prettyinscarlett

Improvising Musicians and the Titanium Trio

2012-01-23T13:42:00.000-05:00

I braved yesterday evening's wintry blast for a new gig experience courtesy of Improvising Musicians of Ottawa/Outawais (IMOO) and Umi Cafe. A quick note on Umi Cafe - my first visit impressions are of a well-liked local cozy cafe: lots of fair trade options (plus tasty cookies) and open mic nights. My initial impression of IMOO (via their website and Facebook page) was of an open-mic style with extras but it seems that their regular events are much more 'small gigs with a twist'.

IMOO's Facebook promo enticed me to attend Concert #42. A trumpet-led trio? Sounds fun. Titanium Trio, comprising Lina Allemano, Rob Clutton and Nick Fraser (trumpet/music writer, electric bass and drums respectively) played 2 very interesting half-hour sets in front of 20-odd people, plus a few random customers who came in for coffee and were intrigued enough to stay. Whilst the style of music played by Titanium Trio isn't my usual bent, it was fun listening, from the melodic line/rhythm interplay of the first song, #2, to the third track, '#7 Bagpipe', which to my ears had fragments reminiscent of an AABA song format whilst also being completely different! In between songs, Allemano explained that most of the pieces until recently didn't have titles, just numbers; although some retained their number as an official title.

The second 'set' started with an energetic track (funky bass line) labelled 'Titanium'; the following 2 pieces featured Allemano changing her sound by using firstly (I believe) a 'tin' straight mute, followed by an empty pop can.

As a live music series, IMOO has a lot of promise; it's certainly worth checking their website and Facebook for future listings. Forthcoming events include a concert by the IMOO Orchestra (IMOOO!) at Ottawa Jazz Festival's Winter Edition - they play on 4th February, 3pm at Club Saw.

2 Pianos 4 Hands

2012-01-12T17:51:00.001-05:00

The combined efforts of Ottawa Xpress and the National Arts Centre Facebook feed took us out on a wintry Tuesday night to the 'pay what you can' showing of 2 Pianos 4 Hands, currently at the NAC English Theatre and being performed by creators Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt. In spite of the show's 15-year history, this has somehow managed to stay off my radar until now. No matter - it's brilliant.

2 Pianos 4 Hands is the story of a dream, maybe elusive, maybe achievable, told through the experiences of two boys growing up with the piano. A good crowd had turned up for the evening, and were hooked straight away with Dykstra and Greenblatt's silent humour opener and the incredibly funny series of impersonations, all illustrated with a wide range of classical and pop repertoire, from Liszt's Mephisto Waltz and Great Balls of Fire to J. S. Bach's Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze). Experience in music not required - the story is universal.

A definite must see - especially as this is the 'farewell' tour for Dykstra and Greenblatt. A short interview by Ottawa Citizen's Steven Mazey is available here.

Piano and The PepTides

2011-12-16T15:36:00.000-05:00

Two very contrasting concerts to continue December's music madness. First, another U Ottawa School of Music concert, 'Piano Duets and Duos' on 7th December. 17 performers under the direction of Frédéric Lacroix presented a variety of well-known and lesser known pieces arranged for four, six, eight and twelve hands on 1 or 2 pianos. Whilst Rheinberger's transcriptions of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations were the headline pieces, I preferred some of the other pieces, such as Rachmaninoff's Romance and the comedy of Lacroix's arrangement Für Malcolm in homage to Beethoven's Für Elise. A fun festive treat for the appreciative crowd in Tabaret Hall.

Having missed their last few shows (including the 360 show at the Elmdale that won Best Live Show 2011 in Ottawa Xpress), it was interesting to see The PepTides again and in a different venue. Whilst atmospheric, the stage area at Mercury Lounge seemed a bit cramped. In the support slot, the excellent Django Libre provided a warm, nearly-Friday-feeling wash of sound.

Sadly I can't seem to find names for the 5 instrumentalists; once again, their performances blew me away. The set was another 'For Those Who Hate...' based blast of satirical indie-pop-retro fun, with a hint of blues. Compared to my previous PepTides experience, it seemed that there were more 'first time' listeners in the audience, but they still seemed enjoy the show. This time, the film clips projected behind the band were easier to see - a good touch. I also enjoyed hearing new songs 'Live Love Get High' and 'Homme Love Whore'.

There are more shows coming up as well - all in the aid of funding new album Love Question Mark: this Saturday The PepTides join the lineup of Guerilla LIVE at the NAC's 4th stage, 8pm; 27th January at the Black Sheep In; and Irene's Pun, 18th February. As a preview, the Youtube channel is here. For more info on the new album's recording and to add your support, go to their rockethub site.

December extravaganza, part 2

2011-12-06T14:05:00.001-05:00

After Karkwa's excellent show on Thursday, we were eagerly awaiting the triple bill of Austra, Young Galaxy and Tasseomancy on Saturday 3rd... not to mention Feist! We first saw Tasseomancy in April supporting Timber Timbre; I was impressed by them then. This time, the songs were still excellent (I've since listened to their new album Ulalume, which is superb) but their dreaminess seemed a tiny bit lost in Ritual. They had a reasonable reception but I'm not sure how many concertgoers were familiar with their stuff.

Young Galaxy

In my mind Young Galaxy were equally as big a draw as Austra. Definitely an eagerly awaited set after muptiple spins of Shapeshifting! Like Tasseomancy, Young Galaxy were limited to 30 minutes of performance; starting with 'Blowminded' and 'Long Live The Fallen World' certainly charged up the crowd! The rest of the set included songs like 'Peripheral Visionaries', 'We Have Everything' and 'Cover Your Tracks'.

Both Tasseomancy and Young Galaxy suffered from technical problems. Something was amiss: Ritual were late opening doors (this meant that Tasseomancy perhaps had a smaller audience than they may have otherwise); and the bands didn't seem to have fully soundchecked as there were a lot of queries back and forth about mikes and stage monitors. Tasseomancy lost their guitar halfway through the set as well.


Austra

The problems seemed to have been mostly sorted (although at a much increased volume) when Austra came onstage. I wasn't familiar with her works before, but in quite a few ways Stelmanis' classical background comes through the electro-indie-dance sound. Excellent vocals from Stelmanis and Tasseomancy (sisters Lightman provide backing vocals). Within the around 45 minute quality performance I heard references to bands like Bat for Lashes, Goldfrapp, Ladytron, Ladyhawke; plus the combined spirits of Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks permeated through the Austra and Tasseomancy sets. Result: bands, 10, venue, -3. Ritual, please up your game.

Moving onto Monday 5th and a sold-out performance by Feist at the National Arts Centre. Going with the norm, the show started prompt at 8pm and quite a few people missed the start of Bry Webb's support slot. Having seen Feist's stage setup, a pared down duo made sense for support, but I found Webb's songs solely revolved around one idea. OK for one or 2 songs, but by the end of the set they were getting rather samey.


Feist

Huge cheers for Feist and co when they came onstage for an outstanding set just shy of 2 hours. New material from Metals included 'Undiscovered First', 'How Come You Never Go There', 'A Commotion', 'The Bad In Each Other', 'Graveyard' and 'Bittersweet Melodies'. Sadly there were quite a few 'amateur' concergoers in the crowd who really only wanted to hear the hits. The 'time machine section' (to quote Leslie's banter) part way through did include Reminder hits such as 'I Feel It All' and 'My Moon My Man', as well as 'Mushaboom' from Let It Die. The whole thing was done well and with some live twists. Again, 10 for the musical content but I would have preferred to have been standing (somewhere like Wolverhampton's Civic Hall, maybe); the amateurish getting up, leaving early, yo-yo-ing behaviour of some concertgoers may then have been less obvious. Backing singers Mountain Man got their solo slot too, which was very good but not really my thing.

Local photoblogger Ming (PhotogMusic) has some great photos from all of the December extravaganza bands; Ottawa Citizen's review of Feist is available here.

One final note on Thursday 1st's discovery, I Spell It Nature - I downloaded their selftitled EP, which is free on their bandcamp site; it is brilliant.

December extravaganza, part 1

2011-12-03T13:21:00.001-05:00

As a precursor to a busy December and something of an impromptu idea, we attended U of O School of Music's Wind Ensemble concert on 25th November, featuring Victor Herbiet on saxophone. Wind ensembles are something of a rarity in our (classical) concert calendar, so it was interesting to find that most of the programme was 20th century. To suit the Friday evening mood, the first piece performed was Edward Gregson's Festivo, with it's jaunty edge - almost like the opening movement to a classic film. Much of the evening's performance was of exciting, engaging music. True to Steven Mazey's pre-review, Herbiet's solo in Claude T Smith's Fantasia for Alto Sax was superb, with a 'sax solo' interlude reminiscent of (or maybe inspiring) electric guitar solos. A high level of musicianship all round and on this basis, much of the 2011-12 season should be very good! A forthcoming concert that has caught my attention is the School of Music's Piano Duets and Duos evening on 7th December.

December 1st brought Polaris winners Karkwa to Ritual, along with support bands Parlovr and I Spell It Nature. I bought 'Les Chemins de Verre' last year on the strength of an Ottawa Xpress interview; many months of listening later and this show was a definite on my list! A full Ritual was first treated to local post-rock band I Spell It Nature. On a first listen, their sound is very interesting. Having listened to a fair amount of bands in the broad vein of Mogwai, Sigur Rós, Ólafur Arnalds, the concept was familiar; I Spell It Nature retained their own flavour as well as a hint of (to my ears) 'Canadian indie' sound. Their new album 'A Story Of...' is available now and can be heard on their bandcamp site. I Spell It Nature's excellent set was followed by the unoriginal sounds of Parlovr. Whilst their musicianship was pretty solid, the cumulative sound was a poor imitation of lots of different bands and styles with very little in the way of original content. Anyone who isn't familiar with classic punk and early grunge would probably find the combination exciting.

In contrast, Karkwa get an 11. A set full of sing-along tracks (not just from Les Chemins de Verre, either) and excellent live adaptation along with a good dose of stage banter made for a great evening. Like many bands, their sound seemed more raw, somehow deeper 'in the flesh'. Full setlist (courtesy of setlist.fm):


Karkwa 011211

Le pyromane
Échapper au sort
Les chemins de verres
L'acouphène
Le compteur
L'épaule froide
Marie tu pleures
Le bon sens
Oublie pas
Encore:
Le coup d'état
La façade

Definitely one of the standout gigs of my 2011 musical year - to date...

Super sounds of a diverse performance

2011-11-04T17:47:00.002-04:00

The programme for Angela Hewitt's latest NAC concert on 3rd November started with a difference: Hewitt's recital was after the interval and not before. In addition, the first auditory experience was the supposedly least-accessible of Sibelius' symphonies, Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63. Prior to the performance I was completely unfamiliar with this piece, but no less interested in hearing the NACO's premiere performance.

The programme notes describe the piece as both severe and stern. After hearing even the first few minutes of the symphony, I beg to differ: these terms seem to be excessively negative. I prefer 'spare elegance', especially in relation to the first and third movements. The piece may have its bleak moments but, especially in the hands of the NACO, the resulting sound is smooth, measured and very beautiful. Having heard quite a bit of more recent Nordic music, Sibelius' influence on modern bands is clear. Unfortunately, a fair few concert-goers didn't seem to hear the beauty, as there were rather more coughs going round than in the 2nd half of the concert.

The attention was almost visible after the interval, awaiting the 'crack' that starts Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. In her pre-concert chat, Hewitt described the balance between Ravel's implicit rather than explicit emotions and keeping to a 'medium' between insistent score-following and schmaltz. The peformance was superb - no schmaltz anywhere, and the mix from the orchestra and Fazioli was one of level, mellow, warm sound. The audience received the brilliant performance they have clearly come to expect from Hewitt, and showed their appreciation, which was rewarded by an encore of Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk.

The final part, dances 1, 2 and 7 from Dvořák's Op. 72 Slavonic Dances, clearly brought to mind the New Year's Concerts from Vienna. Over to Mariss Jansons, then.

Musical Language from West to East

2011-10-25T11:30:00.002-04:00

After Vinyl Tap Stories, the exciting mix of music and words at this autumn's Writers Festival kept the audience enthralled. I didn't see the Marshall McLuhan Centenary event on Friday 21st October, but heard some of the accompanying music by Hilotrons' Mike Dubue. The Marshall McLuhan Concerto, performed on cello, electric guitar, vibraphone with effects, was indeed captivating.

Moving straight into the following event, Musical Language: The Songwriting Circle (presented by CBC's Alan Neal) proved very popular; Louise Burns, Ann Vriend, Matthew Barber and Emm Gryner together supplied first-class entertainment; Ambre Mclean was also there to perform 'So Over', the winning song from the All In A Day competition. Fitting in with the theme, they are all singer-songwriters, but within that the songs showcased on Friday encompassed indie-folk-alt country, different styles of guitar accompaniment and piano-based songs. Out of all 4, I most enjoyed Ann Vriend's songs - from 'Tin Man' and 'Don't Cry' to 'Everybody Sings In Nashville', they seemed to encompass a vast range of emotions and styles as well as showing Ann's versatile voice. Emm Gryner's song 'Gold Soul' also made me smile with its Sheffield reference! Alan Neal organised the evening's chat/performance into sections ranged around writing; setting/location; characters; the All In A Day songwriting competition; artists' challenge; easiest/hardest song.

The funniest part of the evening was definitely the artists' challenge, wherein each of the 4 artists had to cover a song chosen at random from Alan's IPod... Matthew struggling with the words to 'Into The Groove' and Ann singing Joni Mitchell's 'People's Parties' to the tune of The Dukes of Hazzard theme! For further listening: Matthew Barber and Louise Burns play The Black Sheep Inn on 12th November; Emm Gryner follows them on 25th November with Jenny MacDonald.

Steadily moving east, from Canadian songwriting talent to the Ukraine on Saturday for Musical Language: Ukrainia. The band played a relatively short set but within that the mix of traditional Ukrainian songs with a more modern twist, hints of Spaghetti western, klezmer and Black Sabbath made for a very entertaining evening.

By the evening of Sunday 23rd, the festival reached Russia and a completely different style of music. Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets was a captivating mix of biography and performance. Hosted by Julian Armour, the evening featured Wendy Lesser showcasing Shostakovich's life through his string quartets, interspersed with performances by Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc. Broadly chronological, the movements selected were played brilliantly; I enjoyed them all, but for audience engagement the 'allegro non troppo' from String Quartet No. 3 in F, Op. 73 and 'largo' & 'allegro molto' from String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 stood out. Lesser's book, also entitled Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets, looks like a must read! The Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc has recorded a 7CD set of the complete Shostakovich string quartets with XXI-21 which is apparently due out in November. Until then - the Pacifica Quartet have just released 'The Soviet Experience Vol. 1' containing Nos. 5 and 8.

Words and music at Writersfest

2011-10-13T21:37:00.000-04:00

In anticipation of this autumn's Writers' Festival M and I headed out to Southminster United Church for 'Vinyl Tap Storie s' with the legendary Randy Bachman. Known to me by reputation through songs such as 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet' but without having heard his Vinyl Tap radio programme, it was interesting to see and hear the man behind the hits.

Southminster United Church looked pretty much full as 7pm came and host Laurence Wall came onstage. The evening started by scene setting in 1960s Winnipeg and covered Bachman's early musical life with plenty of humourous 'on the road' stories. Most of the remaining time was spent discussing the origins of songs such as 'American Woman' and 'Taking Care of Business'. A very appreciative audience warmly applauded anecdotes and snippets of music. The 'B.B. King story' was one of my particular favourites, as well as the 'piano man' story related to 'Taking Care of Business'. The hour was over very quickly, but the book-buying and autograph queue looked to contain most of the crowd!

The 'festival proper' starts on 20th October with 'What My Grandma Means To Say' featuring JC Sulzenko, with New York Night later on. The musical speciality evening (for me, anyway) comes on Sunday 23rd in conjunction with Music and Beyond; Wendy Lesser and the Arthur-Leblanc Quartet perform music by Shostakovich in an evening entitled 'Music for Silenced Voices'. All in all a very interesting weekend to come.

Saturday Folkfest outing

2011-08-28T20:21:00.001-04:00

After my hectic July and more relaxed August, M and I saw out the summer with a trip to Folkfest yesterday (Day 3). Initially tempted to attend by Basia Bulat's inclusion on the Ravenlaw stage, we had a fun and relaxing day in the sun. I now know more about banjos than I did on Friday, thanks to the afternoon workshops; we also saw the end of the Song Maps workshop.

The Moon stage - The Little Stevies

As a Folkfest first timer, I can't comment on the new site vs old site, but there is certainly plenty of room at Hog's Back Park. Our only real complaint features the main CUPE/SCFP stage area. Whilst the rest of the site had a great laidback, fun vibe, the CUPE/SCFP stage was much more anonymous and less laid-back. The division of the main stage audience area into (presumably) VIP/seating and general was quite weird. Whilst the Moon stage - smaller acts from other stages doing short inbetweeny sets - is a great idea, the CUPE/SCFP stage just wasn't inviting. There also seemed to be a 'bright' sound problem which was very off putting. Of the 2 sets we saw there, Rural Alberta Advantage suffered more from this; personally I thought their May show at Ritual was better but the crowd seemed to have fun. Slightly fewer problems with the early part of Bright Eyes' set, but we ended up moving to the Falls stage to see Lazy Bones. The 'festival proper' part of the sight was well organised, making use of the natural undulations to block sound, so all the workshop stages were in one corner, the Ravenlaw stage was in a natural amphitheatre, with the Falls stage dominating the food area. One note about food - in my opinion the bar tents should have been selling cider. Next year maybe?

Earlier in the day, we stumbled across The Little Stevies on the Ravenlaw stage. Hailing from Melbourne, the band were finishing up their first Canadian tour. Very entertaining banter, and an indie-folk sound reminiscent of Woodpigeon, their set perfectly matched the weather and the mood. A definite recommendation and favourite of the day!

The Little Stevies

One of the volunteers recommended Wooden Sky, who had packed out the Falls stage (with an extra audience behind the tent) for a very solid set. Seemingly grunge-folk, they had a very good reception but to our ears felt slightly repetitive. At this point (late afternoon), we also saw the first of 2 Kim Churchill sets. Impressive for 1 man and a six-string, Kim's sets were great crowd-pleasers. The other early evening show we passed through was a blues-rock style set from JJ Grey and Mofro.

The bank above the Ravenlaw stage (our favourite stage for bands and atmosphere) was full by the time Basia Bulat and band started. Whilst I have only heard a few songs of Bulat's online, they were enough to plant a seed in my mind. The first song, the haunting 'It Can't Be You', featured Bulat solo on charango; a quality start to an excellent set (Ming at PhotogMusic has the full setlist on his photoblog). 'Run' was particularly catchy, and Bulat's performance of an old Polish hit, 'W Ziolynym Zoo' (In the Green Zoo) was very amusing. My initial reaction is that Bulat's voice has hints of Joni Mitchell and Elite Hotel-era Emmylou Harris. All in all an excellent day!

Festivals postscript and an impromptu singalong

2011-08-16T10:04:00.000-04:00

Now both chamber festivals are over, I've finally had a chance to sit back and relax! As to which festival I most preferred, Music and Beyond and Chamberfest serve slightly different audiences and purposes; I found both immensely enjoyable. Chamberfest had the edge on big name stars, for example both Simone Dinnerstein, Marc-André Hamelin and Anton Kuerti on the piano side, along with groups such as the Nash Ensemble of London. Like Music and Beyond, I didn't go to a bad concert (there was some concert-goer discussion about the merits of Dinnerstein but I missed that show) so picking a clear favourite is difficult! In terms of innovation, Chamberfest's Late Night at the Kildare series was brilliant, with a wide range of 'fringe' chamber music. Cello grunge (courtesy of the Samurai String Squad), Lara St. John performing Stomp! and Starbachs: The Coffee Cantata were all fantastic. It's a great breakout too - smaller audience, more intimate feel, slight background chatter, a bar... A lot of the more 'mainstream' string quartet concerts were Haydn and Beethoven dominated, but there was a good percentage of new and more obscure music, for example Hamelin playing Stockhausen's Klavierstück IX and Trio Hochelaga's performance of Pierné's Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 45. The New Music Now series of concerts also had a very broad mix of pieces and instruments; one of my particular favourites was Rachel Mercer's performance of György Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello. The overall feel of Chamberfest, though, was of an established, sophisticated, large scale festival; in contrast I definitely found an upstart, 'for the people' vibe to Music and Beyond, and Rachel Barton Pine's three concerts still rank as some of my favourites of the summer.

