The first time I heard of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart was when Luna mentioned it on Plurk. Having an overall shoegaze feel, I immediately liked them and started to listen to them quite a bit.

Due to all the irregularities in my shift for the past few weeks, I had Tuesday off and had the chance to see them live at Relentless Garage in Islington.

There were two supports that evening, Veronica Falls and Hatcham Social.

First up was Veronica Falls from London and as per their MySpace page are Pop/Goth/Shoegaze. I would have to say they are more shoegaze than anything else. I love this band to bits and not only because of the lovely lead vocalist with awesome bangs. Of the bands I saw this evening, they sounded the best in that every instrument can be heard clearly with no one overpowering. The vocals were also very clear. It is a real shame though that they don't have a record out yet and only one song is available on their MySpace page.

As for Hatcham Social, I was not too impressed. For the most part, I thought they played too loudly for a small venue and it was not the sound techs fault as they set up their own instruments and indicated they were ok with the levels. Their performance and songs were pretty much ok, nothing too special. The loudness clearly ruined it for me. It was entertaining though when they started their set by reading a piece from Lewis Caroll's works.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart was supposed to start at 10 in the evening but did not come up on stage until 10 minutes after. However, this did not mean they started their set right away. Kip (lead) spent a few more minutes tuning his guitar which he continued to do every 3 or 4 songs.

As soon as they started playing, it was clear they had their act together. They started out with a song most likely from one of their EPs as I only have the one album. It was good though. I will not go into set details as I do not remember anything at all especially with the songs from the EP thrown in the mix.

It was a great gig though and the crowd really loved it. Most of the songs from their self-titled album were on the setlist with a few old ones from the EP and new songs as well.

Unfortunately, the instruments didn't sound perfect. They had an additional guitarist on stage but you can barely here it.

I mentioned previously when I watched Bloc Party at this venue that I totally love it. Well, I now take this back because of one minor issue, overcrowding. The venue was packed. I know it's a tiny venue but it is not a very good idea to pack so many people into such a small venue as it sort of spoils the whole atmosphere of having a small venue. The poor ventilation did not help either. I am pretty sure this is the hottest venue in London once filled up and I mean this literally.

This was another great evening of indie and shoegaze music which I really enjoyed quite a lot. Sadly, I am quickly disliking this venue.

Last Thursday, I was soaking wet after watching a gig in an open air venue coming straight from a 12-hour shift at work. This after high praise of open air venues as I pretty much enjoyed Blur at Hyde Park and The Mars Volta at Somerset House.

It was well worth it though as I got a chance to watch the lovely Natasha Khan, more popularly known as Bat for Lashes.

The weather actually played nice until the support's, DM Stith, last few songs. He even exclaimed at the start of his set, "I don't think it's going to rain." Maybe he jinxed it, but then again this is London which is famously known for it's freakish weather.

While waiting for Bat for Lashes to start, I spent most of the time at the back near the toilets as this was the only shelter from the rain one could find. I am not a big fan of umbrellas and only had a barely waterproof jacket on.

When Bat for Lashes started, I decided to brave the pissing rain and tried watching her performance which was quite hard considering all the umbrellas up. It was real difficuly to squeeze in a view through the small cracks in between umbrellas.

Thankfully, the sound was quite brilliant and listening to her live was quite the experience.

With a little determination, and I do mean a little, I was able to push towards the front barrier albeit slightly toward off centre. This gave me a great view though of Natasha as she played on the paino, strings and as she danced on stage.

Right after her set, the rain stopped which was perfect for her encore. With all the umbrellas down, everyone had a chance to watch her properly performing Two Planets and Daniel.

Despite the rain, the gig was quite enjoyable. The sound was pretty solid despite the falling rain and occassional thunder. Natasha was quite charming, nice and friendly on stage in between songs and quite powerful and lively while performing songs which consisted of a good mix between her two albums, Fur and Gold and Two Suns.

Here's a video of her performing Daniel.

Here's the setlist again from Setlist.fm.

• Trophy


• Glass


• Horse & I


• Travelling Woman


• Bat's Mouth


• Sarah


• Sleep Alone


• The Wizard


• Siren Song


• Tahiti


• What's A Girl To Do?


• Pearl's Dream


• Prescilla


• Good Love


• Two Planets


• Daniel

This is one performer I'd love to watch again though in a closed venue.

There are bands which are so completely different and unique that it is both crazy and totally weird but surprisingly refreshing. of Montreal is one of those bands especially with Skeletal Lamping which is the first album I downloaded after hearing about them.

Due to the concept of the album Skeletal Lamping, it took quite a few listens before I started getting it into my system. When I purchased tickets for this gig, I was still not sure I made the right choice. Eventually, I started loving it which made me excited about the gig.

I downloaded their whole discography which had a whopping 9 studio albums plus several EPs and compilations. Scary really as it stayed untouched on my computer for months until only a few weeks before the gig.

Then I decided to listen to their 4 latest albums which included Skeletal Lamping, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, The Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic in the Attic.

Excellent choice which really built up the anticipation for the gig.

On Tuesday, I finally had the chance to see them at O2 Academy's Shepherd's Bush Empire which is remarkably one of the more popular venues in London which I've never been to.

Support for the evening was Local Natives, a band where 4 of the 5 members have mustaches. They sounded pretty good and quite melodic even though almost everyone took lead vocals at some point. Definitely worth checking out again when they release their first full-length album.

After the long wait, a guy with a tiger mask plus a few other masked guys came up on stage and started to cheer up the crowd, building up the anticipation for the band. A few moments later the band came in followed by Kevin Barnes being carried on the shoulders of two masked guys.

Most of the band were dressed quite normally but Kevin Barnes and Bryan Poole had interesting costumes.

Then the familiar and very recognizable intro of Nonpareil of Favor started which is the first track off Skeletal Lamping, and immediately the crowd started going crazy. This was followed by Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider from Hissing Fauna, a great song with a tremendously catchy chorus.

Every other song, a group of performers would play out skits on stage which ranged from the normal to the odd and bizarre which is to be expected if you have seen some of their music videos. The masks they wore involved gas masks, pigs, tigers, and ninjas.

With all the dancing, it was hard to keep up with everything going on stage as there was the band to watch, the performers doing their bizarre skits, and a screen which showed pretty graphics similar to their music videos.

