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July 03 Glastonbury 2009In contrast to the last one, the main problem with Glastonbury is working out who you can afford to miss. People were only talking about one thing Thursday night over the inevitable thunderstorms. More excited by it than anything as these things seem to go. Come next morning the John Peel Stage seemed to have set up an exclusion zone to all that, welcome relief. Friday is notable for Jack White's new supergroup 'the Dead Weather' making a surprise appearance on the small Park Stage, for once the rumours are correct, yippee. Neil Young kicks off with 'Hey Hey, My My', presumably as a tribute ('its better to burn out than to fade away'). Sure enough, those prove difficult acts to follow for the rest of the weekend, though Bon Iver, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Doves and Nick Cave come closest. The Mobile Phone recharge points have now spread to adjacent fields, with outbreaks in at least two other zones on the farm. This fulfils the criteria for a WHO Level 6 pandemic alert. 
  June 16 Isle of Wight Festival 2009Into the Wight Eldest brother went to the original in 1970; Jimi Hendrix (swan song), Leonard Cohen, the Doors, Rory Gallagher and the Who. Might just have swapped this one for that then. Think the idea with IoW this time round was to (largely) put out 2 ½ days of talentless muzacians, then throw a couple of influential/peerless acts on come Sunday night. Was about ready to explode with frustration Sun 7 p.m. here anyway Simple Minds preceding Pixies proved inspired though, a throwback to 80's manufactured dross, followed by the antidote that appeared out of Boston late in the decade. I'd nearly forgotten, a timeful reminder. Follow that with someone who could have headlined in 1970 in Neil Young. Advancing age, epilepsy, polio and brain aneurysms put aside, still able to show-up virtually everyone else before him for pure workrate and intensity. Know my plans for week friday now. Seems they put Killing Joke on the same time as Pixies/NY; they would Pixies Setlist: U-Mass - Isla de Encanta - Ed Is Dead - Nimrod's Son - Bone Machine - Dig For Fire - Velouria - Winterlong - Allison - Monkey Gone To Heaven - Heaven - Here Comes Your Man - Head On - Debaser - Wave Of Mutilation - Gouge Away - Vamos - Hey - Tame - Caribou - Gigantic - Where Is My Mind? - Into The White
June 04 Bridge Over Tousled WaterThe Subways, Bridgewater Palace 2nd of three Zum-errr-set (Somerset) sojourns in a month. Thinking on going camping in some fields there sometime soon :)
Setlist: Kalifornia - Young For Eternity - Oh Yeah - All or Nothing - Alright - Mary - Always Tomorrow - Shake Shake - I Won't Let You Down - I Wanna Hear What You Got To Say - Turnaround - With You - This the Club - - - - Strawberry Blonde - Girls & Boys - Rock & Roll Queen May 19 All Tomorrows Parties ATP Curated by the BreedersButlins Safari (Shocker in Gloomtown) Lucky to have my 4 favourite festivals on my doorstep, this is one... ATP picks a band to curate and they in turn invite their influences or just who they like, old and new, from around the globe. Butlins, Minehead was more the stuff of school trips, but swapping tents for chalets works great when it rains like it did this past weekend. Not beach weather then, everyone had to make do with Europe's largest tropical wavepool The Breeders Twin sisters Kim & Kelley Deal curating this one, cue an Alternative, Folk and Post-Punk extravaganza. They obviously enjoyed themselves, popping up most everywhere. Best of all, their first choice of guests was Throwing Muses, first gig over here since 2003, yippee. Oh, and Knitting lessons with Kelley Deal, THATS alternative. One criticism is giving headline slots to one-album bands-of-the-moment (Foals/ Bon Iver), it only makes them seem ordinary.
