Been a bit quiet on the LJ front recently, so here’s a quick update on my sad excuse for a life. The Hold Steady put on an absolutely blinding show last Monday, one of the best I’ve seen this year. Certainly not the trendy young bucks you’ll find on the cover on NME, these bar-rockers look like a bunch of middle-aged dads living out their dreams of ( Read more... )

If there is a God, he’s certainly got a sadistic streak. Arriving in the depths of Somerset last Thursday afternoon, we were greeted by weather conditions that, if not quite giving the Bahamas a run for their money, were perfectly cordial and conducive for lazing about on the grass, sipping on over-priced Carlsberg and taking in the sheer scale of ( Read more... )

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Absolutely out of this world. And Bjork afterwards was just as astounding...

I know it's fashionable not to like Muse but their show at Wembley tonight was pretty fucking amazing. Not in the highest tier of gigs I've been to- they lacked the soul essential for a truly epoch-defining show- but they certainly were worthy of being the first band to sell out the new Wembley Stadium (72,000 people, I believe). Managed to get ( Read more... )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/arcadefire/

I got a ticket!!!!!!!!

Right, my review of all the 11 shows I saw in 11 days can be found at: http://aheartcanstopabullet.blogspot.com/ .
Since then, I have been to Dublin (as mentioned in a previous post), I've seen Architecture in Helsinki, Los Campesinos! (dodgy acoustics and very short set marred my enjoyment, although 'You! Me! Dancing!' was still a joy and French- ( Read more... )

I went to Ireland this weekend to meet up with a bunch of freaks I met on the Internet. To be fair, I'd met most of them already so it wasn't THAT weird, but there was still a strange surreality about the Us Kids Know meet-up in Dublin. The capital itself was a lot less characterful than I had imagined- it reminded me of Manchester, in that's it's ( Read more... )

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So, the Latitude Festival line-up so far: The Arcade Fire, Two Gallants, The National,, Patrick Wolf, Final Fantasy, Andrew Bird, Feist, I'm From Barcelona, Wilco, Peter and the Wolf, Midlake, Cold War Kids, Au Revoir Simone, CSS, Clay Your Hands Say Yeah!, The Hold Steady, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, The Dears, Albert Hammond Jr., Jarvis Cocker (and many ( Read more... )

After a run of rather disappointing shows, I approached Wednesday’s Battles show with a degree of trepidation. Despite the fact everyone I know who’s seen them have been unanimous in their praise for this New York quartet, I’ve found the majority of their recorded material rather underwhelming. Yet the almost reverential hype around their live ( Read more... )