Whoa, falling behind a bit with the noos - got some catching up to do. Well first of all, seeing as though you two are the only ones that read this piece-of-poo blog, I'd like to congratulate you both, and especially Lou for throwing a most excellent curveball! Mwaha!
Mkay, sheesh.... news.... last Tuesday went to see The Von Bondies (check them out at erm... somewhere on Myspace). Pretty cool rocking White Stripes-y type band, but four guitarists and a drummer. The opening bands were also pretty cool, especially an incredibly super-crazy-weird bunch from Ireland (where elses heh?!) called Fight Like Apes (cool name). They all came on wearing white karate-kid style head bands... the drummer was punk-like with a mohawk, the bassist was hecticly tall and thin as a beanpole with a huge affro - looked like a human mushroom, the lead singer - a woman with long black hair and a real cool voice - she reminded me of Chris's Sam, headbanged and screeched (that's screech in a really cool way tho!) her way through the set in a most impressive way (I quote some lyrics: "you're like kentucky fried chicken without the taste" and "he smells like ham and tastes like bile" hehe!) and also played keyboard, and then another dude who reminded me of Silent Bob (looked just like him) also on keyboard and backing vocal prancing around the stage in the most screwed up entertaining manner wearing a pair of glasses (I want them!) with red flashing lights all over! Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/fightlikeapesmusic . Very cool. Very different and entertaining.
Then the Von Bondies came on. I recognised many of the songs cos luckily the mate from work who gave me the tickets had leant me his cd's which I crammed into my head in the days preceeding. A very cool gig, but nothing hugely different from.... well anything. What was very cool though, was their finale.... all the members of the opening bands came onto the stage and danced around and joined in causing a massive ruckus, then they started inviting the audience up too and pulling people over the banister! The security guys were caught SO unaware and the stage was trashed by the end of the song! hehe.... the punk drummer dude from Fight Like Apes even somehow climbed to the top of the speaker stack - about 4 or 5 meters up - and was bashing away at a drum he had stolen from somewhere! You couldn't argue with that kinda ending - no audience would be calling for more after that - everyone was like "Yep, that'll do just fine!" and left content!
Friday was Karma at Halfmoon in Putney with Ross and Emily. Very cool gig, as always it brings back great memories of when I was living back home, but now brace yourself cos here come a bit of a rant (yay!) ....
There is an ethos that sits with the South African music audience where they believe it's okay to talk (shout) during a gig, as though the performance is nothing but a convenient background music to their evening. Ironically, this applies even if they have paid to see the artist. There is a feeling that the artist has come to play FOR them, and if they don't recognise or like the song, they have a right to completely ignore them and carry on with conversation with their nearest mate. Listening to an artist should be equated to having a direct conversation with them. A lot of the idiots there that evening were there simply to hear three of Karma's songs and they didn't give a flying shit or appreciation for anything else. Shame on them. I was ashamed to be standing with them. Not that the cause of it matters, but I do believe it stems from the culture of our radio stations back home not supporting local bands and teaching people to appreciate the privilege of being able to see live acts. Either way, the behaviour of Friday's audience was unacceptable, and should, I strongly believe, be punished. The solution is pretty simple (but not necessarily easy), I think, and hopefully if I do see Karma this Friday I will have a chance to share my humble opinion.
Okay, I'm done ranting. You still here? Alive and breathing? Good. Sorry, it won't happen again.... today. I got there damn early and Ross and Em got their late, so for about two hours (don't really know how long it was - time flies when you're having fun!) I had nothing to do but sample the offerings behind the bar. So by the end of the evening I was unintentionally well toasted! Didn't get to chat with Karma, but in retrospect it was surely a good thing cos I would've been slurring like a drunken bum!
