Kafka On The Shore

Loney, Dear @ Union Chapel, London, 10 Sep 09

When I come out of a live gig, my first thought is pretty much to compare the live renditions with the recordings. Grizzly Bear, for instance, sound as sleek, multi-layered and sophisticated on stage as they do on their albums, Deerhunter, well, not so much…Loney, Dear? So so, so much better. Simply put, there is not one song from his live set that didn’t sound ten times as good as their studio versions (big credit to his accompanying band, particularly his back-up singer and his drummer). So much so, that it’s now rather frustrating going back to the Dear John album and not being able to feel it the same way I did two nights ago.

Two highlights of the show: “Under A Silent Sea“ for its rich instrumentation and electro effects, and “The Meter Marks OK” for the goosebump inducing audience participation (there were some seriously good singers among us…I, for one, was wise enough to keep my mouth shut).

Wildbirds & Peacedrums @ Union Chapel, London, 10 Sep 09

I like Loney, Dear (his second album even more than his first) but what drove me to go see him live was that he was getting support from fellow Swedes, Wildbirds & Peacedrums. I anticipated great things from their live performance and couldn’t wait to witness their mad drumming and haunting vocals combo on stage. I wasn’t disappointed one bit. The venue being a church, the acoustic was perfect for this sort of percussion-heavy act and Mariam Wallentin’s voice carried beautifully well across the room. It got very close to a religious experience — not so much the meditating sort but more of the epileptic trance kind. 

Health @ Koko, London, 24 Aug 09

Violently Happy?…Experiencing Health live is just like experiencing Thai food in Thailand: painful and delicious at the same time.

Deerhunter @ Koko, London 24 August 09

Well, I wasn’t particularly blown away by Deerhunter live, nor was I particularly disappointed. They mostly performed songs from Microcastle, which I’m not complaining about since it’s got plenty of great tracks and I’m not familiar with the rest of their discography anyway. Thing is, they hadn’t really reworked any of their songs for the stage, some of them sounding like pale copies of their studio versions. One thing I really found annoying was how Bradford Cox’s vocals were completely drowned out by the chords and drums, except for “Microcastle”, which for that precise reason was the highlight of the evening for me.

Sidenote: Deerhunter brought along two Californian bands for support. I found Crystal Antlers rather cool the first couple of songs but then I swiftly moved on and proceeded to go to my happy place and watch a movie there. It was however impossible to mentally block out Health, but I’m not sure if it’s because I found them impressive or if it’s simply due to the fact that their noise rock was so loud that it caused internal bleeding.

Grizzly Bear @ Koko, London, 18 Aug 09

And me who thought that Grizzly Bear would be the typical band that struggles to sound as good on stage as they do in the recording studio. I couldn’t have been more wrong: last night’s gig was perfect in all respects. The overall production was absolutely flawless with lots of instrumental layers produced with a really crisp sound, impeccable vocals, and beautiful lighting.  Me happy.

Full flickr set here

First Aid Kit @ The Lexington, London, 28 July 2009

Man, do I love this town. How many times did I get the chance to go see a band live within days of discovering their music! Countless times, that’s how many. I came across the Söderberg sisters singing in their local woods only last week, and I liked them so much that I scored their debut album that same day and bought a ticket to a London show scheduled for the following week. Bam Bam Bam. God, I love it when things come to me that quickly and easily.

They sounded as good on The Lexington stage as they do in their Swedish forest. With their crispy clear vocals, perfectly in-tune singing and simple beautiful melodies, you’re bound to get consistantly great performances from those two. Klara (the brunette) is the bubbly one (dare I say “the rambling one”?…well, let’s just say she talks a lot), Johanna (the blonde) is the coy one (she likes to pull the angel face in a perpetual state of grace). They’re so in tune with each other it’s incredible to see: their voices are totally in sync , they would even rehydrate with the occasional sip of water at the exact same time (spooky), and it’s the same adorable smile that illuminates both their faces. It’s interesting to see siblings share a stage; they know how to bring out that mixture of intimacy, complicity and harmony that strikes me as special. I noticed it with the Stones too and I wonder how much of that I’d find at a Tegan&Sara gig (in between the bickering, that is).

First Aid Kit crammed lots of goodness in their short 45-minute set: a handful of great songs from their LP, a couple I never heard before (including a new one that Klara wrote after being inspired by Into The Wild), their Fleet Foxes cover of course (with their now ritual intro line: “this is for you FF; it’s a little gift from us”) and their beautiful cover of “Universal Soldier”.

St. Vincent @ the ICA, London, 08 July 2009 

I had never been to a concert at the ICA before; I see it more as a venue for when I feel the urge to spend three hours on a wooden chair with no room to park my legs room and endure enjoy contemplative experimental cinema. Let’s just say that I now think twice about going to the ICA to see a film. But I’ve always wondered if their music space was as small and “minimalist” as their screening room. I got my answer two nights ago when I went to see Annie Clark of St. Vincent perform there. The venue is indeed rather small: it can only hold 350 but I’d say we were no more than 300 attending Annie’s gig, which really took me by surprise. Isn’t St. Vincent bigger than this? Shouldn’t she be able to play, say, Shepherd’s Bush Empire in front of 1,500/2,000 fans? Or am I that disconnected with reality?

On the plus side, it made for an intimate show and having Annie Clark singing to my face was far from unpleasant. I’m not sure however how pleasant it was for her to have me in her face. She did lock eyes with me early on during one of her songs, only to never do that again the rest of the show. I’m trying hard not to read too much into that.

I like St Vincent’s albums a lot but what really sealed the deal for me was the couple of live performances I had seen online (this one, and that one but particularly this other one). I knew that I was going to really enjoy her perform live, and sure enough, she blew me away. I found her live set up to be quite ambitious for such a small venue to handle (the sound check took for ever and the musicians were struggling to find enough sockets to plug their gear) and between Annie’s electric guitar, her double-mic juggling, the flute, the oboe, the violin, the sax, the bass and the drums, there were lots of sounds coming out of that tiny stage, and not always in a polished manner. The vocals on a couple of songs were so muted that I wondered if that was intentional and Annie’s saturated and aggressive riffs were a bit harmful at times  (with each of her short bursts of musical epileptic fits, someone’s eardrums would expire), but who cares, the energy was great and the occasional cacophony would add to the raw quality of her performance. One thing was made very clear that night: Annie is really more of a rock chick than one might think. She might look like a delicate insect but when once plugged in, she turns into a real powerhouse.

Set list: Marry Me, The Strangers, Save Me From What I Want, Now Now, Actor Out Of Work, Paris Is Burning, The Bed, Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood, Black Rainbow, Marrow, Just The Same But Brand New  / the encore: The Party + Your Lips Are Red

M83 @ Koko, London, July 2009

A month after seeing Phoenix, I was back at Koko’s for another helping of French cheese. Anthony Gonzalez kicked off with a few really beautiful ambient pieces before beeing joined by the very cool Morgan Kibby and the drummer. They were really sleek, switching back and forth between dream-pop and more hardcore electronica with ease and to really good effect, and I thought the band sounded as good live as on the records. Having said all that, however enjoyable the gig was, it never quite took off for me.