Looking forward to the autumn, and NAC single ticket sales start on 6th September. In other genres, the list of possibles includes Hey Rosetta!, Feist, Austra, Tasseomancy and more.

An impromptu weekend away in Eganville included a surprise acoustic concert. Local artist Julie Larocque happened to be playing a Saturday morning show at the Bonnechere Museum whilst we were there. Due to a misplaced cable, Julie performed the hour-long set at the Bonnechere Museum's piano. Some original songs, which in a voice/piano rendition had a relatively simple, relaxed feel, although from her website and myspace it seems that her recorded output is very varied. Most of the hour was then taken up with 'American songbook' style classics, such as Over The Rainbow, but well played and with some audience participation from the 15 or so attendees. As a complete newcomer to the Ottawa Valley, it was nice to see pianos in restaurants and the Bonnechere Museum's large folder of musicians and bands in the locale.

Chamberfest change of plan

2011-07-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

All of a sudden I am now covering Chamberfest for The Festival Goer as well. No complaints here! Another varied festival program with some very interesting sounding concerts. Cello grunge? Yes, the Samurai String Squad are performing a late night 'classical grunge set'. New artists, new music and free events too - including New York's Asphalt Orchestra. The programme can be viewed online; further details about the Asphalt Orchestra's street performances in Byward Market will be posted onto Chamberfest's Facebook page.

Check The Festival Goer for further updates.

Now the last note has died away

2011-07-19T10:25:00.001-04:00

The whirlwind that was Music and Beyond has now finished. My final tally was 24 events, pretty much all of them excellent. Perhaps the only disappointing show was Don Campbell's 'Beyond the Mozart Effect', which whilst having excellent musical performances, was rather more an illustrated history of Mozart than an evening about The Mozart Effect. Top marks to Igudesman and Joo for their hilarious 'A Little Nightmare Music' - I highly recommend their online videos! Of the more traditional style concerts, The Jupiter String Quartet were amazing, as was Stéphane Lemelin, who looked and sounded as if he was having a great time. The Music from Turkey concert with Tahir Aydoğdu on kanun was riveting and highly entertaining, as well as the 'tango' concert from Les Violons du Roy and Tango Boreal. From the closing gala, I also really enjoyed Marc Djokic's performance from Richard Mascall's Labyrinth. Reminded me of Nicolas Bolens' Tempus Fugit.

My last mention goes to Rachel Barton Pine and Menahem Pressler. Pine's Classical Heavy Metal show at the Mayfair Theatre was brilliant. She explained some of the links between classical music (especially violin) and heavy metal with performances of works by AC/DC, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Rush and more. Extremely versatile, Pine's two concerts with Menahem Pressler were also first rate, and I think many concertgoers will remember Pressler's lecture about Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor for a long time to come.

A few days rest before ChamberFest starts... so far I have plans to see the Cecilia String Quartet and Marc-André Hamelin.

'West End' extravaganza

2011-07-09T14:46:00.000-04:00

A short break from Music and Beyond took M and I to The Elmdale Tavern for another gig by The PepTides (of Jazzfest fame). Firstly, it was very refreshing for us Brits to find a 'pub' style bar venue, where one can buy a drink at the bar without getting funny looks. Big tick. We arrived earlier than the show start time, which turned out to be fortuitous, as the stage area had been rearranged to accommodate singers + band. Quite a few people were standing at the back by showtime. The whole place had been decked out in quirky vintage gear, from old radios lining the stage to bakelite-style telephones (the ones with a rotary dial - a real blast from the past).


The PepTides

The PepTides did not disappoint, earning raucous applause from the crowd. Having listened to FTHHHI (albeit only once - busy busy!) and now having seen them again, the structure of the songs and lyrics becomes clearer. You either 'hear' and boogie along without necessarily finding the deeper meaning of some lyrics, or 'listen' and understand more about the group as an 'art project' -akin to either hearing or listening to someone like Scissor Sisters or Pulp (I borrowed that phrase from an interview given to Tony Martins at Guerilla magazine).

M's take on the show (as he had not seen the JazzFest concert) was that the musical style of The PepTides was somehow 'transeclectic': hints of James Brown, Motown and blues rock with a twist of Buena Vista Social Club.


The excellent backing musicians

It is also refreshing to see a 'local' band with a solidly polished show. That goes for the singers and musicians - the 'backing band' behind The PepTides are themselves extremely good.

Methinks another trip to Compact Music may be due to find North Hero (simultaneously released with FTHHHI) and/or their 2007 release I'm A Spy.

A final note - the Glebe Business Improvement Area (BIA) is sponsoring the We Dig The Glebe promotion, where every purchase along the Glebe stretch of Bank Street makes you eligible for weekly prize draws.

Music and Beyond, and a (temporary) new blog

2011-07-07T17:24:00.000-04:00

Ottawa chamber festival Music and Beyond starts today with a highly anticipated event featuring renowned Canadian actor Christopher Plummer. Sadly, I'm not going, as I only have a 'standard' pass. Not to complain, though, as there are 72 concerts on offer between today and 17th July!

I am covering Music and Beyond as official 'reader-blogger' for the Ottawa Citizen. Their reader-blogger page, The Festival Goer, features blogs from JazzFest, BluesFest and Music and Beyond, with ChamberFest and Folk Festival still to come. My posts are under 'MusicBeyondBlogger'.

As an aside, M and I plan to attend The PepTides' next Ottawa show tomorrow (8th July) at the Elmdale House Tavern.

Musical interlude - Canada Day

2011-07-02T17:42:00.000-04:00

First up, another plus from the diplomatic circuit. After last November's popular free concert at the National Gallery of Canada, the Embassy of Japan (this time in collaboration with the Embassy of Austria) hosted an evening of Austrian and Japanese music for violin and piano on 30th June, once again at the National Gallery's Auditorium. This time, reservations were mandatory and the event seemed much better organised. From the programme details and introductory remarks, the two soloists (Mayumi Seiler, violin, and Kyoko Hashimoto, piano) are both Canadian residents and (if I remember rightly) German speakers. After the speeches, including a brief history lesson on the links between Austria, Japan and European-ism by His Excellency Ambassador Ishikawa, the concert commenced. The works, listed below, were each introduced by Mayumi Seiler, which was a nice touch:

W.A. Mozart, Sonata for piano & violin in A major, KV.526

Toru Takemitsu, Distance de fée for violin & piano

Hikaru Hayashi, Rhapsodie für Violine und Klavier

----

F. Schubert, Sonata in A major for violin & piano, D.574

Franz Kreisler, Schön Rosmarin, Liebeslied, Liebesfreud

Of most interest were the works by Takemitsu and Hayashi. I hadn't realised prior to this evening that Takemitsu was quite so recent (he was born in 1930 and died in 1996). The above, impressionist-influenced piece (with hints of Messiaen) was composed in 1951; Hayashi's piece is from 1965. Definitely the gems of the evening (not that there was anything bad!), although the Kreisler pieces also were quite charming.


Coeur de Pirate

Canada Day itself and JazzFest opened for free. After last week's enjoyable evenings, M and I ventured to Confederation Park to hear and discover Ohbijou and Coeur de Pirate. Both bands had been promoted on Apartment 613's website and lived up to expectations. Due to bus chaos, we arrived part way through Ohbijou's set, but their indie-quirky folk-ness (Apartment 613 use 'ornate' to describe their sound) suited the late afternoon sun. The set also included new songs for their forthcoming album Metal Meets. I think (as both bands were/are new to me) that Coeur de Pirate (Béatrice Martin plus band) were the 'headline', and her sound (a touch of jazz in the vocals, piano-based acoustic-folk-pop songs) is indeed, to paraphrase JazzFest's site, catching! Pretty sure both bands were doing well in the merch stall...

Not much to say about the musical offerings on Parliament Hill or Major's Hill Park (briefly passed by but neither were a patch on JazzFest), but the fireworks, as seen from our vantage point above Lady Grey Drive, were spectacular.

JazzFest 2 - rocking in the Heart of the City

2011-06-25T19:42:00.001-04:00


Rain-drenched early crowd

Second day of JazzFest complete with full waterproofs and wellies. A few hardly souls, myself included, headed to Confederation Park to see, in theory, the Laila Biali Trio. Another new one for me, but the JazzFest profile promised pop-oriented jazz from the pianist-songwriter plus George Koller and Larnell Lewis on bass and drums respectively. Sadly, Biali was held up at Ottawa Airport by the adverse weather, so the impromptu Koller-Lewis duo performed a set for the bedraggled attendees - at this point there was not so much a crowd as people in a field! The show also included a demonstration on dismantling Koller's new bass, which was very interesting!

By the time Elvis Costello & The Imposters took to the stage the downpour had abated and more people had arrived. As a taster of things to come, the set started with Pump It Up and went on to include gems such as Watching The Detectives, Red Shoes and Alison, as detailed below (from Elvis Costello Wiki):


Elvis Costello

01. Pump It Up
02. Heart Of The City
03. Mystery Dance
04. Everyday I Write The Book
05. Strict Time
06. Clown Strike
07. Almost Blue
08. New Lace Sleeves
09. Beyond Belief
10. Clubland
11. Stations Of The Cross
12. This Wheel's On Fire / The River In Reverse / On Your Way Down / I'll Take Care Of You

Encore 1
13. A Slow Drag With Josephine - EC solo
14. Jimmie Standing In The Rain - EC solo
15. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
16. Watching The Detectives
17. Alison

Encore 2
18. Honey, Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?
19. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
20. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
21. High Fidelity
22. Out Of Time
23. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding? - including The Kids Are Alright

Maybe it was to spite the weather, the impressive set varying from mellow back to a great rendition of 'Out of Time' replete with singalong, but the combined show was amazing with the crowd on fire and dancing around. One to remember, and for those who chose to stay at home, to regret missing!

Similarly, within the confines of the OLG stage the late night audience were whooping and dancing to manically popular three-piece Elliott Brood. A mix of indie-roots-folk-rock with (for me) hints of Hey Rosetta! and Rural Alberta Advantage. Another band with whom I should become more familiar... Certainly most of those inside the OLG tent were familiar with the Elliott Brood oeuvre and were singing heartily, dancing and hitting tin lids with spoons (props provided by the band). The band have a new album in the autumn and based on this show, future shows look promising! One to watch....

JazzFest 1 - a long way from the Steel City, and a hidden surprise

2011-06-25T19:09:00.000-04:00

First big music festival of the summer (and my first full summer in Ottawa) and a meditation on the steel city on the Don, Sheffield. The previous time I saw Robert Plant, in Sheffield way back in 2002, it was in a packed-out university venue. Not a shade on the crowd gathered in Confederation Park on 23rd June, though. According to a fellow attendee, this was maybe the biggest crowd ever at JazzFest?! Due credit to support act Bahamas - new to me but the band, with frontperson Afie Jurvanen, payed a good mix and received more than a polite response from the ever-growing audience, and not just for a few lines of Led Zeppelin.

Thunder and lightning added to the atmosphere as Robert Plant and the Band of Joy (including Grammy winner Patty Griffin) took the stage with a 'jazz time' take on Black Dog. The majority of the set comprised songs from recent albums Band of Joy and Raising Sand, with the combined vocals of Plant and Griffin and talents of the Band creating a captivating, supple sound. Plant also included solo hit 'Down To The Sea' as well as What Is And What Should Never Be. Potential setlist (from setlist.com):

        Black Dog
        Down to the Sea
        Angel Dance
        What Is and What Should Never Be
        House of Cards
        Somewhere Trouble Don't Go
        (vocals: Buddy Miller)
        Monkey
        A Satisfied Mind
        (Vocals: Darrell Scott)
        Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down
        Ocean of Tears
        (Vocals: Patty Griffin)
        Black Country Woman
        In the Mood
        Please Read the Letter
        Misty Mountain Hop

        Encore:
        Gallows Pole

The 2002 Plant concert sticks in my mind as one of the best I've seen. This concert, although with a very different setlist, was no less impressive.

The rain arrived, slowly at first, during Plant's show, and quite a few people went to the OLG stage to shelter from the rain and encountered local band The PepTides, who, according to this week's interview with Apartment 613, were performing with a band for the first time!

A name relatively new to me, but I think it will become much more familiar. There are 5 singers with The PepTides along with 5 band members. From their very varied setlist, I caught references to Scissor Sisters, a touch of Chic, UK bands The Sugars and (first album era) The Pipettes, plus a bit of Kitty Daisy and Lewis, to name a few. A lot of thought had clearly gone into costumes and set design, so maybe add cabaret to the list! A very very enthusiastic (and slightly damp) audience, including an impromptu dance towards the end of the show, listened to a series of 'acts' comprising songs mostly from recent album For Those Who Hate Human Interaction. I purchased this after the show but have yet to sample. I look forward to doing so and to future PepTides shows in the city.

Musical interlude

2011-06-21T18:27:00.005-04:00

The diplomatic cultural events circuit seems to become busier now that summer is here! First Doors Open Ottawa (during which M and I sampled the Norwegian Ambassador's residence, French Embassy, 7 Rideau Gate amongst others) followed by a return to New Edinburgh for a garden party on Thursday 16th.

GartenFest was organised by the German Embassy as the third in a series of summer events (the first two were a fundraiser for the Ottawa Bach Choir and a Community Celebration). The more informal event of the three saw an audience/guest list attended the Ambassador's residence on Coltrin Road for a klezmer concert (not to forget the delicious food and wine!) featuring Berlin band Di Meschugeles. After attending a short klezmer concert during the Welsh Proms in 2010 featuring local group Klezmer Kollectiv, the theme seemed interesting.

Di Meschugeles' aim, as explained by singer Ofer Waldman between songs, was to rediscover the distinctive sound of klezmer as a 'secular' musical form and through this to also to create new material (for more information on the history of klezmer, see this Wikipedia article). From my (non-expert) ears, one can make a few links between klezmer and some European folk tunes; klezmer also spread around the world, notably to the US, so maybe one can hear some influences in genres such as trad jazz, or blues? Certainly Di Meschugeles are amongst a group of musicians interested in the genre - Oi Va Voi spring to mind. The set drew an enthusiastic response from the audience (still too formal to really be called a 'crowd'!) with a fair bit of dancing too. Most of the songs were from their very new album Kiever Tramvay, which looked to be selling quite well on the night! Prior to this show, Di Meschugeles had, with the support of the Embassy and the Goethe Instutute, played at the 2nd Montreal International Yiddish Theatre Festival.

A fun and very interesting evening, yet again proving the variety of the 'diplomatic cultural events circuit'!

Festival season

2011-06-03T09:46:00.007-04:00

Summer is pretty much here and with it a plethora of festivals. Firstly, to recap, M and I finally made the Canadian Tulip Festival on its last weekend. As well as tulip-related events, there was a live music stage, food tent and market - a lesson for next year to go earlier!

Friday 20th May we turned up for the Capital Sounds evening. The schedule featured local bands, only slightly disrupted by a thunderstorm. We saw The New Records; Claude Munson and The Storm Outside; and Shannon Rose and The Thorns (Capital Sounds bios available here). The New Records (photo above) played a mixture of covers and original songs, which was a smart choice for a high school indie band. A momentary 'what year is it' moment during their rendition of The Strokes' 'Last Night'; generally quite polished, and I think their forthcoming EP should be interesting. Claude Munson, plus his band The Storm outside, played a set much more rooted in blues, folk and country in the singer-songwriter vein. Still pretty interesting - myspace here.

The last band we saw before heading home to avoid the storm, were Shannon Rose and The Thorns, photo above. Possibly (for me at least) the most interesting set of the 3. Shannon Rose has an EP series reflecting the seasons, and as of 20th May, her Spring EP was due to be released. Distinctly folk-tinged indie-pop with a hint of otherness, definitely worth a follow up. The main website has links to Facebook, Bandcamp etc.

Overall a pretty good evening - I have no idea how the Tulip Festival organisers chose the bands for Capital Sounds but the quality was good all evening. We didn't see the final band, Dry River Caravan, but see here for more information.

We briefly returned the following Sunday for a few more music events featuring the Nomadic Orchestra of The World and Japanese dance, but the rain meant we saw very little of the actual performances.

A short footnote about the Spring Ottawa International Writers' Festival for which I also volunteered. The last event of the spring was on Monday 3oth, featuring Afghan politician Fawzia Koofi talking about her background in a riveting chat with CBC's Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld. Prior to that, I attended an event featuring CBC journalist Mellissa Fung and James Loney talking about their experiences as captives; an 'ghazal concert' featuring readings of ghazals (Persian verse) and Persian music; a discussion of semi-autobiographical historical novels including Suzanne Desrochers' Bride of New France; and a discussion on the history of Canada focusing on Sir John A Macdonalds' last election campaign and Pierre Trudeau's Night of the Long Knives. An interesting and inspiring mix!

Looking forward to the rest of the summer, I am due to volunteer at a few Music and Beyond events in July, plus attending a few concerts with Ottawa ChamberFest. Prior to that a few evenings at the Ottawa Jazz Festival to see Robert Plant and Elvis Costello.

Angela Hewitt - update

2011-05-10T17:41:00.002-04:00

A brief summary of the 7th May recital can be found on Angela Hewitt's website, news update of 9th May. Secondly, I believe that the first encore was Schumann, and the second Bach's Jesu, joy of man's desiring.

Hewitt in recital

2011-05-09T20:49:00.005-04:00

After thoroughly enjoying Angela Hewitt's February concert at the National Arts Centre, 3 friends and I attended her chamber concert on 7th May at Christ Church Cathedral. Promoted by the Chamber Players of Canada, the recital was in aid of the Bruyère Foundation and, according to their representative and the Ottawa Citizen's review, raised over $26,000 for the Foundation. Our group arrived very early (on advice from Chamber Players regulars) and found good seats in the front of the 'regular' section. By the time the concert started with speeches, the cathedral was very definitely full.

The programme comprised of: 10 of Bach's 15 Three-Part Inventions (Sinfonias); Variations and Fugue, Op. 25 'Eroica' by Beethoven; then, after the interval, Bach's French Suite No.3 in B minor and Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 by Brahms. Although not an enormous Bach lover, I did enjoy the French Suite particularly well along with the Beethoven variations. Of note, presumably because of its rarity, Ms Hewitt was momentarily distracted early on in the F Major Invention, although restarted and continued with professionalism and grace. Ms Hewitt played 2 encores (in between taking many rounds of applause and flowers), both well known pieces, but my memory fails me.... The whole performance was really captivating; I found myself very relaxed whilst intently listening, in particular during the Beethoven piece.

One of the benefits of being in a cathedral rather than right at the back of Southam Hall was that it was easier to hear the different sound of the Fazioli piano. My theory (as substantiated by an interview video I found online here) is that the timbre, which is very clear and pure, particularly at the bass end, best suits her playing style, Bach in particular: "I think they are wonderful pianos. For Bach, they have such clarity - of sound and attack, a huge range of colors...but also more challenging to play...".

Summer is fast approaching and with it the large number of music festivals in & around Ottawa. No tickets yet booked for both chamber festivals, which are July/August (Music and Beyond and Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival) but we are attending shows by Robert Plant and Elvis Costello at the Ottawa Jazz Festival in June.

May music madness

2011-05-04T14:47:00.007-04:00

Something of a late April/May bonanza for shows - now that spring is here (mostly - in between the rainy days) there seem to be events galore!

First up, an interesting and unusual evening. M and I received complimentary tickets to see Chamber Music of Healey Willan from Chamber Players of Canada, 23rd April. Neither of us were familiar with his works, but there's a first time for everything. I particularly liked the evening's premiere, which was a Willan piece for cello and piano completed by Matthew Larkin. Very very interesting, but sadly far too short! The trio in B minor was pretty good too. The first half programme (Fugue in G minor, Introduction/Allegro, Romance for Violin & Piano, Sanata in E minor for Violin & Piano), didn't engage us quite as much, though. The Chamber Players series also includes Angela Hewitt on May 7th.

