Modest Mouse - how was it for you?

At around this time (I'm future posting) a whole bunch of people will be getting very excited and very beered up for Modest Mouse's sold out gig at KOKO. Tickets are going in the £100s on eBay. I haven't got one. And even if I did, I wouldn't be able to go. Sometimes life is cruel. Is there anyone out there who could tell me about this show? I know it's going to be hot. Their new material is hot. They are hot. Please comment.

Venue: KOKO
Band websites: Modest Mouse
Myspace: Modest Mouse (myspace)
Pitchfork reviews:
Good News for People Who Love Bad News

A Hawk and a Hacksaw, almost Beirut, Kid Harpoon

'Zach Condon of Beirut is unable to perform tonight due to unfortunate personal circumstances'. This was a pretty big disappointment and we wish Zach well. However the night was far from lost. Oh no.

Energetic Kid Harpoon endeared himself to the warm crowd, who already had a good-humoured family atmosphere going on. (Maybe that's what Beirut fans are like in the face of collective misfortune.) His lyrics - 'Follow me my pretty things / There's an evil needle in this haystack' - had a (in Russell Brand speak) childlike purity. A skilled acoustic guitarist.

Then A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Jeremy Barnes (drummer from Neutral Milk Hotel) and Heather Trost (violin). Well, wow. Pretty early on I decided this was what The Pixies meant by planet of sound. Between Heather's violin and Jeremy's: accordion, jangle hat with drumstick for hitting the snare, foot mastery of the remaining drum kit and solemnly belted-out choruses, it was a riotous swelling of gypsy-like noise from the word go. After a completely absorbing set, with a very moving highlight in Portlandtown, the rest of Beirut crammed onto the stage with AHAAH for a half hour or more, relieving Jeremy at the drums and bringing tambourine, cello, guitar, oboe, lusty voices and organised mayhem. For the encore the cute one in the green jumper announced something like 'A Hawk and a Hacksaw are a band of the people so we're gonna come and sing with the people' and down they came (admittedly, not far) and bashed their instruments and wailed their choruses with us. Now I can't imagine a time... startled as I was when I first heard it... before Beirut and AHAAH brought us the wonder of the Balkan orchestra.






Venue: The Luminaire
Band websites: A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Myspace: A Hawk and a Hacksaw (myspace), Kid Harpoon (myspace)
Pitchfork reviews:
Gulag Orkestar (Beirut)
Darkness at Noon (A Hawk and a Hacksaw)

The Young Knives, The Grates

I don't know what it is but every time I go to the Astoria I see Northern lads with a debut album and lashings of banter. First the 22-20s (disappointing, less banter), then the Futureheads (excellent), now the Young Knives (as good with more texture to their sound, more room to grow and a science nerd bassist callled the House of Lords).

It was awesome. Support came from Australian trio The Grates, with lead singer Patience Hodgson - a rough-around-edges KarenO-a-like - pogoing across the stage, howling like a dog, smothering boys in her white tulle skirt and swirling a yellow ribbon. While still managing to belt out promising stuff. A suitable warm-up for The Young Knives who were spectacular, opening with cracker Part Timer. I may have been a bit delirious with fever, but with all the Strokes and Pixies influences, the throbbing mosh pit and the charged performances (a big night for both bands) it was enough to get a bit carried away on.





Venue: Astoria
Band websites: The Young Knives, The Grates
Myspace: The Young Knives (myspace), The Grates (myspace)
Pitchfork reviews:
Voices of Animals and Men (The Young Knives)
Gravity Won't Get You High (The Grates)

Sparklehorse

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is the best place for big, artistic personalities. The last one I saw here was Regina Spektor and before that Kiki (and Herb). Tonight Mark Linkous was in tweed, looking more together than at any gigs I've been to before (a few). The stage was gorgeous, theatrical in a high school play kind of way and loaded with instruments in wooden cases. Flowers on the mike stand. Two encores for the hungry crowd, who were more than satisfied by this exceptional outing. Beauties like Spirit Ditch, Homecoming Queen, Sad & Beautiful World and Gold Day nuzzled up to Hammering the Cramps, Dog Door and new tracks which threatened to splinter the floorboards. Some great female vocals from a willowy figure in the lineup (introduced with pride as his new rock band) and a sharper focus to the always beautiful melancholia - like Linkous has grabbed you by the balls and might even look you in the eye. A treat.



