This week… let’s not even go there. It’s like everything that could go wrong in your worst nightmares has gone wrong, and then some.
I’d rather talk about seeing Antony & the Johnsons at Hammersmith Apollo last night. I went with Sooz (the ticket was her birthday present as she missed seeing Antony at the Barbican last October), but we had to leave Stu at home to try to sort out a serious computer crisis, which sucked a bit. After seeing Antony at Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki in 2007, and then at the Barbican last year, I was a bit worried about how a venue like the Apollo would work. And, as it turned out, I had a reason to be worried.
I have waxed lyrical about the out-of-this-world quality of Antony Hegarty’s voice, and the life-altering effect of experiencing his live performance, plenty of times before. And yes, those things were present yesterday. There’s no other voice I have ever heard that can instantly move me to tears when it flows through me, and in that respect, I wasn’t disappointed.
What I was disappointed, no, disgusted with, was the audience. Well, not everyone obviously. I’d say about 80 per cent of the people were there to actually listen, but the other 20 per cent did do their darnest to try to ruin the whole experience for everyone else. Seriously, if all you care about is running back and forth getting more beer, not giving a shit how much noise you are making or how it might be affecting the artist on stage, why not just go to a pub? Surely that would be a lot cheaper night out as well. I just cannot comprehend it. When something larger than life is happening right before your eyes and ears, and when the artist is clearly dragging out the start of the song waiting for people to quiet down, how can anyone in the same space not notice this and stop breathing, instead of carrying on with banging and running around? It’s such an insult to the artist, and in this case, to everything that is good about the whole friggin humanity. At some point Antony clearly got annoyed and pulled back emotionally. The voice was still there, but it was clear he didn’t want to give anything more to the audience. He did come back for two encores, one of which was the always amazing Cripple and the Starfish. To be honest, if it was me, I wouldn’t have come back. But it was lovely that he did want to do that for the people that were there for him. I think everyone did try to make up for it by the huge standing ovation.
I am glad I went, even if it was a mix of elation and pure anger, and I’m sure I will in the future try to see him live when ever I get the chance. My overwhelming feeling throughout last night was put into words by someone commenting on a youtube video with ‘The world doesn’t deserve him’.
Oh and the picture from the concert is by Marc Broussely, who funnily enough is one of my clients (whom I’ve yet to meet), who’s wedding I’m photographing in August. I had no idea he’d worked the gig until I saw his blog today! Funny coincidence. :D
Here’s a clip of River of Sorrow from the Barbican in October 08.
I’ve managed to avoid the O2 Arenta thus far as I’m not generally a fan of big venues, but I really wanted to see Snow Patrol so had to take the plunge. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The layout was really good, there was a clear view from every seat. And the seats were really comfy (yes, this is an old persons view of venues, get with it. :P), at least compared to the horrid plastic buckets of Wembley Arena.
The atmosphere was nice for such a big venue as well. Obviously it’s not the same experience as being in the same physical space with the artist, but arenas give you another kind of rush, of being part of a huge collective experience.
The gig itself was good. Not mind-blowing or anything, but thoroughly enjoyable.
It’s funny. I dream of this sort of weekends where I have completely cleared my schedule and just do nothing. But every time a weekend like this gets to the Sunday I start feeling really down… like I’ve wasted time, missed opportunities, let life pass me by… Silly really.
I guess it doesn’t help that my ankle injury, instead of getting better with the rest I’ve had, seems to have gotten worse. I dragged myself to the post office yesterday and it was such a painful trip I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back! After that the ache has just gotten more and more constant an persistent, and I can’t seem to put any weight on the foot. The sun outside my window seems to tease me, of course the weather looks perfect out there just when I’m stuck inside…
I’ve been toasting my feet in my lovely new slippers. The warmth helps the pain. And the strokable softness of them makes me smile every time I look at my feet. :)
I’ve also medicated my mood with a naughty breakfast of hot chocolate and de-frosted buns from Christmas…
I did see two good films this weekend. Yesterday I finally watched The Fall, by Tarsem Singh, the director behind one of my all time visual-inspiration films The Cell. The cinematography certainly didn’t disappoint! Having been shot in 20 different countries, everything on the screen was just pure visual gluttony. And pleasingly the storyline wasn’t bad either, certainly a step up from The Cell.