Throwing Muses Setlist - Shark - Start - Shimmer - Hazing - Finished - Speed & Sleep - Tar Kissers - Limbo - Bright Yellow Gun - Vicky's Box - Mexican Women - Pearl - Bea - Mania
May 08 Bristol PoundingDoves @ Bristol Academy [obligatory Elbow reference] If Elbow took the praises from many last year for best album (culminating in the Mercury Prize), fellow Manchester band Doves would seem to have done the same this year with Kingdom of Rust [/obligatory Elbow reference] Underrated as they are, not sure people will notice though, 'best' is a weird description anyways. Described by guitarist Jez Williams as "schizophrenic, but... also strangely cohesive". More moody bipolar I thought, I would though. Masters of uplifting melancholic anthems. They're off to shows in California next, sounds good on a dismal May day here. See you @ Glasto next month then, fittingly on the John Peel stage, bring some Setlist: Jetstream - Snowden - Winter Hill - Rise - Pounding - Almost Forgot Myself - 10:03 - Words - The Greatest Denier - Kingdom of Rust - Ambition - Black & White Town - Compulsion - The Outsiders - Caught By the River - - - - Northenden - Here it Comes - There Goes The Fear
Decent support by Bristol band Malakai, on Geoff Barrow's record label. Come to think of it why aren't [P] on there. Dunno April 26 London CrawlingCamden Crawl 2009, innit? Festivaaaal!! Somewhere between a festival and a pub crawl anyway. Sponsorship by Gaymers Cider, combined with summer heat
This works for me:
YYY setlist: 'Dull Life' - 'Gold Lion' - 'Art Star' - 'Heads Will Roll' - 'Kiss Kiss' - 'Cheating Hearts' - 'Skeletons' - 'Maps' - 'Zero' - 'Date With The Night' Downside: queues for wristbands and events excessive . . .like hours April 19 EtherealityPJ Harvey & John Parish, Bristol Anson Rooms The home stop off on the tour, particularly for Bristolian John Parish. Contrast is the order of the day, from the serene or ethereal, to the angry and downright mad. Much changing of instruments for every tune accompanies, though its all mainly in the vocals. Polly has maracas-shakin'-induced RSI to her right shoulder she says, so she’s 'dancing around a lot instead'. A medical first I'm thinking, originality is her thing though. Setlist: Black Hearted Love - Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen - Rope Bridge Crossing - Urn With Dead Flowers In A Drained Pool - Civil War Correspondent - The Soldier - Taut - Un Cercle Autour Du Soleil - The Chair - Leaving California - A Woman A Man Walked By - The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go - Passionless, Pointless - Cracks In The Canvas - Pig Will Not - - - - False Fire – April
Able and welcome bonus support from John Parish friend, Howe Gelb, both at Willard Grant Conspiracy too last year I remember. Southern blues/Alt Country combined with that dark polarised humour. Hailing from lawn-less Arizona 'the grass really is greener everywhere else' he explains. One of the guests booked at Breeders ATP next month (Giant Sand) February 04 Porcupines & PineapplesBrakes @ Exeter Cavern Sweet and salt punk/country, with a healthy splattering of Brighton madness. Setlist: Red Rag - Hold Me in the River - The Most Fun - Heard About Your Band - Hey Hey - On Your Side - Stand to Stand - Cheney - Whats In It For Me - Cease & Desist - Spring Chicken - Why Tell The Truth. . . - Porcupine Or Pineapple - Al Night Disco Party - NY Pie - Isabel - Spaceman - Ring A Ding Ding - Jackson - Comma - Oh! Forever - - - Huevos Rancheros - Margarita - Shut Us Down January 20 ObeyThe 18 months since the departure of Tony B-liar has only made this one seem that much longer and drawn out. The difference today is the incoming is elected, and has a touch of hope and class about him.
