anika in london

I’ll Be Your Mirror at Alexandra Palace

[Beach House last November]

I walked up a really big hill to get to Ally Pally. I had not previously been.

First on, for two hours, was Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They’re technically magical and epic but the room was a little dark for me to be fully into it at midday. I mean, it was so sunny outside…

Liars were on before Beach House and they were fantastic. Full of energy. It was great.

But, who am I kidding, I was there to see BEACH HOUSE. I really love Beach House. This was the ninth time I’d seen them play. Every song was an absolute delight to hear again live. They played a couple of new ones too.

I’ve written about them a thousand times and I have nothing new to say. They’re just the greatest. There’s no band like them.

Review: Jonathan Wilson (and Jackson Brown) at the Borderline

Above: Jackson Browne, Jonathan Wilson and Dawes performing These Days.

Last Wednesday I cycled across London at the jolly safe hour known as Rush Hour. I did not die, which was fortunate. I did, however, nearly hit several pedestrians. Why do people think it’s okay to walk in the road at rush hour? It’s NOT.

Anyhoo, I met up with my old pal Caitlin Rose, on a day off from her constant touring. I hadn’t seen her for a while and it was very lovely to sit and eat dinner and talk about how great Tango In The Night is.

She was there for Dawes, openers to the show and Jonathan Wilson’s backing band. Jonathan is an artist on Bella Union and has made a beautiful album called ‘Gentle Spirit’. We’ve listened to it so many times in the office, so it was a treat to hear him do the jams live. Jonathan, and Dawes, are all incredible musicians with a lot of talent.

He’s friends with Jackson Browne (no big deal) who came on this trip with him. They performed some Jackson songs including the huge pophit These Days.

The atmosphere was incredible.

Very good show.

Peggy Sue at Dalston Roof Park

I love the Peggys. They’re brilliant. I tell it to them all the time, but it’s 100% true – they’re my favourite band in the UK right now. Their new material marks a bit of a change for them; it’s bolder, more mature, darker, intricate and very interesting. I liked their first record a lot too but this one is definitely a progression.

Olly is an amazing drummer. Rosa and Katy really sing. Like, properly. And they sound amazing. The way they use their vocals and guitar together is wonderful.

The new album is one of my favourite records this year. They’re an excellent live band.

Here is when I drew a feline in MS Paint and beamed it on them:

The low point of this gig was that Katy made a really wack playlist full of songs which are definitely NOT pophits, which resulted in me liking her 8% less than I did previously.

You can’t win ‘em all.

Two Gallants w/ Peggy Sue at Hoxton Bar & Grill

As a teenager I was so massively into anything Saddle Creek/Team Love put out. I loved Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, Cursive, Neva Dinova, Azure Ray, Two Gallants, Tilly and the Wall and everything they were releasing. In all honesty I haven’t listened to What The Toll tells for well over a year, but that was always my favourite. I loved The Throes and I liked the self titled album they released in 2007; but all the pophits are on Toll Tells. It’s a brilliant record.

I saw the band play live in summer of 2008. I got the train up, by myself, from Ashford and watched them play in a pub in New Cross. I think I made friends with a stranger from Norway who came all the way to London to see them play. It was a great show.

But all went quiet in camp 2Gs. Adam did a solo album. Tyson drummed in Port O’Brien. No shows…

UNTIL NOW!

They played in Hoxton last Monday. Half a dozen corking great new tunes mixed in with pophits like Las Cruces Jail, Nothin’ To You, Steady Rollin’, and, in the encore, my old favourite Long Summer’s Day. The performance was passionate and bold. Tyson is a fantastic drummer. It was sort of nostalgic for me…

Peggy Sue opened. They’re brilliant.

Interested to see what 2Gs to next. The new songs were great and I’ll be looking forward to hearing their next LP. If you’ve not heard their old records, I’d recommend them.

Rain Dogs Revisited at the Barbican

A bunch of musicians were invited to perform songs from Tom Waits’ classic Rain Dogs album. In all honesty, parts of the show were way more of a miss than hit, but  other parts were fantastic. Camille O Sullivan, who I had not previously heard, did a stellar job of opening up the show. St Vincent was phenomenal, as ever. She really is amazing. One of my favourite performers.

