Winning tickets online through various websites is obviously all about luck. Enter an email address or retweet a message and you are in the draw for free tickets.
I rarely luck out when it comes to winning tickets online. The iTunes Festival has been a nightmare of frustration for the past two years. 62 dates spanning 2 months in total every July and I’ve never one tickets through them.
Of course, receiving free tickets for Foals and Two Door Cinema Club for the iTunes Festival last year does not count as I got it via Twitter directly from the band.
So when I heard about the Spotify Behind the Music event, I was not expecting winning tickets to the show but I signed up and hoped as one of my new band discoveries in the past month, The Naked and Famous was included in the line up.
Aside from The Naked and Famous, Delphic was headlining with Pony Pony Run Run supporting as well. A DJ set by La Roux was also mentioned.
The event was also in promotion of the new Nissan Juke which really looks like a joke.
Lo and behold, an email confirming winning 2 tickets for the event was waiting in my inbox a few days later.
I was beyond happy. The Naked and Famous only playing date in London for their tour is on May 20, which is the same date as an all-time favourite band’s show in London. This band is Taking Back Sunday and with tickets booked for this, a return to the original line-up and a new album coming up, it’s not one event I would want to miss either.
The closest gig The Naked and Famous is playing in aside from London is Oxford which is around 2 hours drive away. I was seriously considering purchasing tickets for this and driving up to Oxford to watch them.
Since the email included a plus one, I invited someone who arrived after the doors opened. At this point, the queue went all the way round the back of Koko, the longest I’ve seen at this venue, longer even than Jack’s Mannequin.
The place was quite packed already, so we decided to stay on the upper levels and stood by the stairs which provided us with a fantastic view of the stage. This isn’t normal for me at Koko, but it was more than welcome as the view was great.
If you are somewhat familiar with the bands on this bill, you’d notice a flavour with the music the bands play. All are bands which thrown in a bit of electro/synth but not in a overly excessive way.
The first support act was Pony Pony Run Run who according to their wikipedia entry are a French power pop band whose members are G, A, and T. Lovely. Indeed, they were pop-y but they put on a decent show. Adequate way to start the evening. Their live performance is way better than their actual recordings. They clearly put on a much better vibe and more energy on stage which is all good of course.
It’s been a few weeks since the event but as I’m listening to their songs on Spotify, I’m pretty sure the synths were toned down at the gig which gave way to some pretty neat guitar work.
As the event was sponsored by Nissan Juke, a huge screen on the stage dropped down during breaks and played loops of videos of the car and some behind the scenes recording with La Roux. Seeing the video the first time was ok, but after the xxth time, it turned out to be real annoying. Thankfully, having someone to talked to helped a lot.
Up next was the band I was looking forward to the most, The Naked And Famous.Their set was pretty standard pulling songs from their album Passive Me, Aggressive You. They started with Punching In A Dream and closed their set with their current biggest hit, Young Blood. Other songs thrown were All Of This, No Way, Eyes and Girls Like You. No surprise b-sides which could have been brilliant as Bells is a pretty catchy tune.
They sound brilliant on record but this show left much to be desired. As soon as they started, I knew something was a bit off. The male lead vocals seemed to be quite low and this sort of dumbed down the experience. Sure, most of their songs are female vocal heavy but the male vocals balanced this out and provided an excellent blend. This was most evident during Girls Like You which happens to be my favourite song from their album.
In short, I was slightly disappointed by their set and performance but this won’t stop me from seeing them again live if I have the chance. Maybe Oxford it is then.
Now it was time for a DJ set, a somewhat special one as it was La Roux who was spinning. Unfortunately, the next hour solidified my absolute disdain for DJ sets. I’m all for watching a band or someone perform on stage, but the wait for the next band was long and painful.
First of, we had the same video on repeat being shown on the huge white screen on the stage. La Roux was spinning on the DJ table which was on the side of the stage and not really visible to anyone. Had this table been placed in the middle of the stage or a video of her spinning tracks shown on the white screen instead, then things would have been mildly better.
Next, the music. I really don’t get club and dance music. Thrown in a band on stage actually performing on stage and I’m all for it. Watching a DJ spin tracks doesn’t do it for me. This night was worse due to the repeated blasts of video advertising of Spotify and the Nissan Juke.
I felt really sorry for my friend who was also not enjoying the experience. As the music was loud, this didn’t provide the atmosphere for conversation which could have distracted us.
At 11 in the evening, La Roux was FINALLY done with her DJ set and Delphic came up stage. I’ve been listening to them for quite sometime and could never really get into them. Their set at Koko was more of the same, it was fun and amusing to watch but I have nothing special to say. It was good to finally see them though, they’re still not a band I’d go out of my way just to see.
At least I get to tick them of my list of London-based bands that I should see since I live in London not that such a list even exists in the first place.
Their set included Halycon, Doubt, Clarion Call, Red Lights, and Counterpoint to mention a few which I can still remember.
The show finished closed to midnight which is unusual for gigs I go to especially since it was a Tuesday. Thankfully, I still made it to the last tube going north.
Overall, the evening was good enough for a free gig. With The Naked and Famous on the bill, I would have even paid for the show but I think I’d be quite disappointed if I had to shell out money for this one.
Apparently, this event was also Spotify’s first live streaming show and it’s always pretty cool to know you where part of something historic despite the hack Spotify announced a few days ago to Spotify users who have been around since they were invite only and in beta.
Since La Roux was part of the whole Behind The Hits campaign and was in the venue anyway, wouldn’t it have been better to have her perform instead? This would be leagues better than a DJ set. If this isn’t possible, then give us something better to watch/distract ourselves with as not everyone enjoys DJ sets.
Still, it was a good first live streaming event and I sure hope I’d be lucky enough to win tickets next time, provided that the lineup is equally as good without the DJ sets.
