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The Big Gig Thread 2017

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    Okay... update, pt.1:

    I went to my first gig in a while, last week - Adult. at Moth Club, in Hackney. They were fantastic - much better than the only other time I'd seen them, at XOYO, a few years back, when they spent most of their time asking for the lights to be turned right down. This time they were fully visible and much more in their traditional 'Electropunk' mode.

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      ...And update pt.2 - tickets I've just bought or am about to buy.

      a) Schwefelgelb at Moth Club. Only £8 with no booking fee, if you use the Dice app.

      b) Sparks who are playing an album release signing + gig thing at Rough Trade East. Buy the album online (from Rough Trade) for £10:99 and it counts as your ticket to the 45 minute gig. Much cheaper than their upcoming 'regular' London dates and in an 'intimate' venue, too. (I'm wondering if they might also be able to sign my 10'' picture disc of 'Tryouts For The Human Race', actually!)

      edit: I've just noticed that this is now sold out online. Bloody glad I bought my ticket when it was announced, today, now! You can still turn up on the evening and buy the album to gain entrance, though.

      c) Marie Davidson - again at Moth Club, this time for £9 via the Dice app, with no booking fee.

      I'm a pretty happy chappie right now, as you can probably imagine! :-)
      Last edited by evilC; 11-08-2017, 23:58.

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        I was tempted by the Sparks thing but didn't jump in quickly enough. Maybe just as well; OMD are doing a similar thing two days before two RTE events in a week might be too much.

        Likely next call for me is Manchester groovers The Winachi Tribe in east London.

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          Right! So here's the latest 'upcoming gig list' for me:

          08 Sep: Sparks @ Rough Trade East, London
          15 Sep: B12 at Queen's Yard, Hackney, London
          22 Sep: The Horrors @ Rough Trade East, London
          27 Sep: Marie Davidson + Not Waving @ Moth Club, Hackney, London
          30 Sep: Naked Lunch, Global Citizen & Jan Doyle Band @ Electrowerkz, Islington, London
          07 Oct: Hannah Peel, Promenade Cinema & Harley Likes Music @ Devonshire Green, Sheffield
          07 Oct: Radiophonic Workshop @ Sheffield University Drama Studio, Sheffeld
          23 Oct: Lali Puna @ Oslo, Hackney, London
          22 Nov: Schwefelgelb @ Moth Club, Hackney, London
          02 Dec: Battery Operated Orchestra + others at The Hope & Anchor, Islington, London

          I just bought a ticket (i.e. the new CD) for The Horrors at Rough Trade East, in a couple of weeks. I can't believe it wasn't sold out, actually, after Sparks sold out in just a few hours. Quite chuffed I chanced across that whilst perusing the site. It's a great way to buy CDs! :-)

          Last week I also attended a gig in possibly the smallest venue I've ever been in. It was Werner Karloff + Neue Strassen at The Stag's Head, in Hoxton and the performance area - a back room in the pub - had a maximum capacity of probably 50 (although that would have been hellish!). As it is, there were probably about 30 people there, so it was comfortable. Mexican Minimal Wave - yeah! :-)

          A slightly weird thing happened afterwards, though: I took one photo on my phone during the gig. I wouldn't normally take even that many, as I don't like to encourage the practice, but few other people were and I wanted some record of such an intimate gig, so I quickly took a snap (pretty much sticking the phone between the heads of a couple in front of me, in order to do so!) On the train home, I checked the photo and it looked okay, so I shared it on Facebook. I got home at about 02:15, had a couple of beers, got totally absorbed by online stuff and thus ended up only getting to bed at 7am! When I finally woke, it was lunchtime and I had a Facebook messenger message on my phone from the organiser of the gig, asking if she could use my photo, since she'd taken none of her own. Of course, I said yes ...which was just as well, since - having grown tired of waiting for my reply - she'd gone ahead and shared my post with the photo ...and it already had about 25 'likes'. Over the course of the weekend, it went on to get over 70 likes, making it the most popular photo I've ever posted on Facebook! I was also able to link up on there with not just the two artists, but a bunch of their friends and fans as well, so I now have quite a few Mexican electronica-fan Facebook friends ...which is nice! :-)

          Here's the photo responsible. You can see how stripped-down the set-up was and how intimate the venue. The slight blur to the image (probably a result of trouser-pocket sweat on the lens) plus the combination of colours gives it an almost Lynchian feel, I think! :-)

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          Last edited by evilC; 07-09-2017, 22:28.

