15 posts tagged “live”

A bit slow on the reportin' but here it goes.

Updating a blog proves difficult when time to yourself becomes a scarce commodity. When I was a single girl I used to do loads of things on my own..... gymmin', runnin', readin', bloggin'. Now I have found myself in a relationship, the time that I used to spend doing these has now been taken up by other activities... many of which revolve around watching The Wire and drinkin IPA (Cardiffs answer to guiness - FOR THE WINNERS). Despite this, I have still managed to maintain and healthy level of wreckin' wrongin' and funnin' but unfortunately have not found the time to report back to y'all about them on this here blog.

Since stalling on the bloggin it has become apparent that some of the people who part-take in these afore mentioned activities have become reliant on this blog to remind them the events that have gone by during 2008. After tireless naggin', whingin' and moanin', I am endeavouring to provide a catch up of the final months of the year, for those who were not there at the time and for those who were there, but who can't remember :-)

Gig #60 of 2008 – Graveyard Johnnys/Alex Dingley/Broken Leaf @ Tafod

Alex Dingley is a genius. No question. His tunes are all potential singles. His band are tight. They look ace. I reckon things should happen for them in 2009. If there is a baby Jesus in the sky and if he knows what is good and right, then he will make this happen for them.

Broken Leaf played a set of tunes which apparently he had only written in the week leading up to the gig. I s'pose it was kinda an experiment of the musical kind. It were right ace. He is a very talented gentleman

Graveyard Johnnys were ok. I was official photographer for the evenin and the double bass being played by the singer gave me some good photos, but can't say they blew me away.

Here is a photo I took on the night...

Gig #61 of 2008 – King Alexander/Zail/Right Hand Left Hand @ Tafod

I love Right Hand Left Hand. I really do. I get so immersed in them playing that I forget where I am. You know a band is good when that happens and your just standing there with a stupid grin on your face. Zail do this to me also.

Here is RHLH:

First time I had seen King Alexander play. Sounded like a girl fronted Mclusky. Which aint a diss. Thats a huge compliment.

Good night. Enough people for a Sunday. T'is good work Gar is doing puttin on bands in Tafod. A thoroughly underused but much needed venue in the 'diff.

GRACE'S 30TH!

As a result of MANY (not so subtle) hints from Grace dating back as far as the beginning of 2006, we thought it was necessary to ensure that Grace saw out her 20's in a style in which she has become so much accustomed over the past 10 years – wreckin' wrongin' dancin' & fallin' over. All of which she executed to perfection during her birthday party held in Tafod on December 6^th.

Myself and Gareth turned up to open the venue at the time that people had been told to arrive – 9pm. I cranked up the tunes, got a drink in and waited for people to arrive. No one did. I played tunes to an empty club til 10ish. I had a text from Grace at 9:30ish asking if it was ok to go for a pint elsewhere before the party. Great I thought, this party is going to be an epic fail. Not even the birthday girl is showing up. At 10:30 people started showing up. Apparently, after the gig that night in Clwb people could be seen making a mass exodus across the bridge to Tafod. By 11ish the place was pretty much rammin'.

Ben played kicked off with some choice tunes. Then smAsh and me (well mainly Ash. I couldn't help but continually dance to the relentless classics). Carl Rylat off of Forecast played an ace set of Psych hits, then to the master, DJ ODG finishin the night off with his first set since being back in the 'diff. A welcome return D!

An inevitable fall from Grace on the dance floor was followed by a very juvenile, but highly entertaining 'Pile On' resulting in myself face down on Grace and unable to breath. Good times.

An ace night. Best night in ages. Loads of people showed up to pledge their love to Grace. The doorman stopped counting heads at 150! Buzzin. Well deserved G!

Unfortunately this is one of the very few photos of the night. I took my camera. I got too wasted to remember how to use it. Here is Ash and Ben illustrating what a 'Private Party' means.

Still having some party left in us by the time the club closed and not wanting to go home, we managed to blag the very malleable Jamie (who was stood outside Tafod with 3 copies of a Bonnie Tyler record on Vinyl - !) into letting us come back to his. Shortly after Jamie passed out face down on his bed while in pursuit of some Rizla, Ash turned up with members of local band The Aviary who didn't have a clue where they were let alone who Jamie was, but who soon made themselves at home by performing an extremely comedic and impromptu set of indie hits on the Guitar and electronic drum kit in Jamie's front room – all while he slept. Bless.

All feeling like we were on the brink of death the next day, Ash, Grace, Ben, Gar and Me hooked up and hung out eating pizza and generally trying to survive. Sometimes the mongin out the day after with friends, is almost as good as the night itself.

