Last Thursday, I was soaking wet after watching a gig in an open air venue coming straight from a 12-hour shift at work. This after high praise of open air venues as I pretty much enjoyed Blur at Hyde Park and The Mars Volta at Somerset House.

It was well worth it though as I got a chance to watch the lovely Natasha Khan, more popularly known as Bat for Lashes.

The weather actually played nice until the support’s, DM Stith, last few songs. He even exclaimed at the start of his set, “I don’t think it’s going to rain.” Maybe he jinxed it, but then again this is London which is famously known for it’s freakish weather.

While waiting for Bat for Lashes to start, I spent most of the time at the back near the toilets as this was the only shelter from the rain one could find. I am not a big fan of umbrellas and only had a barely waterproof jacket on.

When Bat for Lashes started, I decided to brave the pissing rain and tried watching her performance which was quite hard considering all the umbrellas up. It was real difficuly to squeeze in a view through the small cracks in between umbrellas.

Thankfully, the sound was quite brilliant and listening to her live was quite the experience.

With a little determination, and I do mean a little, I was able to push towards the front barrier albeit slightly toward off centre. This gave me a great view though of Natasha as she played on the paino, strings and as she danced on stage.

Right after her set, the rain stopped which was perfect for her encore. With all the umbrellas down, everyone had a chance to watch her properly performing Two Planets and Daniel.

Despite the rain, the gig was quite enjoyable. The sound was pretty solid despite the falling rain and occassional thunder. Natasha was quite charming, nice and friendly on stage in between songs and quite powerful and lively while performing songs which consisted of a good mix between her two albums, Fur and Gold and Two Suns.

Here’s a video of her performing Daniel.

Here’s the setlist again from Setlist.fm.

• Trophy
• Glass
• Horse & I
• Travelling Woman
• Bat’s Mouth
• Sarah
• Sleep Alone
• The Wizard
• Siren Song
• Tahiti
• What’s A Girl To Do?
• Pearl’s Dream
• Prescilla
• Good Love
• Two Planets
• Daniel

This is one performer I’d love to watch again though in a closed venue.

There are bands which are so completely different and unique that it is both crazy and totally weird but surprisingly refreshing. of Montreal is one of those bands especially with Skeletal Lamping which is the first album I downloaded after hearing about them.

Due to the concept of the album Skeletal Lamping, it took quite a few listens before I started getting it into my system. When I purchased tickets for this gig, I was still not sure I made the right choice. Eventually, I started loving it which made me excited about the gig.

I downloaded their whole discography which had a whopping 9 studio albums plus several EPs and compilations. Scary really as it stayed untouched on my computer for months until only a few weeks before the gig.

Then I decided to listen to their 4 latest albums which included Skeletal Lamping, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, The Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic in the Attic.

Excellent choice which really built up the anticipation for the gig.

On Tuesday, I finally had the chance to see them at O2 Academy’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire which is remarkably one of the more popular venues in London which I’ve never been to.

Support for the evening was Local Natives, a band where 4 of the 5 members have mustaches. They sounded pretty good and quite melodic even though almost everyone took lead vocals at some point. Definitely worth checking out again when they release their first full-length album.

After the long wait, a guy with a tiger mask plus a few other masked guys came up on stage and started to cheer up the crowd, building up the anticipation for the band. A few moments later the band came in followed by Kevin Barnes being carried on the shoulders of two masked guys.

Most of the band were dressed quite normally but Kevin Barnes and Bryan Poole had interesting costumes.

Then the familiar and very recognizable intro of Nonpareil of Favor started which is the first track off Skeletal Lamping, and immediately the crowd started going crazy. This was followed by Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider from Hissing Fauna, a great song with a tremendously catchy chorus.

Every other song, a group of performers would play out skits on stage which ranged from the normal to the odd and bizarre which is to be expected if you have seen some of their music videos. The masks they wore involved gas masks, pigs, tigers, and ninjas.

With all the dancing, it was hard to keep up with everything going on stage as there was the band to watch, the performers doing their bizarre skits, and a screen which showed pretty graphics similar to their music videos.

They played one catchy song after the other with most of the crowd going crazy for each. The setlist was a good mix of songs mainly from Skeletal Lamping and Hissing Fauna with a few thrown in from The Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic Attack.

A cover of Bat for Lashes’ Daniel was also performed in it’s entirety. I was only able to get a video of the second half.

I’ll be honest since the gig has been almost a week ago, I can hardly remember any specific details about each and every song they played. So I’ll be grabbing the setlist from Last.fm as posted by schmeep.

• Butt Bank
• Nonpareil of Favor
• Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider
• Id Engager
• And I’ve Seen A Bloody Shadow
• The Party’s Crashing Us
• Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
• October Is Eternal
• A Sentence of Sorts In Kongsvinger
• Beware Our Nubile Miscreants
• Daniel (Bat For Lashes cover)
• Metal Finds Troll
• For Our Elegant Caste
• Touched Something’s Hollow
• An Eluardian Instance
• Rapture Rapes The Muses
• Wraith Pinned To The Mist
• She’s A Rejecter
• The Past Is A Grotesque Animal — encore

There was only one song for their encore but it was a 12 minute song, The Past Is A Grotesque Animal and it was pretty epic. Other highlights of the evening would be Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse, An Eluardian Instance, and She’s A Rejecter.

It was quite an enjoyable evening in almost every possible way. Most people on the Last.fm event page complained about the sound, but I found it quite adequate being right in the front. Or I could still have been partly deaf due to The Mars Volta’s gig the evening before. It was also a visual threat with all the antics the band and the performers were up to.