From one festival to another. The Prairie Scene (co-promoted by the National Arts Centre) is a showcase of music, visual arts/media, theatre, dance and more, showcasing talented artists from Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Sadly we only made one event (too hectic a schedule), which was Royal Canoe/The Liptonians/Maybe Smith at Mavericks on 28th April. I was interested in going to this show after reading an album review for The Liptonians' Let's All March Back Into The Sea in the Globe and Mail a while ago. Pretty interesting set, and it seems that Royal Canoe and The Liptonians share members. As far as stage manner goes, the first guy, Maybe Smith, was very entertaining - the following 2 bands didn't quite have the banter/manner to keep the audience engaged (even if there were only 30 people). We weren't familiar with either band to any great extent, but my over-riding memory is that Royal Canoe's set (with more upbeat music - kinda folk/dance/indie mixed!) was the better one.

A few days break, in which I went to a few Writers Festival events - including an evening of ghazals and Persian music featuring the M E L M'RABET Trio - and we were back downtown to see another band of the moment, Rural Alberta Advantage, supported by Hooded Fang at Ritual. Hooded Fang were new to us, pretty OK, seen better, seen worse. Notably, the RAA crowd was much bigger than for the Prairie Scene event. Pretty full, and gig-goers dancing and singing along! Their tour (which closed with Ottawa show prior to a European tour) was in support of new album Departing, in which the band give Arcade Fire a bit of stiff competition! To quote the Globe and Mail (who had reviewed RAA and The Liptonians' respective releases at the same time), the songs 'convey...deep, complicated emotions with grace, clarity and passion'. A stripped-down cover of 'Eye of the Tiger' for an encore went down well, too. Neither of us have yet heard their previous album Hometowns, but I think it's a case of just getting round to finding it...

Next? As mentioned above, we will be attending Angela Hewitt's chamber concert on 7th May, which may be the end of May madness.... until June, when we have tickets to see Robert Plant and Elvis Costello at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

Red light music

2011-04-10T19:33:00.007-04:00

Timber Timbre have been described (by Ottawa Xpress amongst others) as folk/blues/gothic, i.e. hard to label music, and by themselves as writing music 'with chilling authenticity' (quoted from their website). Timber Timbre consists of Taylor Kirk (who released his self-titled Timber Timbre in 2009) along with fellow multi-instrumentalists Mika Posen and Simon Trottier. Making waves as far as the Polaris long list, plus the playlists of BBC 6 Music and British online music magazine The Line Of Best Fit, the combined package was too enticing to refuse. Hence M and I headed to another new (for us) venue, First Baptist Church, for the album launch on 9th April. The church is pretty reasonable for a venue, dry again but this time for obvious reasons.

A sizeable crowd turned up for the evening's entertainment which commenced with duo Tasseomancy - again quite hard to define, but maybe new/alt folk is a good place to start. Formerly known as Ghost Bees, the duo of Sary and Romy Lightman (pictured above) entertained and entranced with a short set, presumably taken from their imminent album (due August, I believe). We caught references to Bat for Lashes, Mogwai, Kate Bush and the spirit of Stevie Nicks. Highly interesting! As of current writing, some of their songs are available for listening on CBC Radio 3's site.

Do 2 points make a trend? - after Frank Horvat comes Timber Timbre? For the duration of Timber Timbre's set, the trio played solely under red light. Nearly 'music in the dark', and almost as relaxing! Sadly red light alone did not make for good pictures, but really we (and the whole audience) were far to engrossed in the music. The gig was an album launch event for new record Creep On Creeping On and the set comprised of songs from the LP -yes, Creep On Creeping On is available on 180g white vinyl, as well as CD etc. Timber Timbre's own words (again from their website) best describe the intensely interesting songs - 'heartrending compositions that engage, transport and challenge'. Engage is a key word - compared to many many gigs, the audience were almost totally silent. I am inclined to believe that the music being performed was the main reason for this communal transportation, rather than the seated venue (pews), lack of lights or lack of alcohol.

All in all a brilliantly engaging evening!

Continuing the cultural events circuit

2011-03-28T11:54:00.003-04:00

Different Embassy, similar theme.... On Friday M and I attended the regular Arts Cafe hosted by the Austrian Embassy/Austrian Cultural Forum here in Ottawa. Still on a musical theme, the Cafe of 25th March was promoting 25-year old Austrian pianist Stefan Stroissnig and celebrating the bicentenary of Liszt's birth.

For a first taster of the Austrian 'circuit', this was promising: a very good turnout (though rather older on average than audiences at recent NAC events -I do find that slightly depressing) at U Ottawa's Tabaret Hall, though sadly no wine! Stroissnig's programme was as follows:

Liszt 'Bénédiction de dieu dans la solitude (Harmonies poétiques et religieuses)' S173/3
Brahms: Sonata No 2 in F sharp minor
Friedrich Cerha: Netzwerk-Fantasie
Schubert: Sonata in D major, D850 'Gasteiner'

The curiosity was the piece by Cerha, a contemporary Austrian composer. Neither of us were really enamoured with the piece, couldn't really engage with it. The rest of the programme, whilst being more 'typical', was a clean and polished performance.

From the Embassy's site, it seems many of the Arts Cafe performers are recipients of Austrian radio Ö1's Pasticcio Prize. On the basis of Friday's concert, it's certainly worth investigating further Arts Cafe events.

Up next? Spring is nearly here and there are gig listings galore. I am tempted by a few, amongst others, from the NAC-sponsored Prairie Scene festival.

Apocalyptica, or lack of a proper 1000-capacity venue in Ottawa

2011-03-14T12:36:00.006-04:00

Something of a departure from our recent outings to see Finnish band Apocalyptica on 11th March. After somewhat 're' discovering the band via this route, we were quite excited by the time Friday came.

To detail the evening in reverse, Apocalyptica's show was superb, with a range of songs both old and new/transcriptions and originals. I particularly liked the more introspective mid-set performance of Beautiful (with drummer Mikko Sirén on a 4th cello) and Sacra. As far as I recall and compared to setlists from other shows (none available for 11th March), the setlist (compiled here from setlist.fm) was as follows:

On the Rooftop With Quasimodo
2010
Grace
Master of Puppets
(Metallica cover)
End Of Me
(with Tipe Johnson)
I'm Not Jesus
(with Tipe Johnson)
One
(Metallica cover)
Refuse/Resist
(Sepultura cover)
Beautiful
(Mikko Sirén left the drumset to play Cello for this song)
Sacra
Bittersweet
Last Hope
Bring Them to Light
Seek & Destroy
(Metallica cover)
Inquisition Symphony
(Sepultura cover)

Encore: (with a nod to Ode to Joy buried within)
At the Gates of Manala
I Don't Care
(with Tipe Johnson)
Hall of the Mountain King

The support band, Iconoclast, were pretty ok (given the many at-best-average support bands we've seen over the years) and received a reasonable reception from the crowd.
As to the venue, well maybe 4 out of 10? Partly as the show was all ages, partly due to the venue, there was no alcohol available. That was very weird, even more than the seated theatre aspect. Most of the crowd were standing a few tracks into Apocalyptica's set, but despite the sheer energy coming from the band, there were a few still seated! Lack of drinks, maybe?? Either way, it seems that a better medium venue is needed round here, as the boxy style of the theatre doesn't make it ideal for music. Nor photos (or only for those near the front).

But hey. Still an amazing night, and we spent Saturday listening to Apocalyptica's catalogue on (another new discovery) mflow. This is a UK-based (but seemingly not IP-restricted) music service, effectively 'music twitter' where users can listen to and flow music, see what other users flow, and buy tracks, all ad-free.

Next on the horizon? Possibly a few Canadian bands - recently started listening to the likes of Young Galaxy, Hey Rosetta!, Rural Alberta Advantage and the like, usually via local listings paper/website Ottawa Xpress.

Music extravaganza

2011-02-17T12:50:00.004-05:00

A busy week! A mixture of events centred around music and talk. Firstly, M and I went to the National Arts Centre (NAC) on Sunday 13th to see/hear Alex Ross's lecture 'Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues'. The talk is based on a chapter of his current book Listen to This. He 'talked with music': a playlist of tracks to illustrate his thesis. It was very interesting to hear the samples rather than just read their titles or description; almost the 'book with soundtrack' although not quite in the same vein as Vikram Seth's An Equal Music. A sell out, too. From there we headed to University of Ottawa's Freiman Hall (Perez Hall) for the flip side: 'music with talk'. This was courtesy of Ottawa-born pianist Frank Horvat, who was visiting as part of his Green Keys tour. Horvat is an eco-friendly musician and uses his shows (which are free, as the Green Keys tour is sponsored by eco-friendly businesses) to promote sustainability. Horvat explained the diverse influences behind each piece and included an improvisation. The highlight for me was the second half, a 'performance in the dark'. Horvat played his piece 'Earth Hour' with all the auditorium lights out. I found the experience incredibly relaxing and meditative; possibly a 'try this at home' thing?! Horvat's website contains tour info and music.

After a few days we were back at NAC on 16th for 'Hewitt plays Liszt', by another Ottawa-born musician, pianist Angela Hewitt. We expected the place to be pretty much full (I get the impression that Ms Hewitt's shows are not that frequent?) but the pre-show talk was completely rammed. The concert-goers got 'talk with music + music + talk', for the pre-concert talk was also 'illustrated', with more 'talk' at the post-concert meet & greet. Sadly our seats were not so good as those for Radu Lupu, but the sound of the Fazioli carried so all was well. The first half (Berlioz' Overture to Les Francs-juges and Liszt Piano Concerto No 1) was brilliant but we were both underwhelmed by Frank's Symphony in D minor. The concerto had lots of sections where the piano was pretty much playing alone; I really enjoyed this as I could listen to the tone of the Fazioli piano. Sadly, I don't think a Hewitt recording of this piece exists, and Ms Hewitt was clear in the pre-show talk that the piece has a bad reputation due to the way it's often played. Still, an excellent show for the first part.

Rapture and Fire

2011-01-27T10:45:00.004-05:00

Following on from my recent post, last night was our first visit to the National Arts Centre for pianist Radu Lupu's show Rapture and Fire. The pieces performed were: Peter Paul Koprowski's In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski; Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 54; and Brahms Symphony No 4 in E minor Op 98. We went early for the pre-show talk 'Constant Farewells' by music critic Jean-Jacques Van Vlasslaer. Something of a new concept for us, but it was interesting and helpful to have a short explanation of the evening's programme, complete with audio samples. Van Vlasslaer was describing the social and musical links between Schumann and Brahms revolving around (amongst other themes) Schumann's musical theme for his wife, Clara.

Following the talk, we headed into Southam Hall, and were very pleasantly surprised both by the near-capacity crowd and the broad range of people attending. For many of our visits to Cardiff's St Davids Hall and Wales Millennium Centre for similar events, the attendee age range was much narrower towards the higher end. There were a lot of younger faces including a few children, and the row behind us was almost a half row of young ladies. The free concert programme was another unforeseen boon.

The programme was particularly interesting for the first piece, Koprowski's In Memoriam. Another fault of many UK orchestral seasons is the relative paucity of contemporary material, with the exception of the BBC Proms and some London-based orchestras. Neither of us are familiar with Koprowski or his canon, but the piece was very interesting and worth investigating for a second listen. The Schumann and Brahms pieces were more 'traditional' concert fare but very well performed, especially the piano concerto. Southam Hall itself seemed to have pretty good acoustics too. Overall, a highly impressive first visit and we (me in particular!) are looking forward to returning to Southam Hall in February to see Angela Hewitt.

Mini update

2011-01-24T12:02:00.006-05:00

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location.

We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This, is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica. They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed interest in the band followed, and there we are, 2 tickets booked. A busy 2011 already!

Melissa Auf der Maur

2010-11-22T15:40:00.005-05:00

Something of a late review.... M and I went to see Melissa Auf der Maur at Mavericks on 5th November - first 'dingy venue' gig in Ottawa. Not that Mavericks is at all bad - seemed on first impressions to be a mixture of The Boardwalk and Clwb Ifor Bach. Nice and cosy, although the 'locals' seem to drink less.

In keeping with the usual pattern of support bands, the touring support Final Flash (whom I believe are from Montreal) were quite interesting and obviously had some solid fans in the crowd, but local support The Balconies left a lot to be desired (although they also had a few keen fans). The young lady fronting The Balconies seemed to run out of breath part way through lines. They were clearly targeting the catchy-tunes-trio idea but said front-woman also lacked sufficient guitar skills to really pull it off.

Melissa (and band - who also doubled up as road crew but were very polished players) played a set mixed from new album Out Of Our Minds and previous solo release Auf Der Maur, with perhaps more songs from the first album than M anticipated. Unfortunately I can't remember or find a set list! They came onstage after a cool intro video. Clearly something of a 'long time, no see' show, well performed and a tremendously appreciative crowd.

Late finish (by Cardiff standards, anyway) so we got to try out the late-night buses (successfully). Roll on the next one!

The diplomatic cultural events circuit

2010-11-02T11:36:00.003-04:00

Something of a random spot in the free Metro paper. Sunday 31st October M and I attended 'an afternoon of classical guitar, flute and violin' sponsored by the Embassy of Japan but held in the auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada. We thought, maybe it would be similar to the Swiss Ambassador's Award Concert last year - we were wrong. The NCG auditorium holds many more people (a few hundred at least) and is much more modern. The show, free and not ticketed, was also completely full - mixture of dignatories, Japanese local residents and others. According to the Ambassador's preamble, almost 100 people were turned away!

The 3 musicians - Yasuji Ohagi, guitar; Kazunori Seo, flute; Gentaro Kagitomi, violin - have played a string of concerts across Canada, in Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City as well as Ottawa. The programme was a mixture of (predominantly 20th century) Eastern and Western music for solo, duo and trio. M and I thought the solo works (Ysäye: Sonata No. 6 in Emaj for solo violin, and Kuhlau: Fantaisie No. 1 in Dmaj for solo flute) were the least engaging of the pieces played, although the solo guitar piece (Brouwer: Elogio de la Danza) was very good. Best from the first part was Ravi Shankar's L'Aube Enchantée sur le Raga 'Todi' played on flute and guitar. All of the duo/trio pieces were excellent but our preferences were from the second part: Takemutsu: Toward the Sea (flute and guitar); Piazzolla: Historia del Tango (violin and guitar) and the trio, Bondon: Les Folklores Imaginaires, Suite No. 2. The 3 musicians (who were excellent) received rapturous applause at the end of the show, especially after an encore of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

The full programme list is as follows:
Ravi Shankar: L'Aube Enchantée (The Enchanted Dawn)
Eugène Ysaÿe: Sonata for Solo Violin No. 6
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances
Friedrich Kuhlau: Fantaisie on a Theme from "Don Giovanni"
Leo Brouwer: Elogio de la Danza (Praise of the Dance)
--------------------------------------------------
Toru Takemitsu: Toward the Sea
Astor Piazzolla: Historia del Tango
Jacques Bondon: Les Folklores Imaginaires Suite No. 2

Judging by the questionnaire given to all attendees, this must be a new event for the Japanese Embassy as there were a few things that could have been organised better (such as ticketing), however we'll be looking for more of this sort of event as it was very entertaining!

photo from the Japan Foundation website

New horizons and the literary Bach

2010-10-25T09:47:00.004-04:00

Something of a hiatus over the summer.... After a brilliant holiday in Iceland, M and I relocated to Ottawa, Canada. Our new neighbourhood, Old Ottawa South, hosts a literary festival twice a year: Ottawa International Writers Festival. Last Thursday I tried out one of the events: an evening with writer Eric Siblin in Southminster United Church. Earlier this year I read his book The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the search for a Baroque Masterpiece and found it hugely enjoyable and informative. At first glance the book is a biography of J.S. Bach through the story of his 6 suites for unaccompanied cello; however, as Siblin also tells the story of 20th century Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, the book encompasses not only 17th but 20th century history, as well as Siblin's own journey with Bach.

Siblin was talking on the subject of Bach's Cello suites, accompanied by cellist Winona Zelenka. Zelenka is assistant principal cellist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and has recently released a recording of the Cello Suites. The mixture of literary event and musical performance was excellent. Siblin talked in 3 sections, interspersed with Zelenka playing selected movements as follows: firstly, the more widely known prelude and allemande from Suite No. 1; secondly, the sarabande and gigue from Suite No 2 (possibly written, according to Siblin, as an epitaph for Bach's first wife Maria Barbara); thirdly, the prelude and gigue from Suite No. 3. Zelenka's performance was exemplary, her full (unamplified - only Siblin had a microphone) sound resonated through the church; and it was refreshing to applaud after each part-performance (there have been a few articles in recent issues of Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine regarding the standard format of classical concerts).

In some ways the eclectic audience (which clearly encompassed those attending as regular Writers Festival-goers and those attending more for the music) was linked back to the 17th century, as the cello Zelenka played dated from around 1730 (unfortunately I did not catch the maker's name).

There are numerous recordings of the Cello Suites available. This is partly due to the way they are interpreted: in the Q&A session afterwards, Zelenka commented that there is no 1 authoritative manuscript, but at least 3, so each cellist has to determine their own interpretation.

Further review at the Ottawa Citizen here; I also follow the Citizen's classical music blog by Steven Mazey. As for the Writers Festival, I'll certainly be looking out for the Spring schedule!

Loud and gritty in Wolverhampton

2010-05-03T17:12:00.005-04:00

Time again for the periodic trip to Wolverhampton. The last few visits (Nov 2008-Sigur Rós, Jan 2009- Seasick Steve) were to Civic Hall, but 28th April was to the smaller sister venue Wulfrun Hall. We hadn't been there for (I believe, don't really want to count!) 5 years, and in a lot of ways it is a better venue than the Civic -more intimate but still good acoustics.

The reason for this trip was to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC). I somehow want to write 'underground', but as the show was a sellout and I believe many of the other dates were/are too, maybe 'ignored by the media' will suffice. Certainly I can't recall reading much about them recently, however over the years there's been a steady stream of albums with a few varying styles. M and I saw BRMC separately back in 2003 and enjoyed the band's live sets then. Amazingly, BRMC's website has their entire 'gigography' online, so according to them the respective dates were 4th and 8th November (Sheffield and Cardiff dates). My! It really doesn't feel that long ago!

The support, Dark Horses, were new to both of us but certainly entertained. Kinda dark psychedelicy rock, seemed entirely suitable too. Well worth a future listen, myspace available. According to another review I found here, Dark Horses are unsigned?! I would hope not for long. There is a link on their myspace and on their website for 2 free downloads.

Dark Horses started playing to a fairly empty room but by the end of their set the sellout was obvious. BRMC teased the crowd with a false start but then kicked off with War Machine. Set list (from the same midlands rocks review mentioned earlier): War Machine / Mama Taught Me Better / Red Eyes and Tears / Bad Blood / Beat The Devil's Tattoo / Love Burns / Ain't No Easy Way / Aya / Berlin / Weapon of Choice / Annabel Lee / Awake / Whatever Happened to my Rock N Roll (Punk Song) / Acoustic Break / River Styx / Shuffle Your Feet / Conscience Killer / Six Barrel Shotgun / Spread Your Love / Stop / Shadows Keeper. Happily for us the set was a mix of old and new; I think my standout tracks were Shuffle Your Feet, Weapon of Choice and Whatever Happened to my Rock N Roll. BRMC are very polished live performers with an incredible sound (volume as well as melody!) and were on stage for nearly 2 hours. All this for a very reasonable ticket price. Excellent!

A must see band, as much now as they were in 2003. New UK tour dates for later in the year have been announced, see link for the list on BRMC's site.

The Crookes

2010-04-20T12:43:00.006-04:00

Another trip to Barfly on 15th April. Not quite a complete random gig; we chose The Crookes as the band members are/were all students in Sheffield (my old university haunt) & the band is named after the city suburb. Something of an oblique reminiscence, then. They've also been on 6 Music recently.

Thankfully, it was one of those period nights where the support bands were at least as good as (possibly better than) the headline act. Toy Horses and Zenyth completed Thursdays lineup. Toy Horses were fun and quite infective. Very enjoyable and maybe even the highlight of the night. Zenyth were more in the South Wales rock mode, in my ears quite obviously influenced by Stereophonics etc (the list of influences on their myspace is also quite telling) but not disturbingly so. They weren't as exciting as Toy Horses but still an enjoyable set.

The Crookes, for all the 'great new band' hype, were again ok but not an awful lot better. Someone needs to teach them onstage banter, though, as in this respect they came of weakest of the 3 bands. Their songs were reasonable but seemed relatively samey. Their style (both music and clothes) reminded us both of The Sugars, but in that comparison The Sugars win! Maybe also a touch of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis.