They played one catchy song after the other with most of the crowd going crazy for each. The setlist was a good mix of songs mainly from Skeletal Lamping and Hissing Fauna with a few thrown in from The Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic Attack.

A cover of Bat for Lashes' Daniel was also performed in it's entirety. I was only able to get a video of the second half.

I'll be honest since the gig has been almost a week ago, I can hardly remember any specific details about each and every song they played. So I'll be grabbing the setlist from Last.fm as posted by schmeep.

• Butt Bank


• Nonpareil of Favor


• Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider


• Id Engager


• And I've Seen A Bloody Shadow


• The Party's Crashing Us


• Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse


• October Is Eternal


• A Sentence of Sorts In Kongsvinger


• Beware Our Nubile Miscreants


• Daniel (Bat For Lashes cover)


• Metal Finds Troll


• For Our Elegant Caste


• Touched Something's Hollow


• An Eluardian Instance


• Rapture Rapes The Muses


• Wraith Pinned To The Mist


• She's A Rejecter


• The Past Is A Grotesque Animal -- encore

There was only one song for their encore but it was a 12 minute song, The Past Is A Grotesque Animal and it was pretty epic. Other highlights of the evening would be Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse, An Eluardian Instance, and She's A Rejecter.

It was quite an enjoyable evening in almost every possible way. Most people on the Last.fm event page complained about the sound, but I found it quite adequate being right in the front. Or I could still have been partly deaf due to The Mars Volta's gig the evening before. It was also a visual threat with all the antics the band and the performers were up to.

The setlist was also a good mix of songs but could have used less Skeletel Lamping. I would have gone absolutely manic if they included Suffer for Fashion and Disconnect The Dots.

Nonetheless, it was absolutely one enjoyable evening for almost every sense.

This is one band I cannot wait to see again and I am eagerly anticipating their return to London.

When you are about to see one of your favourite bands for the 4th time, you tend to know pretty much what to expect. However, in no way does this degrade the experience but deep inside, you are hoping there would be some sort of surprise, something to spice things up a bit.

A couple of things made this gig different, unique and special.

First, The venue.



The venue was in the courtyard of the lovely Somerset House along the Victoria Embankment. It was an open air venue, a first for me since I've always seen The Mars Volta indoors. When I think about it, this is only the second open air venue I've been to after Hyde Park as London has several awesome venues. Then, there's the flaky weather.

The Mars Volta has always been known to be pretty loud and this gig was not an exception even whilst outdoors. I guess the setup of the speakers and how they bounce off the four sides of the courtyard was quite optimal. Actually, I I really try to think back on previous gigs, this may have been the best they have sounded live. The vocals were very good as well.



Second, Cedric talking to the crowd.

Yes, Cedric actually talked to the crowd through much of their set and was introducing almost every song before playing it. The past three gigs I've been to, the most you'd hear from him was "Thank you." while they're walking off the stage. Highly unusual but the change was pleasantly welcome as it gave a different and friendlier feel which tremendously helped the atmosphere in the venue and of the crowd.

Also, due to the size of the stage compared to ICA, Omar and Cedric had more space to move and this meant more crazy dancing from Cedric.

I didn't push forward to the front as much as I could since I've already seen them up close at ICA and The Roundhouse so I decided to close to the sides.



Here's the setlist viat Last.fm.

• Goliath


• Cotopaxi


• Roulette Dares


• Viscera Eyes


• Halo of Nembutals


• Cygnus


• Desperate Graves


• Ilyena


• Teflon


• Drunkship of Lanterns


• Luciforms


• The Widow


• Wax Simulacra

I really enjoyed this open air gig and sort of a departure from the norm for the band with Cedric talking and no obscenely long jams to bridge one song to the other. I guess the main reason I enjoyed this gig quite a lot was lowering my expectations and not expecting a performance like they did at Brixton.

Last week was pretty much a blur for me. For most of the week, I was sick with the flu (the "common" one) and missed out on two days of work. On the two days in which I did work, I hardly did anything which is quite typical these days.

In between the week, I got well enough to head over to Hyde Park on Thursday and catch one of Blur's comeback shows after being away for so many years. Mind you, this was a date I booked the day off for weeks before I got sick.

I've never been the biggest Blur fan but I am so glad I managed to grab some tickets when they announced the second date of their Hyde Park shows. With my health not being a 100%, I spent a lot of time on the day itself deciding whether to go or not, right up to the moment I stepped out the door. It was the responsible thing to do as long as I still showed up for work the next day.

Even though I left pretty late, I arrived at just the right time when the massive queues to get in have disappeared and 30-45 minutes before the first support band was to start.

Four support bands were up that day, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Golden Silvers, Crystal Castles and Foals. Friendly Fires was earlier mentioned to play on the Thursday date but sadly were missing from the official timetable for the show.

I've never heard of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble nor Golden Silvers prior to this event and I don't think I am missing out on much. They are ok, but not impressive enough especially with the wide open area.

Crystal Castles however was fun. Alice, the female singer, is freaking crazy though and could hardly stand up straight. She was properly wasted. I started listening to Crystal Castles when I found out they'd be supporting Blur. Somehow, the electronic samples using an Atari 5200 sound chip, immediately drew me in. They sound pretty ok live but not as forceful as I hoped. This can be attributed to the wide open space again. I'd pay to see them again at smaller venues.

Next up was Foals, a band I quite like and made me somewhat happy of scoring Thursday tickets instead of Friday ones. Their set was longer than when they supported Bloc Party in April. I enjoyed the songs they decided to play but the wide open space sort of distorted their sound. I'm still waiting for the day I'd see them headlining their own show at a much smaller venue.

The support acts made me think about the second date which had Florence and the Machine, Deerhoof, and Vampire Weekend.

Still, the 50,000+ people did not come for the support acts and neither did I. We were all their for one band which finally came up onstage a few minutes after 8 in the evening.

Blur played a very well constructed set which was a mirror of their headlining show at Glastonbury. Screencap is from their Glastonbury page where you could also watch 30 minutes of their performance (if you are in the UK).

Unlike all the support bands, Blur sounded amazing outdoors with Damon asking if everything was adequate and it sure was.

