The Late Review

Right. Busy week what with the broken laptop and all the overtime in work keeping me out of my sty until ten every night, and which will contnue to do so until Christmas at the very earliest, but I did have a chance to have some good old fashioned fun.

First up was Neon Neon last Tuesday in Tripod.

Now, despite Tripod being the worst gig venue in the whole of the civilized world, they keep putting on gigs that I want to go to, and I keep going.

It’s really shit though. If you can’t get on to the main floor, you end up standing at the back near the shit bar, getting soaked with shit beer because they still insist on selling those shit squashy plastic glasses. However, I quite like getting soaked with beer. The main problem with standing there is the fact that the sound is awful because of the balcony above your head. Although, that said, it’s not much better out in the main floor either.

Anyhoo, I wasn’t too looking forward to the gig, because the album had failed to grab me by the testicles. Usually Gruff Rhys could release an album of him farting into a kettle and I’d think it was the greatest thing since aerosol cheese, but not this time.

Mainly because it sounds like the entire ‘dance’ side from NOW! Thats What I Call Music 1985. There were a few decent songs to open with, but to be honest I hadn’t even listened past the 6th track.

So it was a surprise to find myself thouroughly enjoying the gig.

Best bit was when Har Mar Superstar body popped his fat, balding arse on stage for ‘Sweat Shop’ nd proceeded to stay and body pop his fat, balding arse all over the stage for the rest of the night.

Wednesday saw Cold War Kids at the Academy.

Now the Academy is a fantastic spot. I saw Dinosaur Jr there a while ago, and my ears were ringing for a week. There was some insipid and pointless Irish band on as support – thankfully I’ve forgotten their name – and after seeing Cold War Kids from backstage, they should be ashamed of themselves.

On stage for over an hour, tearing through the new album, the band were a study in perpetual motion and intensity. The place rightly went bananas from the get go.

It was also refreshing to see a band eschew the usual ‘frontman in a spotlight’ routine, choosing instead to be backlit as a whole, with no one stealing the show.

Also, I was meant to go to Fleet Foxes in Vicar St on Friday night, but somehow I thought it was on Saturday night, and pencilled myself in for more fucking overtime on Friday. So that’s twice I’ve had tickets to see them and missed out (the last time being in favour of a weekend in Clare desperately chasing a piece of the ass that never materialised).

So yeah.

Neon Neon; surprisingly fun.

Cold War Kids; fucking ace.

Fleet Foxes; a dead rubber. Again.

~ by oftroad on November 10, 2008.