January 16 Another Music in a Different KitchenBuzzcocks @ Exeter Lemon Grove Manchester's most influential band performing 1978's seminal pop-punk albums 'Another Music in a Different Kitchen' and 'Love Bites' in their entirety. Setlists: Another Music in a Different Kitchen: Fast Cars - No Reply - You Tear Me Up - Get on Our Own - Love Battery - Sixteen - I Don't Mind - Fiction Romance Love Bites: Real World - Ever Falling in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't 've) - Operators Manual - Nostalgia - Just Lust - Sixteen Again - Walking Distance - Love Is Lies - Nothing Left - E.S.P. - Late for the Train Encore: Orgasm Addict - What Do I Get - Oh Shit - Noise Annoys - Promises - I Don't Mind - Lipstick - Love You More - Harmony In My Head
January 14 Crossing GenerationsRoger Daltrey & Babyshambles @ Bristol Carling Academy Two clans of fans here which was interesting; teenagers and people old enough to be MY dad . . .that's fairly old then. The concert was to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, which Roger Daltrey has been a long-term supporter of. Dedicated to a 16 year old named Daniel Squires who died of cancer last year, he had befriended both Daltrey and Doherty, the former saying that Pete had treated Daniel 'like a king'. Only one rehearsal before left the set sounding like a jam session, with even impromptu versions of Johnny Cash's 'I Got Stripes' and 'Ring of Fire' thrown in. With someone of Roger Daltrey's stature a jam session is still a pretty high standard though. Pete Doherty on harmonies was, er, different (!) Setlist: Babyshambles: Pipedown - Beg, Steal And Borrow - Baddies Boogie - There She Goes (A Little Heartache) - Time For Heroes
December 31 Festive 50Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Portishead - 3rd The Young Republic - 12 Tales From Winter City Vampire Weekend - s/t The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely TV On The Radio - Dear Science Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight Royal Treatment Plant - Hope Is Not Enough Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim The Kills - Midnight Boom Juliana Hatfield - How To Walk Away Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid The Duke Spirit - Neptune Willard Grant Conspiracy - Regard The End British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? Breeders - Mountain Battles Blood Red Shoes - Box of Secrets Black Mountain - In The Future Fleet Foxes - s/t Massive Attack - Collected Best of them has to be 50 Foot Wave- Power & Light though http://50footwave.cashmusic.org/ Just released in time to be the antidote for Christmas too. Ooops, only 21 for this year then, maybe recession extends to creativity
 Live this year: Kristin Hersh x2, Portishead x2, Queens of the Stone Age, A Hawk & A Hacksaw x2, British Sea Power x2, The Breeders, Björk, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Howe Gelb, Autolux, Leonard Cohen, Sineod O'Conner, Martha Wainwright, The Subways x2, The Kills, The National, Black Mountain, Kate Nash (!), Vampire Weekend, The Blockheads, Pete Doherty, MGMT, Lightspeed Champion, Ting Tings, The Young Knives, The Raconteurs, Shakin Stevens (!!), Massive Attack, Hot Chip, Duffy, Elbow, Black Lips, The Courteeners, Goldfrapp, Neil Diamond, John Mayer, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Hoodoo Gurus, Black Cherry, UNKLE, Suzanne Vega, Bowerbirds, Billy Childish, Bon Iver, Absentee, Calexico, The Acorn, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Dirty Three, Laura Marling, Mercury Rev x2, Howling Bells, Low, Liz Green, Mountain Goats, Noah and the Whale, One Little Plane, Tindersticks, Woodpigeon, Brakes, Kimya Dawson, The Young Republic, Pete and the Pirates, Pyramids, Robyn Hitchcock, Stephanie Dosen.
. . .2009 kicks off with Roger Daltrey :)
Robert Plant got a CBE in the New Years honours list I saw. That should make it Sir Jimmy Page then surely?
 December 03 Dusty Road to LondonKristin Hersh, Shady Circle at London Borderline 23/11/08
Love Guitar: Check (though not THE Love guitar)
1000 Yard stare : Check Talent : Check Sharpest, driest humour : Check Dark industrial basement, my kind of venue then. 2 sets, Shady Circle then Throwing Muses/ Solo acoustic, perfect.