Toy Horses have an album preview online; I'm not sure The Crookes are at that stage yet but plenty of tracks on their myspace.

PianoCircus

2010-04-14T16:04:00.004-04:00

Now for something quite different. Tuesday 13th we went to see Pianocircus at Cardiff University School of Music. I was going to say 'new' but turns out the group (ensemble doesn't quite seem to fit) formed in 1989. Pianocircus, who according to their website are named after the Latin for circle, perform works for 6 keyboards/pianos and have developed a varied repertoire (which is also listed in full online). One of the reasons for going (apart from pure curiosity) was to try out contemporary compositions.

The set list comprised: Erkki-Sven Tüür-Transmission (2006), Conlon Nancarrow- Study No. 5 and Study No. 26, Colin Riley- Recast, Steve Reich Six Pianos, David Lang- Face So Pale (1992) and Lynne Plowman- Hall of Mirrors (2007). Lynne Plowman was in the audience & briefly introduced Hall of Mirrors as sampling parts of lots of other classical piano works (anything from 1 bar to a more recognisable theme) & threading them together.

In terms of the works themselves, I enjoyed Transmission, Six Pianos and Hall of Mirrors most. Transmission was possibly the most immediately 'pop' related in the rhythm; reminded us, in a somewhat oblique way, of Mogwai! Six Pianos seemed more along the lines of Sigur Rós, and was quite hypnotic in a way reminiscent of Satie's Vexations. Found the Nancarrow works harder to digest, though. The one big gripe is the electrical interference that M noticed during the 2nd half, which at first was just a high whine whilst the group were playing and then started affecting one of the speakers (there were 2 speakers set up as Recast had a prerecorded element). This unfortunately overshadowed Hall of Mirrors. No group pictures but there's a shot of the setup below.

Pianocircus have streaming audio (plus a complete discography) available on their website and also have a myspace page (and Twitter, and Facebook) and are definitely worth a listen; some of the composers mentioned have tracks available on Spotify (unfortunately not Pianocircus themselves).

More musical variety

2010-03-10T12:53:00.007-05:00

A special solo trip to the Norwegian Church arts centre on 9th March to see Icelandic band hjaltalín together with support from Dry The River. I heard about the show via email lists from the people behind Swn (join the list/Facebook group if you haven't already). Partly from lack of time, I treated the evening as a 'random gig number 3' so wasn't sure what to expect! Turns out it was an excellent evening (shades of last year's Woodpigeon gig) & pretty much a capacity crowd. A note for cake lovers -the cafe/bar at the Church was still selling foodie bits along with drinks, had a hard time resisting!

Dry The River were very good. I don't know much about their background (plenty of scope online as they have both a website and myspace), but their set (all new stuff - believe the debut album is currently being recorded) seemed to me to show shades of William Elliott Whitmore, Jeff Buckley; lo fi indie ish with a bit of modern folk thrown in. Very interesting, well received. Their EP 'the chambers and the valves' was on sale and I think at least half of the audience bought it! Definitely worth looking out for them again.

The majority of gig-goers seemed very much to be hjaltalín fans, enthusiastic from the start. I'm not really sure how to describe hjaltalín's songs so I'll start with their myspace description -pop/lounge/showtunes/classsoul! The 7 piece band included a bassoon (played by the lovely Rebekka) and violinist Viktor, who spent a good part of the set playing his violin like a ukelele! Fantastic. As to the songs themselves (which were all sung in English), they were a mix of modern folk (again), bit funky, bit indie/rock, reminded me in part of Clare and the Reasons. Whilst they were thoroughly entertaining, with some excellent banter and stories from main singer Sigga, some tracks interested me a lot more than others. There seemed to be a lot of style shifting mid song which was sometimes disconcerting. New album (which they had a few copies for sale, didn't get it though), title unknown, is due in the UK in May (hopefully the lovely people at Spillers will advertise the release date). Maybe they're a band that require a few listens to truly appreciate.

The Philharmonia's visit to Cardiff on 27th Feb was also very good, and quite full. I think most attendees had been caught by pianist Nikolai Lugansky (there seemed to be more empty seats after the interval, anyway). The performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 was excellent, Lugansky made it look very easy. He played very coolly and economically, with fewer mannerisms than I've seen on others. I discovered on pre-concert listening to M's 1972 Decca recording with Vladimir Ashkenazy & the London Philharmonic, that the concerto was written after Rachmaninov had been in receipt of hypnosis and psychoanalysis! Maybe important, maybe not - we enjoyed it anyway. Of the other pieces, Verdi's 'Overture, la forza del destino' was short and fun but the Symphonic Dances weren't quite as entertaining.

A blue echo

2010-02-24T16:30:00.006-05:00

Something of a first on a few counts. I stumbled across the legendary Peter Green's tour dates a few weeks back. Slightly surprised as I was under the impression he was no longer around!! I wanted to go to tonight's (24th February) show at The Globe, but it was (somewhat unsurprisingly) sold out. Fortunately, Green's 23rd February show at Huntingdon Hall in Worcester still had tickets available. Huntingdon Hall was originally built in the 18th century as a Methodist chapel but has been a live venue for a while now. It's certainly one of the more unusual live music venues we've seen.

First visit for both of us, somewhat different to have a church pew for one's seat! Looked like a sell our or near sell out on the night. Also interestingly, the show/door times operate more like a theatre than a live venue - show started at the advertised time which nearly caught us out!

The support act was a local singer-songwriter called Dan Whitehouse (not forgetting Tom on violin). Dan had a good banter as well as pretty reasonable songs. An acoustic set but I believe his EPs have been recorded with a larger band. Overall very entertaining.

Peter Green (and Friends) were, overall, truly excellent. I was slightly concerned as the first few numbers (blues standards) received a good welcome but not rapturous applause, however this all changed after a rendition of Long Grey Mare. The set (about 1 1/2 hours including encore) was a mixture of old blues tunes - Willie Dixon, Elmore James to name a few - and early Fleetwood Mac tracks, notably Oh Well and Albatross; the encore consisted of a John Mayall track followed by Black Magic Woman. Green is still an excellent player, & his band (another guitarist who also acted as main vocalist; organ, sax, drums and double bass) highly polished. Post -Long Grey Mare, I can't really find any faults with the set, only with the audience! Partly that's because the venue is an all-seater, but I would really have enjoyed the chance to boogie to some of the tracks! Very slightly disappointed in that respect not to have got tickets for The Globe. It wasn't really a photos show, but here's one below. Green himself looked a bit worse for wear, sadly.

I'd certainly look for any future tours of his (preferably venues with standing room!); whilst feeling something of an echo from the past the show was brilliant! Also made me smile thinking that we've heard 2 different 'incarnations' of the same classic band playing Oh Well.

Our week of music (its turned out a bit like that!) concludes on Saturday at St David's Hall. The Philharmonia are playing 3 concerts this spring & Saturdays is the second, works include Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 and his Symphonic Dances.

Random gig number 2

2010-02-22T15:57:00.003-05:00

This time M and I visited new(ish) venue Cardiff Arts Institute for some Sunday evening entertainment. The CAI hosts quite a few free music evenings (as well as other events, curated by various promoters including the likes of Kruger). This one was a mixture of local and non-local bands but none were indie-guitar types.

First up were Fife duo Panda Su, who could I suppose be classified as 'singer-songwriter' but also kinda folk, lo fi...instruments included a glockenspiel, so far so interesting. They only played about 4 songs which is a shame as they were at the very least 'good' and worth a future look.

Next up were the locals (complete with fan club - at least half the audience!) King Louis Collective. Their site states soul/ska/tropical which is pretty spot on, this lot of multi-instrumentalists would be right at home on Craig Charles' 6Music show! A variety of tracks including a cover of Kings of Leon 'Use Somebody'. They seem to have fairly regular shows in & around Cardiff.

The last 3 piece band were the worst - Sophie's Pigeons. They may have been on 6Music but we weren't impressed, tracks relatively samey and singer Sophie's voice was a little on the shouty side. Still, 2 out of 3 is good going! Check out the CAI's website for forthcoming listings.

New decade, random gig number 1

2010-02-08T15:54:00.006-05:00

Something of a quiet start to the year for us for one reason or another, so I picked a random band off the Clwb Ifor Bach website and came up with Strange News from Another Star, playing last Friday 5th February.

First time at Clwb Ifor Bach for a while, and it was full (too often there's been an audience just in double figures!) - though as all bands (2 supports, Goodtime Boys and Panic Basket) were local that's not too surprising. I won't waste much time on the dire Panic Basket except to say that screaming "12345678" does not constitute a song! Goodtime Boys were better but neither much our thing.

The main guy from SNFAS, Jimmy Watkins, has a good line in banter, starting the gig with a poem about the residents of St Mellons, and with printed flyers satirising David Cameron! Again, the style of music is probably not our thing (more in the line of my earlier student taste) but certainly interesting and worth checking out. They were described as 'dark bluesy' but turned out to be quite heavy, but not without melody. I'm going to say relatively typical current S Wales band sound, but better than a lot of other offerings I've heard.

Coming up? A few broadly 'classical' things, most interestingly a show by a group called Pianocircus at Cardiff University School of Music in April, preceded by a visit to St Davids Hall to see the Philharmonia.

Fleetwood Mac shower the steel city with gold dust

2009-11-05T15:57:00.007-05:00

M and I have just returned from a trip to Sheffield -too long since we last went, but then I always say that! The main reason for the trip was to see Fleetwood Mac on 2nd November, yay! We of course had our fill of lovely Remo's coffee and hot chocolate (link to a previous post included as there still does not seem to be a website), & of Record Collector -even made it to the pool at Pond's Forge this time!

Winter had well and truly arrived on concert night! Sheffield Arena was pretty much full for the show. Very wisely the band did not have a support. Set list first (from this site):
Monday Morning
The Chain
Dreams
I Know I'm Not Wrong
Gypsy
Go Insane
Rhiannon
Second Hand News
Tusk
Sara
Big Love
Landslide
Never Going Back Again
Storms
Say You Love Me
Gold Dust Woman
Oh Well
So Afraid
Stand Back
Go Your Own Way

World Turning
Don't Stop

A very enthusiastic crowd with the applause/appreciation, but my only real criticism is that there was no standing area. We were sat in flat seating, but even the most animated fans didn't stand up & dance for at least the first half.

Gripe over. The set was excellent -personal highlights include Oh Well, Never Going Back Again, Storms, Lindsey Buckingham's solo version of Big Love (plus the other Rumours tracks)- I could continue. M compared Buckingham to Mick Jagger in terms of energy -he at least was moving on stage like someone much younger, and the set was at least as long as the Stones' show; I believe Fleetwood Mac clocked in at over 2 hours. The other band members in this sense seemed to show their age more, but nobody's musical performance suffered! Definitely worth it, and as for going again- definitely if standing is available!

From where we were it wasn't a great photos night but I've put one below.

Last but not least -must take the opportunity to plug Remo's again -there is at least a Facebook group!

Mercury-nominated marvel

2009-10-17T13:24:00.005-04:00

After a very long gap (in my case, 3 years - Goo Goo Dolls gig seems a very long time ago!) M and I braved Cardiff University's Great Hall to see Bat for Lashes on her current UK tour. The Hall's acoustics have thankfully been improved in recent years.

A very enthusiastic crowd (though not a sell out) first welcomed touring support Yeasayer. I seemed to end up too busy to listen to them beforehand but was not disappointed, in fact we were very much impressed. Yeasayer hail from Brooklyn and there was a slight similarity with Vampire Weekend as well as a lot of 80s references. Very entertaining and I'll certainly be looking out for them again.

After a short interval, Bat for Lashes (which, interestingly, consisted of Natasha Khan, plus majority female backing band of 5 -considering the usual type of bands we see!) came on. First note is the mix of instruments -violin and viola, 'computer corner', keyboard and what I believe is a zither. Second, that the audience were actively discouraged by door notices and the bouncers from using photo flash (though why would anyone bother in a gig situation?). The show (and also Yeasayer's set) lighting was well choreographed; also, the sound was bigger than possibly expected from the albums. Like many relatively new performers, Natasha Khan didn't have a great stage banter, but with songs like hers, it didn't really matter! The show was brilliant (I only hesitate from giving a round 10 because we would have preferred the Coal Exchange as a venue!). Most songs from both albums featured in the set, with Glass as the first song. Then (in no particular order): Sleep Alone, Fur and Gold, Daniel, Pearl's Dream, Tahiti, Horse and I, Trophy, Two Planets, The Wizard, What's A Girl To Do. The encore featured The Big Sleep (with alter ego Pearl singing the 2nd line on a video screen), then a song neither of us recognised so presumably a B-side or new track, and finally Prescilla. The vast majority of the audience were definitely 'proper' fans which added to a fantastic atmosphere.

Final postscript -the Coal Exchange is back! It reopens 1st November 2009. Hoorah! Especially as there is a question mark about the future of (relatively new) venue The Globe.

Now for something unusual...

2009-09-20T13:25:00.002-04:00

From keys to strings, this time. Purely out of curiosity (and the love of wine), M and I went along to this year's Swiss Ambassador's Award Concert at the Reardon Smith Theatre in National Museum Cardiff. According to the inclusive programme, this is the 2nd year of the Award, which is aimed at promoting Swiss culture and Swiss artists and involves, in the UK at least, 3 or 4 'tour' dates, Cardiff being the last for 2009. The winners, the Gémeaux Quartett, originated in Basel in 2003.

A lot of the concert audience were local and other dignitaries, and we assume that the other tickets (i.e. for people like us) were sold for numbers and not aimed at profit! The programme: Haydn Quartet in C major Op.50 No.2; Bolens String Quartet 2006 'Tempus Fugit' and lastly Janáček Quartet No.2 'Intimate Letters'. By far the most interesting and enjoyable piece (for us, though I'm sure some of the older audience members would disagree) was 'Tempus Fugit', which was based around 1 or 2 musical elements. It makes more sense listening than on paper -highly recommended listen! I'll certainly be finding it on Spotify. The Leoš Janáček piece was also good. The wine was too! - also included in the price was 'a glass' of Swiss Sekt (champagne), which turned out to be around 3 as the serving staff kept topping up!

A short lull in concertgoing for a holiday -we are trying out a free Radio 3 Discovering Music evening in early October, eagerly followed by Bat for Lashes at Cardiff Students Union.

Pianotastic

2009-09-14T16:01:00.005-04:00

Something of a departure here. 2009 is the second year of the Radio 3 Pianothon; this year's location was Leeds, to coincide with the final weekend of the Leeds International Piano Competition. Cue a bit of a mad 1 day cross-country escapade, but it was enjoyable!

I arrived at Leeds University Clothworkers' Centenary Concert Hall in time for the last 20 mins or so of the morning session, including the first of 2 'piano party' jam sessions -guest professional Noriko Ogawa and volunteers from the audience/performers, playing almost at sight. After a short break the afternoon session was under way, showcasing a wide variety of talent. From early/mid teens (some of the performers reminded me of myself 10 years ago) to physicists and others, the range was very impressive, some performers of an extremely high standard indeed. Radio 3's Sarah Walker was hosting and chatted to some of the performers beforehand, with Noriko Ogawa on hand to give out compliments and suggestions.

Mid-afternoon Noriko gave a masterclass on sound projection/dynamics, which was very informative -photo below. The end of the session was the second 'piano party', in which I nearly played, but I (re)discovered in rehearsal that my sight reading skills and duet skills are in need of some improvement! The party pieces included Pomp and Circumstance No 1, as a Pianothon prelude to the Last Night of the Proms. All in all I learned a few things & enjoyed a sunny day in Leeds (and my trains were all on time as well). Turns out someone else performed the same piece I had submitted, so thinking starts now for next year!

Another slice of good news, The Coal Exchange is back! Their website isn't currently updated, but the people from the sadly still closed Point sent out the message via Facebook. First show on 5th November 2009 is Alabama 3. We intend to be there, oh yes.

Last but not least- as part of my birthday celebrations in August we went to the Pop Peth exhibition at St Fagans Museum, co-curated by the Spillers people. Lots of interesting memorabilia. Worth a visit -as, I expect, will be The Sight of Sound, from 26th September at National Museum Cardiff.

More cultural highlights (both sides of the Bristol Channel)

2009-08-17T16:30:00.003-04:00

The summer season of culture continues... Whilst at our Welsh Proms concerts in July, M and I spied a poster advertising a concert by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales on 11th August. Flat rate of £10 per seat, so it was also an opportunity to get some good seats for a change! The programme:

Arwel Hughes Prelude for Orchestra
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Ballet Suite
Mahler Symphony No. 1

The Arwel Hughes piece was quite interesting (new to our ears); according to the online information about the concert, this piece was commissioned for the Orchestra and is dedicated to the youth of Wales. The Swan Lake Suite was perhaps the most popular of the evening's programme, perhaps unsurprisingly, and it was played well. Our favourite (or at least, mine anyway) was Mahler's Symphony No 1, especially the third movement, as until it started I had completely forgotten that it was based on the song Frère Jacques. For a first time, I was suitably impressed by the Orchestra.

From that to sunny Bristol. This Saturday 15th, we ventured to see the Banksy v Bristol Museum exhibition at the City Museum/Art Gallery. From subsequent BBC reading it turns out we went on perhaps the busiest day! See here. We did indeed wait 4 hours (from first arrival to walking through the entrance door) but I do think it was worth it. Plenty of pictures abound -it was nice to see so many people taking photos too (although there was a strict no flash policy). In addition to the 2 main gallery areas, the rest of the museum was open as usual with random 'spoof' works throughout. There were (are?) many highlights I could choose, one is below - Damien Hirst and Banksy's 'Improved Spot Painting'.

Highlights of the Cardiff Festival (so far, anyway)

2009-08-03T12:51:00.004-04:00

That is, musical highlights! Firstly, M and I went promenading at 2 Welsh Proms concerts. The first, on Monday 20th July, was the Revolutionaries Prom. Most obvious revolutionary - Beethoven (the concert featured his 'Overture, Les Franc Juges' and the Third Symphony (Eroica), famously almost dedicated to Napoleon. Those pieces were appreciated, & well played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, although we were bored by the other work, Berlioz' suite of songs 'Les Nuits d'ete'. Maybe this piece was the reason why the Revolutionaries Prom had not sold that well - plenty of empty seats. A much better atmosphere, and indeed, interesting set of works, on Friday 24th for the Romantic Prom. The Philharmonia this time, playing Beethoven's 'Overture No 3 Leonora', Dvořák's Cello Concerto and Sibelius' Symphony No 5. The Cello Concerto was excellent (reminiscent of a previous Welsh Proms cello performance -Saint-Saëns' Concerto No 1), featuring soloist Thomas Carroll. The Beethoven was, well, Beethoven, but we were slightly underwhelmed by the symphony. All in all, still worth the £5.50 tickets. Looking forward to our next visit to St Davids Hall on 11th August, we're trying out the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. Programme looks good -more here.

Onto perhaps more familiar territory, we ventured to the last evening of this year's Cardiff Big Weekend to see headliners The Zutons - 4th time for me and 3rd for M at last counting. They were good, well received, but we were definitely unimpressed by songs played from their latest album You Can Do Anything. I remember not buying it, listening online giving me the impression it wasn't as good and I think I was right. The newer material seems to feature less sax, more guitar and makes The Zutons more like the average indie band, which they were not origially. Still, it was fun, and the fireworks were good.

Vexations

2009-06-22T13:16:00.003-04:00

Something different for a day: as part of the National Museum of Wales' Cerdd/Music 09 (year of music), on Saturday 20th June, the National Museum Cardiff showcased a performance of Erik Satie's 'Vexations'. The 'Vexations' consists of 840 repetitions of a short work, with 1 repetition composing of theme-variation1-theme-variation2, of which the score is below. Full details of the performance are on the museum's website here.

The performance also served as the anniversary of the first Welsh performance of the work in Bangor in 1969, with Saturday's rota of artists including 6 of the original performers. The full 840 repetitions lasts around 18 hours, but I stayed for around 45-50 minutes (until repetition 360). In that short time, I still found Vexations both very interesting and strangely hypnotic - it also fitted in well with the surroundings of Gallery 12 (the Realist and Impressionist part of the museum's collection). I may try and play 1 or 2 repetitions, but (according to the souvenir guide) as the piece contains 'every chromatic note apart from g sharp [and] all the chords except 1 are diminished or augmented', this may prove easier said than done!

