Chimpomatic

Patti Smith @ Meltdown 2005

Royal Festival Hall

patti smith totally rocked during her track-by-track 30th anniversary performance of Horses, from the stunning opening line "jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine…" to the blow-out ending. flea on bass and trumpet for some of the songs, tom verlaine sitting on an amp at the side (possibly making up for the shoddy television performance on monday), and lenny kaye showing how it's really done. she was totally commanding, had real presence, dealt with all the hecklers "whatever you say, you're not going to impress me…" and proved that she's really the iconic figure you always read she is.

and it's the first time i've ever seen a standing ovation from the first song onwards… not surprising when it's her stunning version of gloria (wonder what van thinks?), but still pretty impressive.

oh and she had 2 pieces of advice: look after your teeth, and never wear new shoes to an important job. so she ended up dancing barefoot…

john cale's opening set, also w flea on bass, was pretty good too, even if neither dr chimp or i recognised any of the songs (ie no velvets nostalgia this time)

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#chimp71

26th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

Television

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

I got into Television through the copious "thanks" notes in the Minutemen's Ballot Result album, along with Creedence, Wire, X, Richard Hell and more. The chances of ever seeing them live were always pretty slim, so this gig at the Patti Smith curated Meltdown festival was a high priority. Richard Hell was also in the festival and for a brief moment I even thought he might be rejoining Television for the night. As it turns out he was wise to get out when he did, as this was one of the most dissapointing gigs I've ever been to.

Shows kick of pretty punctually at the QEH, and it's all seating - which never helps with the atmosphere of a rock concert. Television came on with no support, but to much adulation from the crowd. They then played for about 90 minutes, mainly focusing on their much lesser know 90's songs from the album Television, plus a few of the best tracks on Marquee Moon. They seemed very unrehearsed and totally at odds with each other on stage. Tom Verlaine's authority as band leader was sadly lacking... plus he couldn't get his guitar tuned properly (a chimp75 pet gripe), trying between almost every song. Guitarist Richard Lloyd held things together for a while with some guitar hero solos, before he also fell to tuning issues and started blowing a few clams. Most songs wandered of in 'interesting' directions before generally grinding to an abrupt halt. Even Marquee Moon itself was pretty lacklustre, and while the crowd were urging the gig to be great it just never took off.

The band cut off stage pretty abruptly, before returning for an encore with Patti Smith - which focused things a bit, with a version of You I Rate. That was followed by a rockin intro to a cover of the Count Five's Psychotic Reaction, before Verlaine seemed to realise he didn't know the rest of the lyrics. That final song just melted away... and it was over.

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25th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

Weezer

Brixton Academy

I’ve been a big Weezer fan since they started, and I’ve waited a long time to see them, so right off the bat you know they’re getting a good rating. Prejudices aside however, it was great to be seeing an actual functioning band five albums down the line – rather than these one-record upstarts (Ambulance), or reunion monsters (Pixies). Rivers Cuomo is truly the Woody Allen of rock – a few shakey moments here and there in the past, but live it’s all highlights.

Tired of Sex is a great opener on the Pinkerton album, and it made a great opener here. A quiet start, revving up to a rocking finale – with sound in Brixton sounding way better than usual.

After that it was crowd surfing and singalongs all the way. Undone and Say it Ain’t So sounding awesome, Buddy Holly kicking in after a disguised intro, Beverly Hills and We Are All On Drugs sounding great of the new album and then all the way through to a feedback finale with Hash Pipe for a as a second encore.

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20th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Magic Numbers

The Magic Numbers

in a world of skinny tie angular rock, it's a weird state of affairs when people singing nice songs with some cute harmonies seems like a "fresh new sound". but that's basically what seems to have happened with the magic numbers. mind you, it's catchy stuff, and you can imagine wanting to listen to this more in years to come than most of the other stuff that's around at the moment. personally i think it sounds a lot like martin stephenson and the daintees, but no-one remembers them, so hey! it is a fresh new sound. going to give it a 4 because it has on the whole lived up to most of the hype, with a proviso to maybe downgrade it in a year or so if we're not actually listening to it anymore...

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#chimp71

16th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

Ambulance Ltd.

The ICA, London

June 13th 2005

Possibly the first hot shit band I've actually seen ahead, or maybe on, the curve. These guys kicked off their set with instrumental chimp favourite "Yoga Means Union" building up to a powerful rockathon. 'Tight' is the adjective of the moment.

After that things moved along with a remarkably sequential set of the first 4 or 5 tracks off their album. Then a few new songs, which were more like the non-favourite tracks off the current album, but these new ones were good - so some re-appraisal is due. Straight A's and a few more to finish, then the fastest encore of all time - finishing with a homage to some Westcoast roots with a cover of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

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14th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Evens

The Evens

I've had this album for a while now - a new project from Fugazi's Ian Mackaye, with Amy Farina on drums and vocals, and Ian on guitar and vocals.