Today I’ve watched Thumbsucker. The script is an adaptation of a book with an unusually honest look at us humans as intrinsically faulty, with a desire to fix ourselves and the people around us. The film boasted an impressive cast, which turned what was essentially a teen coming to age drama, into something relevant to everyone. I can’t fault any of the performances, the casting really was superb. Every word delivered was meaningful, even each and every throwaway side comment. I can thoroughly recommend this film if you want to watch something that should be depressing in revealing our limitations, but actually manages to be uplifting in delivering the message that all of us are somewhat defected. And that’s ok.
I also have to mention that yesterday I got tickets to see Rachael Yamagata in February, and today I’ve been mostly listening to her new album ‘Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart’. And it. Is. Brilliant.
Gosh, what a week! I’ve packed in three different ailments, press week with catastrophic network-failure-lost-files incidents in the tune of your worst-nightmares, stress over S’s company laying off 30% of their staff, and just general anxiety over not having enough time to get organised. Yes, it’s safe to say this has been the worst week this year, no contest.
Santogold is getting me through it. I hope she gets me through this latest development that is yet another nasty cold too.
Here are finally some videos from Monday’s Heather Nova gig. It was quite a tricky spot to film from, hence all the shakiness, my arm was cramping quite badly. And damn that railing! :D She was awesome though, and her voice is just… otherworldly. She sang a couple of songs from her new album, including Beautiful Storm below. You can buy and download the album directly from her website. I recommend! It’s fast becoming one of my favourites out her 8 albums.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfhYx4yHWv0] ~Heart and Shoulder~
I finally finished laying out Nikki’s wedding book today. It ended up being 84 pages, and looks pretty good to me. Am very pleased with it. I think the fact that I’m a designer in my day job helps me automatically think about the layout when I’m taking the shots, which makes laying out quite easy (if still laborious). I’m thinking maybe photo shoots delivered as a book could be my little ‘niche’, if I was to start taking photography a bit more seriously… Hmm.
As a side note, one thing I’ve been meaning to mention is this wonderful website called The Selby, which showcases real homes of interesting people. It’s really inspirational, not to mention addictive, snooping around in people’s homes!
But yeah, I’ve been quite busy today so far. I’ve done the dishes, hoovered, put summer shoes and clothes into storage… Oh yeah and sent Stu to Rayleigh to do some washing as our washing machine is broken. :( Sooz is on her way over and I think we’re gonna head out to try to make the most of the super nice weather (strange to pack summer stuff away when it’s bright sunshine and +20C, but I know it won’t last!).
Today’s productivity made up for yesterday when I didn’t get anything done, thanks to Marjut. She pointed me towards Fabchannel, which is where you can watch full concerts from many (of my favourite) artists. I even had to send Stu out to get a cable so I could hook my laptop to the telly and watch them full screen. :D What a great resource!
I got these honours from Eveluna and Emmie, respectively. Thanks very much girls! I think both of these have pretty much done the rounds in most (Finnish) blogs that I read, so I won’t pass them on for now. I’m a little bit busy at the moment, getting ready for our first wedding anniversary present to eachother, an R.E.M. concert. I’m not sure whether to take my camera as these are the first tickets I’ve seen where it says that they categorically refuse entry from people carrying cameras. :| Not sure whether to be a wuss or not…
Oh and I spent most of the morning putting together this little one-day road trip video from Cornwall. If you’re not a fan of driving, you might want to pass. :P
Phew. While it’s nice to be able to fit more videos onto the card, it sure means a lot more work to get them all converted and uploaded! Anyways, here you go, Rufus Wainwright at Kenwood House. :)
Phew! There are a lot of them! And these are not even all of the ones I filmed… :D The 8gb card is sure making a huge difference, I still had space left for over 40 minutes at the end of the gig.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf7thjq3G38] ~Head Over Feet~
Went for a trip down memory lane with Miikka. Was quite nostalgic to drive around the places of my youth.
The video is probably pretty boring to anyone else but me. Don’t care. :P
Then we went to visit Annis and her growing bump. It’s so strange how much has happened already while we’ve been away! Got treated to a lovely meal, as is always the case with Annis.
