Month: Nov 2011

KT Tunstall, The Arches, Glasgow, 13th November 2011

ruth4truthLeave a comment

I kind of accidentally bought a ticket to see KT Tunstall on this tour.  I had gone in to The Arches box office to get a ticket for The Airborne Toxic Event  and saw that they were still selling tickets for KT’s solo shows. I hadn’t really intended to go, but on impulse bought one cos KT Tunstall rocks and I thought, “why not?”.

I had only managed to stump up enough money for 1 ticket at the time, and unfortunately by the time my other half decided he wanted to come it was sold out, so off I went on my own again.

I got to the venue just after the doors were due to open, but there was a massive queue around the block. It was bloody freezing but I didn’t want to wander off some place and come back to find the place packed out so I joined the queue. Fortunately they got us moving quickly and before long I was in. Inside The Arches wasn’t much warmer than outside, but I checked my coat, grabbed a drink (from the handy “soft bar”) and looked for a spot.

It was indeed pretty packed. Unfortunately it was packed mostly with people who weren’t used to going to gigs, they were middle aged ladies with their long-suffering husbands / daughters / drunken friends grateful for a night out. They were all dressed in their finest gear as if for a “proper concert” and were complaining about there being no seats. Great. I settled on a space by the wall at the right hand side, about  halfway back, trying to position myself behind the smallest people I could find.

There were 2 support acts, in my usual disorganised fashion I didn’t note their names. They were both soloists, 1 girl, 1 boy. The girl was good, and although she played an electric guitar, she played it very softly and gently and I couldn’t help but think she’d be ideal playing acoustically in a cafe or bar as kind of background music. The guy had an acoustic guitar, but was more rocky with it, I quite liked him.

So then it was KT’s turn. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the “solo show”. I knew she had a recent EP out, which I hadn’t bought, so imagined there’d be stuff from that, and I had hoped she’d do stuff from the “Acoustic Extravaganza” album/EP whatever it was, which I really liked. I was a bit disappointed. It was just her (obviously) but she made good use of the recording loop things that she’s quite well known for, which I think is cool, but she played loads of songs from her main 3 albums.  I’ve seen her 3 times before, I think once per album, so I’ve heard all those songs before and was really hoping for something different.  Clearly with it being just her she was doing a different interpretation of them, but still.

Don’t get me wrong, she is still awesome, her voice was amazing, it was great to hear her just with the guitar, sometimes acoustic, sometimes electric, and as she said it was kind of like her going back to her roots and her busking days.  I really liked the 2 songs she did on the piano, I had no idea she played the piano so well.  I would just have liked more variety in the setlist.

I have to talk about the audience. Oh. My God. they were so irritating. There were loads of them who insisted on filming practically the whole show, or taking photos constantly.  My view wasn’t great at the best of times, but more often that not all I could see was somebody’s fecking iphone screen blinking away. Seriously one guy in front of me was so bad I was beginning to look for an object to throw at him. The ones that weren’t filming were talking. These were the ones who clearly had got the first album for Christmas all these years ago, had continued to hear the hits off that album on Clyde 2 or some other lame radio station that is stuck in the 90s since then, hadn’t heard and didn’t care about any of her other stuff and were only interested in hearing those songs. So they gossiped during all the other songs. I was looking for more objects to shove in their mouths.

So all that kind of detracted from my enjoyment somewhat.

Also although I love KT Tunstall, and could appreciate that she was putting on a really good show, I just wasn’t enjoying it as much as I thought I would.  Maybe it was because I had recently seen a few new bands and these were really amazing gigs, compared to the more familiar territory of KT, maybe cos I was tired due to aforementioned gigs, or maybe the crowd were just outright spoiling it for me but I just wasn’t feeling it.  I didn’t have the same emotional reaction as I did to the other shows, the same anticipation, excitement and engagement with the songs, lyrics and music as I have done previously.  I knew it at the time but couldn’t really figure it out, I’m not much more able to put my finger on it now, but it just felt like there was something missing.

