Sunday, August 27, 2017

TRICOT (London Bush Hall, 25/08/17)



Premium Japanese math-rock from a band who come second only to Otoboke Beaver for sheer, unadulterated on-stage energy. An absolute joy.
NERVOUS CONDITIONS (London Old Blue Last, 24/08/17)



If you locked a bunch of teens in a room with only the more avant-garde records of the late 1970's as entertainment, you might eventually get a band that sound like Nervous Conditions (you'd probably get put on some sort of list too, but that's beside the point). Abrasive, intense, groovy and shot through with sinister swagger, I can't help but feel they're karma's way of compensating for Ed Sheeran and his thrice-cursed ilk.
DAMO SUZUKI (London Moth Club, 11/08/17)



Review: HERE
HOLY FUCK (London Jazz Cafe, 09/08/17)



I still don't know who Allen is, or why he's so lovely, but the Canadian electro-rock wizards' pulsating, pulverising aural onslaught presumably wiped him out some time ago.
SILVER APPLES (London Oslo, 03/08/17)



When I'm 80 years old, I want to be as cool as Simeon Coxe. Not only did he help pioneer the fusion of electronics and pop music back in the mid-60's, but he's still unleashing cosmic beats that sound like the future today.
FEIST (London Shepherd's Bush Empire, 28/07/17)



It's a shame "1234" proved such an albatross around Leslie Feist's neck, for as catchy as that ubiquitous exemplar of mid-Noughties twee inarguably is, it tends to overshadow the fact that the rest of her work was considerably more interesting (see also: Chairlift). Her new album "Pleasure", for example, is sparse, moody and abrasive, yet works magnificently in a live setting- who needs bubblegum choruses when you've got righteous guitar shreddage and Jarvis Cocker? Add in some carefully curated earlier numbers (and a unplanned rendition of "Secret Heart"), and you've got a show that'll linger in the memory even longer than that damn song.
A TRIBUTE TO SCOTT WALKER (London Royal Albert Hall, 25/07/17)



Of course nothing could ever come close to seeing the actual Scott Walker perform his songs live on stage, but Jarvis Cocker, Susanne Sundfor, John Grant and Richard Hawley give it a damn good shot. There's definitely an argument that Sundfor aside, the assembled talent play it too safe to capture the essence of what made Walker so unique, but Jarvis' general loucheness and Grant's unmistakable tenor went some way to compensate.
SONGHOY BLUES (London Somerset House, 16/07/17)



Mesmeric desert blues from the new generation of Malian musicians, who balance political stridency with a great sense of fun. The perfect way to spend a warm summer's night.
MERCURY REV (London Barbican, 14/07/17)



It's bewildering to think no-one had the idea to combine Mercury Rev's baroque dream-pop with an orchestra before, but needless to say, it's a marriage made in musical heaven. Jonathan Donahue looks like he's on Cloud 9 throughout, the arrangements are uniformly lush, and they even carry off an entirely straight-faced "When You Wish Upon A Star" without coming across as majorly self-indulgent. Truly enchanting.
EZRA FURMAN (London Barbican, 13/07/17)



"The kid taking over the opera house" is how our queer Jewish hero describes himself tonight, and this one-off Barbican performance certainly proves a very different experience to the scrappy, euphoric rock 'n roll sermons he normally delivers. There's new and very old songs rendered acoustically, there's poetry, there's Leonard Cohen covers, there's collaborations with Du Blonde, there's a weird "Jazz Club" interlude, but most of all, there's Ezra, proving that even outside his comfort zone, he remains one of our generation's most compelling performers.
THE KILLERS (London Hyde Park, 08/07/17)



Review: HERE
ARCADE FIRE (Manchester Castlefield Bowl, 06/07/17)



Not going to lie, the setlist was not really to my taste ("Intervention" is emphatically not my jam), but a second-tier Arcade Fire show is still better than almost every else out there. Plus, they ended with an a capella "Love Will Tear Us Apart", which was surprisingly well-judged for the band who wrote, recorded and released "Chemistry".
ARCADE FIRE (London York Hall, 04/07/17)



"Everything Now" might see Arcade Fire hitting the maligned "80's Bowie" section of their career, but whilst Win Butler's lyrics contain more tired cliches than a Tory press conference, their live prowess remains manifestly undimmed. Indeed, blessed with a perfectly constructed setlist and the most passionate performance I've seen from them since the "Funeral" era, this intimate in-the-round set was genuinely one of the most exhilarating gigs this seasoned old bastard has ever had the pleasure of experiencing. So glad to see that the band who made me fall in love with live music all those years ago still have the power to give me goosebumps. <3
GREEN DAY (London Hyde Park, 01/07/17)


Billie Joe Armstrong may be slowly morphing into Liza Minnelli as his age skews closer to "pension" than "teen", but Green Day remain one of the slickest, most unabashedly crowd-pleasing live outfits this side of Springsteen. Lots of hits, lots of nostalgia, lots of fun.
KRAFTWERK (London Royal Albert Hall, 22/06/17)



IMPORT Kraftwerk
DEF Show:
     Visuals = 3D, Eye-Popping
     Performers = 4
     Aesthetic(70'sFuturism)
     IF x < 3:
          SING "FAHREN"
          x += 1
     ELSE:
           SING "AUF DER AUTOBAHN"
PRINT "WUNDERBAR!"
AVALANCHES (London Forum, 21/06/17)



Review: HERE
ANNA VON HAUSSWOLF (Birmingham Town Hall, 16/06/17)



The Arch-Deaconess of Drone on a fuck-off giant organ- a (literal) pipe dream come true, at least in theory. The reality was a little less transcendent, with less-than-perfect sound and a running time best described as "brief", but she still sounded commendably like Armageddon incarnate.
MELT-BANANA (London Garage, 15/06/17)



Melt-Banana may have lost half their members, but they still sound like 500 Pokemon angrily having a seizure. Uncompromising, in the best possible way.
WHY? (London Village Underground, 13/06/17)


One of the most infuriatingly un-Googleable bands in existence make a triumphant return to London, ditching the white-boy hip-hip of late-noughties classic "Alopecia" for straight-laced indie-rock but remaining as compelling a live experience as ever. Even though I hadn't seen them in years, there's is a gig I would get the Tube to from anywhere...
YOUNG FATHERS (London Royal Festival Hall, 09/06/17)



Review: HERE
SHUGO TOKUMARU (London Oslo, 07/06/17)



Ukuleles, feline hand-puppets and a Ghiblisworth of whimsy. On paper, a Shugo Tokumaru show sounds like an twee overdose-in-waiting, but his inventively charming popcraft, eclectic array of instruments and ever-enthusiastic backing band prove a thoroughly winning combination.