Last night I went to see Arcade Fire at the Alexandra Palace. However, I was in Japan when tickets were on sale, and not wanting to pass up the opportunity in case they sold out (which they did), I decided to buy one then and there. But I did not want to fork out twice or thrice the price to get extra tickets, in the hope that I could convince someone else to go to a concert months into the future, and get paid back for it. So it was a solo venture as I walked through the wind and rain from home to the venue, a grand place for a concert indeed (having seen Franz Ferdinand there two years previous in a similar state of loneliness).
So what does one actually do at gigs when you're on your own and waiting for the bands to come on? It's too expensive and time-consuming queueing to drink, yet I was too sober to start up chit-chat with strangers - no-one wants to appear too enthusiastic about the band, despite the fact that everyone there is a fan (otherwise, why would they be there?). Instead, you're left standing there on your own while groups of friends around you have vastly entertaining and interesting conversations you want to join in with but feel it socially inappropriate to do so; no one wants their evening spoiled by some strange nobody chiming in with their two cents like they're worth a dime (that's ten cents).
Well, pehaps not turning up early would be a good idea. Then I spent my time putting my coat in the cloakroom, looking at prices for food and drinks, then found a spot by the tech crew and waited. For 45 minutes. The good thing was that Alexandra Palace is perhaps the best venue in London to get a signal (what with it being the old broadcast centre), so mobile phone use was not a problem. The boredom was alleviated through a light bit of texting, something that just would not be possible in the more cavernous capital venues (at which point, not even faux-phone-fiddling - in which you pretend to be doing important things like sending or checking messages - would slide).
Maybe there should be some kind of gig-goer application on something like last.fm where it wouldn't be considered socially awkward to check who's going on their own. Perhaps you can hook up with a like-minded group of people - I mean, the band could be a starting point for just getting to know others. Could even expand into a dating service sort of realm - music is a personal thing, and if you share similar tastes in tunes, who knows? They could be 'the one'. But I digress...
Once the support acts were on, it was fine. You're among a crowd and the focus is on music rather than being a Billy No-Mates. While New Englanders Wild Light better fitted the bill as a warm-up, Liverpudlian band Clinic were perhaps the more entertaining band, even if they seemed to bemuse most of the audience. Living up to their name by wearing dark blue surgical outfits, Clinic's pounding mix of indie-punk-folk and strange strange vocals was creepy but interesting.
Arcade Fire themselves were stunning. An energetic, kinetic live show thanks to the brilliant visuals and lighting, and the rambunctious nature inherent with so many band members and instruments on stage. Lead singer Win Butler's vocals were drowned out during My Body Is A Cage and a teasing opening to a cover of Pulp's Common People never came to pass, but the rest of it was joyous. The anthemic choral nature of their songs lend themselves perfectly to crowd sing-a-longing and clapping which required little to no direction, such were the lyrics and music engrained within all the attendees. Including myself. So I guess I wasn't alone after all...
Bah, screw sentimentality and lessons learned. Next time, I'm forcing someone to come with me.
----------------
Listening to: Clinic - Fingers
via FoxyTunes
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Guess Who's Back? Needs A Scratch?
Flash forward three months and you find me here. In London. With macaroni cheese running down my kitchen window.
To briefly fill in the gaps, I'm now well into the first term of my final year at SOAS. The workload is pretty intense - I could easily coast by for the moment, but I know that preparation is key to survival. Or something. Being back from Japan is a little weird; I miss a lot of things about living there, but I missed a lot of things about living here too, so go figure (oooh, that sounded very early 90s). Despite all the pressing engagements (two essays for the end of term, dissertation deadlines to make, Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2), there's still time for frivolity. Well, there kind of isn't, but it gets you out the house, don't it?
Case in point - this time last week I was watching I'm A Cyborg But That's OK, followed by a talk with the director Park Chan-wook, who I believe to be something of a genius - and yet I've only seen two of his films. Well, three now. It was the closing night gala of the London Korean Film Festival, and his screen talk with Empire writer Damon Wise (via translator) was funny, frank and illuminating. I can't imagine many directors would be so honest about their early films, box office success and failure and the meaning of their work. I think he does a commentary on the Oldboy DVD which I should really listen to some time. Anyway, I review his latest on my review blog (yes, it's still there) here.
Another case in point - last Saturday, I went to see all 14 episodes of genius sitcom Spaced in one day in a grand comedy show marathon as part of the BFI's Channel 4 at 25 celebrations. In between the two series, we were treated to a Q&A with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Katy Carmichael, Mark Heap and Julia Deakin, chaired by big-chinned, whine-voiced Radio Times film-prong Andrew Collins. Although Jessica Hynes (Stevenson) couldn't make it (leaving us a brilliant recorded message instead), it was a brilliant way to spend 10 hours. We even got to see Aida the Dog (aka Colin the Dog)! Interestingly, the episodes were taken from their original broadcast, so at the end, the voice announcer would keep telling us Frasier was coming up next. The Q&A session was the highlight - Nick Frost is a comedy genius par excellence, and I even got to ask a question. Well, no-one else was sticking their hand up, so off the fly I asked them what it was like having met and collaborated with film directors such as George A. Romero and Quentin Tarantino having referenced them in Spaced. Not a great question, but we got a nice anecdote about Edgar meeting John Carpenter in Virgin, both buying The Beatles' Help! on DVD. I also thanked them for putting Wells on the map with Hot Fuzz, to which Edgar punched the air and Simon asked me "Didn't you know where it was before?".