Shady Circle : Jesus Called Me - Down in the Willow Garden - City of the Dead - The Cuckoo - Dusty Road - Little House - Waiting for the One Train - Banks of the Ohio - Stone in the Pond - Lemon Tree - Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Set 2 : Call Me - Mississippi Kite - Gazebo Tree - Pearl - Static - Your Dirty Answer - Walking in the Dark - Teeth - Tuesday Night - - - - Fish - Finished - Sundrops (^ thanks to Joe) November 22 Frittering away in BristolHowling Bells / Mercury Rev, Bristol Carling Academy
Finally found a good vantage spot to take pics of the Clifton Suspension. It had been hiding behind some trees in the form of an observation park, duh
 Howling Bells hail from Sydney, now based in London, and sound like Throwing Muses, yay.
Mercury Rev formed in Buffalo, NY of all places. Stayed there once in a large-old-crumbling hotel that doubled as a nuclear bunker, and had these bright yellow warning signs about radiation in all the corridors. Surreal is maybe the theme in Buffalo then. The backdrop to the gig is a continuous visual montage of influential peoples, poignant quotes and psychadelia. The set is delivered as one long driving blend without pause.
Selists:
Howling Bells: Setting Sun - Wishing Stone - This City's Burning - Treasure Hunt - Nightingale - Blessed Night - Chaos - Low Happening - Theme
Mercury Rev: Snowflake in a Hot World - October Sunshine - Holes - Black Forest - Funny Bird - You're My Queen - People Are So Unpredictable - Frittering - Tides of the Moon - Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower - Opus 40
- - - Goddess on a Highway - The Dark Is Rising - Senses On Fire   Howling Bells  Mercury Rev October 15 All or NothingThe Subways @ Bristol Carling Academy
I'll take back what I said about audiences being lame these days then. . .
Setlist: Kalifornia - Young For Eternity - Oh Yeah - All or Nothing - Alright - Mary - Always Tomorrow - Shake Shake - I Won't Let You Down - I Wanna Hear What You Got To Say - Turnaround - With You - This the Club - - - - Strawberry Blonde - Girls & Boys - Rock & Roll Queen
September 17 End of the Road Festival 2008Last festival of the Summer (sniff) Best music festival around at the moment I think, up there with Latitude and ATP, but the venue makes it.
  over the 3 days, 2 out of 3 ain't bad then.Back to back sets by Low and Mercury Rev the best of the weekend. Honourable mentions to Mountain Goats, Young Republic and Laura Marling.
Mercury Rev bassist smiled at me, and the lead gave me the thumbs up.
Mistaken identity or I looked like I was enjoying myself, dunno (the latter anyway).
Reasons why this one works so well:
http://www.endoftheroadfestival.com/noflash/gallery.html Tags: End of the Road Festival 2008 - EOTR - Mercury Revved July 02 Glastonbury 2008 First Glastonbury tan since, er, '95!Lacked the usual headliners perhaps but more than enough to see: Massive Attack, Raconteurs, Vampire Weekend, British Sea Power, Elbow, the Kills, the National stick in my mind. Sinéad O'Connor and Martha Wainwright best of the acoustic lot.
Leonard Cohen (at 73) out in a class by himself, however. Graceful, understated performance that got the biggest audience reaction of the weekend, despite the melancholic tone of the set. Handed out with humble thanks and a little understated humour. A kleenex stall would have done brisk business after Hallelujah anyway
 Otherwise ditto last year, except for the weather, and the fact that the mobile-recharge tents appear to be undergoing binary-fission, amoeba-like reproduction. This is perhaps because folks can now download a Sat-Nav program to locate their exact position at the festival from their mobile. I always thought the idea of festivals was that you didn't have a clue even vaguely where you were for the whole weekend. What do I know...