Saturday, I woke up with one almighty hangover - it's beer I tell you (as opposed to whisky, I mean). Gotta stay clear of that crap! I got up really slowly, showered, had a coffee and breakfast, all really slowly, and still had a headache like Mike Tyson had bitten my ear off or something, so I said "bugger this, this is no fun" and went back to bed. Woke up at about 14h00 feeling a helluva lot better and ready to face the world! Later my housemate said I looked like a serious lump of shit (not exact words!) that morning - I don't even remember seeing her! :-S
I thought Sunday was gonna be a take-it-easy day.... why, oh why did I think that in the first place.... have I not learned ANYTHING about Murphy's and his bladdy law??? Started with a quick visit up to Wimbledon village to do nothing, and then a run back because I felt like it. Then a spontaneous braai with a housemate which turned out to be one of epic proportions - marinaded pork ribs, 8 chicken thighs, a roll of wors, roast potato, onion and other veggies oh ya, and salad and bread rolls.... ate myself into oblivion, and as I finish, Ross SMS'ed saying "How about some wine?". Well, who am I to say no?!
So off we go to our cool country pub up on Putney Heath and, sitting on a nice big leather couch and talking mostly business, proceed to clobber 3 bottles of red wine - on a frikkin school night!!! Am I out of my mind? ...uh, well, yes, I guess so. Ross was fine - he's got twice as much body to absorb the bladdy alcohol - but I was on my ear!! Felt like poo at work today, klapping the coffies like no one's business.....
And that be my news. Hoping to get some studying and maybe another of those damn tests out the way this week if work doesn't get hectic. Holiday pretty much starts next week! Can't wait!
H out.
Two tickets to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Hammersmith Apollo!!!
I have now added an events calendar down there somewhere on the right, so y'all can see what's schedulled for the coming days, weeks and months!
Rebel Yell were frikkin cool last night, as predicted! I was quite surprised - the venue had five bands (or was I just drunk and counted wrong??) booked for the evening - five?! That's like.... a mini festival, man, what were they thinking? Anyway, the other bands were.... well, some were okay, but others I'd rather poke my own eyballs out with a toothpick than sit through an entire set. Luckily the bar is in a seperate room next door, so I went and got a beer instead. Rebel Yell blew them all away. Right clear out of the King's Cross area at least! Now let me just get one thing straight - I don't know these guys, I have no reason to be bias towards them, I don't even know someone who knows them. But I believe I DO know entertainment (have bands forgotten that this is one of the things they are obligated to do if they want to stand up on a stage and be watched by an audience???) and cracking rock n roll when I see and hear it!! Visit their page and give their music a listen, but that's only the half of it - the live performance could teach a LOT of older bands out there a few things. I gota ton of photos... downloaded them this morning but haven't had a chance to go though them yet. Von Bondies @ Scala tonight - should be grand!
H out!
Dammit-bladdy-all-to-hell! Too damn busy yet again!
Grrr.
Ok where was I? Oh poo... I don't even know....
Last Sunday, yeh, cool. Woke up feeling rather broken, but otherwise in one piece. Barely out of bed and I get a call from Ken saying "Bring your board, get your car and pick me up and let's go somewhere!". Now let me say that it has just occurred to me that Ken is one person (possibly the only?) I really do have a problem saying "No" too.... I'm not yet sure why, and I'm in no rush to find out why either, cos it always works out awesome when he suggests something! So I said "Sure." and dragged me and my headache out of bed and through the shower, grabbed my board and keys, picked Ken and Genevie's two sausage mutts up and we hit the A3 (going SW outta the "Giant Toilet") with a vengence!! With no eye deer where we were going, we decided to just stick to the A3 and if we hadn't found anything interesting, we'd just stop after driving for an hour.... so that got us to the South Downs (here!), which are basically a range of hills (picture a 70 mile long range of big Beacon Hills). Lotsa countryside and ridable trails.... pretty cool. Ken stacked brilliantly within the first 3 minutes, slipped in some mud and face planted - mud all down his side! I laughed my ass off! We just trekked (ran a lotta the time) up onto the hills and checked out the views and jumped onto, over and through stuff the whole day. Also did a lot of watching the mutts sniff other mutts' asses and picking serious fights with kids. Ken just laughs, while I'm thinking "Shit! Incomming lawsuit!".... hehe (yea - that's a nervous laugh)... moving along.... so we cruise along this ridge and kinda hit a dead end.... the only legal way is back the way we came. Screw that, we climbed a farm fence and hooked it across a farm field and over another fence and straight into an indigenous forest and bundu-bashed it directly down the side of the hill .... about a 45 degree chalky slope, dodging and jumping trees and branches.... I swear if any one of us had tripped and started rolling down there it woulda been tickets... "see ya at the bottom mate!". At one point I dislodged a rock and it cruised down towards Ken - probably woulda snapped his ankle in half if it connected! Came out at the bottom into a field of sheep - they were checking us out with serious "WTF???" faces switched on! Jumped a few more fence and we were exactly back where we started! Pics on Facebook as usual, and two have made it onto my photoblog, to come in a few week's time.