Here are a few pictures:

Nice evening.

Congotronics Vs Rockers at the Barbican

Wowzers. I have never seen the Barbican lose it like that! The whole place was grooving to the glorious mishmash of sounds. With up to nineteen members on stage, this show was spectacular. The Kasai All Stars, Konono No 1, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Deerhoof, Matt from Skeletons and Juana Molina teamed up to play a unique and incredible show of original jams as well as their own songs.

Deerhoof (+ everyone) performed Super Duper Rescueheads, which when fleshed out with so many musicians, was completely breathtaking. Here they are doing it at a different show:

It was a treat to see Wildbirds & Peacedrums again, their performance of Doubt/Hope was wonderful. Mariam is an incredible performer. Her voice, the way she moves and gestures to the music and her passion is captivating. Also – Greg Saunier of Deerhoof and Andreas of Wildbirds drumming together – what a joy! Two brilliant drummers.

The Congolese musicianship and performance skill was jawdroppingly incredible. The rhythms! Oh! Hark at that. And there was a woman in a grass skirt who dropped some pretty amazing dance moves. She ruled.

Amazing, amazing show.

Yesterday I went to see Austra at Cargo. It was exactly the same as the five previous times I have seen Austra but with better sound and also lasers. I recognise many benefits of having lasers at any show. Primarily, if you dislike those attending your show you could use lasers to cut them.

Review: Sea of Bees + Legend

On Monday, as I was about to leave work I heard my name being called. I turned around to see my friend Jules on the steps of our office. She paid me a surprise visit and we left and went and drank strawberry tang and reflected on the past few months. I hadn’t seen her since March.

I only met Jules in September of last year, but I feel like I know her fairly well. She’s an incredible person; rare, honest, genuine and passionate. I was super happy to have her back here, and pumped for the show the next day.

I saw Amber too, who plays with Jules. I hadn’t seen her since Texas. As soon as I was with Jules and Amber again it brought me back to February when we did three shows in a week together. It was super fun and a great week.

We bought the rider together, which was mostly hummus and carrots. I told Jules to put as much hummus on a carrot as she could and eat it in one mouthful. This happened:

1.

*

2.

They played a lovely set. Jules is totally into Beyonce’s pophit ‘Single Ladies’ right now – so we got a lot of that. I think they should go in the studio and record the whole thing. It’s pretty… special. I love hearing Jules’ songs live; there are few people who can can captivate me with just an acoustic guitar and voice the way she does. It’s incredible.

Then we screened Legend. It was baffling, to say the least. Every time I looked at the screen there was a unicorn or some red creepy devil dude dominating the screen.

*Jules always complains about the pen stamps I put on her hands, but she definitely loves it really.

Last weekend Bella Union had a stage at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park.

Playing our stage was: Vetiver, Alessi’s Ark, Zun Zun Egui and Veronica Falls. I’d seen all the Bella bands a bunch of times before previously but they were all excellent again. The bandstand stage we’re on is a safe haven from the thousands of Hard Rock fans milling about the main stage. I don’t do particularly well in crowds thousands strong.

In light of this, I spent a fair amount of time hiding in Artists’ Catering eating banoffee pies. I had 3 banoffee pies and two main meals. It was EXCELLENT!

I watched a minute of Adam Ant on the mainstage… his vibe was nautical. He looks like a sailor who has been through a helluva trippy storm.

The coolest thing was Stevie Nicks played a set. She’s 63 and she still rocks. She played some of her own songs, which I didn’t know, but she also played Dreams, Gold Dust Woman, Rhiannon, Landslide and Edge of Seventeen. She’s still wearing flowy shawls and doing the same dance moves. I love those songs, and I love Fleetwood Mac, so it was a real lovely treat to get to see her in real life and not on youtube.

But, alas, here we are again on the internet so I’ll round off with this:

A truly seminal figure in music, in every way.