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            (Oooh! That was a lot bigger than I expected! :-/ )

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              Good lord Clive, I'll bet her day was absolutely made when she saw that. Very good gig photo. I also approve of your discreet methods.

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                Cracking photo, Clive.

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                  Clive, what's the kit on the table, do you know?

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                    I went to see The Magnetic Fields in Brighton last night, playing songs 1-25 from Stephin Merritt's current 50 Song Memoir magnum opus, no encore and no oldies. It was very entertaining but occasionally the vocals were a bit lost in the mix, which is a bigger issue than usual when the set is a relatively unfamiliar musical autobiography. The venue, The Dome Theatre, can only have been about a quarter full, which was surprising as I - and presumably they - would expect Brighton to be prime MF territory. Songs 26-50 await at the Barbican on Sunday.

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                      Originally posted by Furtho View Post
                      Clive, what's the kit on the table, do you know?
                      Right... yes and no is the short answer.

                      The keyboard is a Korg Microkorg. There's also a Korg Monotron of some flavour there - that's the tiny black box. The bigger black box (which he is touching) could be a Korg Monotribe or something by MFB, Doepfer or even Dave Smith (though I doubt the latter). It was the little light-coloured box (behind his left hand) that was bothering me. It must be a sequencer of some sort, since I'm not convinced that the other two black boxes are capable of sequencing several songs - even ones of their simplicity - one after the other, without major tweakage. Sadly I didn't take a photo of the gear before it was put a way. Too busy socialising!

                      It was a very simple set-up, for sure, but it made just the right amount of noise (i.e. quite a bit!) for the place and for the music. The set-up enabled them to blur one track into the next, by creating a short spell of random bleeps, pings and noise between them. They were obviously quite well-rehearsed at dealing with that aspect.
                      Last edited by evilC; 08-09-2017, 23:58.

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                        Looking at his Bandcamp a couple of the releases are made just with a Monotribe and Volca Bass, so although other live pictures on his Facebook show him using an Electribe of some description as an update to the Monotribe, he must be using the older set up here. I don't know much about the memory capacities of those things but, like you, it would surprise me a lot if they can store a whole set's worth of stuff. I hadn't appreciated, though, that there was another box next to the Microkorg (I just thought that was how big the synth is). Hmm, how frustrating...

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                          We're all booked for Munich to see a couple of Manowar's final
                          shows. Have applied the first coating of baby oil so should have a good sheen on come gig day.

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                            Clive, I'm going to go so far as to say that in your picture underneath his left hand I reckon it's just the bass end of the Microkorg. Maybe the memory of the Monotribe has been in some way beefed up in order to deliver the sequencing requirements of the whole set. Anyway, all jolly interesting (to me!).

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                              BTW - for future reference, what is the method for controlling the size of images that we are inserting directly from URLs, these days? I don't like to post such huge photos. It feels ostentatious!

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                                Originally posted by gavc23 View Post
                                We're all booked for Munich to see a couple of Manowar's final
                                shows. Have applied the first coating of baby oil so should have a good sheen on come gig day.
                                Remember not to lie down on the sand if you go to the beach between now and the show! Also avoid burst pillows, leaking beanbags, etc.

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                                  Slight update...

                                  I've cancelled my visit to Sheffield for the Sensoria festival.

                                  It's awkward.

                                  I booked my accommodation well ahead of the final line-up being announced, on the basis of the organisers telling me I ought to as there was going to be a good line-up. As it is, that quality never materialised (as far as I'm concerned) and I'd booked 4 nights accommodation, when the only events I was even slightly interested in were on the Saturday (Synthfest, Promenade Cinema on Devonshire Green, Radiophonic Workshop).

                                  Then the other events, elsewhere, started getting announced!