Venue: Queen Elizabeth Hall
Band website: Sparklehorse
Myspace: Sparklehorse (myspace)
Pitchfork review: Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

Camera Obscura

I love Camera Obscura but this was disappointing. A severe lack of stage presence. And it was a small venue, it should have been perfect for them. Sweet and humble is fine and nice boys and girls, but you can do better than that! The songs deserve it. PLEASE TRY HARDER. Razzle Dazzle Rose was a total exception with a swelling coda and heart-stirring brass, proving there's a big future for them in performance if they want it. Country Mile good, although nothing like as goosebumpy as it could be. Sensed nerves. Hope to bring a better report next time.





Band: Camera Obscura, Myspace (Camera Obscura)
Venue: Scala
Pitchfork review: Let's Get Out of This Country

Mountain Goats

Am I the only person who doesn't like John Darnielle? I do like some of his songs, but on the whole I find him a bit creepy. Anyway, this was a good gig, a special night for fans. I love the view from the back of this room, and the layout. It's tiny - it's like the Barfly but smaller, better and less crammed. He played a lot of new material but took some requests and chatted with the crowd during and after the gig. I wish I could summon up more enthusiasm but he's not for me.

Venue: Old Blue Last (upstairs)
Band website: The Mountain Goats
Myspace: The Mountain Goats (myspace)
Pitchfork review: Get Lonely

Spoon, New Pornographers

Unsurprisingly KOKO was heaving, on all four levels. The best place to be as always, downstairs in the throng. Spoon were excellent - all hypnotic drum rhythms, resounding bass and heavy chords on the keys. With hits from Gimme Fiction like I Turn My Camera On and Sister Jack I was an immediate fan. Not to mention their sinewy lead singer and we've-been-doing-this-for-years-and-we're-from-Austin-Texas performance. Jake (fan) was mesmerised.

And then the New Pornographers. This whole night was pornography, of the aural kind. So spectacular were NP that they eclipsed what on any other occasion would have been a hugely satisfying headline. Carl Newman heads up this Canadian collective - formed in '97 - which is now eight musicians strong. He usually shares front-stage with Neko Case, but she is off on solo things and his long-lost niece, Kathryn Calder, has stepped up to lead vocals (female) and keys. And my, does she do the job. Ignorant of this, I assumed they's been in partnership for years and that some of the songs were hers, such was the rapport between them and their voices.

Oh how I love the NP's poppy ('shooo wa-wa-wa' often a suitable substitute if you don't know the words), 80s, theatrical, off-beat, big style thang. Harmonies are divine and three-part, voices clear and strong and songs multi-faceted (read two choruses) and full of open eyes and humour. Twin Cinema - their third and latest album - is so good it's hard to pick out favourites from tonight's set but Use It, The Bleeding Heart Show, Sing Me Spanish Techno, Star Bodies and the title track all elicited much stamping / screaming / whooping / whistling. A word for the hugely talented rhythm section - the heights this band reaches owe a great deal to them. A residing image = the drummer's stick spinning above his head as things peak. Awesome. I was transported.

Venue: KOKO
Band websites: Spoon, New Pornographers
Myspace: Spoon (myspace), New Pornographers (myspace)
Pitchfork reviews:
Gimme Fiction (Spoon)
Twin Cinema (New Pornographers)

The Spinto Band

Remember that day when you woke up thinking it was a school day but it was Saturday and the start of a three week holiday and your mum said Get up we're off to the beach cottage and handed you a fishing rod, a puppy, a week's supply of ice cream and your best friend to take along? Well this gig was more fun. This might be the funnest gig I've ever been to. Jump-up-and-down, forget you're about to turn 30, make a complete ass of yourself, fun. I've never had happy gas but I bet it feels like this.

