Author: Kruse

A Quick Stint of Work

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I thought the unreasonable amount of rage I felt towards co-workers during my first two days back was due to jet-lag, and would subside once I had settled back into normal routine.  It turns out – my normal routine consists of quite a lot of unreasonable rage towards co-workers.  Add that to the considerable amount of completely reasonable disdain of co-workers, and my normal routine isn’t particularly conducive to good mental health.

So – what I’ve gone and done is just book another excursion.  So – for all of those lucky enough to live in the much better ‘Southern’ hemisphere – here’s some dates when you should allow for activities as varied as: having a bed ready for me to sleep in; cooking dinner for me; organising a venue for a meal and/or social drinks; attending a meal and/or social drinks; visiting me; having meals cooked by me; lazing about; swimming; diving; chit-chat; and other stuff…

  • Saturday 14th May -> Monday 16th May – Sydney.  Probably primarily hanging in/near Pen’s flat in Manly, recovering from lack of sleep.
  • Monday 16th May -> Saturday 28th May – New Zealand.  Primarily hanging in/near Angela’s house in Rotorua.  Probable day-trips (if you’re lucky) to exotic locales such as Hamilton, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki.  Probably one or two nights in Wellington at the end of this time.  If you’re lucky.
  • Saturday 28th May -> Monday 30th May – Melbourne.  Not really sure – but trying to spend time with any/all people that are interested.  Open to offers of accommodation – bearing previous sentence in mind.

So, yeah – check out that itinerary, and let me know when/where you’ll be around/available – if relevant.

Back here in present (or recent past) -day London… not much happening.  As alluded to in the beginning, I’ve settled back into routine, including work.  And if anything, my holiday way back in March managed to make me more disillusioned by this whole work lark.  But that might be because of the dwindling bank balance.  My money is disappearing – which makes grand ideas of motorbike tours around Europe, train trips to North Korea, back-packer trips through central Asia – all very much pipe dreams at the moment.  I realise that I probably need much much cheaper accommodation, in order to  ‘accommodate’ such aspirations.  And was considering this the other day – but don’t think I’m quite ready to go back to living with other people just yet.  Am still loving being able to open the fridge – and knowing what everything in there is, and how old it is, and that if it’s a half-full container of soup/something – knowing perfectly well that it’s there for a reason, and will have disappeared within the day.  Such simple pleasures.

But enough of my being a hermit.  I have had one social outing – which was the last Sunday of March.  A pleasant enough day – dim-sum/yum-cha on Baker Street (home of that famous druggie Sherlock Holmes).  Followed by a few beverages at a local pub – and then everybody scattered.  All very civilised and what-not.  Hopefully we will be able to repeat this next month.  I have a vague plan of maybe alternating national foods – to make it a bit interesting.  Perhaps a Brazilian churrascaria this month – although it might need a bit of convincing for people on that latest fad diet – ‘Vegetarian’.  Not that I can talk – as I realise I am starving, and look at my lunch.  Tangerines and grapes.  What a poof.

Aotearoa & Arsetralia

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Checking the last time I wrote about visiting home – it was really rather long.  I will endeavour to make this much shorter, at the cost of scrimping on details on some pretty sweet events…

First of all – left Heathrow on a Friday evening.  Must remember not to do this ever again.  Airport bars just packed full of Ingerlund geezers & birds off to Spain or Ibiza or something for the weekend.  Not pretty.

Then the long flight home.  Arrived in Auckland on Sunday afternoon – tried in vain to find a CD store in the airport – instead went and picked up my rental car.  Advice from girl at the rental place for CDs… “there’s a Warehouse just down the road”.  Argh… had nearly forgotten about the existence of the Warehouse.  I thought I’d pop in for a quick look, on the off-chance it actually had some decent CDs.  Nope – never doing that again either.  Their “Top 20″ rack was comprised solely of compilations – terrible terrible bargain bin compilations.  Drove down to Rotorua, with the fatigue only starting to kick in near the end of the journey – which was quite lucky.  Got to Rotorua just in enough time to make an appearance as a stumbling stinky mess of an uncle to a scared little girl before she went to bed.  Well – not so much scared, so much as shy.  Or just not wanting to know – which would be fair enough.  That first impression took a little while to wear off – but eventually we got along pretty well.  Hopefully I won’t have to start from scratch when I return.  Leaving a collection of sand-castles for Meiken to destroy will hopefully help my chances.

