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zotzWeekend in London with Fiona, D&B and Neubauten
Hmmmm. I haven't said anything substantive in about two weeks. It's been quite an interesting two weeks, too, so I think I should fill you all in.
On Thursday of that week (the 1st of April, of course) I went down to the Big Shitty again to see Fiona and a few bands. The trip down went quite nicely, although as usual on the troubled West Coast Line it took quite a while. I hopped on board a Virgin train at Waverley at about half-past three, and pulled into London at nearly ten. In the middle there was a change at Stafford, because the train I was on originally was eastbound for Bristol, and the connecting train from Liverpool was bound for Euston, where it arrived right on time. There's been a lot of moaning about Virgin trains, but the ones I've caught over the last several months have been just fine. They weren't all as new or shiny as the ones on the recent trip, but they've been clean and punctual, so I don't have any problem with them. I did enjoy reading a long article about the West Coast Main Line in The Guardian. I hadn't previously realised the scale of the mess. I mean, I knew that it was a cock-up of monumental proportions, but monuments come in a range of sizes. Estimates on this one use such choice phrases as "more expensive than putting a man on the moon" and "it might be cheaper to build a new railway line from scratch" (to paraphrase bits of said piece). I remember at the time hearing Railtrack shareholders complaining about the Government unfairly closing down their company without compensation. I suspect the DailyHateMail supported them in this. As I recall, they even went to court and ended up getting paid to shut up. I do hope some of them have read the article and are suitably ashamed of what was done in their name. HMG, of course, were utterly dismissive of the corporate scumsuckers - an view they in turn should be ashamed of not taking more often.
I notice that membership of the Labour Party is plummetting. I can't imagine why that might be. On the other hand, that might (for various reasons) make it a good time to make sure my membership's up to date.
Anyway, on arrival at Euston (Hello Euston, the seagull has landed), I had to get across to south-east London. My first attempt to buy a ticket, at the ticket office, failed due to there being one and a half staff facing a line entirely composed of travellers with bizarre or intractable problems. The most memorable was a woman who'd left her railcard at home, talking to a man with no discretion to help her. It was really quite a shame, as by the bandaging on her right leg I think she might have been in at least discomfort if not actually pain. I think she spent about ten minutes on the attempted persuasion before leaving with her ( I assume) long-suffering son (18-20ish, beard, fedora, long coat) in tow. It was a bit annoying having to wait for them, but they didn't take any longer than the others - they were just a bit more memorable. Anyway, after realising that the number ahead of me multiplied by the time each was taking took me to well after midnight, I scarpered for the Tube and bought a ticket for the superterranean bit at London Bridge. It was all plain sailing after that and I was at Fiona's fairly quickly.
Friday was very relaxed. A couple of people with the clout to make such decisions had decided that Fiona might as well have the day off if she had someone staying, so we didn't end up getting out of bed until relatively late. The whole day was very relaxing until dinnertime, when the planned baked potatos took rather longer than they were expected to. Indeed, they never did get thoroughly cooked, so we hurredly ate our way through the cooked bits and left the rest, in order to make it out to Dead & Buried on time. I liked the club a lot, as before, but the three bands they had on that night all rather underperformed in my eyes. I'd be willing to watch them all again, though. None of them struck me as a waste of time.
The Vincent Razorbacks were alright but didn't really stand out in style, flair, or songwriting. It was fairly functional stuff, to be honest, and I'm sure that with a more partisan crowd they would have gone down a storm. Devilish Presley I was hoping to like, but they didn't quite hit the mark either. I think if the hihat had been turned down or they'd had a real drummer (or even a better or more imaginatively programmed beatbox) they'd have worked a lot better. A little less rockstarism from the singer would have helped too, actually. Someone on stage trying to be Axl Rose doesn't even appeal to me when it actually is Axl Rose, so imitators are doubly disappointing. However, as I say, I would like to have liked them, and they wouldn't have to be very different to make it happen. It might have been an off-evening, so given the chance I imagine I'll check them out again sometime.
