GIGS

[RedRockRick]

Rod Picott @ Farncombe Music Club 28/10

Rod Picott @ Twickfolk, Twickenham 30/10

Excellent as ever. The Cabbage Patch at Twickenham had a better room and generated a better atmosphere, also two decent sets as opposed to one shortish long one: back home on Friday in time for the later re-run of The Walking Dead. Rod's latest album, Welding Burns, is consistently good, but you can only go right with any of his stuff.

[wackojackohighcliffe]

Hmmm. Clearly a strict curfew at Forest Arts.

[perfectpassion]

Any good gigs anywhere this weekend ? The standard on-line gig guides are very hit and miss.

[MattL80]

Which was really good. Amazing voice, songwriting and instrumentation. Would reccommend it to anyone.

[wackojackohighcliffe]

Even closer than my username would suggest. It's a good one for pretty relaxed bands and it has an amazing line-up of comedians, all doing their warm-up tours. Al Murray's been there, Dara O'Briain and I'm see Chris Addison with a few friends next saturday. Always good value.

[killyourtv]

Agnes Obel wonderful at Hare and Hounds in Brum last night - great tip PP. Piano/cello/harp with occasional guitar produced a beguiling sound, and the odd classic. The "new song" (Fuel to fire ?) was a particular highlight, but I would have paid just to hear the cellist.

Hare & Hounds is a typical room above a pub (very good one), with decent enough sound. Crowd of about 100 was almost reverential - up to EOTR standard. A definite Scandinavian contingent was evident.

Would defintely see her again if I get the chance. Picked up the vinyl of Philharmonics which I'm looking forward to exploring.

[talulah]

Roy Harper/Jonathan Wilson on Saturday night at the Royal Festival Hall. An incredibly emotional evening celebrating Roy's 70th birthday. Roy began by paying tribute to Bert Jansch and David Bedford and set the tone for the evening. Jonathan's acoustic performance was excellent and the acoustics in the Hall certainly suited him. A great mix of music and chat from Roy - laughter and tears along the way. Special guests were Nick Harper (Roy's son), Joanna Newsom (I'm not a great fan but her duet with Roy on 'another day' was absolutely beautiful - check it out on YouTube) and Jimmy Page who was, of course, simply fantastic.

Only got my ticket on Friday at 5.20pm! Glad I kept going back to the Southbank website to check for returns ..

[MrSimonW]

Antlers on Sunday at the Borderline. Tremendous set, mostly drawn from this year's Burst Apart album. They've expanded their sound since their 2010 EOTR appearance, and were pretty epic for much of the evening. Could easily see them headlining the Garden Stage or Big Top next year if they're in the country. So glad I got to go to this as well as it meant I could miss Koko...

[Dibford and Son]

Even closer than my username would suggest. It's a good one for pretty relaxed bands and it has an amazing line-up of comedians, all doing their warm-up tours. Al Murray's been there, Dara O'Briain and I'm see Chris Addison with a few friends next saturday. Always good value.

Edited November 7, 2011 by Dibford and Son

[wackojackohighcliffe]

I will do my best to. Although I think you can get them to start sending you their catalogue.

[perfectpassion]

Killyourtv....am glad to know that you enjoyed it......BUT you could have warned me

First Talulah posts (that name) and then I go to see Agnes Obel and she has a harpist on stage.....thought I had recovered from that Sunday night in sept.....

I have fallen out of love with Union Chapel after last nights ticket queues....those who had real tickets walked straight in, but those of us that had stupid bits of paper from the net had to queue for 20mins, whilst ONE member of staff, checked our names off a list and stamped our hand. Which meant that having got there early we ended up sitting near to the back.

Good job that the sound in there is so bloody amazing. Agnes Obel on piano, a chellist, and a Scottish harp player made the most beautiful sound on earth to a totally silent crowd. It reminded me of the reverence reserved for John Grant. Part classical, part folk, with that haunting scandinavian minimalism. And this was her first headling show in the UK and still only her first lp. Enjoy the vinyl KYTV

[Infinite Jest]

Antlers on Sunday at the Borderline. Tremendous set, mostly drawn from this year's Burst Apart album. They've expanded their sound since their 2010 EOTR appearance, and were pretty epic for much of the evening. Could easily see them headlining the Garden Stage or Big Top next year if they're in the country. So glad I got to go to this as well as it meant I could miss Koko...

[killyourtv]

Killyourtv....am glad to know that you enjoyed it......BUT you could have warned me

First Talulah posts (that name) and then I go to see Agnes Obel and she has a harpist on stage.....thought I had recovered from that Sunday night in sept.....

I

[perfectpassion]

Now feeling really annoyed with myself as I didn't buy the vinyl, I thought £20 was a bit too much, esp considering I blew the budget on thursday. Btw they played Other Lives Tamer Animals between the support and AO )

[killyourtv]

£20 a bit steep, but no cheaper on Amazon (assume import ?), and the nice lady had sold out of CDs. Only £7 to get in !

[RedRockRick]

Richard Buckner @ The Railway, Winchester, Sunday

Awesome show, one of the year's best I thought, and a long overdue return - RB hasn't been over for several years, last time I saw him was at the Borderline in 2003...2004? Hard to believe he'd only met Sacri Cuori, his backing band from Italy, some 24 hours before the show. 2 hours +, flew by.