A very cool day out - we really must do it more often. Less sport watching and more sport doing. Less drinking and more driving. When Chris and Sam get over here I'm gonna try indoctrinate them into that way of thinking, cos it's just too easy to stay inside and veg....
Been silly-busy this week because Eric my usual partner in crime here at DFT is on leave. And I'm definitely working Saturday and probly Sunday too - Yay!!
H out for the count!
Phew... what a weekend!
Managed to finish my weekend work early on Friday.... so early that it turned out to not be weekend work! Schmashing!
So off we went to cerebralate Anthony's birthday by drinking a small distillery's worth of whiskey and smashing a golf ball at a screen - no walking while carrying a heavy bag of clubs, searching for balls in bushes (is it me or does that not sound kosher?) and a waitress at your beck n call - could it be better?!?! Nope, don't think so! Go find the pics on Facebook, mkay. Can't remember what time we finished, but we were all pretty well trashed! Very cool way to spend an evening in wintertime....
Saturday morning I don't remember....
Saturday afternoon, got a call from Ken and Dale to meet them and Genevie and Anthony at Putney heath.... the damn bus going in that direction is more scarce than hen's wisdom teeth, so i ended up walking all the way there.... nice to get out an freeze now and again. Then we hit the Telegraph - super-cool country-type pub on the edge of the heath - reminds me of a midlands country pub. Good ales and wine, good food, and they put the rugby on TV instead of the football - we've never seen an Innit there. Very cool. Couple of beers, then we made our way towards the O2 arena for the Pumpkins....
Sheesh - I was quite a surprise when we walked into the stadium and realised how far we were from the stage, but it wasn't too bad.... just a first impression cos the stage looks so small in relation to the whole place. The sound was well impressive - not echoey and when Billy talked you could hear everything perfectly - very cool. For me the highlight was the set list - a lot of my favorites - songs from Disarm, Pisces Iscarriot, Mellon collie, Adore, Machina I and II, and Zeitgeist! I started typing out all the songs I could remember, but then I got a brain and downloaded the setlist:
Smashing. No pun intended. Except that they didn't play Cherub Rock, only Lips of Sugar which is a Echo & the Bunnymen cover .... kinda disappointing encore :( but overall frikkin satisfying!
Loadsa boring pics on Facebook.
After that, due to a cruel stoke of ...uh... fate (Rock-paper-scissors. If he won we went, if I won we went - it's funny how these things work out hey?!) ... Ross and I found ourselves diverted to Crobar on the way home - it's becomming a serious after-gig tradition now.... no complaints!! And we proceeded with numerous quality checks on their bourbons and cokes.... It was busy as hell - damn cool, as always. Got home just after 3:30am. Leaped like a slog.I'll continue the saga of Sunday later when I have time. Right now it's my bed time.
"Love thy neighbour." - Billy C
H out.
