I think in the last 6 months I must have been to around 50 odd gigs and I can't imagine not going to see bands. I may run through some of the great shows I've been to this year soon(don't hold your breath!!)but today i'd like to talk about Mondaynight at the Royal Festival Hall, bizarrely the third Monday night gig I've been to at the South Bank Centre this year so I will(talk about it).
Elbow/Fleet Foxes
Royal Festival Hall
Monday 16 June 2008
I fucking love Elbow.
I always have, well not strictly true. When I first heard them I liked them. I bought the Any Day Now EP on reccomendation from my Manchester based buddy Paul who knew about these things. It was good but they weren't exciting to me in the way that other bands around at the time were(and I can't even remember like who???) but I guess it was at time I first started dj'ing at candybox so it was all about the sort of bands I could play there. Maybe that was around the time The Strokes were coming out...The White Stripes, The Hives all that sort of stuff that kickstarted the stagnant music scene at the start of the decade. They could be lumped in with Doves who I was also ambivalent towards and I promptly ignored the album Asleep At The Back upon its release and got on with my life. Then one day I saw the video to Powder Blue on MTV2 late one night and decided to try to get into them. I picked up the album for £4.99 one Sunday afternoon and was hooked from there. I 've always expected them to get massive but alas it has never happened and in a way, good! Its always felt good to be part of an elite group who like a band and that old indie snobbery usually results in disowning the band when the masses come sniffing. With Elbow it has always seemed that they wouldn't try to write the sort of stadium filling songs that the likes of vaguely similar artists have resorted to to get huge and this is a good thing, at the same time I think they have been hooking people in slowly but surely with every album and their genius is definitelt becoming more widely recognised, hence this quickly sold out show at The Royal Festival Hall as part of the Massive Attack curated Meltdown festival.
Having seen them twice already this year(Porchester Hall and Brixton Academy) and coming away extremely happy both times I made sure I was onlie the morning these tickets came out and booked them at 9:03 one Friday morning at work(naughty!)and was rewarded with Row K stalls seats which seemed pretty good on the online seating chart and with the added attraction of SXSW big-shots Fleet Foxes in support I had high hopes for the gig which was probably still two months away. During this time I downloaded the Sun Giant EP by Fleet Foxes after hearing the track Mykonos on Radio 2 one night and was blown away. I'm a sucker for that kind of americana that in recent times has given u the likes of Midlake, My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses so they totally fit in with my listening habits and then managed to find what I thought was an early leak of the album and both were on heavy rotation round these parts (currently 189 plays according to my last fm profile). The hype was growing and I left it too late to get tickets to their shows with Beach House but that was ok because I knew i'd see them at this show alongside one of my other most listened to artists this year so all would be fine. A few days before the show, one of my friends who was due to come along pulled out so I had a spare ticket which on the day was put up on Scarlet Mist to ethically offload the spare to a genuine fan, and what a nice chap he turned out to be-he bought me a pint and everything!!!! I can't remember his name(sorry if you happen to read this) but he left the pub early to get to see Fleet Foxes and to be honest I was itching to leave too but I decided to be the good friend and let my pals drink up which meant missing a few minute of FF's set. Afler grabbing another pint(and one i nreturn for our new friend) we took our seats which happened to be absolutely perfect and we caught probably 5 songs which didn't disappoint. I thought they looked funny playing quite close to each other in the centre of the massive stage and I also thought they looke a bit like the band Stillwater from the popular 1999 rockumentary Almost Famous(they were a real band weren't they????)but what really grabbed me was how faithfully they sounded to their recorded output. The harmonies perfect, the instrumentation as sparsely rustic as I'd heard and I think the crowd were very impressed too by the reaction they received. I managed to record their version of White Water Hymnal on my new camera which is something I wouldn't usually do but the opportunity to do so from such great seats was something I am glad Ididn't pass up, the results are below.......................
I am really proud of that and I was actually just holding the camera as steady as I could while actually watching them on stage which makes me feel like less of a twat which is how i view most people who film gigs with their camera phones at EVERY gig these days.
It was a superb performance and the self deprecating comments from the band showed how surprised they were to be playing such a venue so soon, I would say to them get used to it lads because soon the world will be yours.
So interval time came(I love intervals!!)and it was time for a piss, a fag and a beer which I managed to do in good time.As I was walking back to my seat I noticed that the sound-desk was in front of the aisle back to my seat and I thought I'd be nosey and get a glimpse of Elbow's setlist and I saw this..............