Anyway, the gig finished and I headed outside. I saw some people were waiting for KT to come out.  I wasn’t in a particular rush to get home, so I thought I might as well wait too. Like I said, my reaction was nothing to do with the performance that night, I still think KT is an incredible performer and I didn’t know if I’d get the chance to meet her again.  I decided to stay as long as there were other people, and as long as I could still get my bus home.  A security guy came out and told us that seeing as it was the last night of the tour there was a bit of a party going on inside, but the venue would be chucking them out at midnight, so we decided to hold on til then.

Our waiting was not in vain, and KT herself emerged with a few of her crew.  She was surprised to see so many of us still there, and was very nice going round signing things, taking photos and generally chatting.  I dived in quickly cos I wanted to make sure I got my bus, she signed my ticket and posed for a photo, taken on my phone by her very tall friend/manager/whoever so it looks rather creepy but I couldn’t complain.

All in all I have mixed feelings about the night, but I’m glad I went and definitely glad I got to meet her, so it was a good impulse buy in the end.

Remember that time I was in Los Campesinos! dressing room?

ruth4truthLeave a comment

So last Thursday I got a call from an old friend to say that she would be photographing a band that night at Oran Mor, and she asked if I’d like to come along. The main act was Los Campesinos!, and she had been doing some work for Strange News From Another Star, who had been touring with them. I didn’t know much about either band, but it had been a while since I’d seen her and she lured me with the promise of a guest—list spot, so I couldn’t refuse. I’m not at liberty to divulge the name of this friend for various complicated reasons so I’ll just call her Holly.

After receiving a parking ticket last time I attended a gig at Oran Mor I decided to play it safe and get the bus. I got to the venue, doors weren’t open yet (do Oran Mor ever open on time?) but I couldn’t get Holly on the phone so I just waited in line and hoped for the best. Eventually they let us in and I was relieved to find that my name had indeed been added to the guest list. First time that’s ever happened and it was for a band that I had barely heard of prior to that morning. I could see people in the queue behind me wondering why I was so special, I daren’t let slip the tenuous connection I had with their favourite band lest they blew my cover and stole my little chitty.

Once in the main hall I found Holly who told me she had also managed to acquire an Access All Areas pass for me. There was a bit of time to kill before Strange News were on, so we headed up to the band’s changing room. Now if this was any band that I liked I would have been freaking out at this point. As it happened I was casually sharing a lift and being introduced to people that I had no idea who they were and I’m sure some of the kids downstairs would have given their right arm to be in my position. It was probably just as well because I was able to act like a normal human being among other normal(ish) human beings rather than a blithering idiot or start-struck fangirl. I will say that everyone I met was very nice and I got offered several beers and food from their rider.

I chatted to Holly for a bit and we caught up on her recent adventures. Then it was time for Strange News to go on so we headed back downstairs. The band and Holly were a bit disappointed to see that the hall was still quite empty and no-one was down at the front. I tried to explain that this was fairly normal fro Glasgow and that people would drift down eventually. The band were having none of it. Say what you want about Strange News, but they are not shy and they do like a bit of audience participation. Lead singer/guitarist Jimmy was practically herding people to the front and demanding that they join in. Strange News are a loud band to say the least. I had learned my lesson after sustaining ear-trauma at The Airborne Toxic Event earlier in the week and had purchased some ear plugs. I was glad of them. There are only 3 in the band but they go hell for leather and thrash, wail, yell and shout their way through their songs. I think most of the audience was somewhat taken aback by the sheer force of nature in front of them but with some encouragement they were soon jumping around, squatting on the floor and yelling as per Jimmy’s instructions. Holly was down by the stage taking some shots, and went back for a second burst after the drummer, Harry, took his shirt off. Towards the end bassist Mark, who had been playing the whole set perched on an amp, came down into the crowd, gave his guitar to some unsuspecting bloke at the front then went for a wander and a dance with some other people.

