Frolix-8

Gig Blogged #72 - The Pentangle @ Birmingham Symphony Hall

The Pentangle @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Saturday 5th July 2008

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #71 - Buddy Guy @ Shepherd's Bush Empire

Buddy Guy @ Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, Tuesday 24th June 2008

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #70 - Melt-Banana @ Rock City, Nottingham

Melt-Banana @ Rock City Cellar, Nottingham, Monday 23rd June 2008

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #69 - Lichens @ Bunkers Hill, Nottingham

Lichens @ Bunkers Hill, Nottingham, Thursday 22nd May 2008

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #68 - Stars of the Lid @ St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London

Stars of the Lid @ St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church, London, Tuesday 20th May 2008

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #67 - Half Man Half Biscuit @ Rock City, Notts.

Half Man Half Biscuit @ Nottingham Rock City, Wednesday 23rd April 2008

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #66 - Merzbow et. al. @ Leicester de Montfort University

Merzbow with John Richards and the Dirty Electronics Ensemble @ PACE Studio 1, De Montfort University, Leicester, Thursday 17th April 2008

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk. Thence to the Illusionator's schizophrenic rendering. Please also to be enjoying my crappy mobile phone videoings below...

Gig Blogged #65 - Bilge Pump / Lords / Not In This Town @ Rose of England, Nottingham

Bilge Pump, Lords and Not In This Town @ Rose of England, Nottingham, Thursday 20th March 2008

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Achtung Internet

In honour of their annual gigs and increased ticket price thanks to all those nefarious file-sharers (maybe), I embed for your hopeful sanity the incomparable Half Man Half Biscuit...
You're Hard		Restless Legs
Twenty-Four-Hour Garage People		Paintball's Coming Home
Running Order Squabblefest		Vatican Broadside

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Top Gigged Blogged 2007

If I'd been looking to award a 'Weirdest Gig Blogged 2007' gong, I'd be spoiled for choice; Faust and their cement mixer / angle-grinder combo? Sunn o))) and their tree? Turisas and their duck? Bearsuit and their, er, bear? Not to mention the trip that was the Imagined Village...

But it is the top gig we seek, the one gig to rule them all this year, the one gig which transported and inspired. Ordinarily it would be the aforementioned doomlords Sunn o))) and their collaboration with Boris but as they really can't be compared with anyone else musically, it wouldn't be fair. Plus they won last year. Which leaves a damn close race; Gringo Records' Tenth Anniversary was a great day, ending as it did with the nigh-on perfect triple-whammy of Lords, Bilge Pump and Part Chimp. Deerhoof were sparkling in June and Ojos de Brujo warmed up November a treat. Rush should have been in with a much louder shout but top gigs don't come from drum solos alone...

However it is ROCK which wins the day, as Heaven and Hell proved simply stupendous - a tragedy that they played to a half-full NEC on a Monday night and with a support band that would be better employed clearing minefields, but nonetheless, Dio-era Black Sabbath showed why they've gone on and on and on influencing countless bands over the years. I even waved that 'devil horn' hand sign at the great Iommi. Nearly.

I wish I'd taken photos as good as this chap's...

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Gig Blogged #64 - Damn You! Christmas Covers Party @ The Maze, Nottingham

The Damn You! Christmas Covers Party, featuring; Cuban Crimewave, the Jingle Belles, Souvaris, the Evil Hawks, Dearest and La La Lepus @ The Maze, Nottingham, Saturday 22nd December 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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The Sunn o))). We Love It.

Here's another pic from the weekend's big fight - Anderson vs. O'Malley at Butlin's, Minehead. Anderson's winning on points here, although O'Malley was having problems with his valves. But let's face it, performing at that illustrious venue is bound to send anyone 'a bit funny'.

Well done to the Illusionator for the find. And weller done to the photographer for taking the pic in the first place.

More Shiny Black Sunn o))) & Boris

Look, I know I'm going off on one but really - you people who insist on choons and beatz and wordz and things don't know what you're missing. You can have your James Blunt. Really.

Berlin #1	Berlin #2
Berlin #3	Roskilde #1
Roskilde #2	Somewhere Out There

Gig Blogged #63 - Sunn o))) & Boris @ The Forum, London

Sunn o))) & Boris @ The Forum, London, Monday 10th December 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #62 - Heaven and Hell (aka Black Sabbath, the Dio Years) @ Birmingham NEC

Heaven and Hell (aka Black Sabbath, the Dio Years) @ Birmingham NEC, Tuesday 13th November 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #61 - The Imagined Village @ Leicester de Montfort Hall

The Imagined Village @ Leicester de Montfort Hall, Monday 12th November 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #60 - Hard Rock Hell @ Butlin's, Minehead

Hard Rock Hell @ Butlin's, Minehead, Friday 9th and Saturday 10th November 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #59 - Ojos de Brujo @ the Roundhouse, London

Ojos de Brujo @ the Roundhouse, London, Wednesday 7th November 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #58 - Y&T @ Nuneaton Queen's Hall

Y&T @ Queen's Hall, Nuneaton, Tuesday 30th October 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #57 - Rush @ Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield

Rush @ Hallam FM Arena Sheffield, Saturday October 6th 2007

Now showing over at palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #56 - Lords @ Susumi, Derby

Lords @ Susumi, Derby, Friday 15th September 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

UPDATE - Well at least you managed to score something against Australia.