Ash in 2^nd mentalist self inflicted hair style of the year

Look what she did to herself:

I don't mean the oversized bottle of poppers. Thats usual .. I mean the hair innit!

I think she pulls it off well. I have even forgotten that her hair is pink now. Its just ash's hair..... except when you walk into a pub with her and people stare. I aint bothered. They're just jealous! If they're not staring for that, i'm sure one of us would do something else to make them stare. Thats just how it goes when you refuse to occupy the middle of the road I s'pose.

In other news...

I decorated a giant christmas tree (check out the size of the step ladder next to it. thats one BIG tree)
I saw this bellend shopping in Canton Tescos blatently wearing Pyjamas AND slippers. NO NO NO NO NO! Wrong.
I went cruisin on this
and I read this

I have been pretty slack on this for the past week and a bit. This is mainly due to being struck down with what Grace ingeniously called  'Swn Snot'. I think I would go as far as diagnosing myself with full blown Swnitutus brought on by a weekend of excess, too many bands (is there such a thing?) and not nearly enough sleep. But these kinda repercussions are something to be expected really when throwing yourself into 3 days of relentless fun and wrongs when your 27 (at the 'pro' level that which I feel I have now reached). But for as long as the fun:pain ratio continues to fall in favor of fun I shall carry on like a winner for the foreseeable future.

 

The first round of Swn fun started off early with a trip to Spillers for some of their festival instores. Firstly a short set from local band Fredrick Stanley Star, who I had not seen before but heard plenty of good things about. They were pretty good, although I decided to reserve judgment on them until I saw them play proper in Buffalo’s later. 

Then Cate le Bon played. I’m a fan. I have been since first seeing her play at last years Swn. If you haven’t heard of her, she is in Neon Neons live band and sings on their single ‘I Lust You’ but is a massively talented songwriter in her own right. I did a Qik live stream of some of this instore here.

 

I then went to the new Wagamamas in town while I killed time with Grace waiting for the next round of fun to start. Wagamamas is great, if you like being served by chav girls who don’t really know what they are doing and who scrawl your order down on your placemat because they can’t work out how to put it in the piece of hand held technology  that they strut around the place wielding like a gun. On paying for the over priced, somewhat substandard food, I was about to give the girl a tip for her (albeit) lame effort at customer service, when she tried pulling an evil trick on my by telling me my hair looked nice to try and secure some extra ££’s. I knew for a fact it wasn’t (it seldom is), which really pissed on her chips cos I rebelled and gave her a big fat £0 to take home to spend on whatever it is girls like her spend their money on (hairspray & fags?). Do you think this kind of customer complimenting manipulation is included in the training they get? I am pretty sure that the waitress in question didn’t think it up herself.  

 

Anyway, I digress.

 

The first band on our Swn itinerary involved a jaunt down to Canton to have a look at the Gate venue (which was very nice) and to see my man Gareth play keyboards for ex. Boo Radleys front man Martin Carr. I have to admit, if it wasn’t for the girlfriend duty of being there I would rather have been anywhere but. Someone who shall remain nameless can be quoted as saying “Why would I want to go and see some of my most talented friends failing to save a drowning man”….. harsh but a comedy quote none the less.

 

We then got stuck in wanky rugby traffic and took ages to dump my wheels and make our way back into town.

 

Made it into Clwb to see Clinic who, even though I have never really given them a proper listen, were really good. It was about here that I started feeling miserable because my inside were feeling wrong. Hung out in Dempseys, then tafod until I was forced to drag myself arse to bed.

 

The following day myself, smash and Gareth  had to get our heads together to go to the police station for an ID parade (well I say parade, it was a computer screen of people) for an incident that I have yet to blog about. All I can say is police stations are nothing like The Bill and are thoroughly boring places to spend your Saturday afternoons.

The second round of Swn fun started at twat central - Buffalo bar. Why they bother  putting bands on here I don’t know. An area which resembles a corridor with a stage at the end does not constitute a venue, no matter much you want it to.

After hooking up with a cru, we abandoned the Fredrick Stanley Star gig in favour of Zail in the makeshift venue for the weekend - Kaz Bar. It was rammed. We managed to be at the front and buzzed for their whole set. Who’da though you could make such a furious and full sounding noise from just a drummer and a guitarist. To be fair, the drummer is so good that I could happily watch him perform the set on his own. I grinned the whole way through.

After nipping out for some air, Noel and myself had to fight our way back to rejoin smash, grace, ben and toni at the front waiting for the mighty Truckers of Husk, much to the annoyance and loud tutting of a lot of the people there (who I surmised must only go to a couple of gigs a year and I rekon most of those are probably in the CIA).