With trusty new camera in hand and looking decidedly fanboyesque I told the soundman I was going to take a pic to which he gave me a scornful, almost pityimg look. Anyway I took the photo and went back to the seats and asked if anyone wanted to see the setlist to which all 4 of my comrades declined, and I don't blame them, I barely glanced at it so nothing was memorized as such, but having said that nothing could prepare me for what was to come.
I had heard there was to be a choir onstage, which the boys have employed before and in the first part of the set there were the usually three girls centre stage to the back who accompanied on the likes of the opener Station Aproach and Bones Of You to the usual great effect. Now you'll see on the smnap of the handwritten setlist Grounds For Divorce had a line drawn through it which when I did glance at it on my lcd disappointed me greatly so it was a great relief to hear that complete with Guy Garvey's walloping of a long iron bar which for some reason always gets me worked up(hmmmm!). The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver was the early high point though, Garvey's voice soaring through the plaintive atmospheric background. It was at this moment that, to me at least you could sense something truly special was taking place-like this was a band who are at the top of their game living up to their own(if you'll forgive the pun)Great Expectations. With huge applause and cheers ringing out stage right was suddenly engulfed by around 30 men all dressed like Guy Garvey in bowler hats and black shirt and trousers who filled the steps that made me realize "Oh, THAT'S the choir!!!!!!" First song altogether was Any Day Now, that first song I heard all those years ago and the male voice choir, or Jeff as Guy collectively referred to them added something incredible to this underplayed classic. You could tell they were having the night of their life looking out for the proud loved ones who must have come just to see them. The next song was even better and provided one of those truly thrilling moments that come every couple of years of gig-going. My mate Mike reckons that at the start of the live version of latest album opener Starlings the trumpets that the band play are not really being played, I think they are and I actually don't care if they are or not-it looks fantastic and that is how it was played on Monday and it was already better that the version played at Brixton in April with the added thirty odd voices but it was in the break half way through the song when people began staring towards the boxes at the very top of the hall that were lit up and also had about thirty odd trumpeters in them!!!! It looked amazing and showed a band making an effort to do something very special if they hadn't done already. That provided the first standing ovation of the night(i love standing ovations!!!) This is where it all gets hazy, I felt emotional, a bit pissed and just lost in the event, I could have taken lots of photos but I didn't want those memories, just the real ones that can be recalled in feeling, in hearing bits of the songs at home or on the way to work or what have you and I'm sure that bits of this gig will come back to me for years to come like there are as I type this listening to the recorded version of Some Riot. There was a huge version of the ever popular New Born which include a solo on the massive organ(matron!) above the rear of the stage and an encore of this years greatest anthem One Day Like This which I at least sung along to at the top of my voice. People were on their feet, arms aloft and some went down the front with religious fervour and the stage was soon engulfed with Jeff singing along the refrain that has been stuck in my head since first hearing it at the Porchester Hall in March(I think????!?!?!?!)
Heres a picture of the finale.........................
A truly amazing night and it may well be gig of the year, I can't imagine much else topping that.
I haven't seen any bootlegs of the night so if anyone has any kind of audio recording of any of the two sets let me know cos I'd love to hear it. Tghere did seem to be a few cameras filming it so hopefully that will come out in some form very soon but for now I can't wait to see the footage when they play Glastonbury in a couple of weeks, it could be where they finally get appreciated in a big big mainstream way. I'm sure they'll do their biggest tour latesr this year, my prediction is a couple of nights at Ally Pally. If so, count me in for both dates!!!!
In the meantime heres a 2002 set I found on a great bootleg site called Mixing Desk
You can find four free live Fleet Foxes tracks on the fantastic Daytrotter site HERE
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So there you go. My longest post I think, thats what happens after 6 months away. I promise I will try not to let that long pass til the next post. I have some good ideas for a regular feature on here which I will try to start soon. Incidentally, a lot of the links I posted in the end of 2007 round-up are still live so have a look back and see if theres anything that tickles your fancy.
Finally if you are up for a laugh you might want to download the Pepatits podcasts which were originally broadcast on Resonance FM. They are 6 one hour improvised shows by the excellent Jessica Hyne(Spaced) and Julia Davis(Nighty Night) interspersed with some interesting music choices. Great for the journey to work though be careful because they made me laugh like a twat and all the uptight commuters started staring at me, if they don't do already.
There is an index page HERE where you can right click and save them to your hearts content.
Thats that for now, chat soon(ish).
Maybe,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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