First gigs of the year (not including Rough Beats):
I was finally convinced to go see Arcade Fire in Hyde Park – despite only having seen them a couple of months back. I’d never been to Hyde Park though – so figured I’d better “tick that one off”. So – Thursday night, headed to Hyde Park and saw Mumford & Sons, followed by Arcade Fire. Missed Beirut and The Vaccines however – which was a shame. But anyway – saw the headliners. And again – not bad. The main guy from Arcade Fire – with his terrible haircut and weird name I can’t remember – looked to be very very pleased with himself. And fair enough I guess. An ‘indie’ band – headlining Hyde Park (but not sold out) and winning a Grammy, what has the world come to? But yeah – he was grinning from ear to ear at the start of the night – like the ‘proverbial’ who got the cream. Or the cheshire ‘proverbial’. Or some such. But I also realised that I’m not a fan of such a big concert. People pushing their way through the crowd – people actively trying to prevent people from pushing their way through “their” little area – forgetting the hypocrisy when they then need to push their way out to the bar/toilet. Just the overall “me-me-me” attitude which becomes even more apparent than normal. Or am I just old? I lost everybody on the way out – and then just to even things up, decided to lose myself. I started walking in the direction I thought was home – and when I finally decided to check my phone to see where I was – nope, I was heading in a rather wrong direction. So – got a taxi, and got home fairly late.
Oh – and nearly forgot about Mumford&Sons – which says a lot I guess. Current holder of Worst Gig of 2011. It just kinda… meandered? Fizzled out? I could imagine it being an excellent gig in a small setting – Union Chapel – or maybe even bigger than that. But not really a stadium kinda band. Or maybe it was just the set-list – they seemed to use all their ‘hits‘ at the start, and had nothing left to keep the interest going, until one last attempt at going out with a ‘bang‘.
But the next day – I had the Flaming Lips lined up. In fact – Deerhoof performing their famous album Milk Man, followed by Dinosaur Jr performing their seminal album Bug, and finally the Flaming Lips performing their breakthrough album The Soft Bulletin. And having seen the Lips once before – I was expecting big things. I spent the day trying to get rid of my extra tickets – to no avail. Went home, had a nap. Then – as I didn’t have to wait on or meet anybody else – figured I’d actually arrive at a gig early enough to appreciate all the “warm-up” acts. And as I get on the train, I discover that there’s been a “person on the tracks incident” at Alexandra Palace. Which is where I’m heading. Not cool. I wondered if the person involved had been on their way to the gig. It’s a sad event anyway – but that possibility just made it a tiny bit worse. But in any case – I got on the train, wondering how far I could get. I could get as far as the middle of a tunnel, where we were stuck for some time. And a girl standing nearby complaining about it. I had my earphones in – so I didn’t hear clearly, but a guy who I had previously judged as a pervert not-nice guy pointed out that there was a person who had just died, who also had parents and a family. I adjusted my judgement of the chap. And listened to the girl confirm my judgement of her – when she responded with “Yes – but I’m stuck in a train in a tunnel… with no air-conditioning!” I bit my tongue and turned up the earphones. And at the next station – heard some businessman complaining loudly about “it’s unbelievable, you pay these ridiculous prices, and then this… and I pay this much…, blah blah”. Again, I stopped myself from pointing out what a prick he was, and that he was pushing me close to hoping that it was a member of his family/friends who had just died on his precious train tracks.
Enough of that. I came up with what I was a ludicrously smart plan of getting to the Ally Pally anyway. And soon discovered that a couple of hundred other people had the same plan. But got the right combo of tube & bus to get there in the end – and arrived just in time for the start of Dinosaur Jr. But too late for bloody marys. They had a deluxe cocktail bar – with japanese bloody marys! Although I missed out this time – the “I’ll Be Your Mirror” festival in a couple of weeks is organised by the same people, so my expectations for that have been raised. On this occasion, I settled for red wines, and loud music. Dinosaur Jr was all good, and then the nervous wait for the Flaming Lips. Had I set my expectations too high? When I saw them in Melbourne – I was very very impressed. But had my memory been warped by time?
And then Wayne Cohen came out – and gave a long speech about this and that. Advised that there would be some strobe lights – and if anybody became affected by them… try looking away. Or closing your eyes. And he might very well be coming out onto the crowd in his famous “space-bubble”. And if so – don’t all rush up trying to get close to it – just chill out bro. That kind of thing. And generally just working the crowd into a frenzy as stagehands seemed to be redesigning the entire stage behind him. Which is a good sign. Oh – and did I mention that when I first entered the main hall – there were huge balls hanging from the ceiling – some just low enough for people to hit them and swing them, etc. About a dozen of them or so. (It’s pretty well known that there would be a heap more ‘free’ balls released at some point during the concert.)
But then when it started. Not disappointed, at all. I really don’t know how to describe it, without a full narrative of every little thing – which would take a long, long time. Video screen; flashing eyes; a ‘virtual door’ which appeared and from which each band member entered the stage from; teletubbies; a giant naked woman; lights; noise; Wayne rolling out onto the crowd in his plastic hamster-ball (and obviously loving it), and then… oh and then… confetti; balloons; balls; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; energy; dancing; and just an overall atmosphere of … pure joy. Spectacular. He played a few songs from Yoshimi – and then eventually once the initial adrenaline/serotonin rush was over – gave a bit of a speech before settling into playing the Soft Bulletin. But even then – it was still just so packed with energy, humour, and just happiness. And when you start thinking that maybe we’re devolving into a normal concert – he brings out his giant hands which shoot dozens of laser-beams, while on the screen there is a montage of snakes,dogs,sharks,etc snapping at me. What… The… Fuck? I will quite often get a little antsy/bored/restless about 3 or 4 songs into a gig. This one – not at all. After they finished the album (and I was continuously hearing songs, thinking – nah that’s from Yoshimi – but nope, it’s from Soft Bulletin… definitely going to have to check out that album again – it’s just so so good) – some more songs from Yoshimi – including, of course, Do You Realise? – which was received as well as one would expect. All in all – I think this gig has become my new “Best Gig Ever” – overtaking… the previous time I saw them.
So – Portishead, the challenge is set.