Eilen Jewell @ The Railway, Winchester, Tuesday

Last date of her UK tour, and okayish, I suppose, without quite escaping the sense that this was a little phoned in. I've seen her enough times before to know she can be much better.

[zahidf]

Quick heads up for the many fans on here...

THE FELICE BROTHERS

Mon, 05 December THE MACBETH £17.25

[shoebox]

Another heads up:

Leisure Society playing a free show for LastFM Presents at Tamesis Dock on the 24th, 8.30pm.

Sadly, I can't make it.

[MrSimonW]

I've got a spare ticket for My Brightest Diamond at St Giles' Church tomorrow... Let me know if you're interested...

[Infinite Jest]

The Low Anthem at The Roundhouse, with William Elliott Whitmore and Simone Felice.

Simone opened solo because he 'happened to be in town'. A smallish crowd, and his set wasn't helped by some bad distortion on his guitar when he played harder. He played If You Ever Get Famous and One More American Song off Nothing Gold Can Stay, (The Felice Brothers') Don't Wake The Scarecrow, and two new songs: The Story of Bobby Ray and The New York Times, off his forthcoming debut solo album, which features his brothers and members of Mumford and Sons. Both sounded similar to his usual stuff, though it was hard to tell as he was playing solo with acoustic guitar, and 'Bobby Ray' apparently has a 40-member children's choir on record.

William Elliott Whitmore got a great response from the crowd and seemed genuinely pleased to be there, though it didn't really grab me.

The Low Anthem were their usual selves, refreshingly without any equipment failures (for the first time in the 4 times I've seen them). They've started playing a few songs off What The Crow Brings (they said they were embarrassed by it, for a while). Daniel Lefkowitz apparently left the band because 'he was soft'. The Smart Flesh songs sounded amazing, except for Boeing 737 which seemed to get lost a bit. Finished with a version of Bird on a Wire with Simone and William joining them on stage, and an audience singalong. Crowd was great, no-one near me was talking during the songs. A very enjoyable night.

Got Civil Civic, She Keeps Bees, Gillian Welch and the Leisure Society to come in the next week, plus my mate's grunge band (hmmm....).

[Squidges]

Anyone going to The End festival tomorrow, put on by The Local in Crouch End? It means trekking to North London but I hope it'll be worth it! Looking forward to Oh Ruin and She Keeps Bees, probably check out The Slow Show too.

Any other recommendations? Line up here: http://thelocal.tv/the-end/

Will be seeing She Keeps Bees again at the Windmill on Monday - one of my highlights of EOTR. Tempted by Felice Bros in December too...

[talulah]

The Low Anthem at The Roundhouse, with William Elliott Whitmore and Simone Felice.

Simone opened solo because he 'happened to be in town'. A smallish crowd, and his set wasn't helped by some bad distortion on his guitar when he played harder. He played If You Ever Get Famous and One More American Song off Nothing Gold Can Stay, (The Felice Brothers') Don't Wake The Scarecrow, and two new songs: The Story of Bobby Ray and The New York Times, off his forthcoming debut solo album, which features his brothers and members of Mumford and Sons. Both sounded similar to his usual stuff, though it was hard to tell as he was playing solo with acoustic guitar, and 'Bobby Ray' apparently has a 40-member children's choir on record.

William Elliott Whitmore got a great response from the crowd and seemed genuinely pleased to be there, though it didn't really grab me.

The Low Anthem were their usual selves, refreshingly without any equipment failures (for the first time in the 4 times I've seen them). They've started playing a few songs off What The Crow Brings (they said they were embarrassed by it, for a while). Daniel Lefkowitz apparently left the band because 'he was soft'. The Smart Flesh songs sounded amazing, except for Boeing 737 which seemed to get lost a bit. Finished with a version of Bird on a Wire with Simone and William joining them on stage, and an audience singalong. Crowd was great, no-one near me was talking during the songs. A very enjoyable night.

Edited November 18, 2011 by talulah

[MrSimonW]

My Brightest Diamond at St Giles Church

Backed for the evening by a seven piece chamber ensemble, this was Shara Worden performing her recent All Things Will Unwind album in (I think) it's entirety. It was a confident, charming performance and the setting was perfect for her voice. Highlights included getting the crowd to provide the harmonies on We Added it All Up, and the duet with Chris James of Stateless on Everything is in Line. The cover of Feeling Good she played solo as her first encore was blistering too, her voice filling the church at the climax.

[RedRockRick]

_{William Elliott Whitmore @ The Windmill, Brixton, Thursday}

_{A sold-out, Jameson-drenched, audience-directed trawl through the Whitmore song catalogue, finishing a little after 11.30. You have to love William: the truth is in there. Book him in again for next year, please.}

[killyourtv]

Lanterns on the Lake @ the Form, Hatfield

Clearly every bit as good as their wonderful LP suggest, but unfortunately hideous sound and a tiny crowd of 25 largely hiding in sofas in a "style bar" made it a diappointing evening, particularly for them.

As an ex-resident, I can confirm that Hertfordshire is safely on bed on a Sunday by the time LOTL take to the stage, although the real problem is that the Forum is tucked away on the student campus, and therefore never going to atract any walk-up trade, particularly as I didn't see any flyers for the gig in the main student bar (plenty for Gary Numan !).

Cheered myself up by buying their early EPs, which are very lovely, and will catch them at a venue that cares.