Anyway, I'm just waiting for Green Fields to be renamed Orange (Mobile) Fields next year. Oh joy
Tags: Glasto - $ponsored by Orange June 11 10-4Pick 10 songs by your favourite artiste, receive a personalised recording.
Arrived today, I'm amazed
   Just perfect.
Limbo - Gazebo Tree - Cathedral Heat - Flipside - Teeth - Vertigo - Down in the Willow Garden - Vitamins V - 37 hours - The Letter June 05 Shoreditch PerfectAutolux @ London Cargo 2nd June '08
Another new venue, the intimate Cargo this time in East-End London. In one of those dark alley/streets, set inside the railway arches of Shoreditch. Jack-the-Ripper territory anyway, you can see why
 Can't even remember having been here before, despite living in adjacent Whitechapel for 6 years. Student daze were a little hazy though.LA 3-piece Autolux do great noise/melodic. One of the invited guests at Portishead ATP last December, they were great there too.
My sort of band anyway, Shoegaze/Dreampop meets Pixies/Sonic Youth; touch of loud-quiet with the emphasis on the loud, distorted guitar effects mixed in with the melodic. Lots of variation and improvisation on the studio stuff, no dull routine renditions here, the 4 minute intro to Subzero Fun maybe the highlight. Walk-on, do their stuff, walk-off sort of band. The set starts and finishes with the awesome Carla Azar's titanium power-drumming. She was invited for the PJ Harvey/John Parish release this year. Well they would invite her, she's the best alt. drummer about. They're all off to support the former (Polly Harvey) in Russia next, I'm slightly envious now in fact
Setlist Intro - Subzero Fun - Audience No.2 - Capital Kind Of Strain - Plantlife - Reappearing - Science - Blanket - Robots In The Garden - Supertoys - Turnstile Blues - - - - - -
Instrumental - Headless Tags: ...When'sTheNewAlbumOut?When'sTheNewAlbumOut?When'sTheNewAlbumOut?... May 21 Bristol PilgrimageWillard Grant Conspiracy Pilgrim Orchestra @ Bristol Trinity Centre
Orchestral sound this time, in a Church in fact, makes for a great sound anyway. Seems to be the theme for this tour looking at the other venues, specially chosen would imagine.
From California via Boston, WGC has had (at least) 39 members to date, operating as a collective based around the core of Robert Fisher.
No magazine cover looks, Me!Me!Me! personas or special effects here, just the music
12 made it over for this orchestral-1, probably more in fact (ran out of fingers/toes), a cramped stage anyway. Mainly from the new one, Pilgrim Road, a few older ones got the orchestral treatment too.
 The Suffering Song'this is a song we sing to our children when we want them to have very, very, very bad dreams' Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) makes for a great support, dark humour that makes WGC seem uplifting even. Long musical heritage here, the inspiration for WGC's rolling line-up and broad musical influences in fact
You know the support has stature when (Bristolian) John Parish pops up to play drums for a bit. He (Parish) has a new collaboration with PJ Harvey set for this year, Autolux's Carla Azar is drumming for that one, should make for a fairly awesome trio. WGC Howe Gelb Tags: Melancholic and lovin' it April 25 Big Time SensualityBjörk @ Plymouth Pavillians 22/4/08
The Icelandic goddess in Devon, who'd have thought it.
Cue a visually intense treat: flags, tinsel, lazers and the most colourful of brass accompaniment. Shes quite the energetic one still, racing from one side of the stage to the other, picking out front-rowers to sing to on her travels. Could watch those little dances all day long. In a world of her own, or a class apart, not sure. Mix of the new techno and the old ones, not one to do things by halves, thats certain anyway. Declare Independence works for this corner of the world.
Setlist:
Brennið Þið Vitar - Earth Intruders - Hunter - Pagan Poetry - Unravel - Pleasure is all mine - Where is the Line - I See Who You Are - Joga - Sonnet / Unrealities IX - Army Of Me - ?? - 5 Years - Wanderlust - Hyperballad (Techno) - Pluto - - - - - Anchor Song - Declare Independence
April 17 London SafariThe Breeders at Koko London, 16/4/'08
Last of 3 gigs in London this month, thats a few miles clocked, yikes. Another venue, this time the Victorian 4-tier theatre Koko in Camden, fairly Gothic in fact.