The Last Days of Jesus were a band of parts. Too many parts, with the result that even though the parts were mostly pretty good they didn't all mesh properly. The singer was very entertaining, and the other members seemed suitably skilled, so I think if they were all pulling the same way they could be quite notable. Again, though, it might just have been the evening, the venue or the audience that didn't suit them. Like the previous two, they weren't off enough for me to write them off. I'd see them again (and in fact I nearly did - they've played Edinburgh since and I was thinking of going).
We left D&B at a sensible hour to catch the last train, only just catching Zazz and Chris before we left.
Saturday was fairly quiet also, so there was nothing to delay our trip up to Kentish Town for the evening's entertainment : Einstürzende Neubauten at the Forum.Fiona's take on it is here. I thought it was pretty much that good too, with a few reservations and comments.
From Kentish Town tube we walked up to the Forum and saw a big queue. The doors weren't open on time, which is of course invariably the case for all gigs anywhere ever. After a quick perusal we decided to head back to the nearest pub for a swift half. This took us about half an hour or so (and OK, I had a pint instead), and after a chat (on my part at least) with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_alexander_ we headed back. The doors were open, and we didn't let the slow movement put us off. The queue was really very long, though, so we spent quite a while in it. augeas arrived and said hello, but after a while chatting went off to catch up with some other friends. Inside, we got drinks, which were not especially expensive for a London venue, and the tapwater was either only nominally charged-for or actually free, which was nice. Fiona queued for a couple of Tshirts, as they were rather nice (Mensch logo in silver on the front, map shwing tour location on the back) and I queued for the live recording. This worked as follows : at the beginning of the gig, the first hundred people to order a double-CDR of Neubauten's set pick them up after the set, courtesy of about a dozen or so CD-writers. Fiona decided she couldn't be bothered. More on that later.
Just after this, we bumped into Chris and Zazz again, lurking near the Tshirt stall. They both seemed to be fine, and after a couple of minutes we noticed that the music getting louder was actually the support act, so we went down towards the front to learn more. They were called Mono, and seemed to be from Japan. Our joint opinion was that they Were Not Our Kind Of Thing. However, if you're a big fan of Mogwai or sigur rós then they might be just your cup of tea. Now, I have a reasonable amount of time for both of those bands, but I thught Mono were pushing the post-rock thing a bit far. They sounded nice. In fact, scratch that - they sounded lovely. Unfortunately they weren't doing a great deal. Each song (all instrumental) took a long time and gradually built up from something quiet to something towering and majestic, before fading away. Then the last one started out quiet before becoming towering and majestic but also a bit more raucous before fading away. I couldn't tell you anything more detailed about them. I would say that what they are doing is a waste of undoubted talent. Still, it's their talent and they can do what they want with it (but if they're not using it all, perhaps they could spare me some?).
My only further comment, I suppose, is that with The Durrutti Column once more roaming the land and My Bloody Valentine finally back in the studio, I think the standards required for a musoish band could well be rising rapidly quite soon. Bands like this might have to work hard not to suddenly look quite irrelevant even to their target audience.
Anyway. Neubauten.
I've seen them twice before, and loved them both times. This was much the same as the previous one - four years ago at the Astoria. Most of it was from the current album, a fair amount from the last one and the remaining few were from the few albums before. There wasn't anything really early. The set was as follows :
Main set:
1. Ich gehe jetzt
2. Good Morning Everybody (Rampe)
3. Selbsportrait mit Kater
4. Dead Friends (Around the Corner)
5. Redukt
6. Perpetuum Mobile
7. Youme & Meyou
8. Neun Arme
9. Die Befindlichkeit des Landes
10. Haus der Lüge/Armenia
11. Seltener Vogel
12. Ozean/Paradiesseits
[Hex]
13. Grundstück
Encore 1:
1. Ein leichtes leises Säuseln
2. November/Sie lächelt (Rampe)
3. Sabrina
Encore 2:
1. Ende Neu
2. Alles
Blixa's opening remarks and Encore 2 aren't on the live recording. This is a shame, as both were quite good. Blixa explained at the start that the very end of their performance wouldn't be on the CDs for practical reasons, but that anyway some things should be left to our memories, and that the pipes they'd set up sometimes fed back, often but not always to pleasing effect. He said this happened especially when they played at what sounded like "Faulknerian volumes" - but I could easily have got that one wrong.