Being less of a fan than 60% of the other people in the event did not hinder me from enjoying the show in huge amounts. Most songs are very catchy and after a few lines you'd be singing along with the crowd. That's britpop for you.

One of the best parts of the evening was Tender. It was pretty much epic. The crowd was still singing bits and pieces of it on the way home.

You can also see how much fun the band was having being back in London playing such a massive show after being away for so long.

The crowd was quite fun as well with everyone being big fans, dancing and singing along. A large percentage was around my age which was totally cool. Gone are the emo teeny boppers.

Blur at Hyde Park was one of the better gigs I've been to this year and I am thankful I decided to grab tickets right away when they announced the second (Thursday) date of their show.

My biggest regret was not listening to Blur as much as I could have when I was in highschool and college. One could easily say that Blur (and Oasis) were the definitive (brit) bands of my generation. Damn, that just made sound quite old.

As I am writing this, I am watching Bloc Party's Glastonbury 2009 performance which is the best possible way to bring back the high I was on last night (Thursday) which was the best Bloc Party I've ever been to.

Third time's a charm so they say and it was definitely the case for Bloc Party.

To kick things off, let's talk about the venue, The Garage which is right across Highbury & Islington Station. The venue had been previously closed for major renovation and officially opened on Friday. Yes, we got in a day early and together with Bloc Party, had the chance to crack open the place.

The venue was quite small which according to their website lists the capacity at 630. There is one long bar at the end, and the stage on the other with small booths for merch and the DJ. Also, it was quite pleasant to use toilets which didn't smell like urine but instead lingering paint fumes.

Bar service was also noticeably new as the bartenders tried to get their scanners working properly. It probably took me 15 minutes to pay after getting my drink. Then again, there was an error in the scanning and I did pay a quid less which surprised me when I ordered my next pint.

As for the sound, I am not the strictest of audiophiles, but I have to say it was pretty superb. Everything can be heard just about right and at a reasonable volume for the size of the place.

Wet Paint was the support band for the evening which was something we only found out at the last minute, ie, upon entering the door. I saw Wet Paint when they supported Bloc Party during their Olympia show. They are ok, but nothing really special about them.

At past 9:20 in the evening, Bloc Party finally took the stage and fired up the crowd with One-Month Off. This really lit up the crowd and sent everyone into a frenzy. After a few words from Kele, they then played Positive Tension followed by Hunting For Witches. Personal favourite of mine from Intimacy, Halo, came next with the now popular part were the crowd copies the riffs of the guitar which was pretty damn fun.

With 4 high energy songs, it was time to slow things down which they did with Signs. With Gordon already on the gloc, it was only fit to continue with Waiting For The 7.18. Singing the chorus "Let's drive to Brighton on the weekend" never gets old. Note to self: This is one of the first things to do when we get a car.

Then it was time for the ever popular and epic combo of Song For Clay (Disappear Here) playing straight into Banquet.

However, a highlight for the night was played next, Two More Years, a song I've never seen live but one which they play quite often. It was played during the second date of their Olympia gig. This almost made me tear up.

It was back to A Weekend In The City after with Uniform followed by the heavy hitting Mercury which along with Ares are two of my least liked songs.

The crowd was given some breathing room which really meant less dancing since So Here We Are is more of an anthem for fans.

They then finished off their set with a terrific trio which included The Prayer, Helicopter, and Ares.

Of course, they weren't done yet and came back for an encore which started of with the first ever live performance of One More Chance, a song which when I first heard puzzled me a little on how it would be played live. Surprisingly, it sounded pretty superb and clear. The crowd was pretty into it as well which is always a good thing. They coupled this with another song which was not originally included in a studio album, Flux which has become quite a popular song left for encores. A personal favorite of the band perhaps.

At this point, the lights were turned on and everyone started to move away from the stage. Heck, I decided to head to the merch stand to buy a shirt when the band came out for one finaly song which had everyone rushing back to the front. From the start of Bloc Party's set, there was one song everyone was chanting for them to play, Skeleton, which the band did and much to the delight of everyone.

To sum up, this was the best Bloc Party gig I've been to. The venue was top-notch with great acoustics which made every instrument clear especially with the songs which used less guitars and instead other instruments like the gloc and keyboard. The crowd was small for a Bloc Party gig and this meant the people in the crowd were real fans, singing and dancing to pretty much every song, a very intimate gig. Being included in a few "firsts" was another, such as first gig at The Garage and first to hear One More Chance live. And let's not forget about the playlist, Two More Years and Skeleton pretty much made the evening although they could have swapped Ares and Mercury for Trojan Horse, Talons, or This Modern Love.

**Apologies for the super blurry pictures. The setlist may be a bit mixed up but this is the best I could remember it to be.

----------------
Now playing: Bloc Party - One More Chance
via FoxyTunes   

This is the third time I've seen The Mars Volta after Brixton Academy and The Roundhouse last year. Still, this gig was quite different.

If you've read my other The Mars Volta posts about the previous gigs, you would know what to expect from this one. Cedric dancing and hardly saying anything other than good night and thank you. Omar doing some crazy riffs. Their relentless assault of song after song. The bands loudness compared to others. And, no encores.

So I'll try not to bore you and will keep this real short. I will try.

Their soldout show at ICA was quite special as the theatre was real small (around 350+ only) and as such, was quite intimate. I watched Asobi Seksu here earlier in the year, and really enjoy the place as a music venue.

This should have reminded me of one very important thing which I will be considering next time, wear some bloody ear plugs. The Mars Volta is a loud band live but this mixed in with a sound system which is clearly too much for the sound venue will really destroy your ears eventually. Ears were still ringing until the next day.

In typical The Mars Volta fashion, there was no support band and sometime after 8:30 in the evening, the familiar Mexican/Western intro they use played, with the band following shortly.

They started their relentless assault with Goliath, followed by a new song, Cotopaxi. I've never good with song titles and remembering them so I will cheat and grab the setlist from Setlist.fm again.

• Goliath
• Cotopaxi
• Wax Simulacra
• Viscera Eyes
• Halo Of Nembutals
• Ilyena
• Teflon
• Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
• Desperate Graves
• Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus
• Luciforms
• The Widow
• Drunkship Of Lanterns

It was a great set being a mix of songs from all five albums. Almost 2.5 hours of The Mars Volta.

