Filed under: live, review | Tags: charlotte richardson andrews, dum dum girls, i will be, live at madame jojos, veronica falls, yuck
Dum Dum Girls / Veronica Falls / Yuck
Madame Jojo’s, London ••••
March 2, 2010
Queues all the way down Brewer Street and particularly unhelpful door staff meant a lot of the hyper buzzed fans only got to catch the last yells of opening support act Yuck, who faded out with an enticing swansong of distortion guitar wails. Veronica Falls followed up with a set of consistently lovely songs that have progressively stolen a substantial number of hearts over the past year. The shoegaze pop of ‘Stephen’ was dreamy enough to sway unabashedly to, while ‘Beachy Head’ rang out with romantic thrash. One of the capital’s most exciting homegrown outfits, they proved to be a well-selected warm-up for the US headliners whose appearance was the last, love-letter punctuation on a week of gigs across the capital, a doubly special affair since it marked the band’s UK debut.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: courtney love, hole, linda perry, little fish, live at shepherds bush empire, nobody's daughter
Hole + Foxy Shazam + Little Fish
Shepherds Bush Empire, London ••••
February 17, 2010
So, as everyone no doubt knows by now, it wasn’t actually Hole that took to the stage of the Shepherds Bush Empire last night. Eric, Patty and Melissa were glaringly absent, but the walking, Twittering legend that is Courtney Love had returned to the UK and everyone from seasoned Babydolls to Beautiful Sons and Slut Kiss Girls had been ticking off their countdown calendars with bright pink hearts every day since purchasing the quick-to-sell-out tickets.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: 6 day riot, anna claxton, flaming june, tamara schlesinger
6 Day Riot + Flaming June
The Portland Arms, Cambridge ••••
February 16, 2010
Flaming June are named after Frederic Lord Leighton’s painting of a sleeping woman, which seems only too appropriate on this evening’s evidence. In stark contrast to their passionate frontwoman Louise Hamilton, the pipe player and backing vocalist to her left, who may be aiming for the whimsical air sometimes associated with this breed of folk music, looks rather bored. Hamilton’s red hair, red dress and red acoustic guitar make a bold statement centre-stage, but despite their musical competence the rest of the band’s lack of enthusiasm creates a nervous, amateurish atmosphere around their early ’90s-inspired acoustic-indie sound. The result only confirms they have yet to really develop from the Bury St Edmunds-based quartet who formed after Louise’s obvious ambition caused her to seek musicians to back her in a local songwriting competition some time last summer. Judging by tonight’s performance, perhaps she’d be better off if she hadn’t.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: charlotte richardson andrews, think about life, trash kit, tUnE-yArDs
tUnE yArDs + Trash Kit + Think About Life
Upset The Rhythm @ Cargo, London •••••
February 15, 2010
We’re only two months into the new year but it’s safe to say that Monday’s tUnE-yArDs show at Cargo will go down as one of the best live dates of 2010. Merrill Garbus’s debut album BiRd-BrAiNs was a unanimous breakout hit last year, winning hearts with fans and music press alike, and staking prizes for its DIY magic (think Dictaphones and free software) and the patchwork stitching of sounds that soar throughout its uniquely spirited songs. The sell-out show was teeming with that full-capacity excitement that promises an unforgettable experience, and the New England native delivered in spades, bringing the same energy that wowed fans at SXSW and ATP last year to a smaller, yet equally appreciative London audience.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: think about life, trash kit, tUnE-yArDs, wunmi onibudo
tUnE-yArDs + Trash Kit + Think About Life
Cargo, London
February 15, 2010
All photos by Wunmi Onibudo. Review soon.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: alan pedder, dag för dag, foreign slippers, live at the barfly, thao with the get down stay down
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down / Dag för Dag / Foreign Slippers
Barfly, London ••••
February 1, 2010
