Can You Gig It?: MGMT @ London Astoria, 21.5.08

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.

What were the crowd like?
I am getting old. I know this because now I go to gigs and other people annoy me. The girl in front of me was tiny but she moved around A LOT and her hair had a life of its own. When she wasn’t moving around and putting her hair in my face she was shouting at her mates. It was like going to a gig with the Tazmanian devil form the Warner Brothers cartoons. As for the crowd generally: they went bonkers for the songs everyone goes bonkers to (”Time to Pretend”, “The Youth”, etc) and were a bit more subdued during the widdly-widdly freak-out proggy sections. Which is to be expected, right?
Was the support act any good or did it send you to the bar?
We missed the first lot, but we caught Florence and the Machine. Good stage presence, and some pretty impressive drums, but to be honest I’ve had my fill of big-voiced female vocalists for 2008 so I wasn’t blown away or anything.
Bar - rip-off or value for money?
Normal London gig booze prices really. So yeah, a rip-off. What are these miniature bottles of water they’re selling at venues these days? They cost twice as much as a normal bottle of water but they’re like the Tom Cruise of mineral waters: small and a bit annoying.
Venue staff - nice or nasty?
I had my Gorillapod camera tripod in my bag for some reason, which the security guy immediately assumed was some sort of kinky sex toy… and then him and his security guard mate did a weird homoerotic demonstration of how you’d use it in a threesome. I may have to buy a new tripod now.
Toilets - swilling with piss, or spick and span?
They have a toilet attendant! And he has a Chupa Chups tree. I can’t work out if that’s a good thing or just plain wrong.
Highlight / lowlight of show?
Highlight: “Time to Pretend”, where they finally stopped taking themselves a little too seriously and started to enjoy it.
Lowlight: (apart from my photographic equipment being used as a sex aid) that point where the prog freak-out solo overstayed its welcome by a minute or so.