February has been a busy month. A month of gigs which, while slowing slightly, is far from stopping. It's shaping up to be a busy year. A varied diet of music here I think: dance, pop, indie, misc. Coming up I have James, Ash, La Roux, Hairspray, Swan Lake, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and hopefully much, much more.
Delphic (support: Mirrors)
My February of gigs started just at the end of January, I joined @wvmann at Liverpool's Kazimier. This is an amazing venue. OK it's not suitable for big bands (he says whilst talking about one of BBC's Sound of 2010 hotlist) but it's a perfect quirky venue. I really hope I get to go to another event there. There's also a strong possibility I was chatted up... if only I could respond and hadn't had work the following day.
The support, Mirrors, were alright - dance stuff isn't really my thing, but they seemed good enough. The graphics being projected behind them were also intriguing - but sadly warped.
Delphic were also very good. I'd spent the time listening to the album so knew the stuff and had a really good time.
Les Miserables
This is the 25th Anniversary tour and I saw a matinee performance with a signer. For the first time in years and years I was up in the gods (Upper Circle) and it's amazing how cramped and steep they are. I really hope it's years and years before I'm back there to be honest.
The show was different. Gone was the revolving stage. Gone the Paris streets which transform into the barricades (replaced by street scene getting hauled off and barricades pushed forward). Rather more worryingly, gone were the songs Stars and Little People (how? the Little People refrain when Gavroche was shot was left in, but completely without power as the original was cut).
"Replacing" all that was an excellent portrayal of the students leading the rebellion. So much more fractitious (and the inclusion of a drunkard). I really hope this element continues in future productions.
Ocean Colour Scene (Support: Steve Pilgrim)
Les Mis was followed by a dash across to Liverpool for an @OCSMusic gig. Another excellent gig by them promoting another excellent album (Saturday).
The support act however... not massively exciting. In fact, not exciting at all. Single Male Singer. Meh.
Los Campesinos (Support: Islet and Swanton Bombs)
OK, where to start. Some support acts are good. Some support acts are bad. Some support acts are Islet. A four piece who came on screaming. Not a single comprehensible word. A general feeling of WTF?!??!? And a big grin on my face. A biiiig grin. I don't know why - I can't see me ever wanting to listen to them, I can't see me ever choosing to go and see them - but I really enjoyed them.
Swanton Bombs on the other hand? Not a bad band. The drummer was hot - especially when he took his top off - very Nicholas Hoult.
And then there was the future leaders of the geek revolution - @loscampesinos! Two albums and one "not-an-album-just-an-extended-EP" to draw from meant we were in for an excellent set, but also that I hadn't had chance to fully listen to everything so there were, sadly, some gaps in my knowledge but oh my god am I looking forward to filling them. On stage they were amazing. Now if only my friends would recognise their greatness.
Mika (Support: Erik Hassell)
Ahhh... the big gig. A real show. Amazing background art/displays, blow up dolls, glitter canons, balloons, costumes/dancers. And of course, the songs. Mika knows how to put on a show. His latest album is every bit as packed full of fun as his first and this show was every bit as good as last time. Oh, except that is didn't have something to match the "teddy bears' picnic" encore. It is fun though to look at his songs in light of the quote which opened the show - "Every day the make me more and more ordinary" - almost the perfect summary of Foucault's Discipline and Punish which I'd just finished.
Vicky's Birthday
An enjoyable evening chatting and gaming. An enjoyable evening of embarassing myself by singing the wrong name during "Happy Birthday" and then claiming that "I was going to be called Abigail if I had been born a boy".
A Single Man
So, this film that everyone's been going on about. Beautiful definitely. But oh my god. The Plot Hammer was in full use. Each and every plot point almost had a big neon sign pointing to it. And this is coming from someone who will usually fall for every twist going 8-).
Bu oh yes it's beautiful - with two exceptions. Nicholas Hoult's tan and accent. The two should never, ever, be repeated. But he was still gorgeous.
Hockey (Support: Chiddy Bang)
Well. Sadly, this was another gig I went to without adequate preparation. Hockey were very good but too many songs unfamiliar (by my own fault). The support on the other hand were not. I usually give any band a chance, but after 5-10 minutes of a guy fiddling with the laptop and looking into the wings I gave up. When I came back in he had been joined on stage and the two were rapping. This aint my sort of thing at all. I really hope it was an act the venue found rather than Hockey inflicting them on the rest of the tour crowds. Wrong wrong choice.
#Soiree
My first party with a hashtag!! OK, a hashtag which isn't in my predictive text which was a bloody nusience, but still. I was one of two non-labour people. But even tainted by labour it was a fun group to be with (Introduce yourself, a name and a #realdave fact). Reminded me of uni times - people who care about politics, people I can talk to about that stuff. I have missed that sooooo much. I really must thank @msgracefh for the invite.
It was also good to talk to @2pallas - one of my successors as LGBT officer at YUSU. Interesting to hear of the developments even further out.
Being Human
I'm now looking forward to the last episode of Being Human tonight... I don't think that this season has been as innovative as the first. CenSSA has felt like a entity created purely to be a villain this series. Herrick last year felt like a piece of the ongoing situation - less crowbarred in. The twist that Professor Jaggert was involved in CenSSA was also far to obvious and simplistic. I'm also not a fan of George's new girlfriend...
But holy crap! Last week's episode really blew thing away.
Anyway, I think that's it for now.
Alex
x x