After an all too brief time in Rotorua – not even enough time to visit anybody I really should have (sorry to all) – I picked up Katie from Taupo.  (Finding out, at the last minute, that Katie had – of course – assumed that I would have enough room for a bicycle.  Luckily I did – but it sure didn’t help promote bicycle rights for me.)  A drive up to Auckland, (finding out at the very very last minute, that Katie needed to make slight detours to pick up stuff in both Hamilton and Auckland – luckily I had allowed over an hour for such Katie-isms) – and to the airport, and onwards to Melbourne.

A remarkably rapid and hassle-free progression through Melbourne airport, despite bicycles, Katies, and smuggling teabags – and shuttled like rich people to the Crowne Plaza.  Left Katie at the hotel while I headed off to find “the boys” in town.  Found “the boys” – and proceeded to have a few beverages and what-not.

Next day – discovered the Stormers (the rugby team, not the… other Stormers) were staying in the same hotel.  Listened to the coaching team discussing strategy in the lifts – and discovered why de Villiers has still got his job.  There’s just nobody else.  But anyway – Pen joined us at the hotel for a quick swim in the hotel pool – which was nowhere near as heated as advertised.  Still – rather nice to be able to actually swim.  Then – we checked out, and wandered around town.  Met Justin in Brunswick for coffee, then lunch, joined by a few others (but not Dave – Dave can’t handle his vodka).  Op-shopping for a while, some beverages, chats, etc – and then finally Pen, Katie & I returned to pick up our baggage, and head to our apartment in Williamstown.  Checked in to that, and proceeded to have an evening of chinese takeaway, and good old grumpy-tired-Kruse vs Pen-Katie-girlie-chatter times.  Which some how turned into my staying awake until midnight in order that Pen could open birthday present.  This was achieved with the help of a rather tasty bottle of whisky.

And then it was wedding-day.  Finally got to wear my new suit.  Had a rather tasty bottle of champagne while getting dressed (vintage Krug) – and then headed into Yarraville for some lunch.  Then – to the theatre for the wedding.  “Wha…. wedding, theatre?”  Yep – wedding in a theatre.  Not going to talk too much about the ceremony – as it’s kinda a private thing, I guess – plus once I start – it would probably take a very very long time to do it justice.  I just gotta say, Prince Mark and Cindy Middlesborough, or whoever – have got no chance of being anything but overshadowed.  In fact – I think everybody there on the day gave up on any chance of getting married.  Not including myself, of course.  I gave up years ago.  Ha ha ha ha …. aaaah.  But after the ceremony – relative normalcy returned.  Drinks at one place (where I was shown the cellar, and chose another really rather tasty bottle of champagne) – followed by another for the main reception – emcee’d by some Nathan chap.  I danced.  First time I’ve done that in quite some time.  And didn’t even attempt to play the bride like a guitar (I don’t think).  Did, however, instead slide across the floor on my knees like some kind of rock-start/footloose-Kevin-Bacon.  Eventually stumbled back to our apartment, to share some whisky with Dave.

Sunday – the aftermath – dropped gifts off at the newly-weds house of no-longer-sin, and ate some scallops and fish and what-not.  Chit-chat, then into town, some more chit-chat in a swanky hotel room – then chinese for dinner.  Where I proceeded to prove to myself that maybe the two months of lack-of-drinking followed by the two-days-of-yes-drinking had caught up with me, and the old Sunday-babble-Kruse started to rear his ugly head.  But managed to not offend anybody too much, except maybe the waiter (who was a prick anyway, and deserved anything he got – or that’s what people told me to make me feel better).  Back to hotel for a nice early night.

