Part of 2008′s Levi’s OnesToWatch 5 Night Revue, which last year boasted such as-yet unknowns as Foals, The Wombats and Ida Maria, the acts on this particular bill couldn’t really have been much further apart stylistically.
The deal with Micachu is this. Micachu is a young lady who seems to record as Micachu. But Micachu also seems to be a band comprised of Micachu and a keyboardist and a drummer, who go by the name of The Shapes. So on the poster they’re called Micachu, but from the stage lead singer Mica (left – click image to enlarge) refers to them as Micachu and The Shapes. How very confusing it all is.
Anyway, whoever the hell Micachu is/are, it’s a fascinating spectacle to see them onstage. Mica uses a wee guitar, with what appears to be a shoelace as a guitar strap, and sings in that accented east London manner we’ve become used to over the last few years.
Keyboardist Raisa applies synthy flourishes but also joins in on percussion, banging away on a couple of upturned wine bottles. Drummer Marc, meanwhile, controls the bewildering changes of time signature while sprinkling helpings of cowbell and old tin cans over the whole confection.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday September 24th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

A very excited boy named Mike Cutler went to check out grunge legends Mudhoney last week. This is what he thunk:
I returned to the Forum after loving it so much the first time when seeing Sonic Youth there some years ago. It appears nothing has changed here except the band. The sound can be lost a little downstairs at the back as it probably gets blocked by the balcony, but who stands at the back anyway?!
The crowd were more of a mixed bunch than expected. I thought it would just be us old people dusting off our Mudhoney shirts and having our carers rock our heads back and forth in time to the music, but there were a surprising number of young ‘uns who seemed just as in to it as us old folk. For the first time I actually thought this was a good thing and was glad it meant something to them too; maybe they found in the tunes what I did 20-odd years ago.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday August 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

Clare Joslin writes:
Being a big Boosh fan, a lover of all things Garth Marenghi, and an established stalker of old men in eyeliner (hellooo Gary Numan), the new Mighty Boosh Festival at Hop Farm, Kent was pretty much a dream come true for me.
Joined in a field by thousands of equally fanatical fans, I wasn’t surprised to see the show’s characters out in force. Acquaintances I made included Sandstorm (“glove love”), Mr Susan (minus his mirrorballs), a gang of bright pink Tony Harrisons, Betamaxx, and a number of crack foxes, to name but a few. Oh, and of course there were plenty of the obligatory Ol’ Greggs.

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Posted by Clare Joslin on Monday July 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

I’ll start this review by saying straight out that South African rockers The Parlotones are not my cup of tea. At all. They are, however, some people’s cup of tea – and those people appear to be very passionate about them indeed.
I think the majority of fans at this show must have been South African ex-pats cheering on their boys, because the reception the band received couldn’t have been much more rousing had they come on stage and played a set of songs that cured cancer. So why was I left cold?

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday July 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 am

As I walked to the tube station last night I overheard a Radiohead fan bemoaning a couple of tracks that weren’t played on the first of their two nights at London’s Victoria Park. “That’s it, I’m going to be spending the rest of night thinking about what they didn’t play,” he continued.
You’re not that only one, buddy. While Radiohead occupy a unique place as one of the only bands who have become even bigger after becoming more musically obtuse, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume that an outdoor enormo-gig would bring out whatever crowd-pleasing tendencies they may retain from the Glasto-slaying days of the late 90s.
The reality was a set heavy on tracks from Kid A onwards, leaving fans in no doubt that, hey, if you’re a real Radiohead fan that’s what you’re supposed to be listening to these days.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday June 25th, 2008 at 10:54 am

I’d never seen Atmosphere live before and have to confess to not being especially au fait with their back catalogue. I fully intend to investigate it now, though.
The first thing that struck me was how… well, healthy rapper Slug looked. I’d spent a bit of time before the gig checking out the odd video of theirs, and the guy looked prrretty smoked out in the “Guarantees” video. And yet onto the stage he bounded, straight off a coach from Edinburgh, looking a lot fresher than me.
The show was a collaboration between the Atmosphere guys and their labelmate, the “visually striking” (i.e. big, bald, albino) Brother Ali.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday June 20th, 2008 at 11:18 am

Jaz Cummins, online PR powerhouse, went along to check out the up-and-coming The Getaways t’other night. Here she says what she saw, using words.
- How did you rate the venue?
Excellent, love a bit of the Dublin Castle and it was warm enough to be outside when we fancied it too. The gig room at the back’s properly dark and even though they were first on at 8.30, it’s got tonnes of atmosphere.
- What were the crowd like?
Well-behaved! A mixture of regulars and the straight-from-the-office Friday evening crowd. The Getaways were the first act on at 8.30 so we were all on good behaviour.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday June 4th, 2008 at 9:50 am

MGMT are doing rather well, aren’t they? Why, one of their songs somehow prompted me to pen it a love letter earlier this year. God, that was embarrassing – I’m still waiting for a reply.
Anyway, Rob Hinchcliffe, community editor of spiffing user-generated reviews site Qype, went along to see them t’other night. What thunk he? (PS: be my friend on Qype! I need more points so I can get free shit.)
How did you rate the venue?
Well it’s the Astoria! It’s a classic. We got a decent spot just behind the main standing area, the bar wasn’t too crowded and the sound was pretty decent, not much more you could ask for really… apart from ‘please don’t turn it into luxury flats’, of course.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday May 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 am

Susi Weaser, editor of Shiny Shiny, went to check out cheery old moustached lizard Nick Cave the other night. I wonder, was he as good as the number of times his album’s been played in our office would suggest? Let’s find out.
How did you rate the venue?
Um, can I just copy and paste what I wrote when I saw Gogol Bordello? OK, so this is what I think/thought: I quite like the Hammersmith Apollo. I’ve never had a bad night there. It’s sloped towards the stage so it’s easy to get a good view, and it’s not so big you lose any atmosphere.
What were the crowd like?
Less gothic-looking than I expected. I suppose everyone has grown up. It was mostly an older crowd, a side effect of which is that they were also a very tall crowd.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday May 9th, 2008 at 11:19 am

Clare Joslin, My Chemical Toilet‘s resident Hoosiers defender, went to see The Wombats the other night. Here she shares what she thought of the perky Anglo-Norwegian Liverpudlians…
How did you rate the venue?
Great. It’s big enough to fit everyone in and put on big artists, but open enough for everyone to see – unless you choose to stand behind the barriers by the bar. But if you do that’s up to you, isn’t it.

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Posted by Clare Joslin on Wednesday May 7th, 2008 at 10:29 am