LONDON 2011

London again.Three concerts: Gotye, PJ Harvey, Throwing Muses.

I'm gonna start with Gotye because I can and because I'm in love with this guy.

I went to London to see him, the other two were a bonus. I didn't have tickets for the show. The suspense nearly killed me: am I gonna be in or out? The gig was so small (King's College Student Union) that the ticket smuglers didn't even bother. For once in my life I was looking for them and not the other way around. None. My friend and I had to stand there like beggars hoping somebody's friend got into a car crash and couldn't make it. Eventually something similar did happen and we got ONE ticket. My friend was kind enough to let me go in and she went home. I still feel bad about that, but, as she put it, war is war, we had to make a decision.

The room was minuscule, everything was so close, everybody was a student except me so I kinda felt like a thunderstruck stork among ducklings. Young people look like martians to me now, I don't even speak their dialect, so I just stood there like a black totem pole, beer in hand, taking in the hundred young beautiful bodies. Then the openning act started, another bunch of loud, joyful youngsters who made me feel like I was in the wrong place at the right time. But I tucked my belly in, switched to water and bravely waited.

Gotye came. Relaxed, chatty, funny, cool. Talented. I should hate him, but I grew oh so wise over the years. He did his best even though the technical conditions left a lot of room for improvement. I thought he was gonna be the drummer/singer, but he had another drummer and he just added solos on another drumkit. He rocked so hard on those drums that one of his drumsticks broke into three pieces. Of which I, of course, got one. I'm such a hamster. Why do I do these things? Note to self: talk to therapist about why I'm one lame-ass hoarder.

Below you can watch one incredibly beautiful version of "Somebody That I Used To Know", unfortunately not the one I saw. The one I saw featured the lead singer of the openning act band singing Kimbra's part, this one features the public as Kimbra and it's 10.000 times better. I do love the original version, I do love her vocals, but there's something either wrong or right with me: my hair stands on end when large groups of people do beautiful things together. I hope it's a disease and I hope it's contagious.

So check this out, does this make you  weep with pleasure or do you really have no soul?

PJ Harvey at none other than Royal Albert Hall. She's come a long way, sweet Polly.

I have to say I'm hardly active politically. I'm the more passively awesome type. Don't really care about politics because I don't really get its nature and...use? But then again, I'm naive.

Anyway. Let England Shake is a political album, right? And she got the Mercury Prize for it. Congrats. I have been tempted to think that she got the prize because of the album's subject matter and not because of its musical merits (which are by no means to be dismissed), because...you know, it's become quite predictable that the Holocaust movie is gonna get the Oscar. That kind of thing. Or if there's no Holocaust movie, then the story of an autistic, paraplegic, down with the syndrome kid who speaks Aramaic in his sleep and finds a cure for cancer while battling centaurs with his laser eye, you know, that always works as well. But then again, Polly has won this award before - on 9.11.2001 - for her album "Stories From the City....", a non political album as far as I know. So, see? there doesn't have to be a political reason for artists to get their fair share of respect. Or, wait a minute...when did she get that?
Just kiddin'
...or am I?

Polly didn't mutter a word of response to the crowd's cheer, except a "thank you" at the end. I felt that was very gracious of her. The subject didn't exactly call for friendly chatter and jokes with the audience, she acted like a vessel for the message to get out, she didn't matter. Appropriate, I thought.

I think she played the entire album, I'm not sure, and then some. "Down By The Water", "The Sky Lit Up", "Angeline", all there. I also think the concert was recorded and it's gonna be out on DVD at some point. Worth buying, she was beautiful.
Oh yeah, and Mick Harvey was there with her.

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Throwing Muses.

This one wasn't on the menu when I got there. But then I saw a list of concerts somewhere and saw that Throbbing Gristle, Tori Amos and Throwing Muses were all performing November 2nd. So I had to choose.

- Throbbing Gristle: too noisy and abstract and weird. Not in the mood.

- Tori: I like Tori, but only in small amounts. Very feminine, very feminist. And I'd already seen her. Not in the mood.

- Throwing Muses: 90s alternative rock? Chicks rocking? Kristin's serpentine neck moves? My youth? Bright Yellow Gun? Hells yeah!

I got to Shepherd's Bush an hour too early apparently and there were two (2) openning bands. The wait was a bit of a horror since you're not allowed to smoke inside. The two bands were predictably plain and forgettable. I've rarely seen a good opening act. The second band was better though, they had a really cute girl on bass.

Kristin came dressed in a...camisole is it? Jeans and slippers, no bullshit. She looked like she lived upstairs. I found that very refreshing: no fancy lights, no visuals, no costumes, just rock. Kristin was very talkative, she thanked the person in the audience who'd sent the home-made sushi backstage, among other things. Or something. The show was pretty long, I guess nearly two hours, two encores (I was so dying for a smoke), but good times, good times. At the end, last song, she told a funny story about a girl Mary (?) she knew back in school, who was...I don't know, a retard, or anorexic, or had a funny hat, or something and  she was "legally blind" and still wore glasses that made her useless eyes seem huge and everybody looked away from her, only Kristin felt compelled to look AT her, "cause she was blind anyway, so it was okay", and then in sports class they were all supposed to climb the rope, which "nobody can do, it's physically impossible", but then the teacher made Mary go first up the rope and she weighted less than a feather so it was easy for her to climb, but then was afraid to come down cause she was blind and she couldn't see the floor and so she just hung up there for 45 minutes and won a medal. The last song was about this girl and it was really good. I'm not very familiar with the entire TM discography, so I'm not sure what the song is called, but it was so cool you guys oh, you should have seen it....ha.
(They didn't play this one, Tanya Donelly used to do the vocals on it,if that's any reason to skip it):

Throwing Muses - Not Too Soon

 
This one they did play:

Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun

So that was about it.

Oh, one more thing. A funny thing happened on the way to the counter in an HMV. I was browsing idly through the Nick Cave pile (like I down own it and know it by heart) and found a Dig Lazarus Dig! with autograph. It says "To Mark with love Nick Cave '09" Now, I don't get it. How did that CD end up there at HMV, which is not exactly an obscure second hand store. Who's this guy Mark that discards something like that? At HMV! And how come I bought it for the regular price, sealed?

A mystery. But a happy one.

Cheers.