A few things were a bit different though. Cedric seemed to dance less than he did before but he did sound much better especially on the new songs. Also, they somewhat had more breaks between songs now. In the past, someone would be continuing a guitar riff, a drum roll, or an effect over into the next song.

Omar's quitar solos were still pretty intense and you really see the emotion and passion in how he performs and handles the guitar.

Cedric did talk more than just a simple good night and thank you though. Sometime towards the end of the evening, there was some technical difficulty with the lights which he requested repeatedly to be turned back on.

The Brixton gig is still the best in my book, but this gig allowed me to get closer to the stage and see them better. It was pretty wicked to see each member of the band do their own stuff. In the past, my view was almost restricted to watching either Omar or Cedric.

This was an intimate evening with The Mars Volta shared with a small number of true fans. As you may have guessed, I'd rank this right after the Brixton Academy gig.

I may be preluding myself since on July 13, I will be seeing The Mars Volta for the fourth time, this time at Somerset House.

----------------
Now playing: The Mars Volta - Ilyena
via FoxyTunes   

The last time I was introduced to new music which really blew me away was when I read about Arcade Fire on Questionable Content's list of recommended artists several years ago.

The same thing happened to me around a month ago when a blog post mentioned and recommended Tegan and Sara's The Con as an album one should hear in their lifetime.

However, this was not the first time I came across one of their songs. Back in February, Amanda Palmer did a cover of Tegan and Sara's Like O, Like H . It sounded like a good cover but forgot (didn't bother) to check them out when I got home.

Do watch the video as Amanda Palmer does share her story of discovering Tegan and Sara.

Upon hearing Tegan and Sara's The Con, I immediately fell in love with them and had them on repeat for the last few weeks as seen in my Last.fm profile.

Sure, it says "Last 3 months" but in reality that's 1,287 plays in less than a month and consists of only two of their five albums, If It Was You and The Con.

The Con is a brilliantly made album and it is so easy to keep on listening to it for days on end. If I had to recommend two songs of the album aside from Like O, Like H, it would be The Con and Call It Off.

The Con is their second single of the album after Back In You Head.

Call It Off is the last song from the albumand their third single. I doubt there could be any other song perfect enough to close the album. It is really quite brilliant. One of my all-time favourite songs now. It has quite a striking message as well.

Also, I don't think I'd get tired watching this video.

The sad thing is, they have been around as a band since 1999 with The Con being released back in 2007. I just find it such a shame that I never came across them on all the year-end best albums list I've read and use to pick up new music. Also, why no one ever recommended them before.

The good news is that they are currently working on their sixth album which should be out late 2009.

So, if you've never heard of them before, do yourself a favour and try the videos included in this post which I am pretty sure you'd love then grab a copy of The Con.

"Let's drive to Brighton on the weekend." -- Waiting For The 7.18 by Bloc Party

Last Monday (May 25) was a bank holiday here so we decided to drive down to Brighton despite the weather forecast indicating it would be mostly cloudy and rainy. The thing with English weather is that it's very fickle and forecasts are to be used as a very rough guide just so one would have a general idea.

As such, it was necessary to take a gamble now and again especially when this is the only day most people have the day off and can actually go.

Thankfully, the gamble paid off as the day turned out to be quite sunny for most of it, even though clouds would block the sun's rays and during the evening it was still plenty warm.

The drive down to Brighton from Bushey was close to 2 hours due to traffic conditions when we finally reached Brighton and the end of the motorway.

We parked in the multi-story parking in Regency Square which was a bit far from the pier but turned to be a good thing since we ended up on the less crowded area of the beach.

The first half of the day was spent just sitting on the pebble beach and admiring the sun. The soothing sound of the ocean can also be heard despite the large crowd present.

Since we expected a bit of rain and not a day of absolute warmth and sunshine, we did not bring extra clothes and were not able to go in for a dip in the cool water. We did get our feet wet and the kids did strip down and enjoyed splashing in the water. This included throwing pebbles into the sea.

After several hours of just relaxing on the cool pebbles, we decided to head over to Brighton Pier.

Walking down the beach was quite a fun experience with so much to see. There are Copeira artists, live bands, people playing basketball and beach volleyball (there was an area with fine sand for this), and people just relaxing with either a pint or ice cream.

Eventually, we arrived at the pier which hosted an amusement park as well as restaurants, pubs and a club. The rides were pretty standard as expected for a small place on a pier but we made the most of it.

There was a rollercoaster which is exactly like the Cyclone Loop in Star City, Philippines.

The view of the coastline from the pier was also quite a site and gave a nice perspective on how far out you are in the sea.

With long days during spring, the darkness did not really fall until past 9 in the evening at which point, was time to call it a night as people had work the next day. It was a long but really fun day.

This was my first time down in Brighton since I was a kid. Pictures when I was young showed that we frequented the place quite a bit due to it's distance from London.

I'd love to go back as soon as I can but as with other places, it's one of those where I wish I'd have someone special with me the next time I do visit.

Regardless, as soon as I do pass my driving license, I wouldn't mind driving down to Brighton again, on a weekend.

Watching a gig with support bands you've never heard of before is always a hit or miss. Sometimes they can be surprisingly good, pretty decent, and other times, plain horrible wanting you to wish there was a skip button to fast forward to the next song, heck, the next band even.

Last Thursday's Cobra Starship gig at King's College London had 3 support bands on the bill, MiMi Soya, Cash Cash and Sing It Aloud, all of which are bands I've never heard nor seen before.

The show started pretty early, say 20 minutes after the doors opened. The first band up on stage was MiMi Soya, a female-fronted quartet from sunny Brighton, England. Their brand of pop-punk was surprisingly good to the ears and their energy on stage was pretty fun to watch. Plus, having a female vocalist named Hero is pretty damn awesome.

Next up was a band called Cash Cash, from New Jersey, who were pretty popular with the female dominated crowd. They were quite average though but still performed a good set and their songs are very catchy, that's powerpop for you.

The last support band was Sing It Loud, another band from the US, Minnesota to be precise. A five-piece band who plays pop punk/powerpop as well. I liked them better than Cash Cash, less catchy but their songs are more structured.

Eventually, the show run out of support bands and it was finally time for Cobra Starship to perform. If you've known me for sometime and have been reading my previous blog on WordPress, you would know that I was pretty disappointed when I first saw them live at GIAN 2008.

