So how's about this? I've never been to this venue before! How could that possibly be given that I've been to more gigs in London over the space of ten years than I've had hot brekkies? Who the heck knows, but I'm glad to have found this little venue attached to the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank - not least because it has the most comfortable seats I've been in at a gig for a very long time (although it does also remind me of a university lecture theatre a little too much!).
The capacity here is 900 and she's full up for tonight's performance by Lisa Hannigan & Friends. Yes that's right I'm seeing another Irish singer/songwriter and yes I know I am making somewhat of a habit of that, but when there is good Irish talent around you definitely want to be in the room partaking.
The opener tonight is John Smith who comments that he needs all the help he can get given his'common' moniker. John gives us some fairly pleasant acoustic tunes on his 'gheetar'. The most amusing part is when he tells us about his fear of breaking a string while he is de-tuning and sending said string into his arm. Sure enough a couple of songs from the end of his set he does just that (although thankfully without the arm injury).
Lisa is on around 8.15pm and when she says 'friends' she means it! I count seven people onstage with various instruments - piano/banjo, violin, double bass, trumpet, guitar (in the form of opener John Smith), drums and Lisa (on guitar, mandolin, percussion and piano accordion). In other words it's a full on Irish festival of sound - giddy up!
This is the last night of the band's European tour but there's no mucking around - we are off instantly and straight into Little Bird. I've not managed to see Lisa live before as a solo artist and it's great to hear her voice echo through the hall. I find that her voice has a delicious raspiness to it which makes it unique, and it's something that attracts me to her work.
Another aspect of Lisa's work that I enjoy is her penchant for tunes with gorgeous and subtle melodies and one is offered up immediately in the form of Pistachio.
I said damn this band are a multi-talented lot! We've got a myriad of instruments being whipped out, and for the next number Ocean and a Rock there is some glockenspiel and accordion action - tidy work!
One thing about Lisa is that she always seems to be to be fully invested in her music. It's as if her own songs captivate her, and that's what I want to see. If music is your passion in life and you are lucky enough to be making a living out of that passion then there is no reason why you shouldn't be leaving everything you've got on the stage every night. You cannot ask anything more than that from any performer. If you leave your heart and soul on the stage then you've done justice to your art - if the audience doesn't get it, then that's their issue. That being said, there's no such issue tonight because the audience are attentive and appreciative at every stage.
Lisa then takes a new mandolin on 'her maiden voyage' with Venn Diagram which is sweet, as is her duet with John Smith which follows (O Sleep).
A slight technical issue (a guitar not tuned to Lisa's liking) has the band changing around the set list slightly and the nest tune - O Sail - eventually has the whole band involved and it sounds wonderful.
One of my favourite Lisa tunes is next - Flowers- there's some great direct lyrics here:
"I don't know the rules of this game, And I don't think I want to play"
Lisa's moving around the stage like she's been possessed here - her whole body is involved in this process and there's something slightly hypnotic about it.
Paper Hats from Lisa's latest album Passenger is next, followed by Nowhere to Go (which sports a gorgeous violin solo) and then Lisa decides to pull out yet another instrument (this time a melodica) for Teeth- ok c'mon how many instruments does she play?This is making us non-musical plebs feel even more inadequate!
Home, Lille (with great glockenspiel) and Safe Travels (Don't Die) are a lovely threesome with the last tune being dedicated to the band's good fortune at escaping death throughout the tour. I Don't Know and What'll I Do round off the main set. Darn - are we near the end already?
There is a very short encore break and then the band come back on for what, in my view, is the highlight of the night - a musical tribute to Levon Helm in the form of an inspiring version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. It's the band singing all together with only a guitar accompanying them. It's a pretty perfect way to honour Levon and I'm pretty sure this performance wouldn't have been out of place at any of his infamous rambles.
Lisa ends the night with Knots - which is a fantastic ukulele driven track. We are left bopping in our seats on a high and positive note. This has been a very enjoyable night and something which I certainly hope to repeat at some time in the future. Ta muchly to Lisa and her extremely talented band!
