| Current mood: |  feeling pretty calm |
| Current music: | Dragons - Where Is The Love (OHM remix) |
Two Nights Giggage....
As mentioned before in my last entry, the last two nights have been spent going to gigs (one band featured in both of them).
Friday it was the Shepherd's Bush Empire, where it was the third in a series of farewell gigs from
The Mission, with support coming from both Dragons and Balaam and the Angel. Dragons opened the show in fine form (arrived just in time to see them!), and Balaam were pretty good as well. Of course, the night was going to belong to The Mission, who in a series of themed nights, played all the tracks from one particular album each night. The night I went to focused on the album "Children" - admittedly I wasn't familiar with many of the songs played, but it was still good to have the chance to seen them live. They did play a few I recognised though, classics such as "Beyond The Pale", "Like A Child Again" and a stunning set closer in "Tower of Strength". The highlight of the night came when someone jumped from the crowd to perform a stage invasion, but as he was being pulled away by security, lead singer Wayne Hussey intervened to stop them, and afterwards embraced the invader with a great show of affection, before allowing the guy to crowdsurf his way back into the pit! A good night, perhaps marred by the fact that "Wasteland" wasn't played, but oh well, you can't have everything.
Last night's gig at the Camden Underworld had nearly everything - riff-led indie, chilled laid back ambience and finished off with some fantastically gothic dark rock. The first act I saw that night were
The Fluids, a girl-fronted act who I wasn't really that bothered with at first, but as their set developed, the lead singer worked up the crowd and really got everyone going. Particular highlight was their cover version of Skunk Anansie's "Hedonism", making it sound just as anthemic as the original. Top act, and I even nabbed a discarded setlist left on the stage! The next act that night was Ulrich Schnauss, who is probably better known as a remixer, having worked his magic on tracks by bands such as Depeche Mode and Long-View, but last night he spent half an hour utilising his laptop and keyboard to create perhaps some of the most beautiful instrumental music I've ever heard, the sort of melodies that would be perfect in dreaming one's vivid landscape, an atmosphere where I can dance away in his presence and not give a care in the world to anyone else around me. There were even some guitar-driven melodies towards the end, and his entrancing themes were just wonderfully sublime, maybe one day I'll get to see him headline his own magnificently crafted set.
And so on to the headline act of the night, I said that I had seen them perform the night before, and who were they.... none other than DRAGONS!!!! I've said it before, they're set to become my band for 2008, and last night's performance demonstrated why that title could already be well and truly claimed. From the moment lead singer Anthony Tombling Jr walked on stage and uttered the words "We're Dragons!" the next 45 minutes or so were spent headbanging at the front of the stage to their powerfully menacing songs. Ever since I got round to purchasing their album "Here Are The Roses" last week, it's hardly left my CD player ever since, and anthemic greats such as the album's title track and "Trust" were complimented by new stormers such as "The Law" which really bodes well for the studio-recorded version when it gets done. Got a setlist again too, and it was as follows:
01 Condition
02 Treasure
03 The Law
04 Hold Me In Your Arms
05 Trust
06 Lonely Tonight
07 Epiphany
08 Rememberance
09 Always The Night
10 Here Are The Roses
11 Where Is The Love
What also made it a great night was that not only did a buy a Dragons T-shirt and remix EP for the first time, but I also got to meet and shake hands with the band's two core members, Anthony and drummer David Francolini! Generally helped when Anthony announced at the end of the set "Come and say hello to us", but for me that was a chance to say how I really like their music and live performance. Anthony said that he really liked playing on the big stage at Shepherd's Bush the previous night, and David was perhaps the main influence into how I really got into Dragons, being only the second person ever to leave a personal comment on my Myspace page!
David is also known for having previously played in a band called Dark Star, and for another minor Knightmare reference, you may want to go to the band's Myspace page (admittedly linked twice in this entry!) and listen to "Here Are The Roses", before answering the question: "Does the opening few seconds sound similar to the Series 6 to 8 Knightmare theme?"
Enough for now, I've think I've gone on far enough, though one thing's for certain, Dragons could well be breathing more fire into this LJ come later on in the year....
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jim_revelator_1) wrote,
