Patrick Wolf + YACHT @ Academy 2

Patrick Wolf + YACHT @ Academy 2 [250509]

Touring forthcoming album See Mystery Lights, YACHT are an American performance duo who explain at length where Oregon is (it’s on the left, up a bit form California) and spend their set in full occupation of the stage, backed by an elaborate powerpoint. Tracks like The Afterlife and the increasingly frenetic It’s Coming To Get You get the crowd moving, even if just to get out the way of stage debris. YACHT are not entirely unlike cruiseship entertainers, but in a more fashionable self-aware post-hipster sort of way. They close on an earworm of a song, Psychic City (Voodoo City), which I’ve listened to more times than healthy since.

The fourth album from baroque pop singer/songwriter Patrick Wolf, new release The Bachelor has had some difficulties along the way. However, none of the drama is evident tonight as Wolf opens with Oblivion and grasping hands reach out straight away. Without a pause the band go onto Bluebells then via Peter Pan, from Wolf’s first studio album Lycanthropy, into Count of Casualty, from the forthcoming. Meanwhile the band remain strong, particularly the violinist who is on form throughout the set with barely a break.

The mashup of strings and synth, with Wolf’s distinctive vocals overlaying, make new tracks out of old friends like The Libertine and Tristan, which sounds quite different with the touring band arrangement but is one of the crowd favourites for the evening.

Wolf introduces Damaris, from The Bachelor, as “the one… people seem to like the most so far” and it’s not hard to see why. Opening shyly, with Wolf playing strings, the track swells and is joined by drums to create a track that is at once more radio-friendly than a lot of his back-catalogue but is absolutely Patrick Wolf all over. Battle is also a departure from previous material, almost teetering into rock while being accompanied by a ukulele. The crowd, Wolf advises, would make a good army. One imagines that Wolf would be easy enough to follow.

The set winds down with Lands End and The Messenger, closing with an apology (”this is our last track… I’m so sorry”) and Hard Times, before – of course – there is a costume change in time for a short encore. The night ends with a joyous rendition of The Magic Position.

SETLIST

Oblivion

Bluebells

Peter Pan

Count of Casualty

Blackdown

Damaris

Accident and Emergency

Tristan

The Libertine

Battle

Who Will?

Theseus

Land’s End

The Messenger

Hard Times

ENCORE

Vulture

The Magic Position

Fightstar + In Case Of Fire @ Academy 2

Fightstar + In Case Of Fire @ Academy 2 [280409]

The fifth date on Fightstar’s tour for their new album, Be Human, tonight the Academy 2 is sold out and it shows. There are people spilling across the merch area and the top bar, turning the top floor of the venue into a sweatbox and one wonders why the band isn’t playing downstairs in the bigger room. When the pit opens it eats any remaining space quicker than an illicit midnight supper disappears at fat camp, shoving people out into the surrounds. Awesome thinking by the Academy, as always.

Anyhow, In Case Of Fire play second, and open with what was their debut single This Time We Stand. With a long summer of gigs to go, energy levels seem conservative tonight, not helped by the way Robinson’s vocals are occasionally swallowed up by the thrashy noise of guitars and overpowered by the drums, which are solid, if unimaginative, throughout the set.

They play The Cleansing and Landslides, among other tracks from their debut album, Align the Planets, released later this year. Overall, their sound seems a little unfocused and, from what I can hear, I’m not sure the three band members are always playing the same song. They’ve been receiving rave reviews hither and yon so there’s absolutely something there, but tonight it was not entirely in evidence.

Fightstar enter the stage with a bellow and are greet by shouts. They open with Colours Bleed to Red and are almost immediately overwhelmed with girlish screaming, which only gets louder for The English Way, taken from their new album.

For those unaccustomed to post-hardcore, the tracks don’t usually have a bit you can clap along with, and there’s not a great amount of hooks. This cannot be said of the majority of Be Human: Fightstar have definitely crossed into melodic hardcore sometime in the night. The crowd here don’t mind in the least.

Tonight’s set is a mix of tracks from the new album interspersed with older material, with two songs from their 2005 EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, and Lost Like Tears In Rain apparently brought into the set by fan requests.

Simpson’s vocals are lazy, the crowd louder throughout much of the set, but production standard when he can get the energy. Tracks like Grand Unification (Part 1) are crowd favourites, but some of Be Human – notably Never Change, the next single – are greeted apathetically.

For the encore, Fightstar play Amethyst, which actually bears more resemblance to the sound of Be Human than the two albums between, and is the first time Simpson sings the lyrics without crutching on the crowd. The man next to me shrieks at a level only dogs can hear in joyous response.

They end on Deathcar, which prompts a panicked crush of bodies to the pit. The song is theatrical and absurd, as hardcore is theatrical and absurd, and is a good end to the night.

Setlist

Colours Bleed to Red

The English Way

Paint Your Target

Calling All Stations

Palahniuk’s Laughter

Grand Unification (Part 1)

War Machine

Mercury Summer

We Apologise For Nothing

Never Change

Floods

Lost Like Tears In Rain

Amethyst

Deathcar

Elixir of Love @ Hippodrome

Further exploring the Night Less Ordinary system took me this evening to the Birmingham Hippodrome to see the Welsh National Opera’s Elixir of Love. I’ve never seen opera before and was unwilling to shell out for it without, you know, having any idea if I’d like it.