The vital statistics: five smart, funny teenage boys (song titles include Direct To Helmet and Crack The Whip) and twelve great pop tunes (catchy refrains like 'Oh Mandy! Oh Man-dee-ee-ee!). Oh how I would have swooned, say, 15 years ago. Tonight's gig opened with the exhilarating So Kind, Stacey and maintained dangerous energy levels right the way through. The real treat though was the encore - a glorious cover of I Think We're Alone Now followed by one of the best things I've ever seen on stage - a row of teenage boys and some tall guy in an English hunting jacket and goggles doing Everybody Walk The Dinosaur (with actions). Yeah!

Venue: Barfly
Band website: Spinto Band
Myspace: Spinto Band
Pitchfork review: Nice and Nicely Done

Kiki and Herb

The gorgeous Queen Elizabeth Hall is the perfect place to see this Christmas wonder. All hail Kiki - the washed-up, vitriolic, alcoholic drag queen - and Herb, her dutiful accompanist. This pair of gorgeous NY gay men have been spreading crazy tales - Kiki and Herb are destined to live forever following an incident involving Jesus' afterbirth and a cow called Daisy - and anarchic covers since the early nineties 'as a sort of freak show for the post-modern set'. Crown of Love (The Arcade Fire) was a particular highlight. Do not miss these two if you can help it.

Venue: Queen Elizabeth Hall
Artist website: Kiki and Herb
Myspace: Kiki and Herb

The Bishops

Introducing a pair of mop-haired twins - and their best mate on drums - straight out of the 60s. In Beatles suits with skinny ties, bobbing around to their bouncy two-and-a-half-minute pop tunes with sweet harmonies and spiky riffs, we're-going-mad! guitar solos and fixed Everly Brothers smiles. As limited as pastiche is, but fun. Listen to single 'I Don't Really Know What To Say' on their website.

Venue: The Social
Band website: The Bishops
Myspace: The Bishops

Dirty Three

First, a few words for anyone who hasn't heard of Dirty Three. They are an Australian instrumental rock trio - Warren Ellis (violin), Mick Turner (guitar) and Jim White (drums). So no vocals to be found here, but not a moment of musical indulgence either. This band tells stories through their music, which is hypnotic, beautiful, angry, violent, delicate, impassioned, human. Journeys play out on fiddle, drums, guitar and occasionally digeridoo and evoke nostalgia, melancholy and the land of their country.

I spot Warren before the gig in the downstairs bar - huddled at a table with some other guys. There is a restless energy at the table, a sense of gravity and purpose as well as a sense that they are passing through. In comparison the rest of us seem lacklustre. I am already mesmerised.

Resplendent with wild hair and jet black beard ('When in France', he tells us), Warren later beats his way through the crowd, yelling for passage with his violin case held high over his head. The atmosphere is intimate, with affectionate heckling from the many Australians. He'll play some new songs and then take orders, he tells us. Before long the Barfly is hanging on every scratchy note as the three musicians weave their way through our imaginations. The songs are carefully plotted journeys, and you sense that they are never the same every time, that the players are living through them as intensely as they ever did. I've been listening to Dirty Three for some time, but to see these songs unfold live is an entirely different experience. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

When: 6/10/05
Where: Barfly, London
Who: Dirty Three
Review by: Jane Rich
Pitchfork reviews: Dirty Three

Malcolm Middleton, Absentee

Absentee was an unexpected treat. I see now that they regularly support The Magic Numbers and played The Green Man Festival in August but I hadn't heard of them. My first assumption was that they were American, with the lead's bottom-of-the-beer-glass baritone (reminiscent of The Handsome Family's Brett Sparks), the girl's off-key 'doo doos' and their warm alt-coutry sound. They are not, but have been called the UK's answer to My Morning Jacket. Definitely one to watch - have a listen to Rainy Days Swimming.