4 albums in 18 years for the Breeders, 4th time seeing them over that time (Only in 4's?), as energised and offbeat as always. Reassuring how some things don't change, though in the Breeders case thats mainly Kim Deal.
Still doing their own thing, and having fun doing it judging by the twin banter onstage (Kim & Kelley Deal). Not ones to follow any music trends thats for certain. Recently described by the BBC as a Grunge-group, haha  A lot played from the new one, Mountain Battles, the cover of Happiness is a Warm Gun maybe the highlight. Not many alternative bands can carry off a good Beatles cover anyway. Still darlings for the music press-types it seems; the jostling by photographers for the openers seemed to match the enthusiasm of the audience.
5*
See them again in 2012 then...maybe?
Make it the Olympic stadium, that'd be grand.
Setlist: tipp city - huffer - bang on - shocker - divine hammer - night of joy - no aloha - pacer - we're gonna rise - son of 3 - walk it off - new year - cannonball - happiness is a warm gun - iris - i just want to get along - saints - safari - overglazed - here no more - fortunately gone - german studies
Tags: Alternative when it was alternative - Guuurl Power? April 11 Roads to LondonPortishead @ Hammersmith Apollo, London 10th April
Its been tooo long.
Er, 4 months in fact (gloats)
First return to London for [P] anyway in 10 years. Normal regular service has now been resumed: moody, melancholic, dissonant, dark as before.
A problem with the scratchboard meant for an unscheduled early exit, for 10 mins, after just 3 numbers. Beth promises to buy everyone a drink. New stuff wasn't hugely well received like at ATP, though Roads, Cowboys, Wondering Star etc. got the usual shrieks. Pity, as for me this is the album where the band come good: indie guitar, driving percussion, industrial etc.
Audiences are either getting increasingly lame or I'm getting older. Its not all about Greatest Hits renditions, that would seem dull to me anyway. It seems Adrian Utley has been given more license to roam with some distorted psychedelic guitar effects. Cool, me like. Anyway, its still all mostly about Beths troubled, wailing, grieving vocals. Her habitual apology for sounding crap (???) completes the set. Tip-Top?
Not as crisp as ATP, though the sound that time was exceptional, the graphics/animation were just as great however. From the reviews I read, I'm surprised how few people seem to be noticing that. Nick Uff I'm guessing. A Hawk & A Hacksaw make a great support, something different, definately not my usual thing. Similar to the movie/drama-inspired offering at ATP (the Gas Giants) in a way, Hungarian folk style. Upbeat, intense violin & accordion. For some reason elements of the youngish crowd see fit to talk the whole way through their set, grrr. The woman to my right hails from France, I know this 'cos she's happily chatting away on her mobile during the set.
Was one of the lucky1's to get a little free USB stick on a logo chain. I likes me customised gadgets
 Silence - Hunter - Mysterons - The Rip - Glory Box - Numb - Magic Door - Wandering Star - Machine Gun - Over - Sour Times - Only You - Nylon Smile - Cowboys - - - - Threads - Roads - We Carry On
A Hawk & A Hacksaw Tags: [P] - Obey, Obey, Obey - 10 years (repeat ad nauseum) April 07 Snow, Glaston-woeIt snowed yesterday.
It never snows here. (Gulf stream current, Dartmoor rain shadow innit?).
Cool though, even if it did melt inside 2 mins.
More weirdness: I actually could book a Glastonbury ticket through the normal channels. Thats a first. even being able to get through. 4 1/2 hours pressing 'refresh' on the browser and 'redial' on the phone, but hey, it worked.