Setlist:
Little Bird Pistachio Passenger Ocean and a Rock Venn Diagram O Sleep A Sail Flowers Paper House Nowhere To Go Teeth Home Lille Safe Travels (Don't Die) I Don't Know What'll I Do
Now this is a result - a gig over my side of town! The Troxy is an old art deco- styled venue which to be fair is probably more suited to lounge acts or vaudeville shows but which has recently been host to some pretty amazing indie rock artists - such as Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey and Cake. Tonight the 2,600 capacity venue is putting up the newly reformed Garbage.
I was actually at the 'very last' Garbage show at Brixton Academy years ago and it was an amazing performance. I cannot, however, believe that took place over 7 years ago! Surely not? Where does the time go? And more importantly how old am I - gah!
I first saw Garbage in the origins of their hey day co-headlining with Alanis Morrisette in Canberra (October '99) of all places. I distinctly remember Shirley tearing up the stage and making the night of numerous hapless boyfriends (who had been dragged along to the show by their girlfriends!) by strutting around the front of the stage with her very short skirt and white undies - they were actually very good that night and Alanis had to significantly up the ante to match it.
Garbage, time, were mainly about very slick pop rock songs and some serious Scottish attitude (care of their iconic leading lady). I am keen to see whether they still have the ability to sliver up the goods. I am also somewhat concerned about the fact that yet another band from my own hey day has come out of retirement - where is the new guard? In a perfect music world there would be no room for those who voluntarily left the stage many years ago. Perhaps the fact that bands like Garbage, Blur, Soundgarden and The Stone Roses (amongst others) are able to successfully tour again says something about the dire state of a music industry overrun by artists created by Simon Cowell - or maybe it just indicates that I am getting overly critical in my old age!
At least Garbage are not simply resting on their old laurels - there is an album full of new material on its way and I assume that we going to get a taste of some of the new tracks tonight.
Following a DJ opener (who really did remind us how old we were by playing 'classics' like L7 and The Damned) , the band took the stage just after 9pm. The crowd are full of people around my age in various shapes and forms and lots of goth looking girls with pink, blue and purple died hair - go the youngins!
The supervixen herself stepped straight up and into the track of the same name from Garbage's debut album (yeah that pink one!). She was decked out appropriately in red and black hot pants and heels and proceeded to throw herself around the stage in her infamous 'circling the prey' manner.
Unfortunately the sound system at the Troxy wasn't able to keep up with the band's intent and the result was a really muddy mix where Shirley's vocals could barely be heard - which was somewhat concerning given that I was standing in the front row. I've been at the Troxy a number of times and not experienced muddiness of this level before so I can only think that it's the set up that is creating the problem. It does improve over the course of the set but it's still a little off.
By the time we get to Queer we are able to hear the vocals a little better. The band sound good and the Shirley swagger is in effect - although it is slightly diminished by the minion who appears to relieve Shirley of her heels in exchange for flat boots - fair play!
Stupid Girl a few tracks later gets the crowd going and this is shortly followed by my personal highlight of the night being the triple whammy of #1 Crush (with awesome Madonna Erotica intro), Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) and excellent new track Blood For Poppies. Really they sound like the 7 year break was only 7 weeks - which bodes pretty well for their upcoming tour.
Shirley takes the opportunity to thank the crowd, their manager and their families (most of whom are here tonight) for their love and support and there is a collective feeling of nostalgia which I think is felt by most in attendance - ahhh the 90s - those were the days!
We then move into full nostalgia mode with Milk and I Think I'm Paranoid. It's good to see that there is still some venom in these tunes - especially given that some of them are over 17 years old!
Man on a Wire and Bad Boyfriend from (album) keep the energy high and we then find ourselves with two further old friends to end out the main set - Only Happy When It Rains (which starts out low key and almost acoustically) and Push It.
I am still yet to hear probably my favourite Garbage tune (Vow) but I have high hopes for the encore - although I am wondering what else they are going to play given that most of the biggest Garbage hits have already been dealt with.
I have to say I am pretty surprised to see them pull out new track Automatic Systematic Habit and The Trick is to Keep Breathing as the first two songs of the encore. It's not exactly keeping in line with the high energy which they had created but it's certainly different and enough to sort the men from the boys in terms of Garbage fans.
We are suddenly at the end of the night and I am rewarded with my favourite track - Vow. This is the song that started it all off in 1995 and is a fitting finale for this 'comeback' show. We even get a tidy sample of Patti Smith's Because the Night at the end before Shirley runs off stage and leaves the boys to finish things up.
