I am not good in words, I am not a music connoisseur.. and I am not a lot of other things.. I will stick to what I know: sharing (my biased) music appreciation.
Kate Tempest! She is dragging me out of my silence. Few doors down from me, few years younger than me, she talks about me, she talks about you.
“We are still mythical; we are still permanently trapped somewhere between the heroic and the pitiful” she told me at her gig- I am sure she did.
If you are reading this, then check her out.. and fuck first World problems!
I bought tickets for Jon Hopkins in September when Shan had told me that his set at Bestival was amazing plus I had fallen in love with his album Immunity, nominated for a Mercury Prize last year. The night was sold out months ago and the anticipation was big, so big that I had to cut my holidays in Amsterdam a day short to make it back in time for Jon Hopkins.
The news at his official site read : “I am playing my biggest live AV show to date on Feb 22nd at the London Forum.”, so I have to admit I had great expectation for the night.
He came on stage around 11:30, after an unexplained 45′ minutes of uncomfortable standing around time. Yet 50 minutes later i couldn’t feel reconciled. Having read his quote on his official site and knowing that he would play only for an hour, I was expecting a set for the fans, a set for festival people. Afterall, it was a Saturday night at the Forum, a dark enough place to dance off to electronic music.
His set had brilliant moments (see Collider) but it lacked continuation. Many times I felt like a kid who was given a cone of ice cream and as I was about to take a bite of my favourite part, the ice cream fell down on the floor. One of those moments was during Open Eye Signal, mainly because I was expecting an extended version rather than exactly the album version, and not even as loud as I usually play it at home.
Disappointed as I was, I still enjoyed him on stage. He has a great dynamic and I loved his dance moves. In general I was receiving a good vibe from him and during his limited great moments, his talent and originality overpowered everything else.
Support came from Daphni, Luke Abbott and Objekt, with the last one taking over after Hopkins with a very good dance set. Despite feeling personally hurt by Jon Hopkins, it was still a good Saturday night as I got to feel “kinda” cool arriving at the venue straight after the airport carrying a suitcase, I got to catch up with friends and listen to Jon Hopkins.
Allah-las is an American band from California. West coast boys in their late twenties who met while working in a record store in L.A. and decided to experiment with garage and psychedelic rock sounds of the 60’s. Influenced more from the environment rather than anything else, meaning that their album would have never been recorded in Iceland. I liked them from the intro of their first tune of their first self-titled album. It was something about them that could create almost a feeling of safety, the same kind of safety that you feel while enjoying your childhood favourite meal. comfort food, comfort music. In fact if somebody cared about my top five albums of 2012, I would happily include Allah-las on my list. However, just a month ago, a friend whose opinion I trust, told me that their live performance is not as good as the album, so I was kind of holding a small basket for them.
But when the orange warm lights were turned on, on the smaller stage of the festival in St Malo in France, people were getting closer to eachother for protection from the sudden shower and their safe familiar first tune was heard over the speakers. These, the first keys of Catamaran. People were dancing, the band was completed tuned in not only to the right keys but to the whole atmosphere and emotions of the crowd. I was enjoying it all the way.
A band that new, that I swear I can remember them playing one of their songs twice . And while they were playing Sacred Sands, my favourite from their album, the festival people were dancing, the shower had just stopped and I was enjoying both a cigarette and a great performance. What more could I ask for?
My Life in gigs 