The bizzayness doesn't stop there. I'm running the SOAS Film Society every Tuesday night. So far I've shown Children of Men, Chung King Express, The Thing and Grizzly Man, with A Scanner Darkly due next week. Also, I'm hosting Tokyo Soundscape, my Japanese music show, every Friday 1-2pm, which can be listened to through Open Air Radio. I got myself a MySpace page for it, so please be my friend, or I will hunt you down and cut you. Kiddles!
And as for the macaroni...well, it seems that not only do we have a bedbug infestation and noisy stupid neighbours, but someone flung macaroni cheese on our kitchen window. It was still steaming as it congealed on the glass, and I didn't even hear it happen. One moment it wasn't there, the next SPLOK! As the window only overlooks our neighbours, it could only have been them; unless the people directly below us had especially good aim. Still, there's a Citizen's Advice Bureau round the corner which I'm hankering to pay a visit. Once I've stoppoed wasting time doing stupid things like blogging.
Ah! It's good to be back!
----------------
Listening to: Fredo - Grande
via FoxyTunes
To briefly fill in the gaps, I'm now well into the first term of my final year at SOAS. The workload is pretty intense - I could easily coast by for the moment, but I know that preparation is key to survival. Or something. Being back from Japan is a little weird; I miss a lot of things about living there, but I missed a lot of things about living here too, so go figure (oooh, that sounded very early 90s). Despite all the pressing engagements (two essays for the end of term, dissertation deadlines to make, Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2), there's still time for frivolity. Well, there kind of isn't, but it gets you out the house, don't it?
Case in point - this time last week I was watching I'm A Cyborg But That's OK, followed by a talk with the director Park Chan-wook, who I believe to be something of a genius - and yet I've only seen two of his films. Well, three now. It was the closing night gala of the London Korean Film Festival, and his screen talk with Empire writer Damon Wise (via translator) was funny, frank and illuminating. I can't imagine many directors would be so honest about their early films, box office success and failure and the meaning of their work. I think he does a commentary on the Oldboy DVD which I should really listen to some time. Anyway, I review his latest on my review blog (yes, it's still there) here.
Another case in point - last Saturday, I went to see all 14 episodes of genius sitcom Spaced in one day in a grand comedy show marathon as part of the BFI's Channel 4 at 25 celebrations. In between the two series, we were treated to a Q&A with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Katy Carmichael, Mark Heap and Julia Deakin, chaired by big-chinned, whine-voiced Radio Times film-prong Andrew Collins. Although Jessica Hynes (Stevenson) couldn't make it (leaving us a brilliant recorded message instead), it was a brilliant way to spend 10 hours. We even got to see Aida the Dog (aka Colin the Dog)! Interestingly, the episodes were taken from their original broadcast, so at the end, the voice announcer would keep telling us Frasier was coming up next. The Q&A session was the highlight - Nick Frost is a comedy genius par excellence, and I even got to ask a question. Well, no-one else was sticking their hand up, so off the fly I asked them what it was like having met and collaborated with film directors such as George A. Romero and Quentin Tarantino having referenced them in Spaced. Not a great question, but we got a nice anecdote about Edgar meeting John Carpenter in Virgin, both buying The Beatles' Help! on DVD. I also thanked them for putting Wells on the map with Hot Fuzz, to which Edgar punched the air and Simon asked me "Didn't you know where it was before?".
The bizzayness doesn't stop there. I'm running the SOAS Film Society every Tuesday night. So far I've shown Children of Men, Chung King Express, The Thing and Grizzly Man, with A Scanner Darkly due next week. Also, I'm hosting Tokyo Soundscape, my Japanese music show, every Friday 1-2pm, which can be listened to through Open Air Radio. I got myself a MySpace page for it, so please be my friend, or I will hunt you down and cut you. Kiddles!
And as for the macaroni...well, it seems that not only do we have a bedbug infestation and noisy stupid neighbours, but someone flung macaroni cheese on our kitchen window. It was still steaming as it congealed on the glass, and I didn't even hear it happen. One moment it wasn't there, the next SPLOK! As the window only overlooks our neighbours, it could only have been them; unless the people directly below us had especially good aim. Still, there's a Citizen's Advice Bureau round the corner which I'm hankering to pay a visit. Once I've stoppoed wasting time doing stupid things like blogging.
Ah! It's good to be back!
----------------
Listening to: Fredo - Grande
via FoxyTunes
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