Andy Burrows is the former drummer of Razorlight who left the band to start his own solo act which was initially called I Am Arrows.

Had the fantastic opportunity to see him live back when he supported Muse at Wembley Stadium last year and despite the size of the venue, they were able to fill up the venue quite well.

When I noticed the Indie meetup group announcing his show at Old Queen’s Head, I decided it would be nice to see the band again especially in a venue 1000 times smaller than Wembley Stadium. I enjoyed the company of the Indie meetup group, so decided to tag along with them yet again.

Oddly enough, I was unable to find the gig listing on Last.fm as I Am Arrows but it as it was listed as Andy Burrows. Apparently, at some point, he decided to call the band under his name again despite retaining the same members.

Met up with the group at the downstairs bar of Old Queen’s Head and once we were a sizable group of around 5-6 people, we moved upstairs and were lucky enough to get seats.

Interesting conversations with lovely people, a couple of which kept on raving about how amazing Funeral Party was when they played in Camden a few days before. Got my tickets to see them in May but have at this point, haven’t really listened to them properly. At the time of this writing, they are one of my favourite bands along with The Naked And Famous.

Support for the evening was Seye who was surprisingly amazing. His voice was quite elegant, the acoustic guitar playing was fitting to his voice. Played a few songs only but was quite fantastic. He was helped out by his friend Marcel for additional guitars and vocals.

It really good fun watching a gig in a group as it burns the time in between acts. More discussions about festivals and bands over pints of beer.

Andy Burrows walked on stage and started covering some songs which he said was his way of easing into things. Before he started though, he was looking for a guitar capo. After about 15 seconds, he noticed it was clipped to the head of the guitar. It was amusing.

The rest of his band came up on stage after a couple of cover songs.

The band played songs from their album Sun Comes Up Again including Nun, Green Grass, Another Picture of You, Hurricane, and Nice Try as well as a few new songs.

In all seriousness, their set was quite a mess. Andy seemed to be on something that night or may have had a few drinks to many and too early. There was the capo story, then playing the guitar intro for a song but not knowing the lyrics to the song, being unable to tune the guitar, etc.

It did turn out to be very hilarious as everyone was just laughing it up. Andy provided some comic relief while things were going awry in the background. It was a small venue at a gig and nobody was there to see a serious set from a band but rather have a fun evening.

When they eventually got their act together and started playing, everything got serious and their music filled the room with some people singing along.

It was a completely different experience compared to the last time I saw them. At Wembley Stadium, they were supporting one of the biggest bands in the world at the moment and most fans hardly knew them. They needed to play a set which was well rehearsed and professional which they were more than able to pull off.

At Old Queen’s Head, they had the chance to simply be themselves and play their songs to people who simply enjoy an evening of good music. I do think Andy may have gone a bit too far with it though. Still, incredibly fun.

In comparison, Seye played a more professional and well-rehearsed set.

Unlike all the other 90+ gigs I’ve been to, I stayed with a few people from the meetup group for a drink after the gig finished. Lovely conversations and plans to go to Camden Crawl and Stag & Dagger Festival. Been longing to go for years now and have finally found people to go with. As such, tickets have now been booked.

6.

That’s the number of times I’ve seen Two Door Cinema Club perform live which is the most for any band since I moved back to London.

Thrice as support for Foals (2x) and Phoenix. Thrice headlining their own show starting at a small venue, Hoxton Square Bar, then moving up to Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

On March 12, I saw them at Roundhouse for their biggest headlining show to date. It’s amazing how far they’ve reached in just a year.

For support bands this evening, they choose bands whom they quite admired and this was quite a marvelous surprise. It’s been quite sometime since I’ve totally marveled at support bands whom I’ve never heard before and this night introduced me to two fantastic ones.

The first support band was called Dry the River and they sounded heavenly. Their music is described as indie, gospel, and folk. I quite enjoyed their music, the guitars, violin and the singing all blended pretty well. It was a very interesting set from this new band.

For the second support band, close to 20 people came up on stage. 2-0. That’s a lot of people on a stage for a band but the stage in Roundhouse was just about to handle them all. Around 10 were back up singers which is a bit unnecessary in my opinion. It’s somewhat like having every friend you have in the band just for kicks.

With that said, these guys put on an incredible show worthy of a headlining act. The band is called I’m From Barcelona (Fawlty Towers reference) whose members are actually from Sweden. According to their online biography, 29 people collectively worked on their records. 2-9. Insanity. The actual number of people on tour depends on who is available.

Despite the sheer number of members in the band, I’m From Barcelona put on an incredibly enjoyable set. Their music is a bit catchy and pop worthy which added to the fun. The choreographed moves while they sang Treehouse was more than amusing.

The experience of seeing them live is comparable to the first time I saw Broken Social Scene live. BSS has considerably less members than I’m From Barcelona. I highly recommend visiting their Myspace page and listening to their music. Youtube provides a lovely perspective of how insane they can get on stage yet produce quality music.

That was quite a write-up for a support band who has been around longer than the headliner. No wonder TDCC admired them.

On to the headliners then. After seeing them 5 times already with no new albums yet, I knew more or less what to expect. This didn’t water down the experience though.

What ruined the evening for me was the crowd. For some reason, the popularity of TDCC has continued to attract a significantly bad crowd. During their show at Shepherd’s Bush, a lot where young kids who thankfully behaved themselves a little. This evening, there were those who I’d call asbos, so rowdy and picking fights. It was horrible and I tried hard to stay out of their stupid circle pits of death.

There is no setlist on Setlist.fm for the Roundhouse show but it is comparable to this one from Barrowlands, Scotland.

With one album released so far, Tourist History, most of the songs from this album were performed with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.

For probably the 5 time, they started their show with Cigarettes in the Theatre and closed with I Can Talk which is not bad, just predictable. The rest is just a blur now.

This show was simply the best show they’ve put on which marks how far they’ve gone. When I saw them at Hoxton, the drummer was just included in the live line-up and things turned a bit awkward. Now, you can clearly hear and feel that they are one band. You can hardly hear the beat machine anymore, that is if one is still used.

Save for the ridiculously rowdy crowd, I enjoyed this show as much as all the other times I’ve seen them.

Unfortunately, this maybe the last time I see them especially if they play at a larger venue like Brixton. Of course, this would change if they release a new album and do a tour for that. Or play at a smaller, more intimate venue.