They played very well, and Blixa was on fine form both singing (well, vocalising) and chatting between songs. For example, on the subject of the air compressors they made heavy use of throughout:
"Profimaster model 250-50 - 97 decibels. And one month later when we noticed one was not enough, we went to the same shop for Profimaster model 250-50, and what did they do with the money that we gave them a month ago? They put it into research and made this 1 decibel less. 96 decibels! We were so happy!"
There were further anecdotes about the recording of Neune Arme, and a slightly splenetic explanation of the Hex they had devised aimed at the unnamed boss of their former record company - unnamed, but obviously Stevo of Some Bizarre if you know anything about the history of the band. Coil, Test Department, Soft Cell, Foetus and as far as I can tell everybody else (with the possible exception of Matt Johnson) ever associated with this label seem to regret it. I'm amazed the man's still alive.
"OK. We used to have a record company. And I do not mean our current record company, we are quite happy with our current record company. No, we used to have a record company, signing with that record company was probably the biggest mistake we ever made in our carreer. That is now already more than 20 years ago, and they have managed to, for more than 20 years, not to pay us. Which means they basically have stolen the blossom of our youth and the torso of our work, and as it is only a one-man company they... that person is still ripping us off. So, one day... [audience booing] Well it's not just us, he's ripping off a lot of people. But one day, when we were once again basically getting emails and faxes from our lawyers and their lawyers, etcetera etcetera, we were in our recording studio and decided to write a hex. And we have practiced that hex a long time now and we were looking forward to present it directly, so to speak, in the more nearer vicinity of the addresses, and of course it has turned out to be, in the end it is a great song too, I think, but nevertheless we're going to start it here now, for the first time directly ..."
Not bad, either, although a bit quiet. This was one of the points when people standing behind us who were not at all resented started talking. It should also be noted that it was played on even weirder instruments than usual.
Speaking of which, I noticed that at times the guitar and bass were being played with unorthodox implements - something eight or nine inches long, bullet-shaped, with a gold end, and another object that looked like a stapler. Only one of these was designed for that purpose, of course.
"Yes, this suitcase was sometimes unattended. Yes, other people had access to it. Yes, I was asked to take presents. Yes, there are many electrical items in the suitcase. Yes, many batteries. No, I don't own everything."
Just after Blixa said that, Chudy appeared with a bunch of large olive-oil cans on ropes and clattered them across the stage. One of the interesting things about seeing them live was finding out exactly what bits of junk and ex-junk they used to make all the sounds on the record. Well worthwhile. Fiona and I seem to disagree on exactly how big the oil cans were.
Overall, a very good concert. A very long concert - over 2 hours. I didn't, to be honest, think that all the songs really justified that length. The longest one, Perpetuum Mobile, is nearly 15 minutes long on the album, but works quite well at that length. I thought a few of the others could have done with being slightly shorter, though. Having said this, I didn't think they actually overstayed their welcome, which is quite a trick when you hang around for that long.
At the end, Fiona decided that she wanted the recording of the set after all . . . well, what can you do? If you have any interest in all of this, incidentally, visit http://http://www.neubauten.org for lots of odds and ends. Somewhere there are links to loads of pictures. If you find the oil cans there, could you possibly tell me how big you think they are? It might settle . . . well, not an argument, but a vague disagreement.
The trip home was interesting, because Kentish Town tube had closed early for some reason. We managed to hop a bus fairly quickly, though, which swept us down to the top of the Tottenham Court Road, from whiere it's a quick diagonal step across the junction to Warren (Zevon) Street tube, and thence the last train fromTransCharing Cross.
Sunday was . . . quiet. I'm not entirely sure we made it out of the house. On Monday Fiona was back at work, so I trogged in to join her for lunch at a pizza joint near her work that was very basic in decor and furnishing, but sold extremely nice slices of pizza quite reasonably. I can see why she goes there. Later I caught another Frigid Express northwards. I had various thoughts on the journey, but I think they'll have to wait.
Hmmmm. I haven't said anything substantive in about two weeks. It's been quite an interesting two weeks, too, so I think I should fill you all in.
On Thursday of that week (the 1st of April, of course) I went down to the Big Shitty again to see Fiona and a few bands. The trip down went quite nicely, although as usual on the troubled West Coast Line it took quite a while. I hopped on board a Virgin train at Waverley at about half-past three, and pulled into London at nearly ten. In the middle there was a change at Stafford, because the train I was on originally was eastbound for Bristol, and the connecting train from Liverpool was bound for Euston, where it arrived right on time. There's been a lot of moaning about Virgin trains, but the ones I've caught over the last several months have been just fine. They weren't all as new or shiny as the ones on the recent trip, but they've been clean and punctual, so I don't have any problem with them. I did enjoy reading a long article about the West Coast Main Line in The Guardian. I hadn't previously realised the scale of the mess. I mean, I knew that it was a cock-up of monumental proportions, but monuments come in a range of sizes. Estimates on this one use such choice phrases as "more expensive than putting a man on the moon" and "it might be cheaper to build a new railway line from scratch" (to paraphrase bits of said piece). I remember at the time hearing Railtrack shareholders complaining about the Government unfairly closing down their company without compensation. I suspect the Daily
I notice that membership of the Labour Party is plummetting. I can't imagine why that might be. On the other hand, that might (for various reasons) make it a good time to make sure my membership's up to date.
Anyway, on arrival at Euston (Hello Euston, the seagull has landed), I had to get across to south-east London. My first attempt to buy a ticket, at the ticket office, failed due to there being one and a half staff facing a line entirely composed of travellers with bizarre or intractable problems. The most memorable was a woman who'd left her railcard at home, talking to a man with no discretion to help her. It was really quite a shame, as by the bandaging on her right leg I think she might have been in at least discomfort if not actually pain. I think she spent about ten minutes on the attempted persuasion before leaving with her ( I assume) long-suffering son (18-20ish, beard, fedora, long coat) in tow. It was a bit annoying having to wait for them, but they didn't take any longer than the others - they were just a bit more memorable. Anyway, after realising that the number ahead of me multiplied by the time each was taking took me to well after midnight, I scarpered for the Tube and bought a ticket for the superterranean bit at London Bridge. It was all plain sailing after that and I was at Fiona's fairly quickly.
Friday was very relaxed. A couple of people with the clout to make such decisions had decided that Fiona might as well have the day off if she had someone staying, so we didn't end up getting out of bed until relatively late. The whole day was very relaxing until dinnertime, when the planned baked potatos took rather longer than they were expected to. Indeed, they never did get thoroughly cooked, so we hurredly ate our way through the cooked bits and left the rest, in order to make it out to Dead & Buried on time. I liked the club a lot, as before, but the three bands they had on that night all rather underperformed in my eyes. I'd be willing to watch them all again, though. None of them struck me as a waste of time.
The Vincent Razorbacks were alright but didn't really stand out in style, flair, or songwriting. It was fairly functional stuff, to be honest, and I'm sure that with a more partisan crowd they would have gone down a storm. Devilish Presley I was hoping to like, but they didn't quite hit the mark either. I think if the hihat had been turned down or they'd had a real drummer (or even a better or more imaginatively programmed beatbox) they'd have worked a lot better. A little less rockstarism from the singer would have helped too, actually. Someone on stage trying to be Axl Rose doesn't even appeal to me when it actually is Axl Rose, so imitators are doubly disappointing. However, as I say, I would like to have liked them, and they wouldn't have to be very different to make it happen. It might have been an off-evening, so given the chance I imagine I'll check them out again sometime.
The Last Days of Jesus were a band of parts. Too many parts, with the result that even though the parts were mostly pretty good they didn't all mesh properly. The singer was very entertaining, and the other members seemed suitably skilled, so I think if they were all pulling the same way they could be quite notable. Again, though, it might just have been the evening, the venue or the audience that didn't suit them. Like the previous two, they weren't off enough for me to write them off. I'd see them again (and in fact I nearly did - they've played Edinburgh since and I was thinking of going).
We left D&B at a sensible hour to catch the last train, only just catching Zazz and Chris before we left.