The setlist was also a good mix of songs but could have used less Skeletel Lamping. I would have gone absolutely manic if they included Suffer for Fashion and Disconnect The Dots.

Nonetheless, it was absolutely one enjoyable evening for almost every sense.

This is one band I cannot wait to see again and I am eagerly anticipating their return to London.

When you are about to see one of your favourite bands for the 4th time, you tend to know pretty much what to expect. However, in no way does this degrade the experience but deep inside, you are hoping there would be some sort of surprise, something to spice things up a bit.

A couple of things made this gig different, unique and special.

First, The venue.

The venue was in the courtyard of the lovely Somerset House along the Victoria Embankment. It was an open air venue, a first for me since I’ve always seen The Mars Volta indoors. When I think about it, this is only the second open air venue I’ve been to after Hyde Park as London has several awesome venues. Then, there’s the flaky weather.

The Mars Volta has always been known to be pretty loud and this gig was not an exception even whilst outdoors. I guess the setup of the speakers and how they bounce off the four sides of the courtyard  was quite optimal. Actually, I I really try to think back on previous gigs, this may have been the best they have sounded live. The vocals were very good as well.

Second, Cedric talking to the crowd.

Yes, Cedric actually talked to the crowd through much of their set and was introducing almost every song before playing it. The past three gigs I’ve been to, the most you’d hear from him was “Thank you.” while they’re walking off the stage. Highly unusual but the change was pleasantly welcome as it gave a different and friendlier feel which tremendously helped the atmosphere in the venue and of the crowd.

Also, due to the size of the stage compared to ICA, Omar and Cedric had more space to move and this meant more crazy dancing from Cedric.

I didn’t push forward to the front as much as I could since I’ve already seen them up close at ICA and The Roundhouse so I decided to close to the sides.

Here’s the setlist viat Last.fm.

• Goliath
• Cotopaxi
• Roulette Dares
• Viscera Eyes
• Halo of Nembutals
• Cygnus
• Desperate Graves
• Ilyena
• Teflon
• Drunkship of Lanterns
• Luciforms
• The Widow
• Wax Simulacra

I really enjoyed this open air gig and sort of a departure from the norm for the band with Cedric talking and no obscenely long jams to bridge one song to the other. I guess the main reason I enjoyed this gig quite a lot was lowering my expectations and not expecting a performance like they did at Brixton.

Last week was pretty much a blur for me. For most of the week, I was sick with the flu (the “common” one) and missed out on two days of work. On the two days in which I did work, I hardly did anything which is quite typical these days.

In between the week, I got well enough to head over to Hyde Park on Thursday and catch one of Blur’s comeback shows after being away for so many years. Mind you, this was a date I booked the day off for weeks before I got sick.

I’ve never been the biggest Blur fan but I am so glad I managed to grab some tickets when they announced the second date of their Hyde Park shows. With my health not being a 100%, I spent a lot of time on the day itself deciding whether to go or not, right up to the moment I stepped out the door. It was the responsible thing to do as long as I still showed up for work the next day.

Even though I left pretty late, I arrived at just the right time when the massive queues to get in have disappeared and 30-45 minutes before the first support band was to start.

Four support bands were up that day, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Golden Silvers, Crystal Castles and Foals. Friendly Fires was earlier mentioned to play on the Thursday date but sadly were missing from the official timetable for the show.

I’ve never heard of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble nor Golden Silvers prior to this event and I don’t think I am missing out on much. They are ok, but not impressive enough especially with the wide open area.

Crystal Castles however was fun. Alice, the female singer, is freaking crazy though and could hardly stand up straight. She was properly wasted. I started listening to Crystal Castles when I found out they’d be supporting Blur. Somehow, the electronic samples using an Atari 5200 sound chip, immediately drew me in. They sound pretty ok live but not as forceful as I hoped. This can be attributed to the wide open space again. I’d pay to see them again at smaller venues.

Next up was Foals, a band I quite like and made me somewhat happy of scoring Thursday tickets instead of Friday ones. Their set was longer than when they supported Bloc Party in April. I enjoyed the songs they decided to play but the wide open space sort of distorted their sound. I’m still waiting for the day I’d see them headlining their own show at a much smaller venue.

The support acts made me think about the second date which had Florence and the Machine, Deerhoof, and Vampire Weekend.

Still, the 50,000+ people did not come for the support acts and neither did I. We were all their for one band which finally came up onstage a few minutes after 8 in the evening.

Blur played a very well constructed set which was a mirror of their headlining show at Glastonbury. Screencap is from their Glastonbury page where you could also watch 30 minutes of their performance (if you are in the UK).

Unlike all the support bands, Blur sounded amazing outdoors with Damon asking if everything was adequate and it sure was.

Being less of a fan than 60% of the other people in the event did not hinder me from enjoying the show in huge amounts. Most songs are very catchy and after a few lines you’d be singing along with the crowd. That’s britpop for you.

One of the best parts of the evening was Tender. It was pretty much epic. The crowd was still singing bits and pieces of it on the way home.

You can also see how much fun the band was having being back in London playing such a massive show after being away for so long.

The crowd was quite fun as well with everyone being big fans, dancing and singing along. A large percentage was around my age which was totally cool. Gone are the emo teeny boppers.

Blur at Hyde Park was one of the better gigs I’ve been to this year and I am thankful I decided to grab tickets right away when they announced the second (Thursday) date of their show.

My biggest regret was not listening to Blur as much as I could have when I was in highschool and college. One could easily say that Blur (and Oasis) were the definitive (brit) bands of my generation. Damn, that just made sound quite old.