The souvenir booklet also contained a brief synopsis of Satie's life, something of a tortured genius it seems! Try the Wikipedia bio here. Whilst I was listening, M wandered around the museum's Darwin exhibition, which also comes highly recommended.

Merry May Music

2009-05-24T08:40:00.007-04:00

Summer finally seems to be on its way, along with 2 excellent shows in a week! Another first on Tuesday 19th - a concert in the Cardiff University School of Music's hall. Originally booked as a 'why not' kind of thing, the recital by Emma Johnson (clarinet) and Pascal Rogé (piano) was very interesting.

The set (courtesy of the CUSM website):
Weber – Sylvana Variations
Debussy – Rhapsodie
Brahms – Sonata op. 120 no. 1 in F minor
Bernstein – Sonata
Stravinsky – Three pieces for clarinet solo
Debussy – La Cathedrale Engloutie (from Preludes Book 1)
Aaron Copland – Nocturne
Milhaud – Scaramouche Suite

Personal favourites from the evening, both Debussy pieces and the encores, which were Debussy's 'la fille au cheveux de lin' and a Benny Goodman solo (not sure which) on the clarinet. The hall was fairly full and show well received, so all in all a good warm up for the duo's later concert at Cadogan Hall, London on 28th May.

Back to something a little more typical (but not that much!). Saturday 23rd M and I ventured to Clwb Ifor Bach to see Marc Riley recommended band Woodpigeon. Possibly a first for the Clwb, all 3 bands (there were 2 supports) were excellent and the place was definitely not empty! Local band Hail!The Planes were up first, very interesting and would recommend them. Main support from The Loose Salute (something of a motley bunch, apparently!), whose Americana (and possibly Seasick Steve - check the John Deere hat) set was also very well received, so much that I purchased their 2007 album Tuned to Love.

Calgary-based Woodpigeon had a fair amount to match, then, and they certainly did so in style. Interesting point to note, they had no drum kit (only 1 drum for use in some songs) and the 4 members present played a mix of clarinet, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, ukelele and cello. From the sleeve notes of new album Treasury Library Canada it seems that its a tour of a select few of the band as their list of members is much longer! Quite a lo-fi sound (such that one of the Clwb staff had put a sign on the door, 'no talking during the quiet bits'!) but lots of catchy melodies and an inspired cover of Abba's Lay All Your Love On Me! In a small way they reminded me of Fleetfoxes (but much much better) and also of Sigur Rós, Amiina and other northerly bands. In short, not a dud in the 3 and would see all of them again.

Summer off to a good start - and the sun is still shining!

Cardiff's latest music venue

2009-04-20T16:31:00.002-04:00

After the unfortunate closure of The Point, there is happily a new live music venue in Cardiff. Last night I went to my first show at The Globe. The building used to be a cinema but has now been renovated into a live music venue. Its smaller than The Point, but seems after 1 visit to be very cosy and intimate.

The show? The sensational William Elliot Whitmore. I don't know much about him; the recommendation came to me from the staff at Spillers' Records. An excellent recommendation -Mr Whitmore has a sound similar to that of Seasick Steve. A similarly enthusiastic following, as well, judging by the crowds at The Globe. Woop! The support bands were good too. The first were good but rather forgettable, but the second was much better. Solo show from Christopher Rees (who is back at The Globe on 5th May), whose lyrics and tunes were to me reminiscent Johnny Cash. I may go back again for a second dose.

As an aside, I'd also recommend the new Bat for Lashes album Two Suns. Excellent!

More of a mixture

2009-02-24T17:46:00.003-05:00

After the delights of Dudamel, something slightly more down to earth at Cardiff Barfly last Saturday 21st. Its been a while since I chose a gig purely on the name of the band (or something else random) but this time it was the turn of The Lizzies, who sounded reasonable from their myspace samples.

Together with 3 support bands (all Cardiff based, I believe) there was quite an evening's entertainment, but was it good? First up, the rather forgettable Draw Me Stories. Second, a far more interesting band, Random Elbow Pain. Their songs are a mix of The Kooks and Guns N Roses but work quite well and they certainly drew the most support from the crowd. Worth a bookmark. The final support band, Yeltsin, were absolutely awful, mindless metal. The only vaguely interesting part of their set was the use of a violin for an intro/coda on their last song performed, which from their myspace looks to have been Grape In A Hard Place.

The Lizzies were certainly more polished than the previous 3 acts but we were on balance a little disappointed, after a 45 min set their music seemed less varied than previous research suggested. Maybe they'll improve. On balance Random Elbow Pain were far more entertaining.

The Venezuelan maestro comes to Cardiff

2009-02-20T16:40:00.004-05:00

A highly anticipated evening of entertainment for M and I, we headed to St Davids Hall to see the conductor of the moment, Gustavo Dudamel, conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra. Highly entertaining, too, and the place was pretty full, though possibly not sold out.

We had anticipated the first piece to be Antonio Estevez' 'Mediodia en el llano', but a last minute change meant the first work was (I believe - the posters up in the venue were rather short on info!) Berlioz' Roman Carnival. Initially we may have been a tad disappointed but the replacement work was excellently peformed, cue many smiles. Unfortunately, the smiles soon evaporated, as the second, and for us, least interesting piece, was Mozart's Piano Concert No.17 K453 with Emanuel Ax on piano. M described Ax as mellow, I described him as dull. That may be because neither of us are really into Mozart, but compared to previous visits to St Davids Hall to see pianists Noriko Ogawa and Freddy Kempf, we really weren't that impressed, and even heard a few snores from elsewhere in the audience!

Anyway, after Mozart and a short interval, we returned for the final piece, Prokofiev's Symphony No 5. This was another amendment but pre-announced, and although neither of us knew much about the work, we were very much entertained. There seemed (certainly in contrast to the preceding Mozart) a lot of surprises. Certainly one I would wish to listen to again! It seems the audience would agree, a very enthusiastic response at the end of the programme, and I for one would like Mr Dudamel to return in the future.

2009: an eclectic beginning

2009-01-30T17:20:00.003-05:00

A very belated first post of the year! Already 2009 is a 'good gig year' at least compared to 2008's gig schedule.

A novel experience to kick things off in style. The Wales Millennium Centre, as well as hosting the Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, have provided a stage - the Tesco stage - in their foyer for smaller, more informal concerts which are available for free. Last Saturday 24th, M and I ventured to the Tesco stage to see solo pianist Richard Lewis. His recital, which at 1 hour was pleasantly longer than I'd anticipated, included: Chopin (Etude in E Major; 2 Nocturnes; Grande Waltz in A Flat Major), Debussy ('clair de lune' from Suite Bergamasque, plus another Debussy piece) and finished with Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57, better known as the Appassionata. An excellent early evening show, and Mr Lewis certainly drew a crowd from those arriving for the 2 performances that evening. I really like the concept of foyer events, and now that I've seen one in full (we have seen parts of previous recitals when visiting the Centre for paid events) would happily go again. Check the Tesco stage listings for further information.

From the hidden delight to the eagerly anticipated, yesterday M and I travelled up to Wolverhampton to see Seasick Steve at the Civic Hall. It was pretty much a sellout and again, a very varied audience. We were very pleased with the support band, Joe Gideon & The Shark, who could invite comparisons with, amongst others, the White Stripes, Mistys Big Adventure, The Sugars. An interesting 2 piece (Joe G on guitar/lead vocals & The Shark on drums/keys/synth/anything else) who played an excellent set. Purchased their double-A 7inch DOL/Harum Scarum afterwards & will be looking out for an album.

Last but not least, the man himself! Seasick Steve (plus drummer Dan and washboardist/assistant guitarist, who was only introduced as his son) played an excellent set, pretty much all songs from albums Dog House Blues and I Started Out With Nothing... No halfhearted giggoers there, the reaction from the crowd was immediate, with many jokes (and a few t shirt gifts) coming from the assembled fans. Many highlights, including Steve calling a lady from the front up onstage for Walking Man. M's judgement is that Steve's songs and ethic are closely intune with the current climate. I would say, good blues never goes out of style!

A brief interlude

2008-11-22T15:42:00.004-05:00

Somewhat back to reality after Sigur Rós' extravaganza. Not in the least mundane, though! Wednesday 19th we went to Clwb Ifor Bach to see Cage The Elephant headlining (after their stint supporting The Subways earlier this year).

A short word on the support (although we missed 1st band Bleached Wail so can't really comment -try their myspace): average but pretty forgettable. Obviously friends of Cage the Elephant, Autovaughn were, all in all, pretty dull. They weren't awful, and were pretty competent musicians, but just didn't have any real variety or selling point.

Not so with Cage The Elephant. I recall from their support slot with The Subways that they had a very confident prescence, and singer Matt Schulz then had a vague resemblance to a young Mick Jagger. Not any more (hair now shorter and blonde) but the confidence is, if anything, even easier. Handily, their songs (set was, bar 1 song, from current selftitled debut album) have a great combination of new and familiar, so even though I have only played said album a few times, I was happily bouncing along. Cage The Elephant's promotion must be doing well, the show was 14+ and there was, for once, an even split between youngsters and relative oldies like us. The link to The Subways also shows in the similarity of their audiences, especially the enthusiastic moshers at the front! It wouldn't surprise me if Cage The Elephant followed the trajectory of previous Subways support bands, of growing far beyond their original mentors (see The Kooks). Overall very well recommended.

2008-11-05T14:09:00.008-05:00

Wolverhampton may not be the most exciting place to be, but it certainly gained some sparkle on 4th November as Sigur Rós came to town. M and I have been waiting for a while for this show, and it was more than worth the wait!

A packed-out Civic Hall first showed their appreciation for fellow Icelandic band For a Minor Reflection, who from their chat are new to large shows. Initially I was a bit underwhelmed by this 4 piece, but they grew on me. Most of the crowd seemed to know them or had at least checked out myspace, as the short set was well received.

No tardiness for Sigur Rós, they came on prompt at 9pm and played for 2hrs 45 minutes. No slouching on quality either, the sound set up was very good and there was some innovative use of two projectors and backdrops; at one point, there was a projection from various cameras set at or underneath the instruments! The lighting had been set up for maximum atmospheric effect, starting off with subdued yellow lights so the stage was very dimly lit, then later on developing into quite a riot of colours.

I managed to find a set list on setlist.fm, which is brilliant. Whilst I knew all the tracks, I wouldn't have been able to name any except for the first song:

1. Svefn-g-englar
2. Ný batterí
3. Fljótavík
4. Við spilum endalaust
5. Hoppípolla
6. Með Blóðnasir
7. Sæglópur
8. Festival
9. Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
10. Hafsól
11. Gobbledigook
12. -------------
13. Viðrar vel til loftárása
14. All Alright
15. ------------
16. Popplagið

We particularly enjoyed the members of For a Minor Reflection joining in on Gobbledigook with extra drums; this was the only time anyone other than the core band were on stage, no strings accompaniment or other backing people. I also enjoyed the use of confetti at various other points in the set. I can't remember seeing any other band where the audience have been completely silent during or just after a song, which happened a few times on Tuesday! But then, the aural and visual delights were often such that nobody (me included) wanted to disrupt the atmosphere, especially during the quieter movements. I say movements, because at times the reverence of the crowd, and the very nature of Sigur Rós' music, was such that it reminded me of attending a classical concert. Although I can't say I've heard an orchestra creating such a wall of sound as that created by Sigur Rós.

M and I have since beem debating if Sigur Rós were better live than Bruce Springsteen. They might just have the edge, it was that good. Now then, where did I put Heima.....

A family affair

2008-08-31T10:56:00.007-04:00

An impromptu booking led M and I to a different kind of Saturday night in Cardiff. M had given me Kitty, Daisy and Lewis' selftitled 1st LP (I'll discount the 'A-Z' compilation as an album proper, as it only has 1 song of theirs) as a birthday present, and luckily I checked my email to find an invitation from Spillers to get our glad ragged selves down to Clwb Ifor Bach for Sat 30th August, as the band were indeed in town. Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are 3 siblings playing their own mix of old rock n roll, r'n'b, country and blues (plus parents for guitar/double bass onstage). I found a brief summary article on Wikipedia here.

M thought there would be 6 people there, I thought it would be busier than than, and happily I was right! DJ Johnny Dodgem provided a very suitable set prior to the live set, but what support was meant to be there, wasn't, so we had a bit of a wait for K D and L to arrive onstage. But no matter. Obviously, most of the set was taken from their album, I think pretty much the whole thing got an airing. Songs not on the album: Blue Moon over Kentucky. new single Hold Me Tight (think I wrote that down right), Say You'll Be Mine, and a great 2nd to last song, I'll call it The Trombone Song as it involved a short trombone solo from Kitty, but have no idea of the title! Interestingly, all 3 siblings swap instruments with relative ease, and the stage was full of assorted instruments.

Whilst it was obvious that the band are well reviewed, most of the crowd were rather more enthusiastic than just interested, especially 2 guys dressed as Buddy Holly! And everyone had a good old boogie. Maybe a slight concern, only 2 of the album tracks are self-composed (although if I remember rightly, Kitty wrote Hold Me Tight), and whilst my young ears may find their set fairly fresh and interesting, it isn't altogether original.

My other gripe? If Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are so popular (with good credit, and I hope this continues), why aren't The Sugars as well received?

Why are the great gigs always half empty?

2008-06-17T16:36:00.003-04:00

Back to small venues after the E Street Extravaganza, and a treat, really, our second Sugars experience. A quick line about the support bands -for once they were at least ok! The first up, Jodie Daniels, just him and an acoustic guitar, he wasn't bad at all for his first ever show! Next (local) band Sixty were pretty polished but fairly unoriginal (except for a cover of 1990s hit Rhythm Is A Dancer).

Unfortunately, friends of both supports had made up a good section of the audience, who then left, so it was (again) a pretty small gathering for The Sugars! Pah. They missed out! I managed to get a snap of the set, which, amended for a few changes, was: Seamstress (not sure of 2nd song), Fairy Tales, Heaven Knows, Serenade, Monsters, All My Children, Mama, Everybody Yell, Gossip, W T M H, Black Friday. The changes -well, there was a problem with an amp after Heaven Knows, but nobody minded that much. Especially not us, trialling earplugs for the first time and they definitely work! No ringing ears at all! And, the sound seemed accentuated so it was easier to hear individual instruments. Apart from that, excellent set. Also, another chance to buy a coloured 7in single, this one (Black Friday/Isle of Sirens) is fuschia -which will tide me over a few weeks.

The album 'Curse of the Sugars' is out 7th July on various formats. Myspace will give details of further shows on the current tour.

Coal and The Boss

2008-06-16T12:42:00.005-04:00

Taking a day out from a very busy music weekend, all sorts of new experiences! Thursday, M and I ventured to the Wales Millennium Centre for a somewhat unusual (for us, anyway) evenings entertainment from Welsh National Opera. The first half of the performance was a performance of Prokofiev’s orchestral score to Eisenstein’s 1938 Russian film Alexander Nevsky. The story of the film centres on Nevsky, the Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir in the 13^th century. The film is a portrayal of Russia under and fighting Mongols in the east and Germans in the west [a very suitable accompaniment to recently released Sergei Bodrov film Mongol, then], and is apparently an impressive work, although I haven’t seen it (very tempted now, though!). Prokofiev’s work (reworked for voice and orchestra after the release of the film), is very good, although from some of the lyrics it is obvious that the film, and score, was written in 1938 –very nationalistic and, according to M, labouring the point somewhat. I believe the score has been of profound influence to later composers and filmmakers, as some parts did seem familiar.

The second half of the show was a performance of Welsh National Opera’s new work, Carbon 12. This was highly interesting and often amusing, focusing on an unnamed Welsh mining community. Through the story of respected local John Jones, coal is put ‘on trial’ by the community, with both its economic impact and social and environmental consequences investigated. An excellent performance, although I still don’t really like opera, and any future trip would very much depend on the work. Interestingly, the (reasonably priced, for once!) programme came with a CD of songs inspired by Carbon 12 and performed by local youth music groups.

Saturday 14^th, a completely different show, as The Boss himself arrived in Cardiff for a show at the Millennium Stadium. I was highly excited about this, especially as the lack of support indicated a long set to come! For once, the stadium roof was open, and I think that improves the sound somewhat. First negative (there aren’t many), the show was due to start 7.30pm with doors 2 hours before, but actually started at 8.15. Ok, the show was still 2hours 50 minutes, but the extended wait was rather irritating as a support band could have played in some of the time. But no matter, Bruce and the E Street Band were excellent once they arrived on stage, very mixed set with old and new songs alike. Slightly disappointed that they didn’t play Backstreets, but the start of the ‘encore’ (although the break was only about 2 minutes) was Jungleland which is almost as good! There were only a few songs M and I didn’t know, and a lot that everyone did –making for a very large choir!

Set list courtesy of www.brucespringsteen.net:

From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come) Tour Premiere
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Lonesome Day
The Promised Land
Blinded By The Light
Magic
Atlantic City
The River
Gypsy Biker
Darlington County
Because The Night
She's The One
Livin' In The Future
Mary's Place
Working On The Highway
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Jungleland
Thunder Road
Born To Run
Rosalita
American Land

Of the E Streeters, Clarence was by far the most favourite member, with huge applause for his many sax solos, especially on Jungleland!

Would I go again? Maybe. Excellent value for money in time on stage, but I’m not sure the show overall was as impressive as the Rolling Stones.

Pier-less?

2008-05-05T12:27:00.003-04:00

My usual moan about Barfly is that often, the really good bands have near non-existent audiences, but this last time, I was pretty much proved wrong! Again, first trip for a while and a respectable crowd to see electro-sensation Late of the Pier, plus supports, which for once weren't absolutely dire!

Up first were North Wales band Mudflaps, not bad for a start, but still possibly a little too new? Some interesting tunes, available of course on myspace. Next up, a one-lady (plus assistant with laptop) rapper/mc KC, who was very different from the other 2 bands! Reminiscent of Northern State. Once again, not really my thing, but very good nontheless, but she could have done with some company? Maybe a few dancers and some more lights, and a club setting? Either way, not forgettable and you can't doubt the enthusiasm; more info on myspace site.

Late of the Pier were as good as we remembered, and by then Barfly was full if not packed. Their radio play etc etc must be working as their fans are very obvious! Good natured and boogying crowd, so much that photo ops weren't great, but never mind, excellent show. Of the songs I already know, the band played new single Space and the Woods, Broken, A Heartbeat, Dose A (and possibly VW, Random Firl) plus newer songs White Jazz, The Bears are Coming; anything else I don't know or can't remember! As well as a proper website (yay) there is also a myspace. Album soon, please, guys.

A music extravaganza

2008-03-28T16:51:00.005-04:00

Good things come to those who get the tickets, indeed. Two outings this week, first up on 26th were Long Blondes in a very crowded top room at Clwb Ifor Bach. The Steel City theme extended as far as support from Yorkshire rapper Kid Acne, who was new to us but hilariously entertaining! Quite a few similarities with Arctic Monkeys (although I'm not sure I've ever seen any Monkey wearing a flat cap).

The main set started off with current single Century. The majority of the set was from forthcoming album Couples, plus some very old favourites that didn't make Someone To Take You Home (I assume so, as we didn't recognise them), with only Lust In The Movies and Giddy Stratospheres (last song of the set) making it. Excellent show, my only real criticism that it was too short and there was no encore! Although the encore problem was due to the venue and an album launch for someone else!

Second outing on 27th, back to The Point to see old (or rather young) favourites The Subways, back with a new album and another enjoyable show. An exceedingly full Point, and I expect the Coal Exchange would have been a sell out if it was still open. The first support band were instantly forgettable (The Culprits, according to The Subways website), but the second, Cage the Elephant, were much better, even a couple of Jaggerisms from the lead singer. Definitely worth a second look.

The Subways set was, I think, meant to be mostly new songs but quite a few 'oldies' were slipped in, including Oh Yeah, Mary, City Pavement and the encore was Rock N Roll Queen after new single Girls and Boys. First song of the set was a new one, California, which M and I heard at their last Cardiff show along with another new song, Shake Shake; other newbies included Alright, and I Won't Let You Down (I think that title's correct). The end of the show was brilliant, great crowd atmosphere (read: very sweaty!) but on reflection the earlier part of their show didn't seem to please as much as previous shows. That may be the new songs -a cursory look at their myspace only lists a sample of Girls and Boys & the rest is older songs. I think we'll reserve judgement until the new album All or Nothing comes out in June.