Seems changes are afoot there this year in order to try and re-establish some kind of identity: appeal to the young and be different once more. Good luck with that, with the ever creeping commerciali$ation I witnessed there last year. Perhaps the worst offender being the inclusion of the 'Orange Mobile Chill n' Charge' tent. Seemed ever so popular anyway, winding queues to recharge 'one's Mobile device', eek. So much for the Great Escape.
A few ideas of me own:
1. Confiscate all National flags and Mobile phones at entry. And portable, fold-away chairs unless for a valid reason. Promise to hand them back after the weekend, but actually just dump the lot in a landfill site
 2. Turn away anyone who describes there annual salary in terms of 'k'. Actually just arrest these people. Maybe sentence with hard-labour for those on 100k+. Community Service for 75k+. Stern warnings for 50k plus-ers  3. Redirect parking 4x4 and Volvo owners to a local deep reservoir. It's kinder
4. Don't lock the farm animals away, let 'em roam free. Sheep would blend right in fine    5. Free admission for puppies and kittens. Hmm, maybe not, dunno really   6. Provision of free Kites, Balloons 'n Party Hats. The latter should exhibit Class A tackiness Tags: Glastonbury Festival - £k- Middle Class
March 27 Paradoxically Undressed - Kristin Hersh: Southbank Centre, LondonParadoxical undressing is the removal of clothes, blankets, or other coverings by those suffering severe hypothermia. This behavior is not fully understood. Kristin Hersh is an introvert. She is extraordinarily shy. Paradoxically, she is known as an artist for her sometimes brutal emotional honesty and openness.
"Paradoxical Undressing" by Kristin Hersh is a live spoken word project incorporating film, music and essays. The show will feature excerpts from Kristin's upcoming memoir, "Paradoxical Undressing" read by the artist, with musical accompaniment. The show tells the story of a teenage girl wrestling with issues of extreme creativity, mental illness, pregnancy and life in the music business as founder of seminal American indie rock band Throwing Muses. Goes without saying this was a fairly awesome performance/story-telling, but I'll say it anyway
(^ thanks to.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephlee/page2/ ) 29/3 5* review in The Guardian, that's refreshingly different then: Kristin Hersh had a traumatic 1980s. She formed a band, US indie-rock icons Throwing Muses, when she was just 14, and thereafter had to deal with the pressures of cult stardom, becoming a teenage mother and battling the voices in her head that eventually led to her being diagnosed as bipolar. She was hospitalised as the decade ended. Hersh has distilled that troubled time into a part-spoken-word, part-music performance named Paradoxical Undressing. The title describes the bizarre medical condition whereby people suffering from severe hypothermia inexplicably remove clothes or blankets, and it defines the contradictions of this cripplingly shy singer who chooses to bare her soul in the spotlight. The main body of the performance consists of Hersh gently strumming the electric guitar as she reads aloud her teenage diary entries. Sometimes amusingly precocious, they grow more intense and visceral when she begins to spiral towards breakdown, describing hallucinations, self-harming and an ultimate surrender of identity: "The music is real - I'm not." Hersh punctuates this harrowing litany with songs from both Throwing Muses' and her own solo catalogues; during these interludes, she appears transported. "It sings to me with glassy eyes, and quotes from Kafka," she growls during Fish. Delicate Cutters and the scarily vulnerable Hook in Her Head somehow manage to sound simultaneously spectral and cathartic. Hersh is a tremendous poet and an engaging host, and this candid performance, a magnificently charged union of Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith, is received in reverent silence throughout. It is hard to think of any other contemporary music star who would even attempt it. |
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Kalifornia
Everything you need under one roof, 3 stages, Centre could have been modelled on Camden Underworld, great sound.
back.
, tended to make it more the latter for many as the day wore on. 
Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
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Hope you are enjoying the surf inbetween the course, Take care 
..Hope you have a lovely day, 
....and the photo comment, yes they are very good friends already in such a short time, Have a great end to your week.
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