                                  I already knew about the 'Achtung! Achtung!' club night, which next time round will feature Paralelo live. Not a massive draw on its own, really. But then - almost simultaneously - Test Dept. announced the 3-day 'Disturbance' event (of which I'll probably only go to the Thursday) and London Modular Alliance announced 'The Pickle Factory' event. And it was this last straw that broke this camel's back. I'm a huge fan of London Modular Alliance and I really like DMX Krew too, so when they announced a 5-hour all-modular jam session together, I just had to go!

                                  There's also the Castle Combe 'Autumn Classic' race meeting on the Saturday daytime, although that's dependent on the weather and I can pay at the gate.

                                  So... I got £64 back from the Sheffield accommodation, and I won't be spending about £50 on petrol plus at least another £50 on food & booze. However, this saving is offset somewhat by the price of the the train fares to London for the events I'll be going to instead.

                                  Sadly, the organiser of the Battery Operated Orchestra gig on the 2nd of December got in touch today to let me know that they can't actually make it, so they're off the list too, which is a bit of a blow.

                                  Thus, my itinerary now looks like this:

                                  15 Sep: B12 at Queen's Yard, Hackney, London
                                  22 Sep: The Horrors @ Rough Trade East, London
                                  27 Sep: Marie Davidson + Not Waving @ Moth Club, Hackney, London
                                  30 Sep: Naked Lunch, Global Citizen & Jan Doyle Band @ Electrowerkz, Islington, London
                                  05 Oct: Trevor Jackson, Test Dept (DJs) and Peter Webb + Alexei Monroe @ Red Gallery, Shooreditch, London
                                  06 Oct: Paralelo ('Achtung! Achtung!' club night) at Aces & Eights, Tufnell Park, London
                                  07 Oct: (Castle Combe Autumn Classic)
                                  08 Oct: London Modular vs. DMX Krew @ The Pickle Factory, Hackney, London
                                  23 Oct: Lali Puna @ Oslo, Hackney, London
                                  22 Nov: Schwefelgelb @ Moth Club, Hackney, London
                                  Last edited by evilC; 12-09-2017, 00:28.

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                                    I didn't make it to the second leg of The Magnetic Fields on Sunday, due to tiredness and rotten weather. Next up are Chastity Belt and the Band Of Holy Joy later this week followed by a gap, hopefully to be filled on spec, before Polyfest and Jane Weaver later in October. Tickets have been booked for Soulwax's December show at The Roundhouse, which should be a good way to kickstart the festive spirit. I'm also going to the Royal Opera a couple of times over the next month, in the cheap seats.

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                                      This is a the stupidly overbooked weekend, with Yes on Saturday, Alison Moyet on Sunday, and Steve Earle on Monday, with a Jays game to cap it off on Tuesday.

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                                        You could make it easier. Don't Go on Sunday.

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                                          No way; Sunday is the jewel in the crown. In reverse order of dispensability, I'd say:

                                          Sunday
                                          Tuesday
                                          Monday
                                          Saturday

                                          That may be a bit harsh on Steve Earle, but going to a baseball game resonates as a rare treat from this remove.

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                                            I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the recent Alison Moyet stuff, but then she is shamelessly raiding her Electropop past, it would seem - something I don't believe she's done very much up until now.

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                                              Originally posted by caja-dglh View Post
                                              You could make it easier. Don't Go on Sunday.
                                              And the penny finally drops, several hours later. Me no so clever today.

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                                                Only you, Benjm...

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                                                  Another one to add to the list ...and it's a big one (for Electro fans like me)!

                                                  13 Oct: Arpanet @ The Pickle Factory, Hackney, London

                                                  Who? Arpanet are Gerald Donald aka Dopplereffekt, aka Elektroids, aka Heinrich Mueller and formerly one half of Drexciya. Along with Clock DVA, Dopplereffekt are the heirs to Kraftwerk's throne.
                                                  Last edited by evilC; 13-09-2017, 20:50.

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                                                    ...And this is where I show myself (even more) to be a terrible music snob:

                                                    Toyah.

                                                    Acoustic.

                                                    Pizza Express.

                                                    I actually laughed when I read about it!

                                                    Sorry! (Not sorry.)

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