And then it was the dispersal.  Pen left early in the morning, then I left Katie stranded in Williamstown, as I headed to the airport – and caught my plane to Perth – which, as it turns out, is indeed rather warm.  Not as stiflingly oppressively unbearably hot as I was expecting – but still, pretty warm.  Got to John’n’Mel’s place, which is fairly nice.  Strange set-up – but perfect for the current use of two couples co-existing in semi-shared semi-segregated areas.

Caro’n’Dom’n’Malachy arrived the following day – and I believe the day revolved around that, and then a barbeque (mostly cooked indoors).  Next day was a day out in Fremantle.  Well – for most people it was a day out in Fremantle, but Ben & I went and did a bit of diving.  ‘Cause we’re divers.  Hired some equipment, got some directions – and headed off to do some divin’.  Got lost on land.  Then eventually went into the sea (cursing how heavy dive gear is while carrying from car to beach).  And the first thing I did was go and swim face-first straight into a jellyfish tentacle.  Still got the mark from that on my face.  Not cool.  But we eventually got out a bit – and after quite a lot of trial-and-error (okay – a LOT-lot of trial-and-error) – we kinda remembered how to dive.  So we did some divin’ until my airtank was totally and utterly empty.  Headed back into Fremantle to meet up with the others and Sam at the Little Creatures brewery – and downed some beers and dinner.  Pleasant day, all in all.

Margaret River the next day – a small road-trip, just like the old days.  Well, nearly.  Stopped off at the Busselton Jetty and went for a walk along that, and a quick snorkel off the side of it.  Very long jetty, that one.  And about to get longer.  Bought some Guinness for a few road beers to help the Paddies celebrate their Drunk-Day.  Got to our accommodation in Margaret River in the evening – dropped off stuff, and headed into town for dinner and wine.

And then some more divin’.  Ben & I headed off early in the morning – up to Dunsborough for some wreck divin’.  Dom was kind enough to drive us up – before returning and joining the others for a morning of whatever it is they did.  Meanwhile, Ben & I went out in a boat – and then dived nearly twice as deep as we’d ever been before – to check out the wreck of the HMAS Swan.  Pretty cool – except I soon remembered that I really do use much more oxygen than most people – so we had to keep returning to the surface relatively early.  But still – pretty cool.  Two dives, down to a max depth of 30 metres – and just swimming along this huge grey hulk – then over it’s decks, around it’s crows-nest, etc – yeah – I could do that again.  Eventually we returned to boring old land – for some lunch, a winery or two, an aboriginal cultural centre (pretty good for stoking up the ill-feeling towards the english), and stocking up on venison, kangaroo, emu, cheese, etc to make up some kind of dinner platter.  And tried to get through as much of our booze stockpile as possible.  Managed to do all available wine, finished all normal beers, and made a start on the Guinness – but eventually we had to give it up.

Next day – a fairly early start in order to get Kruse to the airport.  Success – and I was soon on a plane on my way to Sydney.  At Sydney airport, got myself a ‘limo’ to Pen’s flat – arriving in time to try and mix and mingle at her flatwarming party.  Didn’t do particularly well, being rather tired, sober – and thrust into the midst of a party, where I was “the ex”.  But – good bunch of people, and good to see that Pen has a pretty good crew around her – and seems to have quite the reputation as a ‘cool’, or something, spinster herself.

Another Sunday – another day of doing not much.  Had a few short wanders about Manly – but it was raining, and not the magnificent surf-paradise it apparently is usually.  Cooked a roast dinner for everybody, drank a few bottles of wine, played some scrabble, and watched a movie.  Old-school Sunday with Pen, pretty much.

And then – time to leave.  Monday – breakfast with Nic, lunch with Pen, dinner with British Airways.  The long, long flight back to London.