Truckers of Husk nailed a predictably ace set which saw much dancing from us. Most of it was done by smash and grace while I looked on in bemusement. See (thanks to Llinos for this pic:

After mistakenly thinking we were on a regular Saturday night, we found ourselves having a drink downstairs in Dempseys while listening to the likes of the kooks on the jukebox. I cannot tell you how wrong this felt.

After making our escape.. we ended up heading down to Tafod (via a quick look in Kaz bar again) for my mate Anwens Disco Nectar Swn effort, where she had miraculously managed to blag the Dutch electronic legend Legowelt to come and play.

 An ace night of dancing ensued to a PUMPIN set from Gwydion Orcop followed by and old skool acid tinged techno set from Mr. Lego Welt. A really ace way to end the saturday night of Swn fun. Nice one Anwen. A job well done.

Managed to get to sleep by about 5ish. By the time I woke on sunday I was in pain. I was beginning to feel the Swn burn. But as they say in the world of fitness, No Pain No Gain... so I figured it was best to be a winner and power through to the end.

Made it into Clwb to see a girl called 'Little Eris' who was doing a half tidy job of electronic tunes off an iMac (I think someone should tell her that there are these new things called 'Laptops' which are far more portable). She got even better when Jamie made his stage debut for the evening and got hold of her Kaoss Pad and joined in. It confirmed my NEED for a kaoss pad mini (which I have since brought – it is ace).

Hung outside with the smokers while drifting in and out of feeling ace, to feeling like I was going to die in quick succession.

Managed to exert enough energy to have a quick dance with Grace, Ash, DC and Claire to the Gonzales tune Will Steen was playing before seeing Agaskodo Teliverek, who made my insides feel ace for the entire set. Jamie made another impromptu cameo appearance on stage and when I made many yells of 'Go on Jamie!' he told the singer that he wanted me to come and stage and tell a joke. I hid. I cannot successfully tell jokes. Especially in front of a room of people while feeling like I was dying. Didn't think it was the best time to make my comedy debut.

Took a run upstairs and saw Right Hand Left Hand – again – who blow me away every time and who seem to get better and better! 

Then in one final exertion of one final bit of energy, I managed to pull out of the bag a good ol'dance to the hits of Future of the Left. Jamie kinda made his 3^rd appearance of the evening by provoking several cross words from Falco for trying to continually steal his beer.

A great set which finished with Kelson (bass) hanging by his legs from the ceiling while still playing the end of the last song. ACE!

Here is a photo that I have stolen from John Rostron cos it is ace and I wish I had taken it.

A great weekend. I hope Swn keeps happening. Big up the people behind it, your doing a sterling job which is appreciated by many!

There seems to have been a fair few bands emerging this year with 'Fuck' in their name. Holy Fuck, Fuck Buttons and now Fucked up.
I basically only went to see Fucked up because my mates said that it would be the most mental show I have ever seen. What with that promise and the fact that they had 'Fuck' in their name, I didn't need much more convincing.
I failed to forward plan some blagging for a guestlist place so was subject to a whopping £8 door tax. I soon forgot the little amount of coinage left in my pocket when Fucked Up came on.
Right, I have been going to Clwb for over 10 years now (yes that is sad I know) and I have NEVER seen anything like it. People went nuts. We decided that it was mainly suppressed middle class students taking advantage of the opportunity to be violent in public without any repercussions (save for the odd shoe in the face).... but it was wholly entertaining none the less. I spent the entire gig with a stupid grin on my face as I witnessed people continually slamming into each other, climbing up pillars, crowd surfing and getting naked. It was relentless for the whole of the gig.

here is a photo of the singer of Fucked Up during one of his many adventures into the crowd and onto the tables.

And here is some poor fat kid who was wasted and thought it to be a winning idea to take his top off and climb on the tables too.
The hand copping a feel in this photo is Ash's :)


This kid provided the most entertainment of all. He firstly dived head first, half naked over the chairs and ended up being stuck in between a table and a bench. People in the crowd had to try and pull him out. AND then, when you thought he had no more dignity left to lose, someone in the crowd pulls down his keks and he was stood bollock naked in front of everyone! haha. AND THEN we witnessed him in the pit at the end holding on to the pillar for dear life looking like he was having a kip. Time of his life!

Ace gig. Thoroughly entertaining. I left absolutely buzzing.