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Gig Blogged #55 - Bearsuit @ Junktion 7, Nottingham

Bearsuit @ Junktion 7, Nottingham, Thursday 23rd August 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #54 - Bilge Pump & Lords @ The Labour Club, Northampton

Bilge Pump & Lords @ The Labour Club, Northampton, Saturday 30th June 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #53 - Deerhoof @ Polish Eagle Club, Nottingham

Deerhoof @ The Polish Eagle Club, Nottingham, Thursday 28th June 2007

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #52 - Pearl Jam @ Wembley Arena

Pearl Jam @ Wembley Arena, London, Monday 18th June 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

UPDATE - Check out Katie Spain's suitably massive review.

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Gig Blogged #51 - Megadeth @ Bristol Academy

Megadeth @ Bristol Academy, Wednesday 13th June 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

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Gig Blogged #50 - Faust @ The Charlotte, Leicester

Faust @ The Charlotte, Leicester, Tuesday 12th June, 2007

Now showing over @ palmereldritch.co.uk

UPDATE - Gilbert's review here

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Gig Blogged #49 - Gringo Records 10th Anniversary

Part Chimp / Bilge Pump / Lords / Souvaris / Sailors / Reynolds / Owen Tromans & The Elders / Hey Colossus / Hirameka Hi-Fi @ Gringo Records' Tenth Anniversary, The Arts Organisation, Nottingham, Saturday 9th June, 2007.

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

UPDATE - Gilbert's review here. George's review here.

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Gig Blogged #48 - Tinariwen @ de Montfort Hall, Leicester

Tinariwen @ de Montfort Hall, Leicester, Friday 4th May, 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #46 - Kreator & Celtic Frost @ Rock City, Nottingham

Kreator & Celtic Frost @ Rock City, Nottingham, Saturday 16th March 2007

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #45 - Young James Long @ The Maze, Nottingham

Young James Long @ The Maze, Nottingham, Thursday 22nd February, 2007

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #44 - Puressence @ The Charlotte, Leicester

Puressence @ The Charlotte, Leicester, Saturday 17th February 2007.

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

UPDATE - Review of the gig in Manchester here on Cath Aubergine's blog, plus a couple of photos. Nice suit, and Cath has been to far too many Puressence gigs than can be healthy!

Gig Blogged #43 - The Rescue @ The Charlotte, Leicester

Hinterland / The Rescue / The Flaming Aces / Themselves @ The Charlotte, Leicester, Thursday 11th January 2007

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

UPDATE - Much better pictures than mine of the Flaming Aces at this gig here, in the comments

Top Gig Blogged 2006

I know there's three days to go but I'm sticking my neck out and saying that I won't go to another gig this year, so the time has come to hold this year's top live musical performance up and watch it glitter in the light of the shitty Christmas lights adorning oh-so-many surrounding houses. Let's get the wooden spoon out of the way first - I don't know if I'm mellowing in my old age but I can't recall any performance this year really making me want to scream in pain and horror. The Colin Steele Quintet was hard work on the old bottom but I couldn't really fault the musicianship. The NME 'new music' thingy in May was no more 'new' or 'music' than I expected and the Magik Markers' support acts didn't distract myself and the two Gs from our important confusion of the female bar staff at Bunkers Hill, so I can't pour bile on them.

So the spoon is split this year between two acts who really shouldn't have bothered in my opinion - the Oxfam Glamour Models, who succeeded in providing an excellent contrast to headliners Bromhead's Jacket at King Tut's in November in that they were thoroughly dire and shambolic in almost every way. No, scratch that, in every conceivable way. And the second half of the spoon goes to Kid 606 and his support of Mogwai in September. Although perhaps he should be praised for basing an entire set around the hitherto-unknown 'play random loud shit' button in iTunes.

I really wanted Ostracoda's gig to be the winner this year, as it beat off (shut up, Gilbert) competition from the likes of Pearl Jam, Lightning Bolt (plus Lords, for fuck's sake) and the aformentioned Mogwai. It could not, however, quite come close to the whole body and mind experience that was Sunn o))) vs. Earth back in February. A truly inspirational pairing of unique musicians.

Gig Blogged #42 - Bromheads Jacket @ Glasgow King Tut's

Bromheads Jacket / Oxfam Glamour Models / Fade @ King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Saturday 18th November 2006

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #41 - Colin Steele Quintet @ Glasgow City Halls Recital Room

The Colin Steele Quintet @ City Halls Recital Room, Glasgow, Friday 17th November 2006

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #40 - Opeth @ Birmingham Academy

Opeth @ Birmingham Academy, Wednesday 8th November, 2006

Now showing @ palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #38 - Mogwai @ Leicester University

Mogwai @ Leicester University Students' Union, Thursday 21st September, 2006

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk.