After they were done Holly and I wandered back upstairs again. I met more of the guys from Los Campesinos! who were mostly just quietly preparing by themselves. Unlike Strange News who had been scoffing burgers or kebabs or something about 2 minutes prior to going on stage. Oran Mor used to be a big church, so all the rooms are quite grand with arched ceilings and remnants its former glory scattered around. There are two or three different performance spaces, a couple of bars and restaurants. The dressing rooms were upstairs and the guys were all impressed with the facilities, although they kept getting out the lift on the wrong floor and bursting loudly out into the dining rooms where genteel West End ladies were trying to enjoy their supper. I kept pinching myself to make sure this wasn’t some surreal dream.

When it was time for Los Campesinos! to go on Holly and I went down to have a look. She had already seen them a couple of times, but it was the first time for me so I was curious to see what they were like. I liked them. Thankfully they were less angry and shouty that Strange News, but the earplugs still came in handy. There were loads of them on stage, I think about 7 in the band. We hung about at the back for a bit, then Holly wanted to try and get some shots so we went round to the side nearer the front. I couldn’t see most of the band members but I got a good view of the lead singer and a couple of others. Realised I’d been chatting to the lead singer earlier. Once again thought to myself how different I’d be feeling if this had been a band I was really into. It was a nice reminder that they are just people.

The guys from Strange News came to join us at the side and I’m afraid my attention was diverted from Los Campesinos! for a while as I chatted to Jimmy et al, discussed the show and got lots of hugs from each of them. Well Holly was getting hugs so I thought I might as well get in on the action too. Strange News joined Los Camp on stage for their last number and a final goodbye.

We returned to the dressing room where a bit of a celebration was going on. Well Strange News were celebrating by drinking lots, Los Camp had a brief period where they analysed their performance then decided they might as well drink some more too. I borrowed Holly’s camera (yay!) to take some group shots. I haven’t seen the results yet, and I’ll admit I’d had a fair amount of vodka by then so I’m sure they were all blurry or squint.

We decided to go out and get some food, because the rider had been pretty well decimated. Holly, Jimmy and I went round the corner to a fast-food place where she got some pizza, I got some questionable-tasting chips and Jimmy tried to chat up a girl who had been at the gig, and was clutching one of his EPs, but who turned out to be a 15 year old lesbian who was having none of it.

We wandered back round to the venue. Actually that may have been when we took the photos. I can’t remember exactly. Anyway, things were winding down, people were starting to move on. The tour was heading to Leeds next, and more than once I got invited along, they seem to just pick people up as they go, but I had to decline as I had a small child to take care of at home. One of Los Camp (I think) suggested that I bring her along, which I’m sure she would have loved, but I’m sure once the reality of having a toddler in a tour van hit home they would have chucked us out somewhere around Carlisle.

The group were heading on into town to go to Nice N Sleazy’s and much as I would have loved to go there with Holly I had to go and get a bus home. I found the Strange News guys, said goodbye and thanked them for letting me in and arranging the guest-list and pass. They were such cool, friendly guys. It had been an unexpected, fun, surreal evening. All in a day’s work for an indie-band on the road and their photographer. 

The Airborne Toxic Event, The Arches, Glasgow, 7th November 2011

ruth4truth2 Comments

I am so much in love with The Airborne Toxic Event. I’ll admit it has been a whirlwind romance and I am still in the first flushes of love, but seriously I can’t get enough of this band right now. I am having a “where have you been all my life?!” moment.

It all started in the summer when I saw coverage of them playing at some festival. I can’t remember which festival, but I remember sitting through hours of tedious sets by tedious bands, wishing that some of the more interesting/obscure / newer bands would get some airtime when all of a sudden  The Airborne Toxic Event burst on to my TV. Finally here was a band that made me sit up and take notice.  I had vaguely heard of the name, but had assumed (as many do) that they were more of a metal-type band so had rather unfairly dismissed them.  But their live set at that festival was one that stuck in my mind and made me add their name to my ever-increasing “to listen” list.

