OMG, like, WTF?!
My last entry went AWOL. Strange. So, to take a break from Walt Whitman, here's another, more innocuous one:
Top 5 Gig Moments:
5. The Corrs, Wembly Arena: Hey, it was my first. And they were hot.
4. Pixies/Radiohead, Coachella CA: ‘YOOUUAAA BONE’S GOTTA LITTLE MACHEEEN…!’ [1,2,3,4] DA DA DA DA DEEEUUUWWW DA DA, DA DA DA DA DEEEUUUWWW DA DA. An hour later followed by ‘Bring down the government, they don’t, they don’t speak for us…’ and just the electric murmer that followed that line. It was 5 months before the election, and there was the very real sense of anger amongst these young Americans that British politics could never provoke.
3. Sigur Ros, Birmingham: Probably best summed up by the couple next to me. As the strings to ‘C’est Lest’ came in, the girlfriend whispered in the guy’s ear ‘Have you EVER heard anything like this?’ ‘No, I have not.’
2. Flaming Lips, New Zealand: Antipodeans like heavy metal. While I would never comment on the connotations of that, having Metallica play in the same time slot as the Flaming Lips proved very beneficial. Imagine going to a tiny school fair which has a band playing on a tiny stage and imagine that, at most, 400 people are watching. Then imagine that band has 20 animals dancing around, and plays the most uplifting pop music you’ve ever heard. And, while I’m on a roll, imagine you’re the furthest away from home you could possibly be without going into space. But perhaps the best moment was watching Wayne Coyne set up half the instruments like a roadie, then just look up at the group of people that had gathered and just laughing ‘OK, guess we may as well begin!’
1. Interpol, Crystal Palace: It had been threatening to rain for at least 2 hours. The band took to the stage and launched into Evil. Towards the end lightning struck. The inevitability became unbearable. The band knew it, the audience definitely knew it. The song finished and was quickly proceeded with the strumming F chord of NYC. Thunder. Ensuing darkness. The first chorus ended with the breakdown, ‘The pavements, they are a mess‘ (the first drops) ‘I know yooou‘ve supported me for a long time‘ (rain drops moderately) ‘Somehow I’m not impressed…’ and with the comeback of the drums came a massive lightning bolt. The whole band came back in, and it began pouring. Really hard. God couldn’t have scripted it better. The rest of the set was completely irrelevant after that.