Their music is sort of  a guilty pleasure of mine and as such, the reason why I decided to give them another chance and watch one of their shows.

I was not disappointed.

They kicked off their set with The City Is A War and this time around, the sound was perfect with no more tech issues which ruined their GIAN show. This was followed by two tracks from the first album,  Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You in Hell (Hey Mister DJ) and The Church Of Hot Addiction. They kept the crowd dancing and the energy flowing with Kiss My Sass.

A medley of 3 to 4 songs was next which in my opinion was sort of a cop out to squeeze in more songs. As far as I remember, the medley contained Keep It Simple, Prostitution Is the World's Oldest Profession, and The Ballad Of Big Poppa And Diamond Girl. I am not a 100% sure about this though. This medley might have been started with another song though, Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk (Scandalous).

Cobra Starship rounded up the evening with other crowd favourites, Smile For The Paparazzi, Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We're Famous, and of course, Bring It (Snakes On A Plane). Pat and Ben from Sing It Loud also helped out on a few song.

Of course there was an encore, which started with Ryland talking on stage which he was pretty good at. After programming in a few beats, the song Pleasure Ryland started with the rest of Cobra Starship coming up on stage. They capped off the evening with Guilty Pleasure and called it a night.

My disappointment with Cobra Starship has now been erased and re-written over by an amazing set and performance last Thursday. MiMi Soya was the surprise support of the evening who really impressed me. As for Cash Cash and Sing It Loud, they are ok bands but in a sea of pop punk these days which is all the rage with the kids, they could easily get lost but do have some potential.

Disclaimer: This is a post about a gig which, unfortunately, I did not get the chance to go to.

For the longest time, a friend of mine has been raving about this band led by Juliette Lewis, the actress from Natural Born Killers. According to him, it easily trumps any other actor come rock (star) artist such as 30 Seconds To Mars (Jared Leto).

The moment someone over at the London Indie Meetup list mentioned the gig at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, I immediately checked it out and after seeing the ticket price and the ticket, booked my ticket.

The gig was real cheap at 11 quid and the venue seemed quite cozy and small which means a very intimate gig. I've rarely been to small events which have less than 500 people, the only one would be seeing Asobi Seksu at ICA earlier this year, so this would have been quite unique. According to the website, Hoxton Bar was big enough for 450 people.

After last Friday's Friendly Fires event, I was quite looking forward to this one.

Sadly, my mouth palate started itching whilst I was still at work on Saturday which was always a sign on a terrible cold coming up. Sure enough by the evening, I had major sniffles and stayed in for the two days I was off from work (Sunday/Monday), canceling an appointment with the hygienist as well.

A few people on Plurk mentioned there'd be a next time, and yesterday, she announced a 4 venue UK tour in November. This time though, the venue will be Shepherd's Bush Empire which as I've heard, is a venue for 5000+ people. This would not be intimate at all. I am still thinking about this gig, but it is still so far away. Also, with Bloc Party and The Mars Volta gigs announced this week, I am already digging into my savings as it isn't payday yet.

I am pretty sure I'll end up going but in the meantime, let's listen to some of her songs. Here's Sticky Honey from Juliette and The Licks.

Her first band was called Juliette and The Licks. Now, it is Juliette (Lewis) and The Romantiques. Do check the links to get a taste.

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Now playing: Juliette and the Licks - Comin' Around
http://foxytunes.com/artist/juliette+and+the+licks/track/comin+around

Last Friday, I was off to another gig, the first one for this month of May. It would be a relatively different gig than usual but a very familiar venue.

I can no longer recall exactly how I came to listen to Friendly Fires but the moment I did, I fell in love with their unique brand of dance-pop-punk. I knew watching them live would be a different experience than usual and boy was it different.

The venue was the HMV Forum in Camden which was the site where I saw Bloc Party last year and will be seeing Deftones later on in the year. It is still one of the better venues I've been to.

Support acts were not mentioned on the Last.fm event page but with just one album yet to their name, we knew there had to be something.

Three drumsets were on stage and at some time close to 7:45, a guy sat on one of them and started playing. The act was one guy playing on the drums with back up techno beats which was quite entertaining albeit being unusual. He played a few songs which did help the crowd ease into the evening. At no point did he mention what his name nor his act was called. He did mention that Magistrates was playing next. After some googling, I found out it was Wax Stag.

After his entertaining set, it was time for the longest wait for a second support band I have ever endured. I'd say Wax Stag finished a few minutes after 8 but Magistrates did not start playing until past 9 which is usually when main acts start.

Anyway, Magistrates finally came up on stage. I've never heard of them before this gig and had no idea what kind of music they played. Not having them listed on the Last.fm event page didn't help either. Nonetheless, watching them on stage was quite enjoyable and surprisingly entertaining. Man, that sounded real lame but seriously, what can be said about a band you've never heard before. Believe me though, they were real energetic on stage and their music was pretty good.

At almost 10 in the evening, Friendly Fires finally came up on stage. As far as I remember from their videos, the band only has three members but I was surprised to see 6 come up on stage. With only one album released, you almost knew they'd play every song but of course in a different order. They started off the show with Lovesick which really got the crowd dancing early.

Yes, dancing. I was actually at a gig which was more like a rave than a rock concert. It's a little out of my shell, but I went on with it and danced a little even though the (dance) floor was packed.

This is dumb. What good is a music gig post-slash-review if I can't even remember the set list or how each song played out live. Setlist.fm does not have one for this event but I'd go with the top of the list as it does sounds close to what I recall so I'd go with it.

• Lovesick
• Jump In The Pool
• Skeleton Boy
• In The Hospital
• White Diamonds
• Strobe
• Photobooth
• On Board
• Paris
• Ex Lover

Notable songs would be their singles Paris, Skeleton Boy and an extended rendition of Ex Lover as sort of their encore.

Friendly Fires was an amazing and enjoyable experience. They have a ton of energy and unleash it onstage which I am pretty sure, feeds off from the amazing response from the crowd all singing and dancing.

It won't be long until I see them next as they are supporting Blur on the 2nd of July. I am a bit skeptical about how they would sound in a huge open venue such as Hyde Park but if they pull it off, it would be a massive dancing party.