So Friday night saw a load of us jump on a train to Bristol for the long awaited Sigur Ros gig in Colston Hall. I brought my tickets way back in the summer and have been really excited to see them. Caught them playing on the main stage at Electric Picnic and they did nearly make me cry. Maybe it was the jetlag to Dublin. Maybe it was the thought of sharing a tent with Grace.... but at the time I put it down to Sigur Ros playing an epic, emotional assault of songs which were reinforced with a beautiful string section. So, as you can imagine, I was expecting great things from them this time.

On the train up, it was deemed wise to skull back bottles of beer and neat Jack Daniels. 

On hanging around outside the venue, while having a fag Ben nearly sat on a docile pigeon having a nap. When we alerted him to his near miss, he proceeded to pounce towards said pigeon and try and pick it up. I only wish I got my phone out quick enough to capture this moment. It was a beautiful thing..... until the pigeon seemed to get quite annoyed, very quickly. After a short skuffle between Ben and the Pigeon, he released it (i.e. dropped it) back into its natural habitat (a bin*). Comedy gold.

After this beautiful moment of 'Man v's Bird' we headed into the venue, got more drinks in and watched the support band, who were really good. Like a harder, edgier Sigur Ros I think it is fair to say.

Stood waiting for Sigur Ros, Beev asked the what the time was. I said 9:00 to which he replied 'No! I thought it was gone 11!' followed by the fatal words "Oh no, I've peaked to soon!" I was fearful. (later on during the night, in an epic display of being ruined, Beev failed to notice a massive amount of confetti falling on him from the sky. He only realised this when Ben told him it was happening. He had his eyes closed in a vertical mong out. Ha ha. What a winner.

By the time Sigur Ros came on stage I was pretty excited (i.e. pissed). Although they were ace, hammering out a blistering, highly polished set of classics..... and although being really good.... they didn't blow me away like I hoped they would. Maybe the lack of strings. Maybe it was too much Jack Daniels.  Maybe because I started to find it a bit of a predictable song format = "quiet quiet quiet LOUD LOUD LOUD".
I wasn't disappointed. Just not blown away. Know wha I mean?  :)

 The last/next train for Cardiff was due to leave Bristol at 1:30am, so we had time to kill. We ended up in taking refuge in a pretty dire 'bar'. To pass the time Ash threw herself down some stairs, Beev napped and Ben danced to a live band playing the likes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers (with Ash - I know, I was ashamed)... while I sat shouting such classic lines as 'Your Shit!' every time the band finished a song.

We some how managed to end up leaving it pretty late to get our train, so in a demonstration of impressive physical endurance, we proceeded to run for what seemed like 10 miles to the train 'just' about making it. It hurt.

Apologies to the people on the train for the misbehaviour that ensued for the duration of the journey.

Here is Ash, Beev, Ben and I locked in the train toilet. good times.

This fun time in Bristol was brought to you by the following: Ash, Mark, Gar, Beev, Ben, Grace and Rhodri.


*by not in

Foals @ Cardiff uni

Ace despite all the student twats there. I'm sure I wasn't that much of a twat when I was a student.

In attendance this evening was myself, smAsh (obviously) and the P-town cru which was Beev, Ben, Justine, Fidge, Toni, Crack Fox, Crack fox's girlfriend (who's name I can't remember, but who was ever so nice to be going out with a someone called 'crack fox') and this fella called 'Owl' who looked like and owl and who, I was reliably informed, had shit himself in the pub infront of everyone the week before. Apparently not a friend of the p-town cru. He had mearly followed them from Ponty to the 'diff. Nice fella! haha

Good times.

This weekend had been pretty much non-eventful. I averted the train crash that sounds like the night I nearly went out on with beev and his p-town cru. Having opted for a 'quiet one' I stayed in and caught up on some much needed zzzzz's. Saturday I full on wrecked myself by trying to make up for a week of not exercising and doing it all in one go. This was not the best decision I have made to be honest. I spent 2 hours working on my 'gunz' in the gym, came home and went for a bitchin run to the beach and back (30 mins), then spent the rest of the evening unable to move.
I finally managed to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for the first time ever. Fuckin A! Obviously, being of the demographic which I fall under, I have read the book..... but i have not seen the film (like so many other films I have not seen. I am not a film head. Music is my medium of choice... is music a medium? I rekon its a large...)
Anyway. Ace film. Laughed. Alot. LOL, LMAO etc. etc.

So, tonight, I had made plans with 3 people to hook up and go to a gig in town. But unfortunately, had to blow them all out.
Why?
Well.
Ash phones me at 7ish going... 'mate, what day is it?' and i'm like.... (in my head) no, your birthday has been... umm... she goes 'fuckin Atmosphere in Brizzle tonight innit!'...... double 'Doh!'. Brought tickets about a month ago and totally forgot it was 'appenin.
So, I gets my shit together, blow all 3 people out that I was supposed to hook up with (sorry Grace, Ellie and Gar). Razz round 'hers' and head off to Brizzle.

