Holy Fuck and It Hugs Back - Academy 3

On Sunday we went to see Canadian band Holy Fuck at Manchester Academy 3. Having only heard of them a couple of months before - after being introduced to a few live performances on YouTube, we were unsure but quietly excited of what to expect especially after reading reviews about how they just went on stage and freestyled.
We missed most of the support (in fact we were only aware of It Hugs Back, not the others who I can't recall right now), but caught maybe the last 15 mins of It Hugs Back, who were cool in the interesting, quirky noise making kinda way towards the end.

The gig was in Academy 3 and was from what I can tell, no where near sold out (there's a lot of people who need educating to the ways of Holy Fuck), as there was loads of room to stand/drink/dance, in fact we walked up the right hand side and stood right at the front (well I did), bar a few under-age looking nerdy types who were literally touching the front of the stage from way before Holy Fuck came on.


Obviously once Holy Fuck came on stage at around half nine, it really got going, I'm not going to pretend I can remember the whole set list... I definitely remember Super Inuit, Lovely Allen, The Pulse and Milkshake but to be honest it was just a blur of good music, the weird tape scratching had to be seen to be believed.

This gig was also the first chance we'd had to try out Ant's Cybershot I'd bought him for Christmas, and I have to say it performs brilliantly under low light conditions.. not much else to say, amazing gig with the band giving it their all, it was also broadcast live over t'net via U-stream like quite a few gigs from this tour have.
gonna sign off with a couple of gig photos more of which can be found here

London Again... Part I

Back in April we took another trip down south to stay with Jen in London. We had tickets for a gig/event so it was not entirely through choice we ended up being there over the Easter Bank Holiday (one of the peak times of the year to visit, bar Christmas). As usual we travelled first to my mum's in Nottinghamshire who would be dog sitting for the weekend, and travelled via Chesterfield - high speed train meant we were in London in a little over 2 hours! Upon arriving in London it was time to buy our travel cards for the weekend and to find out that TfL being as clever as usual have chosen this weekend to close several tube lines, which wouldn't normally be a problem except that in most cases they couldn't be bothered to put on rail replacement buses - which when trying to get from areas of central London, the buses became dangerously overcrowded, more so than I've ever seen before.. very surprised there were no accidents!
On the Saturday, Jen being a member of Liverpool FC's London Supporters Club she was going to a pub to meet other members and watch the game, on the spur of the moment we decided to stay on the train to Kew Gardens. only a couple of minutes walk from the train station through very 'leafy suburbs' (think how London is portrayed in Hollywood movies), we found it very easily: entry is £13 adults, £12 concessions and under 17's free when accompanying an adult (entry to the palace is extra). I think we both had no clue how big Kew was and you could easily spend a full day there (we didn't arrive until lunchtime). Although it was overcast most of the day, there was plenty to see indoors as well as in the grounds

One of my favourite parts was the Japanese area with the pagodas and cherry blossoms, although the tropical/rainforest areas was a close second

There is also a Sky Walk which is basically a rather large platform that you climb around 180 stairs to reach the top, then walk around in a circle ish shape near the tree tops, this is where you might notice that Kew is under a flight path, with incoming planes being so low down you can see the wheels lowering!
We ended up spending a good 4-5 hours at Kew including lunch time - if you're on a budget avoid the 'restaurant' and head for the Café - we paid about £4 for a jacket potato the size of a small melon - very tasty and great value!

Later on that evening we went to the Ether Festival at the Royal Festival Hall to see Royksopp supported by Fever Ray. Absolutely amazing, mind blowing gig - once again Royksopp did not disappoint live, the amazing energy they throw into their live performances always impresses me. They played a selection of tracks from each album, including all the favourites such as Eple, So Easy, Sparks, 49 Percent, Remind Me, Only This Moment - but the gig really got going once the newly released single Happy Up Here was played, it's worth noting that this was a seated venue, but all it took was one man on the front row to start dancing and gradually the whole crowd was up, the security towards the middle and right of the stage were really chilled and people were allowed to get up and walk to the front to dance and take photos, but on our side there was some jobsworth usher who's sole intent that night was to try and ruin the gig for a handful of people. Long story short she kept trying to stop my friend and I from taking photos when Royksopp had specifically asked the fans to take photos and upload them to their website! I'm a reasonable person but when she then happily let the men in front of me take photos and the guy sat behind me film it I was non impressed to say the least! So towards the end we decided to ignore her as it seemed very much like victimisation when at one point I could count 20+ people within 10 feet of me openly photographing the show and still she only singled out us! This was the biggest let down of what was one of my top 5 gigs of all time.

Anneli Drecker joined Royksopp on stage for most of their set and was crazy, really working the crowd up

They were also joined by Swedish singer Robyn who is very popular from what I could tell by the crowd reaction.

One of the support acts Fever Ray were also amazing with some very weird costumes and a great light show

Definitely worth checking out if they come to a city near you!

Gig Time

The past few weeks have seen us take in not one but three gigs! Which certainly ended the dry spell for us. The first was local band The Whip, guitar based electro style music at the Academy 2. I can't remember the last time I went to a gig there that was so packed, with such a friendly vibe. The crowd seemed to be mainly students (maybe the £7 ticket price had something to do with it), and it was impossible to stand for more than a minute without someone pushing past to/from bar/toilets/wherever! Having seen The Whip only once before at D:percussion 18 months previously, I knew they sounded good live, but I was still pleasantly surprised. The album just doesn't do them justice IMO, the music sounded much more upbeat and danceable than it does via CD (or maybe you just need to play it really loud?) and they had cool lighting and the obligatory smoke machine to add to a club type atmosphere. I can't remember the entire set lit ut particular highlights were Sister Siam, Save My Soul, Dubsex and of course Trash.
The only complaint of the night (which was shared by several other fans) was the 'limited edition USB wrist bands' - gone are the days of having a live CD to buy 20 minutes after the gig, it's all gone digital now - like a lot of people at the gig, I bought mine before the gig - standard tickets were £7, ticket and wristband £20 - making the wristband £13 - the price of a CD in a high street music store. These were marketed as something you had to buy in advance, but on taking a trip to the merch stall it turns out you could pay for them on the night - for £9! I heard a lot of fans complaining to the poor merch guy that night, but that aside, a very fun night out.

A Place to Bury Strangers at the Roadhouse - have to admit, I'd never heard of them until about 4 weeks before hand, we went for Steven's birthday and it was a nice surprise to find that for an £8 ticket, there were actually several bands on all night. I wont even pretend to remember their names or recall any song titles, all I can recall was an eclectic crowd and a variety of guitar based bands that generally got the crowd going, although APTBS were the highlight and obviously the band most people came to see - worth checking out a few tracks via their myspace page (above).

Indie Darlings Glasvegas were our final gig of the year - I had mixed feelings about whether they could live up to the hype and my own expectations for a live gig. Whenever I think of Glasvegas it's their very raw and unpolished Home Tapes that springs to mind, so whilst I was anticipating a similar rawness, I was secretly hoping something a little more 'we're past recording in our bedroom' sound.
And I was not disappointed, at all.
Every tune was an anthem to sing along to, and sing along we all did, it was one of the most uplifting gigs ever. Like when you see 20,000 people singing along with Oasis for Wonderwall on TV - it was like that for every song, but with only a few hundred other people, very intimate and James' voice was outstanding. Favourite songs for me were Daddy's Gone and the grand finale of Geraldine.
My gig of the year.