Last Wednesday Sooz and I went to see Sia at Koko in Camden. I was still feeling pretty rough with my flu so wasn’t sure how well I’d deal with standing up for the whole night, but I was willing to do my best for the chance to see her perform live! Koko was cool, had that sort of decadent burlesque feel about it. Would have been interesting to have seen it when it was still operating as a night club.
It was a bit of a shock when we realised that Har Mar Superstar was the warm up act. For a minute there I wasn’t sure if we were at the right gig. :D It was quite a disturbing experience to see him strip on stage to say the least…
It took what seemed like forever until Sia herself got on stage. I think it was about 9.30pm. That’s quite late on a ‘school night’! For an old person! I was feeling rather knackered already by the time she got on, which wasn’t helped by some American bloke chucking their pint all over my jeans. He was very apologetic though and kept bringing me more and more tissues and saying “I’m so sorry about your pants“, which was quite amusing at the time in my tired state.
Sia was worth all the effort though, her voice was just incredible. Unfortunately I started feeling worse and worse and in the end just had to leave before she finished. I’m still so annoyed about that. If only she would have started at least half an hour earlier! I got two songs on video, although the sound quality isn’t all that.
My computer has been a bit temperamental and a disappearing disk has been causing a lot of trouble. But still, here are finally the clips from the David Gray gig as promised. Can’t believe it’s Monday tomorrow already…
I’ve been catching up with my Sky+ recordings today and I must admit I was really surprised how much I loved David Cook’s Billy Jean on American Idol. He hasn’t really been my cup of tea until now…
For balance, here’s Chris Cornell’s version. It seems like there’s a big hoopla about which of these is ‘better’. How futile. Music is to be enjoyed, not debated.
As Sooz (allegedly) licked the seat on the train and got ill at the most inopportune time I talked Rachel into coming with me to see Reverend and the Makers at the Roundhouse yesterday. It was a fun night. Even though I must admit that this was one gig where I felt a teensy weensy bit old. :P What a cool and different venue though, I’d never been there before.
Here’s a video clip as well for those who want to get a more ‘authentic’ experience. Luckily there’s no actual moshing or beer throwing included in this broadcast.
Other than that, there’s not really anything new or exciting to report. I’ve been going to numerous interviews, up to the point that I’m getting very fed up of saying the same things over and over again, but I just haven’t found the one yet. A couple of times I’ve felt like I’ve been close, but there’s always something. There is one interview which I’m dying to hear back from at the moment. It’s not really at all what I thought I wanted (I’ve really had to think hard about that, turns out that what I thought I wanted out of my career isn’t really what I want at all…) but I can’t help but feel excited when I think about the prospect. Having said that, it’s anything but in the bag. They interviewed 6 other people, so just thinking about the odds makes me feel sick to my stomach. So I prefer not to think about it or get my hopes up. Just concentrating on the next interviews ahead of me. Life really does seem like one long wait at the moment.
What a hellish travelling day it was yesterday. Ugh. I’ll be so very happy when I’m finally done with all the monthly travelling. Only one trip to go now…
Here are some of the ‘videos’ I shot at the Damien Rice gig. Not the greatest quality, but I think the sound came out alright considering the size of Wembley Arena and where we were sitting. I haven’t been writing reviews of gigs lately, mostly because I have so much other stuff on my mind that I can’t really concentrate enough to write anything cohesive. But what I will say about this particular gig is that I was amazed how well all the songs were arranged to work at such a big venue. I was worried beforehand about how his music would work in a space like that, but the band absolutely kicked ass and I loved all the punchier versions of the songs. Especially Woman Like a Man blew my socks off. Awesome gig.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A8vMbtZdiE] ~Then Go~ This is more of an audio recording. I had the screen covered so it wouldn’t distract anyone else, but I was so enthralled myself that didn’t remember to check where the camera was pointing at. So, just enjoy the music.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkG6e6NzMzc] ~Coconut Skins~ Annoyingly ran out of memory card space before the end…
I finally managed to get my videos from the Jacob Golden gig off the memory cards and onto the interweb. I ran out of space on a card in the middle of Hold Your Hair Back (my favourite Jacob song), which was very annoying indeed, but I still managed to get quite a few full songs. So, here you are.
This week… let’s not even go there. It’s like everything that could go wrong in your worst nightmares has gone wrong, and then some.