Where I got a fairly early morning tube back home – with jetlag starting to kick in when I at one point realised that all the people around me were on their way to work – whereas I had that “homeward bound” sleepy feeling in my head.  I started feeling sorry for them – until I remembered that once I got home, I was going to just get in the shower, get in a suit, and then head to work myself.  And that is exactly what I did.  Leading to the strange feeling at about 10am of feeling like it’s a late night in the office – but suddenly realising that everybody else is fresh and just starting.  The exact same feeling that I am getting right now, actually.  Except it really is 5pm – it’s just that it feels exactly like the bad old days of working until midnight.

Anyway – back in London now.  And I figure one weekend of some irresponsible socialising will get me right back into my normal cycle of stay-up-too-late, turn-up-to-work-late.  So, yeah, don’t expect me at work on Monday too early.

Escape From London

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Looking forward, very very much, to flying out of here tomorrow night.  It’s very, very cold outside (was a chance of snow warned today) – and checking the weather, it is scheduled to be heavy rain in Wellington for the next four days – and yet the predicted minimum temperature is still three times the midday temperature here.  And although I’m not going to Wellington – I figure further north has got to be even warmer.  Meanwhile – Perth is breaking heatwave records.  So yeah, sweet.

But yes – looking forward very much to several things.  It not being cold.  A CD store.  I’m planning on finding a CD store in Auckland airport – before I even pick up my rental car.  I have a growing list of stuff to buy, and looking forward to paying for some music for the first time since my last trip home.  And – of course, the little niece – who by all accounts is all grown up now.  That’s going to be scary.  What if she doesn’t like me?  I’ll have to remind her that she was the only person in the whole world to get a christmas present from me this year.  What else am I looking forward to?  That’s probably it – except for the normal stuff.  Seeing family, friends, New Zealand, driving – for the first time in a long time.  Oh – and duty-free.  Since I lost my camera on the train back from Scotland – I need to buy a new one of them.  And there’s a certain whisky which I believe is only sold in duty-free stores, of which I would quite like a wee dram.  And – of course, the kiwi accent.  Looking forward to that.  The arsetralian one – not so much.  And the grand total of about 3 days on planes, or at airports – within a holiday period of 17 days.  Sweet.  And – currently scheduled to land at Heathrow at 5:25am, and appear at work a few hours later.  For a full day of productivity… yep.

Anyway – looking forward to 2 weeks of very very short visits to people.  I’ll be back in May though – when I will be making a more leisurely/relaxed visit.

Hermit-stylez

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Two weeks gone, and nothing to show for it.

Have tried to settle into a routine, but that got a little put out of shape when I broke stuff.  My attempt at cluttering my already very small apartment with a home-gym failed when I proved too strong for my cheap equipment.  But – rather than wait for replacement parts – I’ve gone and ordered new stuff.  So soon I’ll have two rowing machines in my flat.

Living like a hermit seems to have driven me to just buy stuff.  Need to get out of that.  I’ve also added to my collection of diving equipment.  ‘Cause I’m a diver.  Just need to do some diving now, so I don’t look like some kind of poseur.  As if.

And in other news – it seems like my lengthy explanation of why a fear of snakes is perfectly rational – has turned what was originally a healthy and slightly exaggerated fear of snakes into a full-blown phobia.  Although still rational.  Sort-of.  I now find it very difficult to look at a webpage or television/movie screen which features a snake.  A far cry from a couple of years ago, when I allowed one to slither over and around my arm and what-not – and actually considered buying it from the nice Venezualan man when he offered to sell it to me.

And this is why I’m refraining from further rants – regarding things like people walking slowly in the middle of footpaths, or erratically changing position on footpaths without checking behind them, or stopping at the top/bottom of stairs in order to extend their suitcase roller handles, or anything bloody else which would not be tolerated if driving – so why the hell is it when you’re a pedestrian? – because I’m afraid that if I put into writing all the reasoned arguments as to why these people are annoying – my already stronger-than-they-should-be views will evolve into murderous rages.  My heartrate is already increasing at the thought of selfish/spatially-unaware pedestrians.  I don’t need to build this up any more.  Already – despite no longer needing to join rush-hour tubes or trains to/from work – I actually try to avoid the rush-hour of pedestrians.  Not just because of the thoughtless ones – but just being part of that crowd of thousands and thousands of drones on their way to work.  So very, very depressing.  Just now – for perhaps the first time, I realise the allure of farming.  Even being shat on by a cow starts to look good by comparison.