Atmosphere was ace. He has Flow, rhymz and sincerity in what he is spittin..... and he is hot..... loved it.
Mid way through the gig, I notice Ash getting chatted up by a blatant gay girl (facial piercings (many)... was in a camo tshirt with 'ladykiller' written on it.... short of wearing a flashing helmet of lights with 'I AM A GAY' on it, it was pretty obvious). So this girl quizzes Ash on where she hangs out (amongst many other inappropriate questions for an 'ummm i watchin a fuckin show here' chat). Ash tells her at gigs and that, and the girl goes 'with her?' gesturing in my general direction. So ash goes 'yeah'. So from that point on, me and ash were a couple. Turns out these girls (there was another, Chey and Tasha. Nice girls. Tasha was quite umm 'vocal', but generally quiet pleasant) were in need of a lift back to Newport. So me, being the nice girl that I am, said 'yeah why not'. So me and my girlfriend Ash gave them a lift home. How we laughed.
Nice to be gay for the evening. Nice to be accepted by other gays.
It was all ash's fault, but she said that it was my fault for looking like a gay with my haircut. This is either a diss or a compliment. I can't work out which.
I must be one hot gay to pull smash. I'll take it as a compliment :)
Anyway. its gone 2am. I need to go to bed. Not a great start to my working week. But tonight will keep me amused til atleast Wednesday I rekon.
t'is never dull i tell thee.....

Last night I saw, what is really just my best mates' boyfriends' band. A band consisting of a man I have seen in his pants and some other assorted people I know pretty well. :)

But, regardless of the over familiarities, I can honestly say that Vito are one of my most favourite bands to see live. Breathtaking. They make you forget where you are. They were so good that I was frozen for some parts of their set and at one point my eyes actually got a bit damp. Absolutely awesome! Blew me away.
Every band should aspire to be this good.

If your remotely into the likes of Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emporer...... or if you just like good music in general.....you need to see this band.

I think last night took over from Efterklang as the best gig of the year for me so far.

Get over to their myspace, their new recorded stuff sounds pretty fine! Can't wait for their new album.
http://www.myspace.com/vitotheband 

I am writing this, horizontally, on my laptop in bed. All is dark except for the comforting glow of the screen. All is quiet except for the beautiful album that i am not giving justice to by playing out through the shitty, tinny speakers that are located on my lap(top).

The album i currently have playing, which I am absolutely blown away by, is Neil Youngs 'Zuma'.

Wow. I have not given Neil Young the attention he deserves up until now. smAsh insisted I invested in some yesterday and recommended Zuma. Honestly has blown me away from the first listen. Its all ace. If your not familiar, try listening to Cortez The Killer here
Melodies and lyrics that turn your stomach inside out... and his vocals....well... no one needs an oik like me to confirm his ability on that score :-)

So, why am I in bed? Well, I have a raging cold. A cold which has, in no way, been helped by a marathon, and some might say a bit of a 'mental' trip to Oxford last night to see Saul Williams. Although, the pain I am suffering today has been totally outweighed by the fun levels reached last night. I would do it all again in a second.

Saul Williams is like some kinda messiah. His stage pressence is absolutley captivating. It was hard to take my eyes off him. When he 'rapped' to the tunes off his albums, he was immense, but when he just went solo with his poetry, it was almost spiritual :)

Although......... nothing tops the mosh pit insighted by Beev and Ben when they played his epic tune 'List of demands'. Me and smAsh launched ourselves in to it, failing around and ramming into people. Loved it. Then the crowd surfing followed... first Ben went up and over THREE TIMES in a row. I thought this was the funniest thing ever... until Ash decides to have a go... and that took over the mantel as the funneist thing EVER.... Legend!

The journey home was nearly as fun as the gig. Driving home via a not all together logical A road route, sitting behind a lorry for what seemed like hours in the rain. This didn't matter though, cos we had Ben DJing via his Zune, though my car stereo.
Singing along to Loves Forever Changes and dancing to the likes of The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Underworld and Orbital I am sure will forever remain a happy memory. As will the endless laughing in the service station.
Fun times, but boy was I glad to get back to cardiff in one piece. I had absolutely driven as much as was physically possible.

Big shout outs to smAsh, Beev and Ben. In the words of the late and fuckin awesome Arthur Lee - "I think people are the greatest fun"*

*currently half way thought Arthur Lees biog, it would appear that he didn't really think people were the greatest fun. He was more partial to heroin.