Saturday was fairly quiet also, so there was nothing to delay our trip up to Kentish Town for the evening's entertainment : Einstürzende Neubauten at the Forum.Fiona's take on it is here. I thought it was pretty much that good too, with a few reservations and comments.
From Kentish Town tube we walked up to the Forum and saw a big queue. The doors weren't open on time, which is of course invariably the case for all gigs anywhere ever. After a quick perusal we decided to head back to the nearest pub for a swift half. This took us about half an hour or so (and OK, I had a pint instead), and after a chat (on my part at least) with
_alexander_ we headed back. The doors were open, and we didn't let the slow movement put us off. The queue was really very long, though, so we spent quite a while in it. augeas arrived and said hello, but after a while chatting went off to catch up with some other friends. Inside, we got drinks, which were not especially expensive for a London venue, and the tapwater was either only nominally charged-for or actually free, which was nice. Fiona queued for a couple of Tshirts, as they were rather nice (Mensch logo in silver on the front, map shwing tour location on the back) and I queued for the live recording. This worked as follows : at the beginning of the gig, the first hundred people to order a double-CDR of Neubauten's set pick them up after the set, courtesy of about a dozen or so CD-writers. Fiona decided she couldn't be bothered. More on that later.Just after this, we bumped into Chris and Zazz again, lurking near the Tshirt stall. They both seemed to be fine, and after a couple of minutes we noticed that the music getting louder was actually the support act, so we went down towards the front to learn more. They were called Mono, and seemed to be from Japan. Our joint opinion was that they Were Not Our Kind Of Thing. However, if you're a big fan of Mogwai or sigur rós then they might be just your cup of tea. Now, I have a reasonable amount of time for both of those bands, but I thught Mono were pushing the post-rock thing a bit far. They sounded nice. In fact, scratch that - they sounded lovely. Unfortunately they weren't doing a great deal. Each song (all instrumental) took a long time and gradually built up from something quiet to something towering and majestic, before fading away. Then the last one started out quiet before becoming towering and majestic but also a bit more raucous before fading away. I couldn't tell you anything more detailed about them. I would say that what they are doing is a waste of undoubted talent. Still, it's their talent and they can do what they want with it (but if they're not using it all, perhaps they could spare me some?).
My only further comment, I suppose, is that with The Durrutti Column once more roaming the land and My Bloody Valentine finally back in the studio, I think the standards required for a musoish band could well be rising rapidly quite soon. Bands like this might have to work hard not to suddenly look quite irrelevant even to their target audience.
Anyway. Neubauten.
I've seen them twice before, and loved them both times. This was much the same as the previous one - four years ago at the Astoria. Most of it was from the current album, a fair amount from the last one and the remaining few were from the few albums before. There wasn't anything really early. The set was as follows :
Main set:
1. Ich gehe jetzt
2. Good Morning Everybody (Rampe)
3. Selbsportrait mit Kater
4. Dead Friends (Around the Corner)
5. Redukt
6. Perpetuum Mobile
7. Youme & Meyou
8. Neun Arme
9. Die Befindlichkeit des Landes
10. Haus der Lüge/Armenia
11. Seltener Vogel
12. Ozean/Paradiesseits
[Hex]
13. Grundstück
Encore 1:
1. Ein leichtes leises Säuseln
2. November/Sie lächelt (Rampe)
3. Sabrina
Encore 2:
1. Ende Neu
2. Alles
Blixa's opening remarks and Encore 2 aren't on the live recording. This is a shame, as both were quite good. Blixa explained at the start that the very end of their performance wouldn't be on the CDs for practical reasons, but that anyway some things should be left to our memories, and that the pipes they'd set up sometimes fed back, often but not always to pleasing effect. He said this happened especially when they played at what sounded like "Faulknerian volumes" - but I could easily have got that one wrong.
They played very well, and Blixa was on fine form both singing (well, vocalising) and chatting between songs. For example, on the subject of the air compressors they made heavy use of throughout:
"Profimaster model 250-50 - 97 decibels. And one month later when we noticed one was not enough, we went to the same shop for Profimaster model 250-50, and what did they do with the money that we gave them a month ago? They put it into research and made this 1 decibel less. 96 decibels! We were so happy!"
