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And last night I went to see Elbow!

Bjork the night before is a very hard act to follow but Elbow did a great job.

Sadly I don’t have their most recent album so I didn’t know many of the songs but I did recognise their new single and the classics New Born and Grace Under Pressure. And not knowing the songs didn’t matter too much either as the lots of the tunes were really brilliant. The front man is a fantastic entertainer, interacting fantastically with the crowd and making it much more enjoyable.

The Brixton Academy is quite similar to the Hammersmith Apollo in terms of size and layout but is a bit more run down. We had seated tickets and I did find it odd sitting down for a gig (not too mention being quite far away) but it did mean you could relax into the music a bit more which worked for Elbow.

Sadly we arrived a bit late and missed the support act which turned out to be Two Gallants. Damn!

All in all though a really good evening!

Brixton Academy website - www.brixton-academy.co.uk

On Monday I went to see Bjork!

This was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to!

She came on wearing a fantastic costume with a huge hat made from balls of wool, followed by a brass band each with a flag on each of their heads.

She was hugely entertaining, had an amazing singing voice, was fantastically quirky and played some of her best songs. Quite a few tunes came from Volta, her latest album, and included a duet with Antony from Antony and the Johnsons (who is awesome). She also played classics like Joga, Anchor Song, Hunter and Hyperballad, some of my favourite ever songs!

It all ended quite ravey with the brass band head banging along with her and a huge glitter explosion.

Great stuff! :-D

Just got back from seeing Menomena at Kings College Student’s Union. They’re a three piece experiemental rock band from Canada. Kind of a mix between Explosions in the Sky and Postal Service in my less that expert opinion. Anyway, despite a half hour fire alarm evacuation and quite a few technical issues it was a good gig (without being excellent). The drummer was especially good but the keyboardist seemed in awe of the notes he was tapping out.

I also enjoyed the venue as I haven’t been to a student’s union for a while. Don’t worry, they don’t change!

Menomena Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/menomena

A great gig! I’ve really wanted to see them for a while and they didn’t dissapoint. They had a lot of people on stage, lots of instruments and really entertained the crowd. Brilliant, beatiful songs too.

The venue is a strange place though. It’s high on a hill in the middle of some park land (Alexandra Park?) near Wood Green. It has great views over the city but the building is just a random brick big thing. I’m not too sure what it’s trying to be but it’s certainly not a palace.

The inside is bizarre too. The foyer is huge with palm trees everywhere. (I somehow missed these on the way in, perhaps from overexcitment). The entrances to the arena are along the side and we entered near the stage so we really had to push through to get near the middle. My advice would be to enter nearer the back, go to the far side and make your way quickly to the front. Apparently it is much less dense on the right and you can get up close.

Oh and I’ve just found out the cool kids call it ‘Alley Pally’.

Alley Pally Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Palace