Apologies for the ridiculously blurry and awful pictures. I just felt the post would be duller without them. Doubt it helps really though.

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Now playing: Friendly Fires - Strobe
via FoxyTunes   

Last week, there was a sudden in flux of gigs announced in London and most of the tickets were released for sale on Thursday and Friday. Not wanting to realize regret later on, I went ahead and splurged on ticket shopping. Heck, we just received our paycheck.

Thursday tickets (Somerset House events) were pretty easy to acquire. Friday tickets (Greenday and Deftones) were a little trickier since one is a big band playing a big gig and the other is a band playing in a smaller venue. Being an O2 customer finally paid off with priority ticketing with Greenday. However, there was a little worry with Deftones as tickets did not seem to be available at the time advertised which usually means they sold out. Thankfully, the correct purchase link came up around 20 to 30 minutes after the time initially posted as being available.

After the dust settled, I ended up purchasing tickets for 4 different shows as listed below spending close to a couple hundred quid.

• The Mars Volta at Somerset House on July 13.
• Bat For Lashes at Somerset House on July 16.
• Deftones at HMV Forum on August 27.
• Greenday at The O2 (previously known as Millenium Dome) on October 24.

Of the four, I am looking forward the most to see Deftones as I've been listening to them for the longest time. Plus, they haven't been touring much outside the US so I've sort of written them off as a band I'll not be seeing. With the announcement of them playing at this year's Reading and Leeds festival, a small window opened for them playing a gig in London. This venue happens to be the same one where I saw Bloc Party last year.

To put in perspective, I would have been more frustrated in missing out of tickets to see Deftones than Greenday. I almost never purchase tickets from Ebay (the exception being Taking Back Sunday at Astoria last year) as I don't like supporting touts, but I would have done anything to get my hands on tickets for Deftones.

As for Green Day, I am not a big fan but do enjoy them quite a bit. Also, they are the type of band you would have to see atleast once like The Cure. I've already missed watching Foo Fighters twice so consider this my redemption.

The Mars Volta is a band I will be seeing for the third time now, the first being one of the best gigs I've ever been to and the second being quite a let down. With a new album coming out, the third time should be a charm and could quite possibly live up to the brilliant performance at Brixton.

The last would be Bat For Lashes which is an act whose sound I've been digging quite a bit and far different from all the other British female artists like Lily Allen and Kate Nash.She (Natasha Khan) performed a few weeks ago at Shepherd's Bush but I was at GIAN. This should be fun.

This at a time when I am supposed to be saving as much as I possibly can for an automobile, which is still up in the air anyway since I need to pass my practical exam first.

Seeing now that standing tickets for every gig, except Bat for Lashes, have already soldout somehow makes me feel better.

----------------
Now playing: Bat For Lashes - Horse And I
via FoxyTunes   

For the past few months, the work load has been pretty much non-existent. We still get a few tickets here and a few servers to build there, but most of the time, it is dead quiet with nothing at all to do.

Time has been spent mindlessly checking social networks, RSS feeds, checking email, and playing games on the PS3.

Also, there's only so many tricks you can learn and master on the scooter before getting bored. One cannot be too crazy with the tricks as there are cameras all over the place and we wouldn't want to see ourselves on Today's Big Fail for a scooter trick gone horribly wrong.

With this in mind, I have taken it upon myself to divide the work hours into something that would be more productive and organized. We cannot carry on any longer simply wasting the hours of the day away. We have at least 3 months of this left.

Besides, it would at the very least show that I am actually doing something than just sitting around all day.

Here's what I have devised so far.

• 1320-1500 -- Check all email accounts starting with work, Plurk, unread RSS feed items, social networking sites (Quizbook) and play Zork. Seems like a lot, but I've checked and can normally get through all of them by 1500.
• 1500-1700 -- Study time for career advancement. Seriously, I've been extremely lazy and uninspired so allotting time in the day for this should help.
• 1700-1800 -- Lunch break which includes trips to ASDA or Subway for food. This involves a little plurking, emails and RSS feeds. Yes, even during lunch break, I'm in front of a PC.
• 1800-2000 -- Play with Slicehost server, Wordpress site (themes, plugins, layout) and think of something to blog.
• 2000-2120 -- Check back plurk, RSS feeds and emails until 3rd shift comes in.

Sounds like a solid plan, right?

Now for the tricky part, sticking to it and avoiding distractions as it is so easy to Alt+Tab to a new window and Ctrl+# to another opened tab.

With this said, this would not hinder anything which needs to be done that is work related like tickets, tasks and server builds. We are of course, fanatical.

Anyway, let's see how it goes. I'll start tomorrow.

A few weeks ago, we were offered a 75% discount for our own slice of cloud computing via Slicehost, a sister company of Rackspace. We basically get a cloud server with a Linux distro on it, 256MB of RAM, 10GB of storage 100GB of bandwidth, and the complete freedom (almost) to do pretty much anything on it.

Considering the price and the freedom, I decided to go ahead and dive in as our workload these days is pretty much none. This would give me something to play with aside from the PS3 whilst at work. At the same time, this would teach me a few more things about Ubuntu (the Linux distro I choose), managing an actual web server and hosting a website, things I learnt back in school but never put into actual practice.

With all the guides available, setting up a website running of wordpress was pretty easy and I guess it is about time to share it to the world.

I've been maintaining blogs on Livejournal (since January 2004), Wordpress.com (since August 2007), and Multiply for quite sometime now, however, they all have exactly the same content. I doubt I would be killing anyone one of them off as I did with my Geocities website which started back in April 2003.

Speaking of Geocities and it's coming demise, another thing I could do is migrate the old site over, just so I can preserve it online.

Going back to this new site, I doubt it would host any new content as well as anything drastically different from my other blogs. I don't really have a passion for one exclusive thing nor a niche in some kind of field.

Hence sticking to the blog title, Perfecting Loneliness, which again is one of my favorite Jets To Brazil songs.

With that said, I am hoping to post more creative entries as well as post with more regularity as I have been completely lazy these days. One thing though, extremely emotional content will stay in Livejournal as it was designed for.

So, add me up on your RSS reader. You do have one, right?

Later on in the day, I will be going to this year's Give It A Name festival.

