Jane’s Addiction, KOKO, 30th August 2011

What a gig! So pleased the Bossman let me know that they were playing.

I’ve always been aware of Jane’s Addiction, but like many bands they passed me by. Never too late to catch up! So glad we were there.

We got out pitch near the front, a band of youthful lads, and I mean they looked sixteen or so were the support. They were cool, they were appreciative of who was following them, people wanted to adopt them or put them on their keyrings, they went away and we waited for the main event.

They dropped a big curtain in front of the stage and for some reason played almost all of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon before the curtain raised and there was Perry and the boys.

He was dressed in the manner of a dandy Mississippi card shark, semi resident on the steam boat chugging up river. After he hustles you for your bucks, he’ll smoke a fashionably small cigar whilst checking his pocket watch and saying “yessiree, I’m gonna buy me some grits when I get off this old lady”.

Here’s his attire, a most presentable swamp gent (even though he’s from nowhere near that part of America)

As the gig progressed, he shed layers. Here he admires the lack of layers of his dancing troupe.

Shaking his maracas (the maracas are off screen here!)

Is he posing for me? I think he is.

A romance explosion near the end of this amazing gig.

Encore with wine and no top, the svelte bastard

Our feet at the end of the gig, it’s usually traditional we take a photo of ourselves at a gig. So we kept this tradition going.

Cheers Bossman! Haven’t enjoyed a gig so much in ages!

Japanese Post Rock

Been a while, but thought I’d post a catch up blog. Back in June I saw two Japanese post rock bands live. The first, Mono, I’ve liked for a while, so it was great to hear they were performing in London.
My favourite album of theirs, One Step More and You Die, has a great track called Com(?) on it. Sixteen minutes of heaven and hell, mostly hell. Must be played ear bleedingly loud.  Listen Here :)
So me and the Bossman went to Koko in Camden, interestingly, he hadn’t really got into their studio stuff so wasn’t sure what to expect, whearas for me I was expecting a torrent of white noise to lift the whole studio sound.
Bizarrely, I was disappointed and he was lifted. I wanted them to be louder, more engaging, more animated. I wanted more lank haired Japanese “Grudge” style hairstyles flying in a blur as they went mental on their instruments, but they were too busy playing tunes, no edgy improvisation, no spraying the crowd with silver paint, no instrument smashing. They were note perfect, cannot take that away from them, but they seemed too clean and clinical. Whearas for Rob, he switched on to their incredible depth of sound. It was probably me though as I had the hump from work.
Here is a short clip (as my photos turned out rubbish)

A few days later I saw Boris at ULU, as oft stated one of my favourite venues. The support act were Russian Circles who played at the Metal end of the Post Rock spectrum. They were mental. Loved them. Although my mate Sal felt they were guff, so he wandered back from the aural bombardment.
Here they are, you cannot see their heads because they didn’t have any.

Then onto Boris. Again, at the harder end of the post rock spectrum. They aren’t quiet-quiet-loud, they are more Loud-Loud-Loud-Quiet if I am to label them. They did deliver the animated crazy Japanese madness I so enjoy. Great band! In a small venue too. And the drummer had a gong, which is messed up.

Loving this pic, they look like cast members of a particularly gruesome japanese horror movie. Especially the drummer who is floating in mid air (but more likely needing to stand up to fart)

She was tiny, but could fret wank as well as any Japanese male guitarist.

Raaarrrrr smash the gong!