The proof of the pudding is in the sheer enjoyment

2008-03-03T12:44:00.004-05:00

Live at last! First trip to The Point in ages (doesn't change much) but most definitely a great start to the gig year. Sell out crowd, too, and, perhaps an indication of 'trends', a substantial part of the Tegan and Sara starved audience were teen-young (and therefore much shorter than us) and sporting a wide variety of fashion. We weren't the oldest, though...

First up (picture above) were a New York based 3 piece, Northern State, who seem to tour a lot with Tegan and Sara. Its quite hard to define these 3 sassy ladies, but I'll give it a go with: articulate, sometimes political and often humourous lyrics (and banter) delivered in a style reminiscent of TLC, Beastie Boys with a touch of Bonde do Role and CSS. Hearing is believing, and whilst the band were certainly entertaining (and favourites of a good portion of the crowd). Worth a second hearing.

Tegan, Sara and band arrived (and left, for that matter) to tumultuous applause and cheers. Seems we've arrived quite late at this band, as lots of die hard fans were there loudly cheering the older songs. Broadly, the set was mostly taken from new album The Con, with The Con as 2nd song, followed by (no particular order) Call It Off, Like O Like H, Nineteen, Are You Ten Years Ago with Back In Your Head the penultimate song of the main set. Older stuff aplenty apart from, it seems, any really early stuff which they refused to play (but did warn upfront): Walking With A Ghost, Speak Slow, I Bet It Stung, Where Does The Good Go. Most of these songs are from their previous album So Jealous, which I procured from the merch stand. Excellent as well. The encore started with I Was Married plus 2 older songs. A superior class of banter as well, also very funny especially with local words/phrases. Best reaction was Tegan changing 'whose coat is that jacket' to 'whose cookie is that biscuit'.

What about that trend? The tracks from The Con also sounded louder live (akin to Howling Bells) and, to my ears, reinforced the Carina Round/Shirley Manson vibe with maybe a touch of Feist and the addition of a punkier sound from their older material. Whatever, they were brilliant. Go see indeed!

A new trend?

2008-02-27T13:21:00.004-05:00

There is a lot of discussion at the moment about the new female face(s) of pop, dominated by the likes of (mostly) singer-songwriters Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash and newcomers such as Adele. I'm not a huge fan of this genre, although Adele has an excellent stage presence, see post Does anyone have a website anymore?. This week, though, after my latest trip to Spillers Records, there may be an alternative. I purchased Tegan and Sara's new album The Con as well as the new Goldfrapp album Seventh Tree. Both very good on first listens, although Seventh Tree has all the hallmarks of a grower. The Con has a lot of catchy tunes (and I can't wait for Sunday's gig at The Point) and comes highly recommended. It made me think, I heard quite a few similarities with Carina Round's album Slow Motion Addict, and a certain Shirley Manson vibe. Is this the new trend, female led indie-pop with an edge? Personally, I hope so, as Slow Motion Addict has quickly become a frequent favourite and I expect The Con will follow suit. Roll on Sunday!

Where does the time go?

2008-01-04T15:28:00.002-05:00

2008 already! Time flies and all that.... and lots of fun had in 2007. The best gig of the year may have to go to The Who, although lots close followers! Some of the up 'n' coming people were the best, such as Hedrons, Remi Nicole, Newton Faulkner; and of course Jeff Scott Soto and Misty's Big Adventure were both fab as ever. Great(est) atmosphere has to go to Skid Row (again) and Alabama 3's send-off gig at the Coal Exchange. Definitely not to Cardiff Calling!

This year? The 'big gig' (so long to wait) is Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band at Cardiff Millennium Stadium, all the way in June. Hooray! The first 'discovery gig' booked so far is Tegan & Sara who are at the Point in March. Heard them on 6Music a while back & looking forward to more.

New discoveries? A review in Observer Music Monthly led me to 17 Hippies and their latest release 'Heimlich'. Low-fi originality galore in this mix of French, German & English songs, truly diverse style - nostalgia with a touch of folk, maybe? Well worth a listen, anyway. I found Carina Round courtesy of The Boardwalk's e-newsletter & 'Slow Motion Addict' is a real gem. Ms Round has been described as the new PJ Harvey but I also heard some similarities to Melissa Auf Der Maur, with a bit of Cardigans/early Garbage thrown in. Stay tuned.

The Shivering Whippet trumps the Brass Monkey

2007-11-26T13:58:00.001-05:00

Sheffield is well known for its hard (and classic) rock heritage, centrally placed 'in the zone of rock', to paraphrase Skid Row singer Johnny Solinger. Both Skid Row and the sensational Jeff Scott Soto were in residence at Corporation, Sheffield's home of rock, or so it seems!

Friday 23rd, braving the cold winds, M and I ventured to see the man from Austin, Texas. The room in Corporation was pretty full of people and anticipation. A much better atmosphere than at previous shows in Cardiff and Bristol. Support bands - negligible mention for the 1st band G U Medicine, instantly forgettable. Their main support Sign were better, although the singer is incredibly thin! Thought they were American myself but their myspace profile corrects me on this, they are Icelandic. Not bad.

Skid Row were on excellent form, and thankfully refrained from playing more than one song (Disease) from their rather awful current album Revolutions Per Minute. The set was predominantly classic stuff, with one song (New Generation) from their much better 2003 album Thinkskin. The rest of the tracks - Piece Of Me, 18 and Life, Sweet Little Sister, Monkey Business, Big Guns, acoustic Sweet Home Alabama and I Remember You (part acoustic, part full on rock!), which had an amazing crowd reaction, one big chorus indeed! ending the main set with Slave To The Grind; encore with Get The F*ck Out and Youth Gone Wild. Fantastic - must see!

Saturday (after it stopped raining) saw the arrival of Jeff Scott Soto for the first of his UK dates. Met up with a few fans at excellent watering hole The Devonshire Cat beforehand (beers from all around the world, real ale galore). Another insipid support band, and unfortunately not such a good turnout. Jeff and the band played an excellent set (including Howie's 'disco' choice of Whitesnake's Fool For Your Loving') including: Mysterious, 21st Century, Drowning, Stand Up, New Position, Hey. An acoustic medley mid-set of Send Her My Love interspersed with Gin & Tonic Sky, ruined somewhat by the feedback from a very dodgy cable somewhere! I Want to Take You Higher, Crazy, of course, and Separate Ways - Journey better than Journey! The new songs got a good reception as did those from Talisman, especially after the cancellation of Talisman's UK dates earlier in the year. Encore - funk medley including We Will Rock You, Kung Fu Fighting, Under Pressure, a Bee Gees impersonation, and an extended Play That Funky Music. A few niggles - the sound setup was definitely not quite right, the crowd were not as receptive as at previous shows, which compared to Skid Row was quite obvious. Otherwise, all smiles! Links - myspace, forum.

Lost in the mist

2007-10-15T15:36:00.000-04:00

A bit of an impromptu visit to Clwb Ifor Bach on 14th October to partake of the weird and wonderful Mistys Tour. An excellent turnout to boost proceedings, nobody seemed to be put off to by first support band The Haze. The band had some well rehearsed stolen riffs, an atrocious wailing singer but ultimately nothing new or exciting.

The main support were, once again, the equally zany Kate Goes. Frontwoman Kate seemed to be a bit apprehensive due to some perceived negativity at her previous Cardiff support slot for Mistys back at the Point last November. The audience were incredibly appreciative and despite the odd slip-up, Kate Goes got an excellent reception, which they definitely deserved. Everyone was well and truly warmed up for Mistys' entrance. They have a new album out (Funny Times) so the set list contained quite a few songs from this, including I Can't Bring The Time Back, How Did You Manage To Get Inside My Head, Keep Moving, Serious, The Long Conveyor Belt plus old favourites Fashion Parade, Two Brains, The Day The Kids Went Radioactive, Never Stops Never Rests Never Sleeps, Evil, The Story of Love, Hey Man... I think that's most of them covered! The Erotic Volvo was on fine form, too. More info and tracks on website and myspace.

What's next? Another visit to Sheffield in November to see Jeff Scott Soto, preceded by old rockers Skid Row. Hat & scarf are packed already...

Alabama 3 send off an era

2007-09-29T14:34:00.000-04:00

The Coal Exchange is one of Cardiff's most historic buildings and has long been an important live music venue, full of character and with much better acoustics than similar venues in the city. The building is now closed for refurbishment. I hope that the main hall will return to its popular function, but there is a slight question mark about this aspect of the redevelopment (see BBC News article). The closing party was held 26th Sept but Friday 28th September was the official last show, and what a show! Alabama 3 came to end an era in style.

Whilst the main event certainly had panache, the support bands are more accurately described as interesting. First on stage were post nu rave/electro/punk ensemble Sicknote. I'd only heard one of their songs before, Taxi For Mr Blair, but their set was very innovative and well received by the incoming audience. In particular, they had highly amusing videos up on the screens either side of the stage and one band member (band names, songs and videos are all available on myspace) wearing a kilt, was entertaining the crowd in a dancing manner very reminiscent of The Erotic Volo from Mistys Big Adventure.

The second support band were negligible, mainly because they didn't annouce their name, or at least it wasn't clear from the general mumbling and griping of the lead singer. The songs were ok and with a better band may even have been good, but generally this band should have been nowhere near a stage.

After an extended pause, Alabama 3 took to the stage and played for about 2 hours. The set started with new songs Fly and Monday Don't Mean Anything, and the last encore was Peace In The Valley. The rest of the set comprised of songs from new album M.O.R., Exile on Coldharbour Lane and Power In The Blood; only Hello I'm Johnny Cash made the cut from Outlaw and Too Sick To Pray from La Peste. Highlights were Amos Moses, Are You a Souljah, REHAB, Speed of The Sound of Loneliness, Hypo Full of Love.

Once again the audience was of the most eclectic mix, far more varied than for any other band I could mention! The atmosphere was brilliant, especially on such a night to remember.

Rise of the minor bands

2007-08-27T11:45:00.000-04:00

In its 2nd year, Cardiff Calling returned on 25th August. Much better weather than last year (which led to Dirty Sanchez to 'go soft', advising listeners to drink the free water & wear sunscreen), but substantially fewer people, not as many essential must-see bands, and as for the food - it will put me off going again next year (if there is one - the promoters seemed to be struggling and the event was on a much smaller scale than previously).

All was not lost - of the 3 stages (main stage plus Myspace tent and Xfm tent), the smaller stages and bands contained the real gems, the exception was Newton Faulkner on the main stage. Out of the line-up, we checked out:
Inner City Pirates
The Guns (for about 5 mins & then The Jan Watkins Band)
Newton Faulker
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog
The Roseville Band
Killing for Company
The Automatic
Remi Nicole
Bonde do Role
Super Furry Animals
The Rumble Strips
and about 5 minutes of The Streets - not our thing, sorry!

The best, in terms of atmosphere and interest, were Newton Faulkner, Remi Nicole and Bonde do Role. The Rumble Strips came close, points for trumpet and sax; they had a good attendance but didn't seem to exude the same aura of excellence.

Newton Faulker was quite a pleasant surprise, hadn't heard much of his stuff, singer-songwriter with panache! His highly amusing songs on a variety of subjects, including recent singles I Need Something and Dream Catch Me. He brought to mind an Inner City Pirates support from last year, a certain Matthew Monroe (for whom I still can't find a website). Newton Faulker has a nationwide tour in November, details on his website.

Remi Nicole is much hyped at the moment, in my mind alongside the likes of Lily Allen or Kate Nash, but much better and without Lily or Kate's annoying accents (affected or not). She gained an audience throughout her set, ending up with quite a full tent for 'Go Mr Sunshine'!

Bonde do Role are the 'other Brazilian band' (alongside CSS) and getting a fair amount of radio play. Their sound is very much 'sample something and make it fun' in the vein of (their words) funk/club/metal, and fun they are indeed, a party atmosphere from the off. I have no idea what they played, but it was all excellent; samples are available on their myspace. An American/European tour starts 1st September. Go!

For the rest, the ticket was (just) worth buying for the number of 'Barfly bands' that were on the Myspace and Xfm stages, and most of them were at least good. The Jan Watkins Band still sounded samey, Inner City Pirates looked sober but weren't that much better for it. Cowbois Rhos Botwynnog were very interesting, perhaps my first experience of Welsh-language music for any length of time. Killing for Company have grown on me a bit, at the Liberty Stadium they sounded a bit lost, but not here. Their set generated a good crowd, and they are competent purveyors of their chosen brand of rock, but there was nothing truly innovative. The dire Guns can't compare! Back at Cardiff Barfly on 5th October. The other acts on the main stage were good enough, although 1hr2o of The Streets seemed a bit too much & he hadn't inspired after 5 so we left. I believe Dizzee Rascal and Kate Nash were crowd favourites of the main stage audience and will probably dominate other reviews.

Up next? Alabama 3 are playing the Coal Exchange's last show before they close for redevelopment, 28th September.

Just a little more

2007-08-10T13:29:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday 5th August, we had a quick trip to the Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend. We hadn't bothered with most of the lineup, in fact it looked pretty poor this year, and even the fireworks didn't seem up to their usual standard. The Magic Numbers tempted us out, though. Their set was very enjoyable, especially their cover of 'Crazy in Love' and end-of-set jig to get the (rather wet - yup, it was raining) crowd moving. I may now check them out more often - did recognise some of their tracks but unfortunately not enough to remember the titles!

Retro gear, modern sound

2007-08-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

It looks like the summer has finally arrived, & along with the sun came another trip to Barfly on 2nd August (which still doesn't smell quite right since the smoking ban!), this time the line-up were The Sugars, supported by Victims of Convenience and Afterview. Unfortunately, it was really rather empty, especially after the popularity of Silversun Pickups. Which is a terrible shame as we had an excellent night!

Starting the evening off were Worcester quarter Afterview. Not bad as far as support bands go, & for once some influences wider than emo! There's a 80s rock quality to some of their melodies that I thoroughly enjoyed, and they were also (especially bass player Russell) comfortable performing. Their vocals were slightly disappointing in voice and content, although, as shown on this morning's 6Music, there are plenty of 'non-singer lead singers' around. Check out their myspace (what else?!) for info on their new EP & upcoming shows.

Next support band, who were rather less entertaining, local Cardiff band Victims of Convenience. Their sound is very much the current experimental indie/electronic sound displayed so well by Goldfrapp. Again, the singers were not very strong, but this time it did detract from the performance as their songs didn't seem to have the structure or stage presence to carry it off. Some of their sound was akin to the Chalets, but with nowhere near the same level of talent! They also have a myspace page.

By the time the Sugars took to the stage, there were, thankfully, more people, not nearly enough for me! Very enthused by an excellent show. The Sugars sound is very much garage band but with key blues & rock'n'roll influences, especially in their dress code and instruments! There were even (as it looked to a non-guitarist like me) customised cables for their antique-style guitars.

Although I believe this was their 2nd visit to Cardiff, the Sugars are very much a new band, so no album as yet (but this has gone straight on my ones to watch list). There are a few tracks on their myspace (there is a REAL WEBSITE but its still being developed here). Copies of their single Monsters flew out of the doors afterwards in the hands of many converts (but who could say no to a slice of sugar spun red vinyl?), especially with an excellent atmosphere reminiscent of January's Hedrons gig. Of the set played (which included Monsters and its B-side Serenade), it was the more mellow tracks that really showcased the band's retro influences. Simply sumptuous.

To change tack totally, back on 20th July, M and I donned our glad rags to experience an evening in the company of a certain Ludwig Van. The Beethoven Prom (part of the Welsh Proms season) wasn't as full as expected, but a thoroughly enjoyable evening, especially for our 1st outing to a classical concert. The works performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with pianist Noriko Ogawa, were the Fidelio overture, Piano Concerto No 1 and 5th Symphony, with an extra delight as Ms Ogawa performed an encore of Debussy's Clair De Lune. Only downside, I would have liked to see more youngsters in the audience, but otherwise excellent and will be looking out for next year's programme.

Pickup some sparkle

2007-07-12T12:52:00.000-04:00

Impromptu outing to Barfly (which looks to have seen a few coats of paint since our last visit) last night to check out new Californian sensation Silversun Pickups, along with a lot of others - the show was practically sold out! Two support bands to entertain us, first up local band Attack! Attack!, who, whilst typical of the current South Wales sound, executed their set well and are certainly familiar with performing their wares. A stack of freebie CDs were whisked away quickly after they finished. Check out their myspace page for more information.

Second band up, Fear of Music. I'm not entirely sure what to make of them - again, their sound didn't come across as truly original, although very much of the moment in terms of their songwriting/aesthetics, but their set was well performed and well received. Something conceptual about their stage presence, although not a patch on Late Of The Pier (see Does anyone have a website anymore?)!

On to the Silversun Pickups, who were starting the UK leg of their current tour. The 4-piece have been described as the new Smashing Pumpkins, and with some reason - there is something reminiscent of the Pumpkins' in the songs, including (current single?) Well Thought Out Twinkies, although a few mellower tracks were included to mix up the set (and encore). There is an mp3 player on their website, and as ever, they also have a myspace page. This band are certainly riding high, the full crowd were very enthusiastic in their appreciation so I'm sure the band will be around again!

As an aside, this week's acquisition is the exquisite new album by Icelandic band Amiina. Primarily purchased as they are contemporaries of Sigur Ros, but this CD is well worth buying on its own. Beautifully presented in a solid card eco-book, the sound is very pretty and relaxing. Highly recommended.

Darned rain....

2007-07-05T13:19:00.000-04:00

Hmm. There hasn't been an awful lot of goings on in the gig sense lately, although it is looking up. At the moment (but apparently its a limited offer), members of Cardiff things-to-do site Urban Traffic can book discounted tickets for Cardiff Calling on 25th August - sign up at the website and follow the link! £5 off and no booking fee, gets my vote! Next up (apart from the Beethoven Prom later this month as part of the Welsh Proms) are an interesting sounding group, The Sugars, who will be at Cardiff Barfly on 2nd August.

Scandal of the moment, Jeff Scott Soto has recently been unceremoniously sacked from Journey, cue much anger indeed! I won't post all the reams of opinion here, safe to say Journey are somewhat persona non grata! More can be found on the JSS forum.

So, some good things coming up, and hopefully some sun too??!

The Who Are Alrght

2007-06-02T13:16:00.000-04:00

New month, new gig. M and I journeyed along the coast to Swansea for the inaugural concert at the Liberty Stadium, accompanied by the sun, thankfully.

Now the official first band to play the Liberty Stadium, first on were Stuart Cable (formerly of Stereophonics) new band Killing For Company. We hadn't previously heard any of their material. They were entertaining, but what we expected them to be rather than any surprises. New single Enemies out 4th June, see their website for details.

Next up and another blast from the past, The Charlatans. Wasn't that much of a fan the first time, but they were good, and they played their hits including North Country Boy. There were clearly a few Charlatans fans in the crowd who were kept very happy, but not much interaction with the crowd from the band.

Onto the main act, who certainly pleased the crowd with 2hrs 15mins of play! The Who set included: I Can't Explain, The Seeker (with 1 power cut), Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, Baba O'Riley, Who Are You (with 3 power cuts), The Real Me, Real Good Looking Boy, You Better You Bet, The Kids Are Alright, one track from their 2006 album Endless Wire, ending with My Generation and Won't Get Fooled Again. Encore included Pinball Wizard, Sparks, another power cut and an acoustic song to end, to which I don't know the title!

Right. The power cuts - teething troubles on the part of the stadium, it seems, so we got 3 nearly finished versions of Who Are You, it wasn't finished properly so as not to jinx the set!! After that all went well until the encore. Seems to have been linked to the video screens. These were used well (when not cutting the electric!), often showing the original videos to the older songs (in the vein of the Stones). The crowd were hugely enthusiastic, so it was a shame that the show wasn't a sell-out. The Who are raising money for charity by selling CD and/or DVD recordings of the concert, see this link for information. Were they as good as the Rolling Stones? Tis a very tough question.

Free music anyone?