Last year's event, was a quite a two-day extravagance of quite epic proportions. Got to see Finch and Glassjaw and discovered a load of new amazing bands such as Billy Talent, All Time Low, Cobra Starship and Envy On The Coast.

This year though, the two day festival has been scaled down tremendously with a smaller venue and fewer bands. Friday's line up didn't even budge me at all and I completely ignored it.

However, the best part about this festival is one band. One band who performed in Manila which I missed out on and made me envy friends back home who even met and hung out with the band.

The band is of course Thursday, one of my favourite bands of all time. Due to this, I don't really care whether or not GIAN was scaled back. The important thing is that I am finally seeing them live. I'd gladly pay to see Thursday even though all the other bands are awful.

This is not the case though as Sunday's line-up is beyond crazy. In addition to Thursday, we have Underoath and Taking Back Sunday plus two new bands I am digging at the moment, Innerpartysystem and Escape The Fate. I saw Taking Back Sunday last year at Astoria and it was a brilliant show.

Here's looking forward to one hell of an evening.

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Now playing: Thursday - Understanding In A Car Crash
via FoxyTunes   

It has been awhile so I have no idea where to start. Actually, I somewhat knew what I was going to say until I saw the setlist for Sunday’s show. It had Two More Years. Oh well, we had Sunday.

So here goes.

Last Saturday, I saw Bloc Party at London Olympia Grand Hall. This was the second time I’ve seen the band live with the first being last September at The Forum and if you know me at all, you would know that they are among my favorite bands, if not, the top band.

The build up to this gig was not as emotional nor problematic as the first time, but I was still looking forward to seeing them again as they know how to put on an epic show. Plus, they are Bloc Party with Foals supporting.

The venue was quite accessible as it was right next to a tube station, one end of the District Line, and included links to Overground and National Rail services. After checking with Google Maps Streetview, you really would not get lost.

The gates opened around 6 in the afternoon and the winding queue slowly subsided at this point. It is quite amusing how such a long queue from the outside seems like nothing once you get in.

As mentioned, the venue was at the London Olympia Grand Hall. They weren’t kidding by calling the place “grand” as it was pretty massive. I think it was bigger than Earl’s Court though The O2 can hold more people because it is a stadium and not a “flat” venue unlike Olympia and Earl’s Court.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

The structure was a mass of steel and glass which allowed quite a bit of natural light to enter the venue which during spring is up to almost 8 in the evening.

The first order of business was to buy a shirt which was pretty easy since I was among the first in (first 200). Once this was dealt with, it was time to grab some food. Similar to Earl’s Court, they had several food establishments inside including a Pizza Express. Went for a Sloppy Guiseppe again.

Sadly, like Earl’s Court, they mostly served Carlsberg apart from cider but I needed a drink. Carlsberg is always a last resort choice for me. It was time to then sit down, enjoy the pint and wait until the support acts start.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

At around 7:30, Wet Paint started playing. I have not heard them before but they had a pretty good show going which was certainly better than Esser, the support band last time. Also, watching a band in natural light and not in complete darkness was quite nice.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

Next up was Foals. Now this is a band I wanted to see live the moment I first saw their video performance at Reading last year whilst at work. When I checked for upcoming gigs last year, their only London show at Brixton was already sold out.

When I learned they were to support Bloc Party, I was ecstatic. Seeing Bloc Party alone was enough but catching a glimpse of Foals was even more amazing. It is safe to say that I was looking forward to see them at the same level as of Bloc Party.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

They started off their set with a long intro slowly dwindling into The French Open which is the first song I really liked from them even though I couldn’t understand it as it is French. They also played other great songs like Balloons, Cassius, Two Steps Twice, and Red Sock Pugie.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

As a support band, they were limited to a very short set but it was a really great one. A nice glimpse on how energetic they are. Apparently, they are working on a new album so I’ll be eagerly awaiting that and the time they’ll be on tour again.

At around 9 in the evening, Bloc Party came up on stage and kicked off the show with One Month Off quickly followed up by Trojan Horse which really got the crowd going. From the moment I heard Intimacy, I loved the energy of these two songs as well as the guitar riffs towards the end of Trojan Horse. I hoped they’d play one during the September show, but they didn’t.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

They then continued the energy levels set by the first two songs with Hunting For Witches and the classic Positive Tension. Bloc Party finally decided to slow things down with Biko but slowly built up pace yet again with Waiting For the 7.18 with Gordon on the gloc. This eventually let to the epic duo of Songs For Clay (Disappear Here) leading non-stop into Banquet.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

At this point, the place was going mental so it was time to slow things down a bit with Where Is Home? and Ion Square. This “calmness” was suddenly blasted with Mercury.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

Up next was a duo of lovely songs with This Modern Love and The Prayer. I was going to say favorites, but aren’t they all. This Modern Love always sounds so epic even on CD/MP3 but more so live. I am pretty sure it brought a tear to my eye. The Prayer actually closed out the first set of Bloc Party’s show.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

After a few minutes, they came back on stage and started off with the dramatic and highly emotional, Sunday which had me all giddy inside as I am currently loving the song more at the moment. “I will love you in the morning, when you’re still hung over.”

The rest of the 2nd set was a trifecta of high energy anthems with Intimacy favorite Halo, Like Eating Glass and the ever popular crowd favorite Helicopter (fave Guitar Hero 2 song). This meant non-stop dancing and screaming along.

At the end of the 2nd set, the band disappeared again and most people thought this was it and started leaving. I knew it wasn’t as they did the same last time, one long set then a shorter second set and then the encore. Also, I remember Kele saying “this is our 2nd set.” Lastly, they have yet to play Ares, a song which they promoted on the Intertubes for fans to watch out and record video of and submit to then.

Sure enough, they came back up, Ares fired up and everyone started dancing to the sounds of sirens. I remember their one song encore last time, so expected this to be it. Thankfully, they had one more song left for the night. To a glorious array of lasers, they played Flux to end the night in such a high note.

From Bloc Party at Olympia

It was a spectacular evening seeing Bloc Party again. They pulled off quite a show at such a massive venue though I still prefer smaller venues. This actually continued the following night with quite a different setlist which included Talons, Signs, Blue Light, Uniform and Two More Years, a song I need to see live someday. This sort of makes me regret why I didn’t just go to both venues.