Gig Blogged #37 - Pearl Jam et. al. @ Reading Festival

Pearl Jam / Placebo / My Chemical Romance / Slayer / Bullet For My Valentine / Dresden Dolls / Taking Back Sunday @ The Reading Festival, Sunday 27th August 2006

Now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #36 - Big Balls 3 AC/DC Convention, Wrexham

Big Balls 3 AC/DC Convention @ North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Wrexham, Friday 4th - Sunday 6th August 2006

...now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #35 - Aquabats @ Joseph's Well, Leeds

The Aquabats / The Riverclub / Sonic Boom Six / Mumrah @ Joseph's Well, Leeds, Monday 31st July 2006....

.... now showing at palmereldritch.co.uk

Gig Blogged #34 - Dylan Moran @ Loughborough Town Hall

Dylan Moran @ Loughborough Town Hall, Friday 23rd June 2006
	There are only four or five nights left on this tour, which began in Buxton on May 3rd and has seen Moran follow a route around the country as rambling as his stage act can be. So the thought was that he was either going to be razor-sharp and well-rehearsed, or shagged out. In actuality he was a combination of these. We had a very comedy-as-rock-n-roll setup at the hall, with Kings of Leon unobtrusively on the PA and ‘Like, totally… Dylan Moran’ projected on the walls and stage floor. There were the usual back projections of Moran’s dark cartoons, and the man’s props were onstage ready; fags and red wine.
From the off he laid into Loughborough with his finest Bernard Black (a character not very far from what he is like in real life, at least on stage anyway), which roused a few barely-audible heckles from the student portions of the audience. “Come on!” Moran responded “I’ve been round the world five times and been doing this for fifteen years. Try your luck!” On discovering the town’s university specialising in sport, his derision went into something like overdrive, although that’s not a word one would normally associate with Moran. This brought a slightly louder response from one of the studes, “But it’s a centre of excellence!” which just about brought the house down itself. A subsequent exchange, where Moran asked “What do they teach you here?” which received the loud reply, “How to hate the Irish!” fell rather flat in comparison.
Moran chain-smoked throughout, which brought on a few bouts of coughing and one big sneeze - the Black Books scene where Bernard describes the feeling of smoking your umpteenth fag whilst drinking yet another glass of warm east European piss with “This is heaven!” sprang to mind. It came as no surprise to learn that Moran disapproves of the large health warnings on cigarette packs – they shouldn’t deal with the consequences of smoking, he reasoned. Rather, they should tackle why you are smoking in the first place. “Call her” was one suggested alternative. This is where Moran really shines as a stand-up in my opinion – the Bernard Black-isms are hilarious (as was the piss-take about trendy crop-tops and visible underwear), but it’s really on another level when he hits upon a truth about life at the moment and holds it up for everyone to see. All good stand-up comedians have done this since stand-up began, of course, and I was reminded of one of those when Moran availed himself of the tall bar chair he had derided earlier in the evening. With fag in one hand, glass of wine in the other, he became a twenty-first century Dave Allen. The act changed, too, with more philosophising about life, having children and relationships, rather than dark, bitter ranting about how shit the countryside is. This obviously proved too much for one couple, who left via the only route available – right in front of the stage.
This may have influenced the show’s ending, which was quite precipitate, with Moran leaving the stage only to reappear almost immediately for a three-minute encore about nasal hair. As he said with only mild irony, “Imagine in your jobs you have a boss who praises you about your photocopying. Well this is how I feel at times like this.”

Gig Blogged #33 - NME New Music Tour @ Leicester University

NME New Music Tour @ Leicester University Students’ Union, Monday 15th May 2006
Four bands, ten of your English pounds (subject to ripoff fee) and the promise that the evening’s line-up would be the choice of the finest young British music has to offer, courtesy of the NME High Court. What more could one ask of a Monday night in Leicester? Well …
I didn’t get to see the Long Blondes, so I have no idea how long or blonde they were – if indeed they were either. Heard a little of them whilst waiting for gig comrade plump_mantra, though. They sounded like any one of a number of sub-Franz Ferdinands but with a female singer. From my vantage point outside I was more entertained by the arrival of Lesta’s answer to a certain pair of female Viz characters attempting to get in for nothing, closely followed by a tottering, high-heeled ad for the Royal Navy.
	Onto McFl… I’m sorry, I mean of course The Automatic. Welsh (well, Cardiff anyway), with a bassist / singer very berry-faced in the manner of the singer from Keane. You know what I mean – someone who looks like they shouldn’t be in a band despite being able to sing or play an instrument. They just don’t look right for the role. Unlike the band’s keyboards / percussion player /yelper, a quite terminally spine-knackered Bez. Very energetic and enthusiastic, I felt the catchiness of the tunes fairly rammed down my throat (straight past my ears, anyway). Like the final band of the bill, they kept hyping up ¡Forward Russia!, although FR’s album was being released today so that’s probably why. Everything about t