2007-05-17T16:58:00.000-04:00

In the midst of a rather quiet month for gigs (building up to THE WHO)... Recently discovered Kruger Magazine's website (Kruger magazine is a quirky local free mag stocked in Spillers, for all things slightly offbeat). Registering on the site brings access to the Kruger Singles Club, i.e. free music! An excellent way of showcasing interesting artists! First up a few weeks ago were The Toy Band, and the latest artist is Gideon Conn. The songs can be found on Itunes, streamed, or downloaded. Go!

Another freebie on offer - Welsh folk/songwriter Cate Le Bon has her latest single available for download on her website too.

Enjoy.

Purple power

2007-04-26T16:13:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was classic rock night in Cardiff, as M's treat we ventured to Cardiff Arena for Deep Purple plus guests. Unfortunate that it was the Arena - our moans about the acoustics are well documented!

Turned up a bit late, assuming the staff wouldn't be on time, but - horror -they were, and 1st band Thin Lizzy (yup, what remains of Thin Lizzy) were already halfway through their set. An example, perhaps, why longevity isn't always a bonus? I saw this lineup (John Sykes, Scott Gorham with Marco Mendoza and I can't remember the drummer - oops) in 20o3 at Sheffield's Leadmill on their own tour & they were excellent. This time, the atmosphere wasn't there and their playing, well, it was a bit loose and Sykes sounded tired. Compared to the tight sound & excellence of tribute Limehouse Lizzy - I know who I will see again! Limehouse Lizzy are, luckily, back in Cardiff later this year.

Main support Styx were on shortly afterwards, for apparently their first visit to Wales. Neither of us were familiar with their songs, & their sound was pretty much Journey but a bit heavier. Highlight for me was their cover of I Am The Walrus. This lot were, though, far more professional & did a great job, getting the crowd warmed up. Special guest was founder member Chuck Panozzo. Must mention here their singer/keys player Lawrence Gowan, with his rotating keyboard! Picture below. Styx have a proper website too!

The crowd were well & truly ready to rock when Deep Purple came on. This time, an improvement on last time - saw them in 2003 and was disappointed. There were a few new songs, which are ok but not a patch on the classics! Set included: Strange Kind Of Woman, When A Blind Man Cries, Highway Star, Space Truckin, Smoke On The Water, with Hush & Black Night for the encore. An excellent atmosphere (especially for the Arena), too! Lots of Purple-related websites for more info.

As an aside, Tuesday we tried out Jump at the Wales Millennium Centre, which was a highly entertaining martial arts comedy. A short storyline told through martial arts moves and expressions, including forays into dance (martial arts tango, anyone?), plus showcase moves to an instrumental rock soundtrack. We'd recommend this for theatre with a difference!

Does anyone have a website anymore?

2007-04-22T14:59:00.001-04:00

Another trip to Barfly on Saturday 21st, this time something of a box of treats! Main aim of the evening was to experience Mr cheeky chappy himself, Jack Penate, and a few bonuses thrown in too - for once, both of the support bands were really interesting.

First up, Penarth-born singer-songwriter Adele. Something of a stir in the media about Ms Adele, and with some reason, judging by her voice and humour. Barfly was sold out for the evening and quite a few people were already familiar with Adele's work, with a very enthusiastic reception to her set, which was unfortunately a bit shorter than we would all have liked! Well worth keeping in mind - for more information check out Adele's myspace.

Second up, Nottingham band Late Of The Pier. This was the real treat of the night, in between 2 quality acts, some real innovation and style. I'm not sure how to really describe them, but their influences - perhaps the Klaxons, Mistys Big Adventure, Goldfrapp and a touch of the Human League. We (and the vast majority of the crowd), after the initial bewildered faces, really enjoyed their set. This band are a definite must see, again, their myspace has more information.

After all the exhilarating support, I was almost disheartened after the 2 supports had done! No fear though, Jack Penate is a classy peformer. Somewhat obvious that the audience hung on his every word, but Jack has the banter of a seasoned performer, which is a refreshing change to quite a few up and coming artists, and has a very likeable persona. Single Spit at Stars started off his set, which was energetic and at points frenetic. Only contention, his set was only 45 minutes which does feel a little on the short side! Another myspace as well, and as a extra, there's a picture of the tour poster below.

Howling Bells

2007-03-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

High point to the week: M and I went to the Point yesterday and bumped into a number of friendly faces, all eagerly awaiting the Howling Bells on what was apparently the last night of their current tour. Well worth the wait!

Two support bands this time, unfortunately not Indigo Moss! The first band, of whom we only saw the last song, were local band Spencer Mcgarry Season, who appeared to have a good reception. They have a myspace. Next up, The Alones, who were ok but in M's eyes 'an ok Fuzz club band', again their songs didn't seem to have much variety. Not for the last time, the better support band were on first?!

Not long to wait until the Howling Bells came on, by which time the Point was pretty much full. An excellent reception from the crowd, and the band themselves seem to have improved their stage presence since October 2006 - but I suppose a bigger & better venue adds a little something anyway! The set list was basically everything off their current selftitled album, plus a b-side or 2, finishing off with current single Low Happening. Unfortunately, there wasn't an encore, but that's my only moan! Looking forward to the next tour already!

As an aside, Howling Bells' previous support band Indigo Moss release their debut album on Monday 9th April.

Journey set list

2007-03-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

Something a little more accurate:

Neal solo
Rubicon
Stone in love
Ask the lonely
Wheel in the sky
Keep on running
Who's crying now
Edge of the blade
Chain reaction
Mystery Mountain
Remember Me
Lights
Still they ride
Open arms
La do da
Line of fire.
Opened the door
Send her my Love
Loving touching feeling
Escape
Faithfully
Don't stop believing.
Anyway you want it.
Encore....Separate ways.

Journey

2007-03-10T14:56:00.000-05:00

After much anticipation, I ventured to Cardiff Arena on Friday 9th March to see the ever-fabulous Jeff Scott Soto perform with Journey as their new singer. As M wasn't with me, I spent an enjoyable few hours with some other concert-goers beforehand in nearby Wellington's pub.

I'll get my 1 gripe about the show over and done with. What b*tard chose an all seating layout? The atmosphere was good, but standing would have been much better. My seat was in the side tiers, and I had to leave it & stand at the back as the rest of my block were SITTING DOWN! At a ROCK CONCERT! Terrible behaviour.

Ok. Better things. Support from Danny Vaughn (picture above) and a member of his band for an acoustic set. Danny is probably best known for his work with Tyketto, of whose songs he played Wings, Burning Down Inside and Forever Young, plus new songs from current album Traveller. For any classic rock fans, Tyketto's first album Don't Come Easy is a must.

Only a short gap until Journey entered with an extended solo by Neal Schon (at which point I left my seat). Fair to say Jeff was on top form, especially for the encore when he wore a Wales rugby shirt! Music first, though. A good set, as far as I can recall no songs from their latest album Generations, but made up of hits & old favourites. In no particular order: guitar intro, Stone In Love, Wheel In The Sky, Ask The Lonely, Only The Young, Lights, Open Arms, I'll Be Alright Without You, Chain Reaction, ending with Don't Stop Believing and Any Way You Want. Drummer Deen sang lead vocals on Open Arms and Faithfully, and as well as a mini blues jam and piano solos (kudos for the red grand piano), the crowd were treated to an early track, Mystery Mountain. For the encore (as well as Jeff in a Wales shirt), Separate Ways. An excellent atmosphere once the crowd got going and I couldn't see anyone left sitting by the end! Just wish I had better pictures, unfurtunately I was a bit far away to get any really good ones.

From Black Rose to Buena Vista

2007-03-05T14:19:00.000-05:00

Two very different but equally impressive live experiences this last weekend. First up, our long overdue homage to the late, great Phil Lynott as Limehouse Lizzy returned to the Point on Friday 2nd March. Certainly on form (and not just lead singer Wayne Ellis, mmmm!) After a late doors, the band came on for a 2 hour set. They started off with Jailbreak (with added pyro), the rest of the main set comprising known songs like Dancing In The Moonlight, Warrior, Emerald, Johnny the Fox, Are You Ready, Killer On The Loose, Cold Sweat, Do Anything You Want To, Out In The Fields, Cowboy Song, Rosalie, The Boys Are Back In Town plus at least 1 early track. The encore included 1 verse/1 chorus from Sarah, Black Rose, Whisky In The Jar and another track. Excellent atmosphere, the place was sold out. The boys are back at the Point in December.

Next on to crowd pleasers of a very different sort. M and I managed to get tickets for the sold-out Buena Vista Social Club show at Wales Millennium Centre. We arrived prompt to an early evening performance by local ensemble Canton Café Orchestra, who were well received. A prompt start for the main show, even from our upper circle seats there was still a good view of the stage. The Buena Vista Social Club band - Guajiro Mirabel, Manuel Galban, Cachaito Lopez and Aguaje Ramos, plus supporting musicians & singers - were simply fantastic and each song (21 in the set list) received wholehearted support from the audience. Each track, and the set as a whole, also allowed the individual artists to have their own moments in the spotlight. The only down side, as a theatre set up there wasn't much of an opportunity to get up and boogie! The brass section of the band were certainly having their own dance whilst not playing. There was a stupendous round of applause to end the night, and as the show was over quite early, a few people stayed for drinks in the foyer bar. We were certainly impressed with the acoustics & atmosphere of the auditorium as well. And as for the music - a trip to Spillers in the near future to check out the various releases, which are also detailed on the World Circuit Records website. For more information on the docufilm, try Wim Wenders' own website.

Lights of the North

2007-02-27T15:33:00.000-05:00

Finally did it..... M and I made it back to Sheffield! Just returned from a long weekends reminiscing. Whilst there we made the (obligatory, of course) visit to Sheffield University's Fuzz Club (Thursdays at Fusion & Foundry, Union building). Fuzz lived up to type, that it was almost deserted until over half way through the bands. That used to annoy me a bit, but last week - can't say I was. The bands on offer were Wolf & Cub supported by I Am Bandini. First up, I Am Bandini. They were ok, but in a distinctly average way. Listenable too but nothing to rave about, really. Although, the singer's humourous quips did keep us entertained somewhat, especially his references to drinking 'Jägermull' - described as a double shot of Jägermeister with Red Bull. The new snakebite? Anyway, I Am Bandini can be found at their myspace.

Following on to Wolf & Cub. I had tried out their myspace (they also have a website) previously and thought they might be ok, but what a mistake. Very reminiscent of iLIKETRAiNS (see previous post from last October). Therefore, disappointing. Another case of tender ears, especially as the set up in Foundry isn't the best. Unfortunately not a Fuzz-suitable band (no 3 minute tracks to dance to) & not sure I'd bother again anyway.

The rest of the night was good, though, a few old tracks to keep this veteran happy but I think '6Music playlist' sums it up - not that that's a bad thing at all. The rest of the weekend - we revisited old favourite Record Collector (support your local independent record shop!!! This incudes Cardiff's finest, Spillers) for a good rummage, no more 20p (or 10 for £1) vinyl box anymore, sadly. Still its excellent self. As is Remo's; Mr Remo serves without doubt the best coffee in the whole of the UK (and unfortunately this includes Cardiff, despite all the lovely places reviewed on the 1Off site). He also serves fantastic hot chocolate for those of you slightly less addicted to the bean! An absolute must. Unfortunately, Remo's does not have a website (post address: 259 Fulwood Road, Broomhill, Sheffield). I found a photo which is at the top (Remo's is the orange shop in the middle).

Some more good news too, we are off to see The Who in June! They are playing the Liberty Stadium in Swansea on 1st June. On a lesser note, please visit the Spillers website (linked above) or their myspace and sign their online petition against forced closure.

Pigeon Funk

2007-02-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Született' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here. The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website, fan site or myspace.

Check out Cardiff

2007-01-31T16:25:00.000-05:00

Finally... I wrote some reviews for things to do in Cardiff for flashy new website 1Off (link also on the right) a while back and it went live this week. There are listings for off the beaten track places, shops, eats, clubs etc. The site also covers cultural stimuli in 5 other UK cities, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, London & Newcastle.

As an aside, Limehouse Lizzy's gig has now been rescheduled for Friday 2nd March at the Point.

The Hedrons

2007-01-22T15:41:00.000-05:00

2007 started with a bang yesterday (21st Jan), first gig of the year. M and I took ourselves off to Barfly to see The Hedrons.

There were 2 support bands last night. First up the Stopmotion Men, with whom we were quite impressed. I can't say that any of their songs were particularly memorable, but they were very enthusiastic, quite heavy for a 3-piece (guitar, keyboard & drums), and had a sense of humour. Kudos to the keyboard player, much appreciated (although that may partly be to my current re-learning of the piano). Check out their myspace.

Next up, were The Peakz (although the posters around Barfly indicate that the 5150s should have been on), who are an unsigned Welsh band. Their songs were quite similar apart from 1 50-second spurt. They seemed fairly well rehearsed, but had a fairly common problem of mumbling into the mikes. Nothing memorable from where we were, but not awful either. They also have a myspace.

The Hedrons came onstage to an unfortunately thinned-out crowd (it seemed that friends of the Stopmotion Men had left early), but that didn't deter them. Raucous may be the word - at any rate, any January cobwebs we had left are now completely blown away! The band (an all-female Scottish outfit) impressed with a set list from their forthcoming album One More Won't Kill Us. My favourite - Heatseeker. Their other singles Be My Friend and I Need You also featured among the set. The girls were very energetic, and for a truly intimate experience, the singer Tippi left the stage and sang whilst meandering amongst the crowd. It could only happen there! As an extra bonus, the band had some advance copies of their album (which apparently hits the shops on 5th Feb); one copy duly purchased for us.

An excellent night - definitely a 'one to watch band', in some ways akin to our much loved Subways. Hoorah.

Round up

2007-01-09T17:48:00.000-05:00

New Year hellos!

I'll start with a round up of 2006. Easily the best show of the year was the Rolling Stones. Stupendous. Other than that, its pretty hard to choose, but as far as gigs go, I have very good memories (in no particular order) of The Subways, The Sunshine Underground, Goldfrapp, The Zutons, Goo Goo Dolls, Mistys Big Adventure and our previous outing to see Limehouse Lizzy. Worthy of further attention: Howling Bells, Indigo Moss, The Grates and Kate Goes, to name a few.

Hoping for a better Cardiff Calling this year; apart from the excellent Mistys, The Pipettes and The Chalets, it was a bit of a disappointment. The same for the last Inner City Pirates gig - I was tempted to put one of their early 2006 shows in the favourites list, but their recent shambolic state precludes that.

Don't bother list -definitely iLIKETRAiNS!

2007, then. Currently the gig list is looking a bit empty! I do have Journey to look forward too - oh yes they are playing Cardiff in March! The main reason for my ticket (no M this time), the wonderful Jeff Scott Soto is their new singer. Mmmm, indeed. Apart from that, maybe Deep Purple - I have seen them twice but this time (April, Cardiff Int Arena) their main support is Thin Lizzy. Oh yes! Speaking of whom, no news yet on the rescheduled Limehouse Lizzy date, but fingers crossed. There are a few possibilities at Barfly, such as The Hedrons and The Grates. Stay tuned....

Grr

2006-12-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

Very very annoying. Apparently Pink Grease have cancelled their February date (see previous post) and as yet no info on the Long Blondes. With not even Limehouse Lizzy to commiserate - tomorrow's show also postponed. The New Years fireworks had better be good then!

Calm before the (sweet) storm

2006-12-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

A little quiet on the gig front currently, although we will be having New Year a day early, Limehouse Lizzy are back at the Point on 30th, yay. Have finally managed to go & see Pans Labyrinth, which is an interesting fantasy film - but definitely one for adults. More music-related, after a quick rifle through my local Save The Children shop, I stumbled upon Pink Grease's album (? its a promo) This Is For Real. Pink Grease are an indie- punky Sheffield band I saw a few times at uni. I really like this CD, which is fortunate as Pink Grease are actually playing Cardiff early next year. Be at Clwb Ifor Bach on Mon 26th February (2007). Staying on the Steel City, fellow Sheffielders The Long Blondes are in Cardiff the day before, at the Point!

I intend to do a round up of the year shortly, in the meantime happy festivities... check out the picture for a taste of Knusperhaüschen (gingerbread house).

Hmmm

2006-11-03T05:52:00.000-05:00

To start with aforementioned Innercity Pirates gig on 28th Oct, well it was ok but.... Their support were Red City who are as crap as we remember! The Pirates came on stage (what passes for a stage in Callaghans anyway) in fancy dress (Halloween), so it was Superman & Darth Vader playing. A few lineup changes - guitarist, keyboard player, and an extra singer - all names available on myspace. Set was ok, well ok for copious drinking previously. Not sure that the extra vocalist added anything to the songs, most of which were new (which to us means post My Red Cell days), or very new. All in all a bit disappointing, compared to their April gig....

On a happier note, a very eclectic mix at the Point on Wed 1st, courtesy of Mistys Big Adventure. Two support bands, Envy and Other Sins and Kate Goes. To start with Envy.. quite a polished performance from a support band, especially going on recent history! Enjoyable set, for more info see their website or myspace. Up next Kate Goes.. and now I'm a bit stuck! Certainly one of the most random & wacky bands I've seen, and their material - you'll just have to listen for yourself. Certainly a very intersting experience!

Mistys (see photos as well) were excellent, a much better set than at Cardiff Calling & good atmosphere - although the Point wasn't full, such a shame. For those of you unfamiliar with the band, they are an 8 piece from Birmingham (UK), including trumpetist (is that right) and sax -Zutons east your heart out!Set list came from current album The Black Hole and a few very new song? Not overly familiar with their stuff, but they did play crowd favourites Two Brains and Evil, which I believe can also be found on myspace. Highly recommended, must see band! Fight the bland!

Better and better

2006-10-28T11:16:00.000-04:00

Back to Barfly last night, the disappointment of last time luckily not repeated! This time it was to see Howling Bells plus support Indigo Moss. For once, a decent support band! Indigo Moss are a bit hard to categorise, low fi with country tinges? It worked anyway! Their sound is a mixture of original material and arrangements of traditional songs, and an equally interesting style - one of the female members had a vintage floor length dress on... but I digress. All obviously competent musicians; with the exception of the bass player and drummer, the other members kept swapping instruments. Very enthusiasic response from the crowd, at times it seemed as if they were more popular than Howling Bells!!! I purchased their EP straight after the set, & their album may find its way here too... For more info see their website or myspace.

By the time Howling Bells took to the stage, Barfly was pretty much full! Another excellent set. Howling Bells are one of the current bands du jour and their sound is very much of the moment - and very popular! I recognised current single Setting Sun from its airplay on 6 Music. Various influences, some of their stuff reminded me of tracks off Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain album, and at times they did sound as if they'd walked straight off a cult soundtrack! Selftitled album out now.

In a similar vein to the above bands, have recently discovered Oi Va Voi, courtesy of a friend and Oxfam's music shelves... another not so easy to describe band! Not exactly sure where they're from (can't see it either on website or myspace) but according to the info in Laughter Through Tears' CD sleeve, varying folk influences from across Europe. Some similarities with Sigur Ros, Goldfrapp as above; in the general vein of quieter, chill out music (not that good at this kind of thing - usually its either good, bad or don't even bother) in short: go buy!

Tender ears....

2006-10-19T13:08:00.000-04:00

Bit of a catch up today. First up Goo Goo Dolls from last Thursday 12th October at Cardiff Union. Again a good atmosphere & completely sold out, mostly by 5'0'' freshers at our end! Supported by Tinder Box who were quite similar - good modern sound, kind of Goos meets The Killers. Quite a professional sound and manner compared to many support acts. Check out their myspace or website.

Excellent set by the Goos - one of my few gripes that it wasn't long enough! Set list included: Stay With You (first?), Let Love In, Can't Let It Go, Better Days, Feel The Silence and Become from current album Let Love In; and of older songs, Iris (after having a dig at Ronan Keating's cover), Name, Laughing, Broadway, plus Smash & Tucked Away from the Gutterflower album. I would have preferred more songs from Gutterflower, but I imagine that theirs is a dynamic set list. Encore was Give A Little Bit. Great lighting as well, obviously designed for a larger venue as the stage was mich bigger than usual. Biased of course but maybe Millennium Stadium?? First outing for new camera as well, a few clips below.