Looking back, the setlist on April 12 looks almost identical to their show last September.

Last Saturday, I saw Funeral For A Friend live for the 3rd time. They are the first band I saw when I moved back to London in 2007. I saw them again in Astoria during the last month of December 2007, a day before my birthday.

This time around, I saw them at University of London Union (ULU), a venue I have not been to before but thanks to the massive queue outside, was quite easy to spot even from a block away.

The venue was quite nice although a bit smaller than Astoria and was quite packed since the gig soldout. There was only one bar though which meant long queues.

Support bands were People In Planes and We Are The Ocean, bands which I haven't heard of prior to the gig.

People In Planes started playing while I was still in the queue outside and only caught a few songs when I got inside and had a pint in my hand. They were pretty ok, nothing too special about them. They were kind enough to hand out cards as we were leaving the venue for downloading two of their singles.

We Are The Ocean was fun with a lead vocalist who was quite into screaming. The back up vocalist had quite a good voice which was more in line with big old school rock bands than screamo. Check out their song Nothing Has Happened Yet on their Myspace to hear what I mean.

From random

Both support bands played pretty long sets which is always good. We Are The Ocean finished at almost 9 in the evening.

This meant around 30 minutes for techs to get Funeral For A Friend up and ready. A few minutes after 9:30, Funeral For A Friend finally came up on stage and rocked the house.

They kicked off the show with All The Rage which really surprised me as I expected them to open with a song from their latest album, Memory and Humanity. Of course, I was more familiar with the old songs so I was all giddy about this.

From random

This turned out to be the theme of the night, more old songs than new ones. Since they had their album tour around November of last year, they used this gig as an opportunity to blast out their old songs and fan favorites which was a real delight for me.

I would have tried and mentioned each song as far as I can remember but I already cheated by googling for the setlist. It would not be fair to pretend. Apparently, there is a website dedicated to setlists.

• All The Rage
  
• She Drove Me To Daytime Television
  
• Rookie Of The Year
  
• Rules and Games
  
• The End of Nothing
  
• To Die Like Mouchette
  
• Juneau
  
• Constant Illuminations
  
• Red is the New Black
  
• History
  
• Ghosts
  
• Into Oblivion (Reunion)
  
• Roses for the Dead
  

Juneau and History were crowd favorites and brought back good memories.

From random

Of course, the night did not end with Roses for the Dead. As expected, there was an encore which was composed of Streetcar, Maybe I am? and Escape Artists Never Die. Looking back to my first FFAF gig, this is exactly the same encore minus Maybe I Am?.

All in all, it was an amazing set which highlights the best songs they have, songs they really enjoy playing even if they are more than half a decade old. This made the gig more special.

So what's next? This April, I will be seeing Bloc Party and Taking Back Sunday for the second time as well as Thursday, Foals, Innerpartysystem and Underoath for the very first time. Thursday!

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Now playing: Funeral For A Friend - Rules And Games
http://foxytunes.com/artist/funeral+for+a+friend/track/rules+and+games

I first heard of Lights Action by accident when I went to watch Saosin back in June '07 at the now demolished Mean Fiddler (later known as Astoria 2). First impression of them was pretty good and looking back at the entry just shows how surprised I was back then.

They didn't have an EP or album back then but I remember listening to their songs on Myspace quite a bit.

Forward to 2009. As I was stumbling across Last.fm looking for recommended events, I noticed one for Lights Action. Purchased tickets and researched about the band to check what they have been up to. Apparently, they already have an EP released, All Eyes To The Morning Sun, and a full studio album, Welcome To The New Cold World (which was released just 2 weeks ago).

As they weren't available on the torrents, I downloaded both from Amazon which is a rarity in itself. Aside from Bloc Party's Intimacy, these are the only albums I have purchased and downloaded.

Enough history and on to the gig.

The gig was last Friday, March 13 at O2 Islington Academy. This was formerly known as Carling Academy Islington until all the Carling venues changed to O2. Not real sure and a bit lazy a the moment to get into the specifics.

I've been to Carling Academy Islington in the past to watch The Used (with Mute Math) and Coheed and Cambria. It was a venue I fell in love with right away because of it's adequate size and reasonable sound.

So when I arrived, I expected the place to be the same one I fell in love with. Apparently, a lot more than the name changed. The venue has been drastically scaled down in size. The entrance used to be at the ground floor with the box office and the cloakroom and a large venue on the 1st floor with more seats in a small mezzanine area.

Now the entrance is on the 1st floor with no cloak room (or I didn't see one) with a small stage which was slightly bigger than Mayric's and a much smaller floor area than before. At the least, there were a few places to sits and one long bar.

As it was smaller, I immediately felt awkward being the only person by himself with everyone else in a group, chatting up. It was time for a pint of Strongbow.

The gig started quite early with the first support band, Young Guns, on stage before 19:30. They sounded ok and quite lively, but didn't really reel me in. I am pretty sure I'd give them a second try sometime.

Up next was SaidMike which was surprisingly good and I even enjoyed a few songs such as Perfect Mistakes and Antics. It was also nice of them to hand out CD samplers after the gig. Most probably another new band I'll be seeing in the future.

Of course, this night was not really about them but about Lights Action. The band started before 21:00 which is unheard of in my book.

From random

They started out with Moscow, as I predicted since it was the kind of song which simply build things up. Most songs were obviously from their new album. The songs I can remember they played are Battle of Lovers, Signals To Radar, Passions Of The Lonely, Young Scarlett Young, Travellin' Man, and The Bottom Of The Sea. They may have sung two more songs but I can't remember which exactly.

From random

A slow version of Satellites from their EP was also played although I would have preferred the original version instead. Hearing Signals To Radar back to back with Passions Of The Lonely was quite lovely as they are my favourite tracks from the new album.

From random

Sadly, the gig ended before 22:00 which was really disappointing as I've never been to a gig in London which finished before 22:00. I was expecting to hear a few more songs hoping for something from the EP. There was some sort of club night after so they wanted us out early. Boo!

Overall, it was a pretty good albeit short gig of good music from bands which are just starting out. I've mostly watched the bigger and more popular ones so this is a sort of getting my right foot into seeing smaller more indie acts in and around London.

There is a whole other aspect to this evening which is worthy of a separate post.