Months later I finally got round to looking them up on Spotify. Well I was captivated.  I listened to both their albums over and over. It feels so good to discover new music. The lyrics, arrangements, energy and passion all combined into one near-perfect package.  Did my research and it turns out they have a really interesting back-story. Well if Wikipedia is to be believed. A life-changing traumatic experience kick-started the lead singer Mikel Jollett (Scandinavian background? I love him already) into writing songs after previously being a literary writer.  The rest of the group have jazz/classical backgrounds. I always feel secretly pleased with myself when I discover that bands that I like have classical training. I like to think that I can recognise the influences and that I am somehow more sophisticated in my tastes than just plain old rock music. Anyway, it is an interesting combination of history and experience that goes into the band and it is a powerful result.

I found that they were due to come a play in Glasgow so I snapped up a ticket and waited eagerly.  I was ridiculously excited in the run up to the gig and some friends (sadly none near enough to come with me so I went alone. Again.) had told me that their live shows were incredible so that only added to my anticipation.  The Arches is a cool venue, there are indeed many arches (it is underneath the main rail station in Glasgow) and it has a kind of spooky medieval thing going on. Or maybe that’s just because it was near to Halloween. At one point during the gig Mikel joked that we’d all be perfectly safe if there was a nuclear attack. It’s a small-ish venue, so there were already some people up at the front. I scouted for a suitable place to park myself, but was faced with the perpetual dilemma of not being able to see versus comfort and safety. I guessed that the crowd would get a bit raucous and didn’t want to get crushed. But then I saw an opening on the barrier and decided to go for it. I’ve come to realise that it is safer at the barrier cos at least you only get crushed from 3 directions and at least you can see the stage at the same time. Getting crushed from 4 directions and only being able to see other people’s sweaty backs is not what I want to pay money for.

Unfortunately I was right next to a ginormous speaker and the sound guy was fond of ramping it up to the max, so I was pretty much deaf in my left ear after about 5 minutes. I had vowed after the last gig to get myself some earplugs, but hadn’t quite got round to it. I could’ve asked the venue but that would have meant giving up my barrier spot. Swore to buy some next opportunity.

So the support band came on. They were quite good. I can’t remember their name. They were from Leeds I think, and a girl behind me commented that their name sounded like a posh bar or restaurant.  Ok enough of the laziness, I just googled it – The Chevin. She was right.  Yeah so they were ok, there wasn’t anything that particularly grabbed me about them, nothing original, but they played well and were decent enough that I was nodding along appreciatively and they got us all in the mood. I’ll say one thing for them, their drummer was pretty amazing.  They had some really nice rhythms going on and the drummer rarely did a standard 2/4, bass/snare thing, he was all over the kit, that was good to see.

Then The Airborne Toxic Event’s sound guy came on and insisted that the volume be turned up even more. I wanted to smack him.

Anyway, after not-too-long a wait The Airborne Toxic Event entered the stage. My god, the sound was so loud it had reached the point of distortion. I couldn’t make out a word that Mikel was singing and my left ear began to hurt. But the band were utterly amazing. I couldn’t bring myself to move away from the speaker despite the possibility of ear-death because they were just so awesome.  I keep saying that I don’t write proper reviews here, I just write about my experiences. I’m not very good at finding suitable adjectives to describe performances without lapsing into superlatives or sounding like a twit. So I’ll just say they were very very good.  Mikel’s performance is at once energetic, raw, sincere, tender, heartfelt and angry.  He was visibly enjoying himself, but still managed to portray the depth of feeling in the lyrics.  He came down to the front of the crowd twice, one of those resulted in a full-on crowd surf half-way to the back of the audience and back again.

