3 Recent gigs in two weeks. This gets lengthy for the first review...
The Knife and Sorklubben.
So it turns out Sorklubben is a sort of arts-collective put together for this series of "shows" by The Knife. There are two schools of thought about the shows;
1. They were arty bollocks that preyed on the desperation of fans of The Knife to see them perform.
2. They were arty bollocks that cleverly used the desperation of fans of The Knife to see them perform.
I'm torn between the two, although I lean slightly to the latter, why?
So basically The Knife and this collective totalling 9-10 people come on stage in a cloud of smoke, hooded gowns all mysterious, AMAZING we all think as they very slowly slide into the first 'song'. At the next song we realise that the person "singing" has changed, yet it's still Karin's very altered voice and the penny drops. None of this is live. ALL pre-recorded, nobody has a clue who the hell Karin and Olof are out of the 9/10 people on stage but some superfans next to me kept making guesses..
4th song in and the pretense is completely evaporated, they shun the cloaks and appear in metallic jumpsuits, sequined vest tops sweatbands and Nike trainers.. The next 6 songs aren't even an attempt to mime, it's all choreographed dance routines, some of it entertaining but completely baffling.
By the end the audience was split, some people left with faces of thunder, whilst others stayed and carried on dancing in the disco that was the Roundhouse.
The concept behind the show, spreading the idolisation of The Knife between a collective of people. At the end I still had no idea who The Knife were, but I was dancing my ass off with this random woman i'd met about 2 hours earlier.
Examples:
Got 2 Let U - Yeh... Rhythmic Gymnastics, not really what you expect at a gig. One of the "woo's" at the end is me, 2nd row oh yehhhh.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEFRoiwdh4M[/youtube]
Silent Shout - They finished on a fantastic song from their last album, lasers, smoke, dancing.
(From the Paris gig but the sound is better than anything from London, the BASS oh my god).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhYuuRoq4o[/youtube]
Bonkers gig.
Oh and the warm up act was an aerobics instructor who was telling everyone to feel their pussy.
Lana del Ray
So Lana del Ray was fab. Very unique voice, better than the fleet of "raspy" singers who plagued british music a couple of years back. She could do without the whole "i'm going to go and take photos with my fans for 15 minutes every show" though. They may buy it, but the people standing beyond 3 rows back certainly don't. At the finale to National Anthem I had time to go get a bag, hop to the loo, come back and she was STILL kissing and hugging fans.
I loved the whole retro "vintage aka old" effect she had going on with some of her videos playing, like she was creating her own history there and then.
iamamiwhoami
And in TWO days i'm going to see iamamiwhoami
Hopefully should be as weird and as fantastic as The Knife was.. But 1/4 of the price.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW89Pv8QrX4[/youtube]
The Knife and Sorklubben.
So it turns out Sorklubben is a sort of arts-collective put together for this series of "shows" by The Knife. There are two schools of thought about the shows;
1. They were arty bollocks that preyed on the desperation of fans of The Knife to see them perform.
2. They were arty bollocks that cleverly used the desperation of fans of The Knife to see them perform.
I'm torn between the two, although I lean slightly to the latter, why?
So basically The Knife and this collective totalling 9-10 people come on stage in a cloud of smoke, hooded gowns all mysterious, AMAZING we all think as they very slowly slide into the first 'song'. At the next song we realise that the person "singing" has changed, yet it's still Karin's very altered voice and the penny drops. None of this is live. ALL pre-recorded, nobody has a clue who the hell Karin and Olof are out of the 9/10 people on stage but some superfans next to me kept making guesses..
4th song in and the pretense is completely evaporated, they shun the cloaks and appear in metallic jumpsuits, sequined vest tops sweatbands and Nike trainers.. The next 6 songs aren't even an attempt to mime, it's all choreographed dance routines, some of it entertaining but completely baffling.
By the end the audience was split, some people left with faces of thunder, whilst others stayed and carried on dancing in the disco that was the Roundhouse.
The concept behind the show, spreading the idolisation of The Knife between a collective of people. At the end I still had no idea who The Knife were, but I was dancing my ass off with this random woman i'd met about 2 hours earlier.
Examples:
Got 2 Let U - Yeh... Rhythmic Gymnastics, not really what you expect at a gig. One of the "woo's" at the end is me, 2nd row oh yehhhh.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEFRoiwdh4M[/youtube]
Silent Shout - They finished on a fantastic song from their last album, lasers, smoke, dancing.
(From the Paris gig but the sound is better than anything from London, the BASS oh my god).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhYuuRoq4o[/youtube]
Bonkers gig.
Oh and the warm up act was an aerobics instructor who was telling everyone to feel their pussy.
Lana del Ray
So Lana del Ray was fab. Very unique voice, better than the fleet of "raspy" singers who plagued british music a couple of years back. She could do without the whole "i'm going to go and take photos with my fans for 15 minutes every show" though. They may buy it, but the people standing beyond 3 rows back certainly don't. At the finale to National Anthem I had time to go get a bag, hop to the loo, come back and she was STILL kissing and hugging fans.
I loved the whole retro "vintage aka old" effect she had going on with some of her videos playing, like she was creating her own history there and then.
iamamiwhoami
And in TWO days i'm going to see iamamiwhoami
Hopefully should be as weird and as fantastic as The Knife was.. But 1/4 of the price.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW89Pv8QrX4[/youtube]