2011 is underway

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Time to stop living in the past.  2010 was all well and good, but it’s a new year, a new decade.  No more lists of what happened way back then.

So – went to the first gig of 2011.  It was Junip – who I hadn’t heard of until about 2 weeks back, when the date was announced.  But the name Jose Gonzalez jumped out at me, of course.  To my limited and struggling understanding – I believe Jose may have actually gone to school in Sweden?  And Junip is his schoolmates and himself?  Or something.  And looking it up – yeah, Jose Gonzalez is actually swedish.  Odd.  But – yeah, good little gig.  Very small venue – Scala – but did the job.  Nobody volunteered to accompany me – so once again, I went by myself, with a couple of spare tickets in my pocket.  At the venue – I spotted a young couple being coerced by a scalper to “just stand there for 5 minutes – and I’ll get you tickets – for fifteen pounds yeah?”.  Now – I had a couple of tickets which would go to waste – so I walked to the couple – and offered my tickets, for free.  They were confused, but took them.  And the scalper gave me dirty looks, and started walking alongside me saying something.  I wasn’t really listening, as I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been friendly – as I was in quite a rush to get inside nice and safe.  Another scalper, however, I understood quite clearly.  “I knew that c*&£ was holding!” – he said.  Yeah – I wasn’t the most popular chap amongst the scalpers.  I wasn’t sure if I explained that I hadn’t sold my tickets to the couple – but given them away – if that would have made them feel better, or worse.  But – went into the gig, the couple found me at the bar, and bought me a drink.  I performed my second charitable act when I saw another couple trying to figure out what the pre-gig music was which was playing, by calling ‘Shazam’.  I leaned over and kindly told them.  Got referred to as “my own living Shazam”.  Yep – that’s me.  And watched the gig – then found Jess who’d been there, and went for a quick drink afterwards.  Not especially good company, however.  My new lifestyle of eating bugger all doesn’t do wonders for my energy levels.  And yeah – that was the first gig of 2011.

And today – just had to verify some news that I thought I’d heard, but wasn’t sure if I’d heard correctly.  The White Stripes have split up!  Oh well – had to happen I guess.  New year, new decade…  It’s probably about time for Jack White to hook up with Kanye West, and make a Super-Album.  Maybe through Karen O in there too.  That would be sweet.

Also did the first home-cooked Sunday roast of the year.  Which was also, I think, the first proper home-cooked meal in my flat.  Had Dom, Caro, Malachy, Chook around – and had a fairly nice and simple roast lamb (it being the 30th – therefore a “red meat day” for me).  Malachy tried some, and seemed rather taken by lamb.  And then we headed to a pub up north, for dessert/soup, backgammon, and live music.  Malachy was very taken by the live band – especially percussion.  The lead singer lady was rather taken by Malachy, and I got lots of lovely smiles.  While I was trying to figure out how to point out that nope – I wasn’t the father, I was actually very single, but gosh – look how great I am with kids.  Need some further thought on that, I think.

Oh – and by the way, it looks like I’m doing a very quick visit Down Under in March.  Plans are: I fly into Auckland on Sunday the 6th – will head straight to Rotorua.  Probably just spend a few days in Rotorua, recovering from jet lag.  Possibly do day trips to nearby locations – but probably not.  So – if anybody happens to be near Rotorua – let me know.  And on the 10th – fly out – Auckland-Melbourne.  A few days in Melbourne.  And then – maybe a few days somewhere else, Perth maybe?  Bali maybe?  Queensland maybe?  I think Perth is the current front-runner.  And – fly back to London on about the 20th.  So yeah – not enough time to do anything, just to make a brief appearance – and annoy nearly everybody by not having more time.  Sweet.

I like lists – 2010 Gigs

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I like lists a lot.  Lists are useful.  Lists are no-nonsense.  Lists are all round good solid blokes.

