Tag: concert

Lost in Translation

I picked up the phone and texted ‘Hey you! Welcome back! Fancy going to the Barenaked Ladies tonight?’.

My Russian buddy, IT, had been back in Moscow for the summer. It was now September and university was about to start up again. This was a time when I wrote lots of music reviews and that particular Sunday night, I was to review a show by the Canadian band in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.

Sometimes there are perks to things like this, getting to see decent gigs and the treasured +1 on the guest list. My OH, Tahlulah, (who also likes to call herself my subeditor – I wonder if she’ll leave this in?) couldn’t make the gig that night so I thought I’d phone a friend.

IT replied ‘Yes! What time do we need to leave at? I’ll meet you at the bus stop’. We meet and chat, I get all the news about loves, losses and life in Moscow.

Jumping off the bus at Trinity College, the city centre is bustling with the return of the culchies (country folk who go home at weekends to their Mammies) and cases being dragged along the street.

We walk along the south side of Dame Street, the opposite side from the Central Bank. We chat as we pass pubs and a couple of basement gentleman’s clubs. The red man is out, we stand at the traffic lights waiting for our turn to cross. The lights beep, the red man turns green and we cross the road.

As we reach the other side, IT asks ‘Nessy, where are we going ?’. I signal towards The Olympia, visible two minutes walk away.

‘Oh!’, IT says with a slight surprised but definite disappointment in his voice. ‘You said Talulah was away’. Pointing towards a gentleman’s club he says ‘I thought we were going to see bare naked ladies’.

You can read my review of the night on Goldenplec

Barenaked Ladies photo taken from their website

June 19, 2015
Review // Hannah Schneider // Live at St Pancras Old Church, London

Hannah Schneider, St Pancras Old Church, London, June 11 2015

St Pancras Old Church always looks beautiful, whether it be in the depths of winter and you’re lining up in the cold outside or, if like today, it’s a beautiful summer’s evening. But the fading orange light during the summer gives a very different vibe to the full darkness illuminated only with street lamps of winter.

Inside, the light spills across the empty floor. All the chairs have been removed except for some placed along the walls and some lit candles add to the vibe. People are chatting and smoking outside in the sunshine but when Hannah Schneider takes to the stage / altar, they quickly pile in.

Hannah is on tour in support of her third album, ‘Red Lines‘, her first to get a proper release in the UK and this is final date of her tour. Red Lines is a well produced album, with full sounding pop songs. Tonight, however, Hannah is playing solo using 2 vocal microphones, a keyboard and enough loop and effects pedals that many guitarists would kill for.

When an album sounds as lush as Red Lines, it can be hard to even come close to that sound. Schneider cleverly builds each song with layers of samples and vocals, giving new life to the songs. Watching Hannah piece each song together is hypnotic and by the end of the opening track ‘For The Trees’, there are murmurs from the attentive audience noting just how good Schneider is.

Schneider easily makes friends with the crowd with her in between song banter. She describes ‘Dreaming Kind’ as a football anthem for sensitive types. She claims that she’s touring solo due to the economic crisis. Then as she produces an electric ukulele to play ‘Life is Easy’, she tells of how her friends asked why she couldn’t just play a guitar ‘like a normal person’, which raises a laugh.

She finishes off her set with two tracks from her self titled first album. When the bass kicks in in ‘This is Goodbye’, it makes a security light rattle in the fourth century church. ‘Raindrops’, the final song of the evening fills the holy place with beats, bass sounds and layered harmonised vocals, everything perfectly in place, finished off with the addition of a stylophone.

A really good performance from Hannah, a nice introduction to her catalogue of music and going on the audience reaction, new fans gained. If anything, she should have had a longer set. But you know the saying ‘Leave them wanting more’, yeap, she did that.

June 17, 2015
Diary // Shura – Live at Bleach, Brighton // Jun 2 2015

Stardate 02062015, time 0645, it’s the day you wake up and remember you’ve bought tickets to a gig in Brighton. Me and my buddy Alex had purchased tickets to go see Shura.

I’ve been playing Shura for a while now on the radio and Alex raved about her Village Underground gig in March so there was no Indecision on our part to get tickets. Yes, I know that was a terrible pun. Plus, attendees of these couple of dates around the UK would also get their mitts on some free limited edition vinyl of a Warpaint-Steez remix of 2Shy, pressed on one side only. #YummyVinyl

So working in London, myself and Alex legged it out of the office at 5.15 and got the Gatwick Express to Brighton, which I have to say, was a quite relaxing journey, fuelled by music discussion and goss. We arrive in Brighton, find the venue and find an eaterie.

We go to the venue, get our hands on our vinyl and pop out to say hi to Shura and get our vinyl signed (fangirl or wha?). We head back upstairs, hopefully proving we’re not psychos and wait for the show to begin.

It’s a small venue, maybe 200 people in there. The band have added an extra guitarist for live duties. The short eight song set starts with ‘Figure it Out’.

It’s Shura’s first time playing in Brighton and the crowd react well to the opening notes of ‘2Shy’, ‘Indecision’ and ‘Touch’ but for some reason never completely let loose.

In reality, these shows are probably good run throughs for festival season and set lists change and evolve. Included in today’s is a Fine Young Cannibal Cover, She Drives Me Crazy, while a good cover, if someone is driving you crazy, you need a little more Grr!

Honourable mention must go to the guitar at the end of the second track of the night, ‘Kids n’ Stuff’, if Top Gun needed a new piece of music for when the plane takes off the runway and Tom Cruise is on his motorcycle, well, this is it. This leads really nicely into ‘Indecision’.

Shura’s sound is definitely eighties throwback, with Ms Janet Jackson sprinkling her fairydust over everything. But it’s when the last song of the night kicks in, I realise what was slightly lacking. A few more uptempo tracks.

When people go to to gigs they want to dance and ‘White Light’ definitely makes you want to do that. (I might be wrong as I recall the evening but there could have been a Madonna sample thrown in to the live mix there). Shura is a new artist and it’s fascinating to see artists change and evolve in the time before they even get to release an album and then between a first and second album. ‘White Light’ seems to be the sound of an artist maturing, getting to know where they want to go, how to manipulate and create to be exactly where they want to be. It works, it’s bloody great live. The following night it got it’s debut on Annie Mac on BBC1.

Good night’s entertainment, if Shura keeps producing stuff like this, she’ll have a decent career.

Shura In Bleach Brighton photo © nessymon.com

Shura In Bleach Brighton photo © nessymon.com

Shura In Bleach Brighton photo © nessymon.com

June 10, 2015
Watch: Other Lives // Live in Concert // [PIAS] Nites

This week on the radio show, I featured ‘Rituals’ by Other Lives as my Album of the Week. I really like this album and how the band have melded organic acoustic instruments with electronic elements and productions. It’s an easy album to listen to and love, it gently drags you in and swirls you around. You can listen to the entire album on Spotify.

So the trio from Stillwater, Oklahoma were in France recently doing some promo and played a [PIAS] nites gig. The good folk at Arte Concert filmed it and put it on the web for you to enjoy.

Grab a cuppa and you’re all set!

Photo from here by Emily Ulmer

May 16, 2015