There were further anecdotes about the recording of Neune Arme, and a slightly splenetic explanation of the Hex they had devised aimed at the unnamed boss of their former record company - unnamed, but obviously Stevo of Some Bizarre if you know anything about the history of the band. Coil, Test Department, Soft Cell, Foetus and as far as I can tell everybody else (with the possible exception of Matt Johnson) ever associated with this label seem to regret it. I'm amazed the man's still alive.
"OK. We used to have a record company. And I do not mean our current record company, we are quite happy with our current record company. No, we used to have a record company, signing with that record company was probably the biggest mistake we ever made in our carreer. That is now already more than 20 years ago, and they have managed to, for more than 20 years, not to pay us. Which means they basically have stolen the blossom of our youth and the torso of our work, and as it is only a one-man company they... that person is still ripping us off. So, one day... [audience booing] Well it's not just us, he's ripping off a lot of people. But one day, when we were once again basically getting emails and faxes from our lawyers and their lawyers, etcetera etcetera, we were in our recording studio and decided to write a hex. And we have practiced that hex a long time now and we were looking forward to present it directly, so to speak, in the more nearer vicinity of the addresses, and of course it has turned out to be, in the end it is a great song too, I think, but nevertheless we're going to start it here now, for the first time directly ..."
Not bad, either, although a bit quiet. This was one of the points when people standing behind us who were not at all resented started talking. It should also be noted that it was played on even weirder instruments than usual.
Speaking of which, I noticed that at times the guitar and bass were being played with unorthodox implements - something eight or nine inches long, bullet-shaped, with a gold end, and another object that looked like a stapler. Only one of these was designed for that purpose, of course.
"Yes, this suitcase was sometimes unattended. Yes, other people had access to it. Yes, I was asked to take presents. Yes, there are many electrical items in the suitcase. Yes, many batteries. No, I don't own everything."
Just after Blixa said that, Chudy appeared with a bunch of large olive-oil cans on ropes and clattered them across the stage. One of the interesting things about seeing them live was finding out exactly what bits of junk and ex-junk they used to make all the sounds on the record. Well worthwhile. Fiona and I seem to disagree on exactly how big the oil cans were.
Overall, a very good concert. A very long concert - over 2 hours. I didn't, to be honest, think that all the songs really justified that length. The longest one, Perpetuum Mobile, is nearly 15 minutes long on the album, but works quite well at that length. I thought a few of the others could have done with being slightly shorter, though. Having said this, I didn't think they actually overstayed their welcome, which is quite a trick when you hang around for that long.
At the end, Fiona decided that she wanted the recording of the set after all . . . well, what can you do? If you have any interest in all of this, incidentally, visit http://http://www.neubauten.org for lots of odds and ends. Somewhere there are links to loads of pictures. If you find the oil cans there, could you possibly tell me how big you think they are? It might settle . . . well, not an argument, but a vague disagreement.
The trip home was interesting, because Kentish Town tube had closed early for some reason. We managed to hop a bus fairly quickly, though, which swept us down to the top of the Tottenham Court Road, from whiere it's a quick diagonal step across the junction to Warren (Zevon) Street tube, and thence the last train from
Sunday was . . . quiet. I'm not entirely sure we made it out of the house. On Monday Fiona was back at work, so I trogged in to join her for lunch at a pizza joint near her work that was very basic in decor and furnishing, but sold extremely nice slices of pizza quite reasonably. I can see why she goes there. Later I caught another Frigid Express northwards. I had various thoughts on the journey, but I think they'll have to wait.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-04-14 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-14 11:28 pm (UTC)*laugh*
I was talking to John-From-Interlock at Pacified the other night, and he was talking about the embarrassment he experienced going in to Ann Summers to buy a vibrator. For his guitar.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 12:28 am (UTC)Well, you did insist... Thank you, you are a prince among men.
You left the house on Sunday, to get a paper, but that was all. And we watched Donnie Darko.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 05:58 am (UTC)You make me feel 18 again :)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 06:18 am (UTC)