song perfect enough to close the album. It is really quite brilliant. One of my all-time favourite songs now. It has quite a striking message as well.

Also, I don’t think I’d get tired watching this video.

The sad thing is, they have been around as a band since 1999 with The Con being released back in 2007. I just find it such a shame that I never came across them on all the year-end best albums list I’ve read and use to pick up new music. Also, why no one ever recommended them before.

The good news is that they are currently working on their sixth album which should be out late 2009.

So, if you’ve never heard of them before, do yourself a favour and try the videos included in this post which I am pretty sure you’d love then grab a copy of The Con.