Man, I didn’t realise opera could be funny. I feel like a numpty. But in the good, no-longer-numpty way, because there was a hot air balloon and a drunken gold-digging chorus and the most awesome collection of facial expressions I have ever seen. The subtitles – it took me a while to find them, shut up – were helpful, but it was such that the spectacle was enough. So much colour and movement and yes, singing, about which I am not even slightly qualified to comment, but I enjoyed the hell out of. So much so that I think I ended that sentence on a preposition.

The Hippodrome staff were great about the NLO ticketing, too; there was a form to fill out, basic name/address stuff, but I didn’t feel like a pleb. Despite being a pleb. There were quite a few NLOers out by the looks of things, easy to spot among the shawl-wearing crowd, and there wasn’t that foisty atmosphere I had always anticipated at We Are Going To the Opera evenings.

So, yeah. I can see why this NLO thing is important to the Arts Council, and I think it should be important to theatres who haven’t already picked up on it. Changing perceptions of who one has to be to Appreciate Culture is important, to survive a new crowd has to be drawn in and to do that accessibility should be a focus.

I mean. As a result of the free ticket I had tonight, I’ll probably buy one next time. That’s got to be a result.

Tomorrow: the Rep for His Dark Materials #1.

Anti-Flag @ Academy

I just remembered how much I fucking love punk rock.  Socialising with too many metalheads makes me get apologetic about it but screw that noise.

I enjoy vegan recruiters in the lobby, I enjoy vocalists asking if I’ve seen the cover of the Independent, I enjoy being told that an individual can change the world, and I enjoy three minute songs with shouty choruses and bassists with ridiculous hair and megaphones and seeing fists raised in the air for an anti-war song, whether the crowd does or doesn’t know what the lyrics are actually about [not that they're complicated]. Because, dudes, mostly  I don’t want complicated: I want punk rock.

Also: Anti-Flag are awesome. The end.

this is a reminder

That I should be writing stuff about the bands I’m seeing at Surface Unsigned – I’m down at the Flapper Thursdays and Sundays for Stage One, as part of another thing, and so far it’s been good.  There’s been some screeching, more feedback than a human should have to here at once, and an awful lot of mums and dads, but– You know. Good shit, as well.

Tonight I enjoyed Maybe This Friday, an indie-pop band from Stoke who must be collectively all of 12. They do have some good hooks, though, and a vocalist with the potential to be something stunning – she sounds a bit ska, actually. Good stuff.

Oxford’s Dirty Voice were a bit more old school than the rest, and with more touring experience, and while they cite their influences as classic rock I felt there was a distinct edge of Americana/Southern rock in their sound. In a club like the Flapper it worked well, and the fans loved every minute.

I’m missing next Thursday for the Rise Against/Anti-Flag gig [oh no! what suffering!] but will be down again on Sunday. Maybe with cake.

Pram @ Hare & Hounds

Pram + Women @ Hare & Hounds [130209] @ BrumLive

“Don’t mind us if there are things that pop and squeak and start on fire,” says Women’s vocalist Patrick Flegal at the beginning of their set. The plaid shirt- and interesting tights- wearing crowd at the Hare & Hounds don’t seem alarmed at this warning, but I hold my drink a little closer.

This is the first gig for Women of a tour lasting until April and crossing the UK, central Europe, America and Canada, promoting their self-titled full length. They are an awkward-looking band, and they sound not unlike Pixies for hipsters, lo fi with some catchy hooks and a flavour of the Shins. Their set is brought an extra dimension by some strong work on the bass, and a generous helping of long and gloriously overworked art rock outros that stretch and buzz along the backline.

Between sets, the venue fills and there are projections of seahorses above the stage now set with shimmery fabrics and macbooks. Pram are armed with a trombone, a theremin, and various other paraphenalia I find both fascinating and confusing. I learn about seahorses.

“Ready to go?” we’re asked, and Pram slip into landscape music and astro jazz. I am not ready for this.

Let a Classicist review an instrumental set? Sure. If Alexander the Great was taking over jazz, this was the border crossing. In actual words we’re talking soundscapes fading into technicolour and there are flavours of twotone and all that late twentieth century experimental shit that littered myspace until Jeffree Star crashed into being. If you were in Berlin in the 80s, this would be your soundtrack. They are filling up empty spaces.

There is a group of guys in glasses and backpacks dancing earnestly in front of the stage in counter rhythm to the Edward Gorey scream of slide guitar, all very storm on a hillside, rain, sweeping dresses made muddy. Polite and appreciative theatre applause breaks up the set.

There is some trouble between the Hare & Hounds’ sound engineer and the band throughout the latter part of the set, with much huffing back and forth, which breaks the momentum and induces impatience from the crowd and some heckling. This is resolved, temporarily, but tempers are frayed and the rest of the set feels somewhat off. Maybe next time we’ll be ready.

a night less ordinary

Free theatre tickets for under 26s until 2011? You bet I’m playing this game.