The famous Tom Petty number covered by opening act Foreign Slippers turned out to be quite a good summation of the night overall. “In a world that keeps on pushing me around / I’ll stand my ground and I won’t back down,” sang Gabi Frödén with all the girlish reticence she could muster. Dressed in a shiny floral print dress, her dark hair encircled by a sprig of plastic berries and leaves, the Swedish singer and her smartly attired, beardy four-piece band treated us to a full-blooded realisation of her more meditative recorded work, highlights being ‘Packed The Car’ and the singalong ‘Green Jacket’. Next up were faux-Swedes Dag för Dag, an American sibling duo who live in Stockholm, touring heavily in advance of the February 22 release of their debut album Boo. Barefoot and six months’ pregnant, Sarah Snavely commands lead vocals on most of the songs, all of which crackle with electricity and galloping rhythms courtesy of drummer “Chuck Bukowski” (a genuine Swede), while skilfully coaxing out a tuneful thrash from her guitar. Every item of her ’70s disco vixen get-up sparkles under the lights as brother Jacob careens around the stage like a trolley with a wonky wheel, forever on the edge of imbalance. But what first seems like tiresome rock posturing becomes sheer entertainment as he lurches about, almost hitting audience and band members alike with the headstock of his bass.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: an experiment on a bird in the air pump, blue on blie, charlotte richardson andrews, live at hoxton bar and kitchen, veronica falls, vivian girls
Vivian Girls / Veronica Falls / Blue On Blue
Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London
January 26, 2010
London loves the Vivian Girls, as the second of their sell-out shows in the capital this week attested. Audiences were already swelling when the first support act took to the stage, and continued to grow excitedly throughout the night. Blue On Blue originally started out as the side project of D-Bird from An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump, but with yesterday’s announcement of their split it seems that this will now be her main musical outlet. The ex-Bird played bass, accompanied by a male bandmate on drums, soldiering through with a short but well-paced set despite having “lost” their guitarist. And the goodness continued with the poppy shoegaze of fresh-faced quartet Veronica Falls, whose dreamy boy/girl vox definitely had East End hearts aflutter.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: live at the royal festival hall, mariza, michelle mendonca
Mariza
Royal Festival Hall, London ••••
January 25, 2010
Having made a punctual arrival at the grand Royal Festival Hall, the full crowd were buzzing expectantly when Mariza made her very prompt stage entrance at 7.30 pm, giving way to an explosion of applause. Roses were thrown onto the stage at regular intervals, with one particularly energetic floral missile almost “knocking her out”, as the charismatic fadista declared with good humour. The Portuguese genre is full of aching loss and yearning, and as such, the lithe, striking artist has developed an almost trademark stage costume to reflect this. Her outfit this time was no exception, cinched in at the waist with a beaded, black, corset-like dress that floated down to widower skirts, layers of ragged shreds cut from rich, fine textiles – a fittingly dramatic attire that captured both the elegance of bygone ages and the maudlin, pauper majesty of the genre’s roots, which took from the sea and the poverty of the island folk.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: alan pedder, anais mitchell, erin mckeown, hadestown, hundreds of lions, live at the luminaire
Anaïs Mitchell / Erin McKeown
The Luminaire, London ••••½
January 23, 2010
She’s done it again. Almost exactly a year to the day that Anaïs Mitchell last stepped off of the Luminaire stage to rapturous applause and ear-splitting whooping, Vermont’s finest export (better even than Ben & Jerry’s ice cream) takes a bow and shyly soaks up the deserved adulation. This time, though, she can’t take all the credit. This evening was made extra special by the presence of Erin McKeown, the petite, dynamo veteran of six studio albums and the latest signing to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. Aside from offering excellent value for money, this co-headlining tour from the labelmates (or “stablemates”, as they jokingly refer to each other) offers an unprecedented chance to see these two top-tier singer-songwriters play together, collaborating on several of each other’s songs as the set progresses.
Filed under: live, review | Tags: anika mottershaw, live at the jazz cafe, martha wainwright
Living up to our recommendation in the January gig guide and then some, Martha Wainwright played a spellbinding set at the Jazz Café in London last night, including a surprise duet with father Loudon Wainwright III. Intrepid photographer Anika Mottershaw took these lovely pics…