Now that I finally have access to the big ol’ internet at home – I’ve been catching up on some lists.  Lists such as “Best albums of 2010″, “Best Music Videos of 2010″, “Best Singles of 2010″, “Worst Album Covers of 2010″, and “Best Albums of the Decade”.  Some of those lists served as a basis for additions to one of my own lists – “Music to Download – Legally, Of Course, From Websites Where I Pay Retail Prices”.  In addition to my lists “Movies to Download – Legally, Of Course, From Valid Online Entertainment Services” and “Television Series to Download, Not Sure Of The Legality” – this resulted in some rather solid usage of my internet connection over the last week.  It turned out I already had all but 3 of the top 50 albums of the decade – either due to my exceedingly good taste in music, or that each year I check the top albums of the year list and get all of them.  Anyway – I have a 40Gb limit of broadband usage per month.  I can’t check just now how much I’ve used in the last week – but I’m pretty sure it’s well over 40Gb.

And now to produce a list of my own: The Gigs of 2010, with some awards, in an order which doesn’t reflect anything except maybe chronological order?:

  • Don McGlashan – Nice relaxed show with a kiwi legend.  He put on a really good show too, chatting, joking, etc – and showing how talented he really is.  Using some kind of loopback device – he’d record something right in front of us, recording it, and setting it to continuously loop – thereby creating his own backing music on the fly, as if he had an entire band.  Good gig.
  • The Herbaliser – Coolest Venue – Didn’t really know what to expect.  Hadn’t listened to much Herbaliser beforehand.  It was at Koko – which is a very very cool venue.  And, yep – the gig itself was pretty sweet too.  Very cool funky music, and they had special guests Twin Peaks with them, which turned a lot of the gig into a much more hop-hip-ish type deal – which worked quite well for breaking up the long jazzy jams.
  • The Black Seeds – Best Kiwi Accent – The award isn’t for Barnaby or any of the band – but rather a member of the crowd.  The gig was good – once again we met up with Barnaby before the gig, and had a couple of drinks with him.  Gig was good, but the real highlight came afterwards.  After umm-ing and ahh-ing – I declined the ‘afterparty’ – and instead followed some others to get a quick meal and head home.  And then – a good solid kiwi girl – we all know the type – thickest kiwi accent I’ve ever heard – wearing a Crazy Horses t-shirt, talking about another girl in the concert who had been quite obviously heavily intoxicated.  Direct quote: “Oh, she was munted as bro.”  In a pure thick kiwi accent… classic.  Made my night.
  • The Wu Tang Clan – Worst Gig – I’d really been looking forward to this one.  With a couple of really good Wu-Tang albums out this year – this was before Apollo Kids, but after Wu-Massacre – I was secretly hoping that some of the Wu-Massacre songs might make an appearance.  As it was, I don’t think I would have even noticed.  I couldn’t recognise a single song – due to too much bass, and just overall sound quality.  Checking some of the youtube videos though – I’m wondering if we were just in a bad spot.  Anyway – was worth going, just so I could sip on red wine while bouncing to the Clan.  Protect ya neck, y’all.
  • Secret Cinema – Most Immersive Cinema Experience – Not strictly speaking a ‘gig’, I suppose – rather than going to watch a movie.  But – gotta include it in the list – because it was a very very cool experience.  And list’s are cool with it, yeah?  So yeah – Secret Cinema – very sweet idea, and execution.  Am definitely up for some more of that.
  • Modest Mouse – Very very good gig – although there wasn’t anything ‘special’ about the visuals – ie flashing lights, etc – it was just done really really well, with lights co-ordinated with music, etc.  And excellent sound quality – and just the right mixture of playing the songs really well with a little bit of improvisation.  Sweet gig.
  • King Kapisi – Best Motivational Speech – May actually have been a smaller gig than Don McGlashan – but I’m making this up as I go, so I’ll leave it.  Anyway – sweet gig.  Champagne & King Kaps.  And somehow, at the end of the night, I ended up standing next to Kapisi at the urinal (although I didn’t realise it was him for quite some time) – and he was feeling rather talkative.  I suspect somebody had stepped up to the plate after he’d made a couple of references to drugs during his set.  Anyway – he was very talky, very happy – and we started conversing – continuing out into the main bar, where everybody else was being kicked out.  He talked my ear off for about half an hour – eventually teaching me that I should really “big myself up” more – and forcing me to admit “I run that shit”.  And referring to himself in the 3rd person a fair bit – which was even more disconcerting as he used his real name.  Yeah Bill – I run that shit.