Experiements so far have resulted in The Rep being incredibly helpful and lovely, and their rule is it can be for any performance so long as it’s on Friday, and you book by telephone. My only concern is in not yet receiving their confirmation email, which you have to take along with photo ID. And helpfully has the dates on, which I totally failed at writing on anything. Sigh.

RSC tickets can be booked via their website and, again, seems to be for any performance. Worse case scenario there are no free tickets left and you have to pay £5 as part of their regular 16-25 scheme. Heart, bleeding.

Rang the Hippodrome yesterday and they seemed to be in a bit of a panic. Checking their website this morning reveals they’ve gone for a first nights theme; free tickets for the first performance of each run, bookable by telephone or at the theatre itself. I’ll be giving them a call today to see what’s available. [EDIT] Had a ten minute conversation today – call back Monday. Apparently it depends on the producer allowing the tickets to be made available? Bit of a flap all round at the Hippodrome, really.

This is an absolutely awesome scheme, and I’d like to thank my peers for avoiding the theatre so thoroughly for so long – I’ve now got eighteen months of free or exceptionally cheap theatre to enjoy [shut up purists - I'll buy a program or something when I'm there].

Happy Thursday.

Gaslight Anthem @ Academy

Gaslight Anthem + Frank Turner + Polar Bear Club @ 02 Academy [05.02.09] @ BrumLive

Polar Bear Club are on first, a fun hardcore-ish band in the 90’s sense of the word whose songs largely run into one another. In defence, it’s terribly early: 7pm starts are no one’s friend. There is some weakness in the vocals but the guitars are strong and clever and there’s a lot of energy thrown about on what is an otherwise spectacularly crappy day in the Midlands. They play a new track, Take Me To The Town, which intros like an eighties musical montage colliding with 90s rock. Win.

In the break the mixed crowd mill about, drinking to keep warm. A tip for the Academy: if using the upstairs stage, close the damn doors when it’s snowing outside. No one dares cross the zone between merch and stage for fear of losing an extremity.

“It’s a weird crowd though, isn’t it?” Yes. No one knows how a merch stand works, apparently.

Next up, Frank Turner is greeted warmly; it seems a large part of tonight’s crowd is here for him. He brings the noise levels down with some folk-rock and vehement but not embarrassing sincerity in the lyrics, tracks like Love, Ire & Song and Worse Things Happen At Sea received enthusiastically by the crowd.

I want to make a Decemberists comparison but it doesn’t sit quite right. The room size works well here, as he banters between tracks. Long Live The Queen is one of the faster in tonight’s set, with somewhat raw vocals on the higher notes but it works. Frank Turner has a sound that is Americana at the edges but seemingly not an imitation, more an accident of genre, although the lyrics can be hit or miss.

He ends with Ballad of Me and My Friends, with much shouting along. On the way out of the venue someone will ask his friend “Why the fuck haven’t I heard of Frank Turner? Every else has!” with a wide, sweeping gesture. Here’s a tip – don’t be that man. Listen harder.

Gaslight Anthem enter the stage to the flash of the presspit and launch into Great Expectations with the flashing of lights and unapologetic guitars, crashing into The Patient Ferris Wheel without a beat. They have been touring The ‘59 Sound for a while now but the songs aren’t called in, as they go into the next three tracks without pause, only begin to tumble at the edges a little on Film Noir, which has an intro I love. Here they pause for breath and we find out they’ve been sat on a plane for eight hours today. In Glasgow.

I think I can forgive a little tiredness in light of that, you know?

Title track, The ‘59 Sound, is anthemic and polished but still makes me think of smoky clubs and listening to bands you knew when you were 17 and would live forever. The whole album has this strange combination of timelessness and immediacy that led Kerrang! To declare Gaslight Anthem as the best new band you’ll hear in 2008 back in August.

The few tracks they play from Sink or Swim seem to be a foreign language to some of tonight’s crowd, but at Miles Davis & The Cool I’m told “they’ll be playing downstairs next time” and that vocalist Brian Fallon has cited a Springsteen influence. Also, the sky is blue.

Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts impacts with the dynamic of guitars, even in the Academy with their oftentimes dubious PA, and there are crowdsurfers for High Lonesome and The Navesink Banks. Wrapping up with an awesome display of vocals on Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, and closing the set on The Backseat, there’s a lot of blinking and breath-catching by the crowd as the band exit the stage.

And return for an encore.

By the time Say I Won’t (Recognize), there is no one left ambivalent about the Gaslight Anthem. So I’ll be seeing you downstairs next time, yeah?

SETLIST

Great Expectations
The Patient Ferris Wheel
Wooderson
We Came To Dance
Film Noir
The ‘59 Sound
Miles Davis & The Cool
I’da Called You Woody, Joe
Old White Lincoln
Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts
High Lonesome
The Navesink Banks
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
The Backseat

ENCORE
Boomboxes and Dictionaries
State of Love and Trust [Pearl Jam cover]
Say I Won’t (Recognize)