Serj Tankian and the FCC at the London Forum!! - 03/09/08 - supported by In Me
I went to this with Jonathan, rince, Matt from work, and Becky/elmo was also there randomly! I didn't think I would get to the front but luckily there was still a spot right on the side that was free. I've learnt from Radiohead that I'd probably see better there than anywhere else standing, so I took it!
The support act, In Me, were quite good. I wasn't really sure what to make of them for the most part actually, but their set was pretty good for the most part. The singer's screaming to singing ratio was possibly a little too high for me think. Also, it's an astoundingly poor choice of band name!
Serj himself was magnificent, I wouldn't have expected anything less. I also came to really appreciate the FCC and especially the bass and lead guitarist who were just in front of us. All of the FCC (and Serj, in fact) were visibly really enjoying themselves and that's always so nice to see!
At the end of PTLAPTA he started to introduce the FCC members one by one. When he got to the drummer he (accidentally?) knocked one of the clear panels over (the panels surrounded the drumkit much like Elbow's recent stage sets) which took one of the drum microphones with it, roadie rushed out to fix it, at which point Serj decided to pull BOTH of the panels down anyway so he could introduce the drummer properly hehe.
After he'd itroduced all the band members, he said "Let's sing that little cunt song. ...No not that one, we'll sing the Cunt later." which was amusing. "That little cunt song" turned out to be Honking Antelope, woohoo! The song was great, and as he was finished the last keyboard notes of the song he had a random outburst of violence and started beating the keyboard up, mashing the keys with his hands then elbowing the keys repeatedly, eventually sitting on the keyboard and then pushing the whole thing over before quickly disappearing off stage. The roadies rushed out to fix it again, but it was only about 10 seconds before Serj appeared again, making a quick stop to rub his arse on the keyboard again (at least it looked like that!) before laying out fully relaxed on the couch while all the roadies were fixing the mess that he made. The whole thing was hilarious! On the couch though, his band started playing something and he was singing some falsetto along with it, interspersed with random outbursts of swearing ending abruptly with the word "cunt" which quickly followed into Beethoven Cunt, hehehe.
There was technically no encore... as Serj only went off-stage for that very very short amount of time, the FCC didn't even leave the stage!
It was such a fantastic performance and I almost felt ashamed that I'd forgotten how good he is. Will definitely keep an eye out for his next London gig, and his second album is due out some time next year.
(All the video links below are for the Reading versions where he played a couple of weeks before, but the performances are basically the same.)
- Elect The Dead
- Empty Walls (with almost reggae style intro cover of the first verse/chorus) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmnJUdXq0GM)
- Feed Us
- The Unthinking Majority (so amusing seeing a big pit full of people dancing like crazy and singing along to the words "Anti-depressants, controlling tools of your system, making life more tolerable.")
- Lie Lie Lie (they brought an opera singer on stage for the screams)
- Saving Us (Serj guitar)
- Baby (Serj guitar) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPmO2q_cJck)
- song I didn't recognise
- Money/Money Money Money (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_na61TW6U)
- Charades (from Axis Of Justice: Concert Series Volume 1)
- Sky Is Over
- Girl ("Is anyone here a fan of the Beatles? We're gonna fuck one of their songs up for you.")
- funky song I didn't recognise
- Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGUp5JLyFEw)
- Honking Antelope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWWkq8BHVc8)
- reprieve
- Beethoven's Cunt
The support act, In Me, were quite good. I wasn't really sure what to make of them for the most part actually, but their set was pretty good for the most part. The singer's screaming to singing ratio was possibly a little too high for me think. Also, it's an astoundingly poor choice of band name!
Serj himself was magnificent, I wouldn't have expected anything less. I also came to really appreciate the FCC and especially the bass and lead guitarist who were just in front of us. All of the FCC (and Serj, in fact) were visibly really enjoying themselves and that's always so nice to see!
At the end of PTLAPTA he started to introduce the FCC members one by one. When he got to the drummer he (accidentally?) knocked one of the clear panels over (the panels surrounded the drumkit much like Elbow's recent stage sets) which took one of the drum microphones with it, roadie rushed out to fix it, at which point Serj decided to pull BOTH of the panels down anyway so he could introduce the drummer properly hehe.
After he'd itroduced all the band members, he said "Let's sing that little cunt song. ...No not that one, we'll sing the Cunt later." which was amusing. "That little cunt song" turned out to be Honking Antelope, woohoo! The song was great, and as he was finished the last keyboard notes of the song he had a random outburst of violence and started beating the keyboard up, mashing the keys with his hands then elbowing the keys repeatedly, eventually sitting on the keyboard and then pushing the whole thing over before quickly disappearing off stage. The roadies rushed out to fix it again, but it was only about 10 seconds before Serj appeared again, making a quick stop to rub his arse on the keyboard again (at least it looked like that!) before laying out fully relaxed on the couch while all the roadies were fixing the mess that he made. The whole thing was hilarious! On the couch though, his band started playing something and he was singing some falsetto along with it, interspersed with random outbursts of swearing ending abruptly with the word "cunt" which quickly followed into Beethoven Cunt, hehehe.
There was technically no encore... as Serj only went off-stage for that very very short amount of time, the FCC didn't even leave the stage!
It was such a fantastic performance and I almost felt ashamed that I'd forgotten how good he is. Will definitely keep an eye out for his next London gig, and his second album is due out some time next year.
(All the video links below are for the Reading versions where he played a couple of weeks before, but the performances are basically the same.)
- Elect The Dead
- Empty Walls (with almost reggae style intro cover of the first verse/chorus) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmnJUdXq0GM)
- Feed Us
- The Unthinking Majority (so amusing seeing a big pit full of people dancing like crazy and singing along to the words "Anti-depressants, controlling tools of your system, making life more tolerable.")
- Lie Lie Lie (they brought an opera singer on stage for the screams)
- Saving Us (Serj guitar)
- Baby (Serj guitar) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPmO2q_cJck)
- song I didn't recognise
- Money/Money Money Money (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_na61TW6U)
- Charades (from Axis Of Justice: Concert Series Volume 1)
- Sky Is Over
- Girl ("Is anyone here a fan of the Beatles? We're gonna fuck one of their songs up for you.")
- funky song I didn't recognise
- Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGUp5JLyFEw)
- Honking Antelope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWWkq8BHVc8)
- reprieve
- Beethoven's Cunt