  • Grinderman – Best Gig – It’s a pretty close-run thing, but I reckon this was the gig of the year.  Great music, performed by the most energetic manic frenzied frontman I’ve ever seen.  Nick Cave was a lunatic.  I actually started feeling sorry for the guys who had to sneak onto stage every 5 seconds to untangle his mic cord, or upright a toppled mic stand, or whatever.  And after the gig, we ended up going to the afterparty – where I shook his hand and told him that he’d done a good gig.  Just in case he didn’t know.
  • Shapeshifter – Very good.  Pat yourself on the back boys.    With Tiki Taane fiddling the knobs, and some Shihad covers thrown in – all good.  Chur chur.
  • Cowboy Junkies – Very small, intimate show in a church.  Which suited it really well.  Margo talked constantly between songs, telling stories about backgrounds to songs, growing up, etc.  All of which added to the intimate setting really really well.  No drinky-drinkies in the church, of course – but a quick whiskey in the tea-room at the halftime break, and it was all good.
  • The National – Possibly my most anticipated gig (although Wu-Tang would run it close).  Producing 3 of the best albums of the last decade – I had really high hopes.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  We had seats in the circle, but that was all good – got to sit and just watch the gig, rather than fighting to find a decent spot.  And it was a really really good set.  Again – nothing fancy or flashy – just really really REALLY good music, played well, and with enough variations from the studio versions for you to know that it was live music.    A fully acoustic playing of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks was sweet, as was a stagedive into the crowd, and, well… just awesome music.  Except not my favourite song, and no extra special guests – like they apparently did on every other night during their tenure.  Grrr.   I’m a festival, I’m a parade.
  • Arcade Fire – Biggest Gig – for rather an eclectic indie band, the Arcade Fire have become quite popular.  Sold-out gigs at the formerly-known-as-the-Millenium-Dome is not to be scoffed at.  Like The National – having released 3 of the best albums of the decade – hopes were high.  And only slightly disappointed.  It was a good gig – really good – but I just couldn’t seem to get into it.  Having had a couple of drinks probably didn’t help – and being in a generally irritable mood – leading to my getting furious at the big TV screens (anger at inanimate objects – not a good sign) – and the guy next to me taking photos or videos with his phone – and it’s very bright large LCD screen in my peripheral vision.  (Yes – I do note the hypocrisy in getting angry with people taking videos or photos at concerts – while also hoping that somebody got some really good footage to put on youtube so I can link to it.  I wouldn’t mind it – if they just didn’t have these big bright screens in my face.)  But yeah – pretty good gig, with some crazy drumming, good visuals, and great songs.  Sweet.
  • The Black Keys – Loneliest Gig – Yes, this was the one I went to all by myself.  With four tickets in my pocket, and some stubborn refusal to sell any to the stinkin’ touts – I went and watched the Akron duo all by my lonesome.  And it was all good.  A close second for the best gig of the year, I’d say.  Really really good visuals – nothing amazingly fancy, just really simple, understated, but powerful stuff.  A disco ball raising out of the stage for a couple of songs.  A simple banner with their ‘Brothers’ logo – which changed colours by light show.  But while moving – which confused me at times.  I guess I am easily confused, as I later figured that if the spotlights which were illuminating the banner were actually attached to the same structure – they would move along with the banner, allowing the effect they achieved very very easily.  Anyway – yeah, awesome gig.  Was reminded at how amazingly diverse sounds they can achieve in a song – despite there (usually) only being the two of them.  Cool.  Second-best gig of the year.  I reckon.