Next - iLIKETRAiNS at Barfly last night (19th). I had heard quite good things of this band but was very disappointed by them. The 2 support bands, Early Years and locals The Jan Watkins Band were in our opinion completely crap. The Jan Watkins Band were fairly melodic but just sounded like 1 song! Early Years were trying to be Mogwai and failing miserably, and seemed to be spending all their budget on lighting rather than tunes. iLIKETRAiNS - the songs I had heard online (myspace) were ok but the live show - the post title says it all! They were on late to start by about 20 mins and didn't extend the set to make up for it. Some good props - slide/film projector & a bow for the guitarist, plus v enthusuastic cornet player. Otherwise, sombre in the extreme, as if they need a good shake & be told to cheer up! Underwhelming.

Better things to come - a few more trips to Barfly in the offing and another gig by Innercity Pirates.

Bring me Sunshine...

2006-10-10T15:45:00.000-04:00

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? in relation to Barfly anyway.... M and I headed to Cardiff Barfly last night after a very long break, to see The Sunshine Underground ( see also previous post Au quatrieme fois). Some bits of the cellar venue looked a bit smarter, others as scummy as ever!!! Say no more.... but crowd control barriers??

We were treated to 2 support bands, so no complaints on value! First up (breath in), Shut Your Eyes & You'll Burst Into Flames, were, sorry to say, an obvious rip off of TSU but not in a good way! On a positive note, they didn't hurt the ear drums, but mostly samey and easily forgettable, except maybe the bouffant hair and energy levels! Next up Foreign Islands (I think this is their myspace) who were much better, although I was a bit bemused by the singer's face mask for first track.

By the time The Sunshine Underground took the stage, Barfly was pretty much full and with a very enthusiastic audience! Perhaps the venue suited them better or maybe it was just quieter, but my ears didn't hurt anywhere near as much compared to their Coal Exchange show. Set list of course made up of material from their current album Raise The Alarm. Bargain for fans - there were flyers around advertising all 3 formats for forthcoming single Commercial Breakdown for £3! Get down to HMV or Virgin on 30th October. Thoroughly enjoyed the set, anyway, although there was no encore. The crowd barriers did start to make sense for TSU's set, though, as they in effect made the stage bigger (and for those of you not familiar with Cardiff Barfly it is very, very small indeed). I would definitely recommend their show!

The Mick n Keef show

2006-08-30T14:24:00.000-04:00

Birthday smiles all round! The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour rolled into Cardiff yesterday. No moss here!

To start from the beginning, we arrived at Gate 6 shortly before opening time - no queues! So it took no time to get in & find our (very well chosen by M) seats. Support band The Kooks came on promptly at 7, and that was probably the only really weak part of the night. Either extremely nervous, tired (from Reading festival) or both, they seemed a bit underwhelming, certainly compared to the hype and the last time we saw them. Set list as much as I could get: Seaside, See The World, Matchbox, Eddie's Gun, Ooh La La, She Moves In Her Own Way, Naive, Sofa Song, You Don't Love Me plus a few new songs mid-way through. All the Radio 2 listeners obviously recognised She Moves In Her Own Way, and there was a decent reaction from those already seated, but there was a bit of 'who are The Kooks' around the place.

The Stones took to the stage prompt at 8.30. Our seats were in the pitch seating section, and there was no chance of anyone remaining seated for the show there. I have read reviews about Stones concerts past, and although sometimes it's easy to ponder on why they bother etc, after the first song it was clear - this band can really put on a show! If they are this polished all the time then no wonder they're always in demand. Keith especially got a huge cheer for his 2 songs (set list below), and everyone (backing band included) appeared to be having a blast. Back to that seat selection - really good choice! We were a bit behind the halfway line, to the left of the 2nd stage runway, so a good clear view of the main stage. The 2nd stage was about 10m diagonally behind us as well - quality! Enormous stage set up itself as well. There were some 'on stage' seats part way up the rigging, apparently a few hundreds each (plus competition winners) as well. Fantastic light show, pyro and fireworks (but with a tour called A Bigger Bang I suppose that was obvious?!) plus massive screen behind the stage, sometimes showing old video footage eg for Lets Spend The Night Together. Even an inflatable Jagger pout whilst the 2nd stage was in play!

A few songs I wasn't familiar with but mostly a set of old time favourites (set list courtesy of Rolling Stones website):

Jumping Jack Flash
It's Only Rock And Roll
Oh No It's Not You Again
Let's Spend The Night Together
Live With Me
Streets Of Love
Midnight Rambler
Tumblin' Dice

Slipping Away
Before They Make Me Run (Keith on vocals for these 2)

Miss You
Rough Justice
Start Me Up
Honky Tonk Woman (2nd stage)

Sympathy For The Devil
Paint It Black

Encore:
Brown Sugar
Can't Always Get What You Want
Satisfaction

Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as did the rest I suppose! I think I have already used the words brilliant and fantastic but the whole atmosphere was truly electric. In particular the encore (after a very short break, no longer than 5 mins) was stunning, and for a bunch of pensioners the Stones seemed to have boundless energy, Mick running from side to side & down the runway to 2nd stage & all just giving 110%. Especially enjoyed the 2nd stage set (which involved the band playing whilst the stage moved beneath them), apart from being much closer, the audience were even more enthused; also a chance to see Charlie Watts close up, could read the set list written on plastic screens (which presumably also act as a shield) around the drum kit. Sympathy had the stadium bathed in red & Satisfaction - well, just say there was a very large choir!

It still intrigues me, though how people (ie some in the cheap seats) sat down for the whole set?? That's not the point, even if it is an all seated event! No photos at the moment - I used up a whole film but still 35mm at the moment apart from a few grainy mobile phone shots (digi cam on the way...). Time now to give my ears a break!

Cardiff Calling!!!

2006-08-27T12:33:00.000-04:00

Luckily the weather held as M and I sauntered down to Coopers Field, Cardiff yesterday for the inaugural (?) Cardiff Calling festival. Pictured above is the set list for the second stage which is where we spent most of our time. Caught Kid Harpoon on the main stage first, before heading in.

Saw most of the above people apart from Lethal Bizzle (just not my thing) and Jamie T. Of the rest, highlights were The Chalets, The Pipettes and Misty's Big Adventure. Originally bought tickets in order to see The Chalets & The Pipettes and we weren't disappointed! To start with The Chalets, of what I can recall from their set they played Night Rocker, Sexy Mistake, No Style, Theme From The Chalets, Red High Heels, Love Punch, plus 2 (new?) songs. There didn't appear to be many fans in the crowd to begin with, the band got the crowd enthused by the end of the set! Picture below.

Word has obviously spread about The Pipettes as the tent was nearly full for the start of their set, which contained ABC, Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me, Because Its Not Love, 2 (new?) songs not on their recent album, It Hurts To See You Dance So Well, I Love You, Dirty Mind, Judy, Pull Shapes and We Are The Pipettes. Pull Shapes got an extra special reaction from the crowd. Must mention their excellent backing band, The Cassettes!

Mistys Big Adventure should have been higher up the bill! They were really entertaining, not that easy to describe but some similarities with the Zutons. A saxophonist and trumpet player! Plus the dancing man whose robe had feet all over it... a very psychedelic performance.

Other bands on the second stage - Victorian English Gentlemans Club were ok (local Cardiff band, I understand), not sure if their setup was right tho as the lyrics were hard to hear. Louie weren't as good, frankly a bit samey/shouty. Half head 65 Days of Static from outside whilst eating, seemed better than Louie but again not very impressed. Which brings me to the second stage itself - very random sequencing of bands! Surely The Pipettes should have headlined? And there are quite a few other local and/or up and coming indie bands which would have made the stage better - Innercity Pirates to name 1. Otherwise, decent value for money anyway.

We headed to the main stage area about 8.15 in time to catch Badly Drawn Boy. A marked improvement from the last time we saw him at the Cardiff Tsunami Relief gig in January 2005. His new stuff seems to have more bite, a bit louder, and certainly came across well. Embrace's DJ set provided a break before headliners Snow Patrol. A bit here about the main stage - some of the line up did seem a bit cobbled together to provide support for Snow Patrol, who were the only band with a full length set. Having said that, for Snow Patrol fans, I suppose £20 is a cheap show! Their set was ok and certainly got a very enthusiastic response. Mixture of songs from Final Straw and their new album, plus a few real oldies.

Fireworks?!?

Anyway, oops thats a real missive I've just written! A good day out and there was more than enough options for a £20 ticket, plus ok food options as well. Will next year be an improvement? Fingers crossed....

Au quatrieme fois..

2006-08-24T15:21:00.000-04:00

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace.

Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to their upcoming album Raise The Alarm on their website.

The Subways entered the room to applause - after a moment's gasp as Charlotte's hair is now red! I think the first track was With You - most of the set was (of course) made up of tracks from Young For Eternity. A few extra gems in the shape of 3 new songs. I didn't catch the title of the first one, but the other 2 were Shake Shake and Kalifornia. Slightly heavier sound than the songs we know and love, a great reaction - I really like Shake Shake. Unfortunately no sound clips on website/myspace as yet. Usual on stage antics, Billy jumping on the speakers, and at one point during the show climbed off the top of one of the speaker stacks onto the first floor balcony! I think it was at that point that I also noticed someone in the crowd with a gas mask.....The encore was Rock & Roll Queen (after another old favourite which has slipped my mind)

The crowd were really appreciative, I think this gig rates even better than the last 3! It didn't look sold out, though, which is a real shame. Come on people -If you don't already own Young For Eternity, get it!

Spare tickets?

2006-08-13T16:04:00.000-04:00

I finally remembered the website! Scarlet Mist allows you to buy/sell spare gig tickets at face value. Had heard of it before.....

The gig lull will shortly be over, counting down until the Subways on 23rd (and the Stones tickets arrived Wednesday).

Forget those clouds....

2006-06-16T17:16:00.000-04:00

Good things come to those who wait! Have just been checking the Rolling Stones website for support details.... and THE KOOKS are listed as (one of) the support acts!!! Wahey!! Plus, a rumour doing the rounds online of Mötley Crüe joining them!?!

A few new band website links I should post. Planet of Women [myspace] are a great female-led band (their plug - AC/DC meets The Supremes), can't remember where I heard of them but eagerly awaiting any form of album/tour date near me! Similarly recommended are The Chalets, The Modern and very new mellow discovery Public Symphony. All sites have music samples. Unfortunately I've been neglecting the Barfly website of late, I seem to have missed a few promising gigs - Towers of London & The Suffrajets spring to mind.

A few old favourites deserve a mention too. I've been listening to Mitch Malloy for about 6 years now but I only found his myspace a few weeks ago whilst browsing... was great to hear some new samples! And I am really enjoying the new Jeff Scott Soto Essential Ballads CD :)

So yes, more gigs needed - though I was organised enough to get tickets for that Metro Weekender thing on 26th August (The Chalets, Pipettes, Misty's Big Adventure all look good on the 2nd stage).

Clouds and silver linings

2006-06-03T15:01:00.000-04:00

Well The Kooks sold out - again... but Keith Richards is recovering well. Roll on 29th August!

Zuton Fever

2006-05-22T16:08:00.000-04:00

Many smiles last night for The Zutons' long awaited gig at Cardiff Students Union. And the rain held off as well...

Once inside (note to self - get real tickets next time!), we were entertained by 2 supports. First on were The Grates. Quite an interesting sound from this trio (plus occasional keyboardist), between a style reminiscent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more 'jangly indie' leanings. I preferred their louder songs, which seemed to show off singer Patience's voice better than the 'janglier' bits (though it may be said singer's dancing that put me off at times...). Even a bit of banter with the audience! Not bad for a support slot, samples at their myspace. Second on, The Little Flames. Personally, I'd rather they hadn't bothered, not impressed at all with their songs (tune, anyone?). But as I'm generous, they have a link too.

Thankfully The Little Flames were off by 9pm leaving 30 minutes for the crowd to get very excited! Too excited for some who insisted on spraying the crowd with beer - I just don't get that. The Zutons started off with a bang, first track was current single Why Won't You Give Me Your Love. Most of the second album made the set list, along with old favourites. As much as I can remember, tracks included Havana Gang Brawl, Pressure Point, Tired of Hanging Around, Dirty Dancehall (dedicated to the city of Cardiff for assisting in Liverpool's FA Cup success), Oh Stacey, Hello Conscience, Confusion, Its The Little Things We Do, You Will You Won't. Plus the encore: Zuton Fever, next single Valerie plus an instrumental. Oops - it seems I've missed posting any comments on said second album - excellent! I think I may actually prefer it to Who Killed The Zutons?, especially Valerie :)

M and I really enjoyed this show - highly recommended but I think their tour's sold out... Much more polished sound than previously (the dark days of January 2004 if I remember right), and improved 'working the crowd' skills.

Other bits & bobs, Keith Richards seems to be recovering from his well-publicised fall, still hoping that the tour makes it to Cardiff on time! And speaking of current bands, The Kooks are touring again in the autumn, coming to Cardiff on 10th October. Hoping to get tickets this time... been a while since December's slot with The Subways...

Inner City Pirates -pictures 28/04/2006

2006-05-02T17:26:00.000-04:00

Finally! managed to get my illustrations up! Well, M's I should say as he took them! Evidence of my studenty swipe haha...

Pirates 3

2006-05-01T10:53:00.000-04:00

28th April saw the 3rd of the Inner City Pirates' gigs at Clwb Ifor Bach. Just M and I this time!

Different support acts again. First on were The Trouble With Me, who on first listening didn't particularly interest me, and I don't think the sound was set up right? Seemed to have mostly Manics influences, bit samey but I would rate their performance better than last month's Red City. After the set, this band handed out free copies of their 2005 EP, 'Young Knives EP'. Their standing has improved somewhat after listening to the CD, which had a much lighter sound than their live set. See their website/myspace for more information.

Main (advertised) support came from Matthew Monroe, who was hilarious! Just Monroe and his acoustic guitar. A little hard to describe his sound, singer-soungwriter is perhaps a bit vague, his songs were mainly highly amusing monologues set to music, titles I remember include Steven and Natalie. Unfortunately I cannot find a website, either searching myspace or google! Shall just have to keep searching until I find it!

The Inner City Pirates set - for which I remembered by studenty poster-swiping skills to land a copy of the set list - wasn't as good as last months, we think. All new songs (the last one listed on the set list, Whisper The Fear, was replaced by The Little Pills We Love. The set also felt shorter than last months? Which is a shame. There is still another show listed on their site, for 26th May, to which we shall endeavour to attend.

It seems at the moment I'm unable to upload my photos, so the set list in question was:

Locked In This Game
She's A Bastard
Pretty Disease
Roller Coaster
Go Now Go
Bang Bang
DeadMan
Calling To Say
Knock Me Up
Eat The Pain
Whisper The Fear (replaced as above by Little Pills We Love)

4 and 5

2006-04-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

Busy weekend. Number 4 was the 2nd Innercity Pirates night at Clwb Ifor Bach, spread the word to another friend so a highly successful evening! Again, Red City were the (only) support, who were still underwhelming and may even have got worse! Luckily a short set. The main Pirates set was much more polished than the last one, they have been practicing!! Only mishap this time when an overenthusiastic fan accidentally stood on a connector! Quite a different set, this time almost totally from the 3 recent EPs with the only oldies Whisper The Fear, and 'that song' from last time - which is called The Little Pills We Love. For the set list, simply check out the track listings for the 3 EPs on their website!

Number 5 entailed a visit to Coal Exchange to see Mogwai. Luckily the buses were back to normal - well normal for a Sunday ie nothing late at night! Slightly more interesting support band, The Magnificents (sound: a mix between Mogwai, Syntax and The Killers), although I did find their sound rather samey. They came on really early, just after doors. Bit of a gap before the main show, but all things come to those who wait, as the main show was excellent, the sound was well balanced & the set seemed to fly by! Both bands had a lighting show alongside the music. I'm not that familiar with Mogwai's stuff so track names are beyond me, not that it was that kind of show - I would say almost like a classical concert from the atmosphere. The encore was less impressive though (or that last 10 minutes), I know Mogwai are known for loud shows but even so! However I would stil recommend them, but not every week! The show did remind me that I really ought to see Sigur Ros sometime (if they ever play anywhere near Cardiff).

Other random link: protect your democratic rights against overweening ministerial power proposed in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill on the Save Parliament site.

Post Script

2006-03-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

Whilst browsing the ever useful melodicrock.com, I finally found a useful link for Thin Lizzy's UK and European tour dates on John Sykes website. Its a must!

Second tidbit, BBC 6 Music has a website dedicated to Keeping It Peel. Contains tracks from every Peel session ever, and samples on the 'best 125'. Made my day!

soon-to-be-on-hols Liz

Limehouse Lizzy

2006-03-12T14:42:00.000-05:00

M and I started March off with a trip to Cardiff Bay last night to see Limehouse Lizzy at The Point last night. Limehouse Lizzy are one of the better Thin Lizzy tribute bands currently touring. I finally managed to make it to The Point for a gig (which is somewhat surprising considering the amount of gigs I go to!), and I'm quite impressed with the venue. The night got off to a good start - once we got there, I won't go into Cardiff Bus or the lack of it! - whilst we were at the bar, I noticed the background music was a Jeff Scott Soto track from his Yngwie Malmsteen days. The geek in me looked up the track and its from 'Rising Force' album ( I think the track is 'Now Your Ships Are Burned'). Woohoo!

Back to Lizzy. They came onstage at about 9.30pm (no support) and did a 2 hour set, minus a break of about 20 mins. Opening track was (of course) Jailbreak, followed by Dancing in the Moonlight. All the grat songs were in the set, including Don't Believe A Word, Emerald, Rosalie, Parisienne Walkways, Chinatown, Killer On The Loose, Out In The Fields plus a few others that I (eek!) hadn't heard - Warrior, Johnny The Fox and Suicide. In the encore - The Rocker, a cover of T-Rex's 'Get It On' (apparently at the request of the roadie, Julian) and Whisky In The Jar.

I must say- the lead singer (Wayne, according to their website Limehouse Lizzy) is really good looking, from where I was standing anyway! Excellent musicianship, there were of course a few different embellishments on the songs but a very good substitute for the real thing. Bad points - not very many, apart from not being on stage long enough! As there was no support band, the audience were left waiting at least 90 minutes - why not do a 2.5 hour set or longer?

If you are interested in the real Thin Lizzy, they are playing a few select UK dates next week - see Ticketmaster for details. Try and go - I saw them in Nov 2003 (Leadmill, Sheffield) and they were fantastic!!!!! Unfortunately, Thin Lizzy themselves do not tour often, but these guys go some way to making up for this! All their tour dates are on the website. I'm certainly looking for their next Cardiff date!

Liz

Innercity Pirates Night 1

2006-02-25T06:32:00.000-05:00

Second gig of the year. M and I braved the icy winds last night to see Innercity Pirates (fka My Red Cell) at Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff, the first of a few 'Pirates Nights'. Almost empty when we first went in, but more people turned up later on (though by 'people', read bands/friends/family and a few others like us).

This evening there were 2 support bands, who had a 30 minute slot each. First up were Red City, who were solid (maybe even a bit samey?), rather obvious Metallica influences at times! The second band, Dirty Looks, were much better. M thinks we have seen them before and certainly their 1st song 'Into The Sun' sounded familiar. Then again, they did remind me of The Kooks in some ways so perhaps that was it.

Innercity Pirates (see picture taken by M) were on for about an hour or so. I should say at this point that there was no 'stage' as such at all in the ground floor room at Clwb Ifor Bach, the bands performed on the dancefloor section of the room, so twas a very intimate setting! The set was a mix of old favourites from their '13InMy31' album and some new songs from their recent EPs. Of the older songs, I recall In A Cage (On Prozac), Going Out For Nothing, Head In The Ground and Whisper The Fear. New songs included Locked In This Game, Eat The Pain, Go Now Go, She's A Bastard and Bang Bang. The last song M recognised but I didn't - not sure of the title but it went 'f*ck love and hate lets masturbate' - anyone who knows the proper title please post a comment! For samples of the above and info please visit their website Innercity Pirates.

As I mentioned earlier, most of the audience there seemed to be friends and family, atmosphere more of a live practice session, with a few techical problems during the set! Though in some ways this added to the atmosphere!

Next Pirates Nights at Clwb Ifor Bach (which are highly recommended) are: 31st March, 28th April and 26th May 2006.