I wasn't really sure what to make of this and after some deliberation I'm staying on the fence. A few tracks are like mellow Fugazi, with pared down drums, guitar and vocals working well. On the other hand, Amy's vocals, particularly when harmoized with Ian Mackaye, have a tendancy to sound a bit like a hipsters urban musical. The lyrics seem to only add to that scenario, and where Guy Piccioto singing them is one thing this is just another and it graaates. You Won't Feel A Thing, however totally rocks, as do several of the others.

Try before you buy.

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14th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

Dinosaur Jr.

The Forum, Kentish Town, London

June 8th 2005

There’s been a lot of reunion style gigs recently… mostly with pre-Nirvana bands getting some praise that they maybe missed out on first time round. The original 3 Dinosaur Jr. albums have recently been given the full re-release-with-bonus-tracks treatment, and this mini tour is a kind of support for that. Lou Barlow and J Mascis fell out shortly after Bug, and it wasn’t until Lou climbed on stage for guest vocals at an Asheton+ Asheton+ Mascis+ Watt Stooges gig that they even really talked, so things have obviously gone far enough that they’re playing together... but not far enough that they’re actually communicating. Not that anyone could hear anything over their legenary thundering volume.

The set was an onslaught of very loud, very heavy, very fast classic Dinosaur tracks, pulled from a democratic balance of early favourites - with the post-Sebadoh Lou getting a few more vocals slots than he maybe would have first time round. He even commented that he hadn’t ever sung a couple of the tracks live, but that didn’t cause any problems. It’s kind of nostalgic for us and them really, knocking out the now-classic album tracks like The Lung, Freak Scene, Just Like Heaven, In A Jar, and getting the huge support that they always deserved.

Extra half star for old times sake.

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14th Jun 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Batman Begins

(dir. Christopher Nolan)

As a lifelong Batman fan it's pretty much a given that you're setting yourself up for disappointment by getting excited about the prospect of a new film actually being any good. when the first michael keaton one finally came out (after being announced, oh, about 10 years before it did) i was kind of into it, but the more i went back to it, the more holes appeared and the more i thought "hang on, this just isn't the so-called dark vision that we'd been promised." basically it ended up being the first point at which i started to get annoyed with tim burton's sub-goth meanderings. anyhow. that's another point. quite liked the second one, thought val kilmer and george clooney totally sucked (obviously)...

so with that in mind, i was still kind of holding out for this one to be good - aranofsky sounded like a promising director, but actually i was happier with the idea of christopher nolan - loved memento, really enjoyed insomnia, and thought he was probably someone who would get it right. wasn't too sure about christian bale, but was happy to reserve judgement as he hasn't made too many real duffers.

in a bat-shell: it's as good as it looks in the trailers.

it sets up the bruce wayne mythology elegantly, without resorting to mindlessly mucking around with the established storyline too much: joe chill kills martha and thomas wayne (rather than the joker), young bruce is brought up by alfred (michael caine, remembering he can act).

his wilderness years are handled nicely - throwing himself into the criminal underworld to try and understand where they're coming from, then winding up training with the ninja-like league of shadows lead by the mysterious ra's al ghul. (ok, they're called the league of assassins in the comics, but never mind.)

don't want to get too much into the plot beyond that, as it unfolds in a really satisfactory way that seems to have avoided coming out in spoilers so far, so here's a brief list of other stuff that worked:

the batmobile. an urban tank that rocks.

the batcave. suitably low-tech - it actually is a cave, complete with lots of bats, water pouring down, mud, etc.

christian bale: seems like the right age to be suitably traumatised into thinking dressing up like a bat to fight crime might actually be a good idea. is a way more convincing bruce wayne than any of the other screen versions. also it feels like he's growing into batman, putting on a lower, more growly voice when he's got the costume on etc.

gary oldman. really looks like the jim aparo/ dick giordano version of jim gordon, and here he's a street cop too, so hopefully they'll work up the relationship between him and batman in the sequels (chimp75's got an inside source who says they're all signed up for 2 more...)

the scarecrow. a much less-obvious villain for batman's debut - not so well known, and also fits in with the overall "fight your fears" theme.

the city. actually looks like a living city, rather than some blue screen exercise/studio set. sort of a cross between new york and hk.

wayne enterprises. nicely handled boardroom b-plot.

the effects. very little overt CGI - none of that spiderman stuff where he looks like a computer game everytime he jumps around the city.

katie holmes. always a bonus.

#Film
#chimp71

4th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

Magnolia Electric Co.

Bush Hall, London

June 2nd 2005

I was late getting to this gig, and heard someone say "he's onstage now" as I arrived, so I rushed in to see that the first song was underway and pushed down to the front. I got into this band via Songs Ohia and hadn't ever seen the main man (Jason Molina), so didn't know what to expect. This dude was young looking and thin, and it quickly transpired that he had zero stage presence. Half the crowd chatted through his set as the accoustic songs ambled into each other... and then it finished. Luckily I quickly realised this was only the support band.

Magnolia Electric Co. were on stage shortly after that, with grizzy beards, hair and lot more electric guitars. They were a powerful unit, effortless and tight, motoring through a selection of songs from the new album and older stuff, and totally captivating. Phew.

The crowd we're totally into the show, which made for a great atmosphere. Plus they covered Werewolves of London as an encore. Love it.

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4th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet