Foals, Friendly Fires and Cut Off Your Hands
MGMT or Foals? Quite an easy choice for me, and having asked my friends who went to MGMT, a well chosen one. We missed most of Cut Off Your Hands, to my friend’s dismay, who had only been there for them. From the two songs we heard outside (Still Fond to Expectations) and then You and I from inside, they did a good job. Sweating everywhere, they went off to a quiet crowd, which is unfortunate for such a great band.
Having never really go into them, the Friendly Fires did come on and put on an impressive show. I enjoyed nearly all their songs, highlights were In The Hospitol and their amazing jam at the end with their famous single Paris. It was stunning to watch as the bass player put down his bass and started playing the amazing cow bell section for the whole song. Friendly Fires proved that they are a great band , not perhaps enough to buy their album, but they put on a fanastic live set, with furious amounts of energy, perhaps only being shadowed by the mighty Foals themselves.
Walking through the crowd, and brushing past me, they came on to huge amounts of cheers and whistling. Walter, the bassist, took a swig of beer from a nearby ticket holder. Jack started it off with an amazing amount of percussion work as the band started to increase in tempo and in volume. It soon became just lots of high pitched noises which started to become unbearable, until the release into Two Steps, Twice. Whenever he got the chance, Yannis was bobbing, weaving and dancing about with the rest of the band. Perfect musicians, they did not falter once. Moving into Olympic Airways without stop, they managed to persaude my friend, that is was not so bad that had missed Cut Off Your Hands. Today he stands a Foal convert. With racusious enthusiasm, the crowd was screaming along with Yannis; “Dis-A-Ppear!” The songs kept coming and the crowd was hungry. Hanging on Yannis’ every word, the crowd shouted requests throughout, all which seemed to be fufilled.
Half way through Jimmy (pictured above left), jumped onto the pillar, clambered two meters up and banged his guitar for distorion, right above us! Jumping down he dropped his guitar. Hummer, the crowd pleaser, started and it seemed Yannis’ mike had broken. Then it became obvious, the crowd was just singing louder than his amp could go. Red Socks Pugie came on (a song which has been negelected by me of late) and it instantly made me fall in love again. The drum beat was amazing, as were the lyrics, the rise and then the quite fall to nothingness. Yannis took a trip to the bathroom, through the crowd, and with his guitar. Even songs which I didn’t really enjoy on the album, Big Big Love (Fig. 2) and Electric Bloom, were incredable. Perhaps the best live show I have ever witnessed, actually no, Foals’ polyrymthic rock, Friendly Fires’ cowbell and Cut Off Your Hands’ power pop made it the best gig I have ever been too.
See more photos here
Watch the end of their concert from the next night (two steps, twice), in great quality, here.
Blood Red Shoes Live
This is Philip, my friend from north Germany, and he is hear to explain about the Blood Red Shoes gig he recently went to:
Living in Dresden, a pretty small city in former East Germany, I don’t really get to see very many good bands. So, one day I was sleepily cruising the web, when lo and behold, Blood Red Shoes were coming to Dresden! I obviously gathered a few friends and had the tickets bought in less than an hour.
Blood Red Shoes were playing Beatpol, a really awesome venue that I’d never been to before. It’s this really old house that has been renovated and it has a really great feel to it. My friends and I made sure to arrive early and get places right in front of the stage. The venue filled up quickly, and by the time the support act, 1984, started playing, the place was packed. 1984 played quite well, better than when I saw them at Frequency Festival, and got the crowd going a little bit. However, when Blood Red Shoes came on at 9 o’clock, everyone went wild straight away. As soon as they played the first note, people started dancing and having a good time. I didn’t see anyone bored, just standing there, and not having a good time.
All of the Blood Red Shoes songs are perfect for shows. They are all super, simple punk songs, usually with a slowdown and a really wilder part. They played their whole album “Box of Secrets” and played a couple new songs as well. These new songs were great, and sounded just like the classic Blood Red Shoes songs: lots of energy and fast paced. Steve and Laura Mary didn’t really say much, but they made up for that by playing with a truckload of energy and passion. After the concert I only managed to get half of the set list, as some girls standing next to me ripped off the other half, but the last five songs were:
You Bring Me Down
Forgive Nothing
Count Me Out
This Is Not For You
I Wish I Was Someone Better
‘Count Me Out’ was one of the new songs they played, which was great: I can’t wait for the new album. Everybody enjoyed every single song, with almost everybody singing along and rocking out as best they could. But the crowd really went wild for ‘I Wish I Was Someone Better’. The whole venue simply turned into one giant mosh pit within a few seconds of the song and there was no escaping it. Blood Red Shoes left the stage right after, but the crowd was just screaming for an encore, so they played another new song and then ADHD.
I left Beatpol half deaf, soaked with other people’s sweat and my own, with a Blood Red Shoes t-shirt in my hand and a huge smile on my face. I hadn’t listened to much Blood Red Shoes for a while, but after seeing the amazing way they played their songs, with all the energy and emotion, it seems like all the songs are stuck in my head again. After talking to lots of people after the show I heard the same thing – Great gig, and it was super fun.
It’s Getting Boring By The Sea
Thanks for the picture, Nicozz
The Wombats Live
In the crowded venue, The Wombat’s fanatic fans were out in force, being perhaps better performers than The Wombats themselves. They were far from bad, though. They started off with their a capella opener, Tales of Girls, Boy and Marsupials. A bit wavy, but the audience enjoyed it with everybody, I mean everybody, clapping along to the easy beat. I jumped into the mosh pit that started with my favourite song at the moment, Kill The Director. The fast drum tempo and the breakdown seemed ideal, and I was right. Once again, the whole crowd seemed to be singing along, I could barely hear the singer. I hastily retreated back to the safety of my companions for some pictures and to truly appreciate the unfolding scene. The pace increased with Lost in The Post and The Wombats really seemed to hit their stride with “Go Santa! Go Santa! Go Go Go!” being my favourite lyric from The Womat’s performance that evening. Adding their unexpected Christmas song, the crowd tried to get into the rhythm, but it certainly wasn’t as feverish as the rest of the show. Here Comes The Anxiety had some crowd members singing the song before it had started. Noting this, The Wombats tried again, with some lighters up in the air, and they gave it a great amount of energy. Afterwards, donning an acoustic guitar, the singer introduced us to Duck, who was replacing the old mascot who was lost in an airport. Duck, the rabbit, danced and flapped his ear, through out Little Miss Pipedream’s twee piano dots and catchy lyrics. With an impressive light show, Let’s Dance To Joy Division has certainly become less interesting to me, after listening to it a hundred times or so, but went really well with the crowd. Shouting for the encore, the crowd went insane, everyone chanting “Wombats! Wombats!” One of the loudest calls for encore, I have ever heard. With their quirky humour, the drummer said, “You didn’t have to do that, we were going to come on again anyway. But, it is nice to be appreciated” as the started to play First Wedding, my least favourite Wombats song, The Wombats finally managed to equalthe crowd’s energy. They finished with a well-placed Backfire At The Disco, leaving everyone very content with the gig.
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Setlist:
- Tales of Girls, Boys And Marsupials
- Kill the Director
- Lost In The Post
- My Circuitboard City (?)
- Party In The Forest (Where’s Laura?)
- Moving To New York
- Here Comes The Anxiety
- Little Miss Pipedream
- Let’s Dance To Joy Division
- My First Wedding
- Backfire At The Disco
Vampire Weekend
Like The Libertines, it took me awhile to get into Vampire Weekend. When I did, it was nearly as rewarding as The Libertines. It is here that the similarities between The Libertines and Vampire Weekend end. While The Libertines are a crack fuelled, fuck ‘em all band, Vampire Weekend are well-read intellectuals hailing from New York City. Choosing to use violins, harpsichords and chamberlains as well as the traditional guitar, bass and drums, Vampire Weekend create an interesting sound, which is quite unlike any other right now. A huge range of influences can be seen in all their tracks, however most tracks are heavily inspired by afro-pop. The lyrics are also thoughtful and fairly deep, for example Oxford Comma uses different verses for different meanings of the expression. This doesn’t mean that the lyrics aren’t easy to sing along to as I found out when I watched them play at their gig. Surprisinly full of energy live, the band uses a combanation of weird dance techniques, well-humoured banter and the power of the music to give one a fantastic experience. I highly recommend them live.
This album is a must buy, for anyone. This is something you can put on, without you grandmother flinching. Download choices being “A-Punk” for everybody. I mean everybody. If you want to delve further I would recommend “Oxford Comma”, “Walcott”, “M79″.
