Yesterday was a good day…
Congratulations to them both; may their marriage be long, happy and filled with an ever-deepening love.
(Many more photos to follow, but I __am__ at work right now…)
Page 50 of 73
I only had time to ‘do’ the pictures from the D.S.A. gig from a couple of weeks ago, as well as one more T.A.T.E. pic – here’s one of each…
D.S.A. –
Anna from The Airborne Toxic Event –
More to follow after the weekend…
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EOT
“Turn left up there.”
I shot her a quizzical look;
“And why, pray tell, do you think that left is the right course of action? I mean you do have the map upside down.”
The look I received in return was less quizzical, more homicidal if the truth be told. We had been orbiting Sudbury for some time now, trying to find the right arcane combinations of turnings to end up on the market square in order to pick up the third member of our party from a pub called The Monkey Wrench, where he had been staying the night before.
“Well, don’t turn left then. See if I care. Of course we’re going to be late if you don’t start listening to me instead of just randomly turning ‘the way that feels right’ as we come to junctions.”
She did have a point, and I was starting to dread the endless ribbing I was going to receive from Ferdie, when we finally picked him up. He was not going to care about being kept waiting, or even arriving late to the wedding. That would not stop him needling me about it all day though.
“Okay then, left it is.”
He rolled the cigar between his thumb and forefinger, his hand hovering over his chips. The bet was to him and there was only the small blind left. Everyone had checked, waiting to see the Turn, but the Flop gave him a flush, albeit a low one. Gianni was definitely sitting on something good. Time to roll the dice, this hand could send a player out and it wasn’t going to be him with his chip lead, plus there were two more cards to get out.
“Ten Ton”
‘Clink’ as the chips settle in front of him. He brought the cigar to his mouth and took a long drag, paying his smoking as much attention as he could to hide his level of confidence in a cloud.
Paulo and Gwen both flinched and there were a couple of folds; just Gianni, Thorsten and him still in. They call and then the Turn; Ace of Spades and now he has an ace-high flush.
They both check; what do they have?
He does some quick maths and raises the bet another thousand.
Gianni folds, swearing under his breath about newbies buying the pot.
Here comes the River.
‘Check’
‘Check’
So, last night and exactly a week before that, I managed to see my ‘new favourite band’ live. These gigs have been in small, intimate venues, in front of crowds of between twenty to forty people, and there is a good deal of truth in the words of Josh from Fleet Foxes when he said on Radio One last night (as I was driving home) that really the best way to see a band is when the space and the crowd are small enough that the band feel they can form a connection with every single member of the audience.
The Airborne Toxic Event (their name comes from a book that I love and that I read at University, called “White Noise” by American writer Don DeLillo), are going to be big. I referenced Fleet Foxes above (another band I would merrily commend to your listening pleasure oh dear reader), and they are all the evidence that I need that I am right about TATE (apart from the cool coincidence that happens when their band name is made into an acronym). Fleet Foxes were unknown when they first came to the UK to play some shows in 2007. Rather like TATE they played a large number of small, intimate gigs around the UK and just let their music ear-worm its way into the alternative scene’s consciousness (I use the term alternative scene here for the big tent that many scenes share that are simply outside the mainstream; sue me). Just like TATE, they were getting a small amount of airplay on the ‘right’ shows on Radio 1 (Colin Murray, Huw Stephens, and eventually Zane Lowe), as well as all of us in the International KEXP community boring the ass off anyone who would listen, and now they are back in the UK, playing venues like The Shepherd’s Bush Empire, and packing its 2,000 capacity… It is also worth mentioning that TATE have a road-tested management / marketing / label team behind them, so with a few music fans starting to talk about them, the right ‘alt’ opinion formers covering them, and a bit of luck they are going to be huge – you heard it here first… 😉
I often ‘go on’ about music on my blog(s), and I know that a lot of what I __really like__ is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like interesting guitar music (i.e. with __something__ fresh about it), and you like Franz Ferdinand and / or The Killers, or Hot Hot Heat, or The Kaiser Chiefs then check The Airborne Toxic Event out. I have nothing to gain from you doing so, except that the more people who like their music here in the UK, the greater the chance that they’ll come back sooner, oh and I do like people to find out about good music too.
Here’s a picture of Mikel and Anna during the latter part of last night’s set:
They were great, they tore the place up on night 24 of their 30 consecutive UK dates, even though they barely knew where they were anymore, even though only fifty people came out to see them… The little, cute, blonde stood next to me, called Steph was a good benchmark of crowd response; when they played ‘Sometime around Midnight’ she was visibly vibrating with joy, as was I truth be told.
Enough… You’ll either check them out or you won’t, you’ll either like them or you won’t – I did my part.