It's a fairly satisfying night for us old Garbage fans. It will be interesting to see whether they can garner some interest with this latest album amongst the new brigade.
So I am back at the intimate Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush. I had a pretty great night here in February so the precedent has been set. Tonight it is Canadian indie singer-songwriter Dan Mangan.
I was first put on to Mr Mangan last year by one of my fellow music-loving mates, Leonie. She's one of my Dutchies and has excellent taste in music so I was more than open to her suggestion. The result was the fairly heavy rotation of Dan's 2009 album Nice, Nice, Very Nice 'NNVN' (yep it's a Kurt Vonnegut reference). It's a fun album chock full of skilfully writtenl songs about a myriad of different subjects such as robot love, pining for your home whilst on tour and how humans fit into this thing we call life. I have to say I had a great response to it do I was keen to see what Dan was going to offer up live.
I made it to the venue in time to see the last couple of songs by support group Zeus. They are a Toronto based unit so not physical comrades of Dan's (who is from Vancouver). They make plenty of noise and have a real 70s feel to them. It's not particularly ringing my bell but they get a great response from the crowd.
Dan is on at 9.30pm. He has a full band with him - drums, bass, guitar and even trumpet - and they start without ceremony. Well I say start, but to be absolutely honest it's hard to tell whether they are trying to set an ambient mood or tuning their instruments - we soon work out that it is the former and that they are in fact segueing into About as Helpful as You Can Get Without Being Any Help from his latest album Oh Fortune.
This is not the acoustic Dan Mangan I was anticipating, but I enjoy the fact that he is immediately stepping outside my expectations and pushing the audience beyond it's comfort zone. This is what a true artist should do in my opinion.
It takes the band the first couple of tunes to get into the swing of things - the songs from Oh Fortune are not as immediately accessible as those on NNVN but it's good to know that Dan is stepping outside the well delineated 'folk-rock' mould. It's a very big sound that they are bringing to the stage and I'm finding that the sound mix is not particularly great - as Thom Yorke would say it's 'buzzing like a fridge' at the back of the room where I am standing but to be fair that's not unusual in this box of a room.
The crowd also warm up sufficiently to get into NNVN track Sold. Catchy little number that one - 'it hurts, it kills, it screams' - yep sounds like a normal day at work for me! I always wonder whether the musicians I see realise that they are living the dream whilst us mere unmusical plebs deal with the rat race - these guys are at least having a good time.
Dan is active all over the stage, even dropping back to his guitar player's mic at times to do his own backing vocals (with some effect assistance).
The next highlight for me is Basket - which Dan says is a song really about birth - it's more a song about re-birth at various stages of life to me but let's not be pedantic about these things! This song showcases Dan's songwriting talents - the lyrics are incredibly visual and compassionate at the same time:
"We are old And our son took the dog away And fair enough, guess we're tired all the time All the time And you know dogs they need ample time outside"
This is closely followed by an all in singalong to one of Dan's most well-known tunes - Robots. I love this track and the audience are well up for some backing vocal duties.
Somehow we've managed to wizz through the set and an hour and bit bin we are already heading towards the 11pm curfew time and Dan notes that the standard action would be for them to leave the stage and come back on however its his view that the best use of their time is to ditch the encore break and just play to the curfew- I am down with that!
We are back into some more NNVN territory with Fair Verona where Dan is cut and pasting the starts to his heart - the boy has got some charisma and he's working it overtime at the moment.
He then invites the members of Zeus back on to the stage for a rendition of Elliott Smith's Waltz #2. It's a cool cover and the stage is suddenly very full of Canadians tearing it up.
Dan saves the best for last - he declares that he is coming on down into the crowd to get amongst it and then gives us some specific backing vocal duties - there's no words, it's just a melody which he is going to sing over and off he goes into So Much For Everyone. It sounds fabulous and the audience collectively decide to really bring it. I live for this shit at gigs - it's entirely engaging and this last five minutes is worth the ticket price alone.
Dan has certainly showcased his talents tonight and I'm glad to have had an opportunity to see him at such close quarters.
I've had myself another night of musical goodness at Bush Hall for a tenner - long may this trend continue!