The band played tightly together, despite there being 5 of them and it being a fairly small stage, they managed to manoeuvre around, swapping instruments and taking turns to come to the front of the stage.  There was nice interaction between them, I think each of them played together with the others at least once. I particularly liked it when the bassist played his guitar with a bow alongside the violinist. Noah (bassist) was apparently an upright bass player in a jazz band /music teacher in a previous life and often plays upright bass on records and in videos. Maybe sometimes on stage too, but not tonight.   Violinist / backing singer / keyboardist Anna also came down to the front of the crowd with her electric violin, but promptly got hauled back by security.

They all encouraged lots of audience participation (not that we needed much encouragement) hand clapping, waving etc etc and Mikel would stand right on the edge of the stage and hold the mic out for us to sing back lines. Favourite moment had to be shouting “GASOLINE” throughout the song of the same name.  I think he was down on the barrier at that point. One of the most surreal words to be shouted at a gig but it worked. Almost as weird and as much fun as shouting “SOLACE!” during a Mystery Jets gig.

I love American bands because they just ooze confidence and charisma, you just can’t help but love them.  All the members had the rock star pose down, they all looked super-cool but not arrogant or pose-y (yeah, that’s a word, shut up).

It was interesting because having just got both their albums recently, and together, I knew which songs I liked but I didn’t know which were the big crowd-pleasers or singles or anything. But actually every song got a great reception and I enjoyed them all, I sang along where I could, given the intelligibility of the lyrics due to the sound system and the fact that I haven’t yet learned all the words.  Not my fault, I have listened to the albums a lot but there are also A LOT of words in each song. Not a bad thing, I quite like the narrative style of Mikel’s lyrics but it’s not easy to pick them up in a short space of time. But anyway, I just enjoyed watching and listening. At least the volume of the speakers meant I didn’t have to listen to my fellow audience members caterwauling away with their own versions. And they are an interesting band to watch – 5 of them means there’s always something going on. I tried to draw my eyes away from Mikel (not easy, did I mention the oozing charisma?) because it was fun to watch Noah’s posing, Anna’s beautiful violin or Steve’s studied concentration. Couldn’t see the drums much but they sounded good.

*crap phone photo alert*

There were so many good moments, the whole evening was one super-extended good moment, but hearing, “Sometime Around Midnight” live was one of those extra-special moments.  The song is a slow, crescendoing surge of a song, with characteristic narrative lyrics, no chorus or hook and it just swells as the story progresses and every time I hear it I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach and my hairs stand on end and I just have to stop and listen to it with my full attention. One of those songs. So it was great to hear it live and it lived up to expectations, I got shivers as soon as I heard that violin intro. It is a gorgeous song with dark lyrics and incredible emotion and I’m sure half the audience were almost in tears.  I certainly was.

The set ended, much thanking and waving,  and they went off stage, emerging for a very short (2 song?) burst of encore then suddenly they were gone.  The lights stayed dim for ages and no-one moved, we all thought we were going to get another encore, but alas the roadies woke up and started dismantling the kit. The set must have been less than an hour, which on the one hand was disappointing but on the other hand I think my ears would have started bleeding had it gone on any longer. But it was one hell of an almost-hour. I wish I had been there with someone so that I could gush about how great it was. In the end I did the 21st century thing and tweeted about it. I did meet some girls in the bathroom who were swooning at the fact that they’d touched the hand of Mikel when he was down at the barrier, one of them was disappointed that she had failed in her attempt to grab his ass.

I looked longingly at the merch stand on the way out, but seeing as I was flat broke I couldn’t afford anything.  And it’s not like I need any more band t-shirts.

I’ve continued to listen to their albums since the gig and checked out their website which contains book and music recommendations and is well worth a look. I am now a total convert and class The Airborne Toxic Event among my favourite bands.  I’ll be first in the queue should they return to Glasgow and that gig will stick in my memory for a long time, one of the best I have ever been to.