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I would also like to take this time to mention the support acts that I have caught by attending these two gigs, as they have all been rather good…
On the 17th I arrived at the Jericho Tavern, having been told by seetickets.com that there was “No Support”, to discover that there would be two bands playing before the main event. I caught the latter half of the first band – The Socials. I have to say that I was impressed, and let’s be honest that is not always the case with regard to opening acts. They clearly have talent, they were good at the whole ‘being on-stage’ thing, and their material was good ole, foot-tappin’ UK guitar, jangle-pop, mixed with a sense of identity. If they keep playing and recording then you may well hear more from them before too long…
Next up were The Long Insiders, and man did they surprise and delight me. They had a bunch of friends show up to support them, and I got talking to a couple of them (Steve and Kirsty(?)), and I quickly realised that the act was going to be something a bit different, but wow! Imagine a fifties rockabilly meets surf-music band, fronted by a burlesque styled, dark-haired beauty with a voice like a fallen angel and you are getting close. Their music would not be out of place in a noir movie, or gracing the soundtrack of a Lynch movie either, but more than that it was just such a breath of fresh air and excitement, that I found myself singing along and whistling after every tune. If you get a chance to see these guys, take it – they’ve got game.
Last night I caught the last four numbers by The Volt, and I have to say that again I was pleasantly surprised to discover that support acts are sometimes well worth seeing… Click on the link above and listen to ‘Rock my Soul’ on their MySpace page – these guys can play. They’ve got quite a few gigs coming up in December, January and February; if anyone fancies catchin’ one I would be up for it…
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Tonight I’m shooting a local model for fun, her portfolio and as a ‘getting to know you’ exercise to see if we like working together, and then I’m charging the camera’s batteries, cleaning down memory cards and printing maps, as tomorrow I am off to see two people for whom I have all kinds of love (but clearly only the appropriate kinds) get married, and into the bargain take some pictures of the events of the day. Apparently I get to stop for a while in February 😉
“You’re not anything special, you fool!”
The boy cowered at his father’s feet, flinching from the raised fist.
“Just because you can play the damn guitar does not mean that you should play it. DO you understand me?”
The boy nodded.
“Did you say something?”
For a moment the boy cowered lower, expecting a blow from the fist that was suspended above him, like a weight ready to fall. Then realising he was being givern a chance stammered;
“Y-y-y Yes Sir, I understand.”
The fist came a little lower, but more slowly than a blow and the boy stared intently, watching to see the fingers relax and the fist once more becoming a hand.
“Good. All right then. Now get yourself off to bed. Brush your teeth, young man, and I don’t want to hear any music coming from your room, that radio is for the news and nothing else.”
The boy scrambled to his feet and was gone before he could change his mind.
The man turned to look at the guitar that had caught his son attempting to play, and muttered under his breath;
“Where did you come from, eh?”
Can any of you recommend somewhere for me to park if I am going here:
please?
Also, is there a GOOD reason why I should not come into the city on the M32 if the above link represents my intended destination?
Thanks in advance 🙂
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EOT
…anyone in / near Bristol fancy meeting me at The Cooler to enjoy the musical stylings of The Airborne Toxic Event, then it would be cool to see one / some / all (yeah right) of you 🙂
The band are really good – I drove all the way to Oxford to see them last week, and I enjoyed it so much I am going to drive for a total of nearly 4 hours tonight to see them again, before they go back to the US – trust me when I say that the next time they are in the UK they will be here for less time and will cost (potentially a lot) more to see. American bands that start slow-burn being played by Zane Lowe and Colin Murray on Radio 1 and by John Richard on KEXP turn into The Killers, Vampire Weekend etc. These guys are definitely worth seeing before they break. Besides, how many times do you get a chance to see a band that has a classically trained, jazz upright bass player playing bass guitar, and for some of the songs bowing it like a double bass? How many times do you get to see a band that has a classically trained concert violinist playing not only violin, but also tambourine? Their music is interesting, but accessible and their lyrics are sheer poetry, and yet not even remotely up their own arses…
Have I sold it enough? Ah well, I will be there regardless, but it would be nice to see anyone out there who fancies it – see y’all on the flipside…
Tossing brass; that’s what they had called it on the range, with a smile and a chuckle. To be honest you don’t think about how utterly frivolous that is when you are learning to empty an MP5 on a nice, sunny, outdoor range, with your anti-flash glasses on and the smell of sunscreen mixing with the fresh waves of cordite as you and eleven other raw recruits pull the trigger on another cardboard gang-banger.
Not so funny now, crouched behind a stack of wooden packing crates, filled with steel refrigerators. Lucky because I was hoping for something that could stop bullets. It was supposed to be a simple buy-bust! I’m in here with nothing more than a Sig; I’m playing the part of a drug dealer. It’s the bad guys who are ‘tossing brass’ like it’s this year’s summer craze. I’m pretty sure that the guys with automatics were toting Steyrs, so that’s sixty rounds apiece; I lost count at around thirty. Weirdly my ears have already shut out the bangs, all I can hear are casings hitting the concrete, like metal raindrops.
…with a model, who I am calling Artemis – for her own reasons her real name will not be associated with the pictures…
Here is a figure-nude that we created at the end of the shoot…