Malcolm Middleton was miserable (of course). He was happiest when his backing band left the stage and he sat alone on a stool and sang moving, miserable songs into the crowd. Self pity is an ever-circling vulture to the carcass of depression though (what a metaphor!) and MM does fall prey to it from time to time. Only to be taken in small doses, preferably when low. Unsurprisingly it didn't register with Jake at all, who doesn't do brooding, introspective, woe-is-me moody.

When: 3/10/05
Where: London Barfly
Who: Malcolm Middleton, Absentee
Review by: Jane Rich
Pitchfork reviews: Absentee

Stylish Riots

This is a well named night - you can't move for boys in straw hats and braces and at 6 quid for 6 bands it's definitely a riot. The Rocks were okay but run of the mill, The Secret Hairdresser was interesting and very strong vocally (calling to mind Sons And Daughters), YETI I confess I missed even though Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder is one of my favourite songs at the moment and New Rhodes were brilliant as ever. Hurrah. Failed to see Art Brut who were also playing because I had to go home and sleep.

When: 4/08/05
Who: The Rocks, The Secret Hairdresser, YETI, New Rhodes
Where: Stylish Riots at KOKO
Review by: Jane Rich

The Raveonettes

So I finally got to FROG - a club night with a very long queue on the Charing Cross Road - and came face to face with Guy McKnight from the 80's Matchbox Disaster within minutes. He yelled in my face which I think was supposed to scare me, and did a little. We then had a nice friendly chat at a table by the bar while I waited for my escort and familiarised myself with my surroundings. Young And Lost? Ten years ago definitely. Now just a little disoriented and thirsty. A two-pound whiskey and coke later and I make my way downstairs to join the gathering crowd.

1am is the perfect slot for The Raveonettes, who churn out a distinctly dark shade of what you could call 50s-saturated europop. The high ceilings of the venue heighten the drama (as well as the already high reverb levels). The set is a treat - loaded with catchy riffs, bubblegum lyrics, scratchy guitar feedback and boy-girl harmonies - and a steady stream of stage-divers expresses our obvious enthusiasm. My Boyfriend’s Back (originally by 60s girl-group The Angels) is a definite highlight.

When Wagner eventually saunters on to the dancefloor sometime later there is visible swooning. It is a shame that the DJ goes on to turn things techno... The trippy, dancey, slowed-up version of Mr Brightside that follows is exactly the opposite kind of dark from The Raveonettes. I can hear pine forests in their chewy doo-wap.

When: 15/07/05
Who: The Raveonettes
Where: FROG
Review by: Jane Rich
Pitchfork reviews: The Raveonettes

Handbags at Dawn

One of the band members is a dear friend, or I wouldn't be found dead in this hole. Firstly it's been sanitised in the worst possible way - horrible laminate flooring, cheap leather sofas, garish things in frames on the walls. Shudder. Second, the service is unspeakably shite. Wait for this. I order a large round and politely proffer my card once it's all poured. Look of disgust. They don't take cards. No matter. We enquire as to the nearest cash machine and a few minutes later one of the party returns with bulging pockets. Only to find that they have Thrown. Away. Our. Drinks. Thrown them away! It's clear whose really losing out here but even so, one is enraged.

Handbags at Dawn can't come on too soon (there is some dreadful caterwauling emanating from the stage when we arrive). Thankfully they make it all worth it. Try and imagine this: four gay boys (muscly Irish lead, drummer in pink mascara, skinny bassist who can't keep his shirt on, coy guitarist) playing what they call fierce ranty folk-punk. Sure is fierce, definitely ranty. Highlights include I'm the Fuckin' Geezer (complete with Cockney accent), Are You Lookin' At My Missus and I Like Piggybacks Too! - all available on their site, I urge you to listen. The true revelation though has to be the curtain closer, which involves the Ten Ton Pussy Choir (a bunch of bosomy girls in 40s make-up) joining the band for a rendition of He's Got The Whole World In His Hands. By about chorus two we're all invited up. Bonkers stuff. Marvellous.

When: 10/06/05
Who: Handbags at Dawn
Where: Archway Tavern
Review by: Jane Rich