Who needs long drop toilets, fields, crap bands, awful soundsystems, teenagers and over-priced water? I can go to Birmingham and enjoy the amazing Supersonic Festival at my leisure. Yes. Birmingham.
Archive for the ‘live’ Category
January 6, 2012
1
[Listen] Suborno – The Instrument.
By Ash in Art, live, Musical Murmurings, Random, Unsigned
Up until May, 2011, I hadn’t picked up a guitar in around two years. But on hearing Hallock Hill‘s debut, The Union, I finally felt musically inspired enough to pick up the instrument again.
The nine pieces that make up The Instrument are layered, one-take pieces recorded in my living room using just two guitars, various bits and pieces lying around the flat, and feature everyday, unedited sounds from my surroundings. This, twinned with the fact that I didn’t note down any of the tunings, means that I can never replicate any song on the album.
Since then, the album has been picked up by Runningonair Music and is scheduled for a March release. It will be available on limited edition vinyl and as a download.
A press release is available here.
May 28, 2011
0
Stewart Lee – The Complete Vegetable Stew.
By Ash in Art, live, Random, Theatre
There’s no doubt that my favourite, living British comedian is Stewart Lee. Last night, he played to almost 2,200 people at the Royal Festival Hall. Having seen Lee a few times now, this was easily the largest crowd I’ve seen him perform to. Introduced by Armando Iannucci, The Complete Vegetable Stew lasted 3hrs 45mins (including three 10 minute breaks). Though a lot of the material was recently visible on the tellybox since he got his show, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, anyone that had seen him live over the past two years would have been familiar with most of the content.
Surprises were supplied in the form of improvised gags – his own alarm clock unexpectedly sounding near the start providing the first distraction. Like many of Lee’s shows, it was difficult to gauge the audience’s reaction. With few walk-outs, most people near me were either in hysterics, silent or busy getting pissed on the cans of beer they’d smuggled in. The dreadlocked hippie in front of me kept falling asleep during the first hour.
October 26, 2010
1
Supersonic Festival 2010 – Sunday
By Ash in live
With this particular festival beginning late in the afternoon, Supersonicees are free to recover from the night before, or explore the heady materialistic delights of Birmingham’s Bull Ring. But, after Sunday lunch, it’s time for the charming acoustic fingerwork of Peter Broderick. And, by that, I mean not just the guitar: this hugely gifted 23-year-old plays piano, violin, and the saw – all while singing beautifully. Thanks to loop technology, he’s practically a one-man Grizzly Bear (though he was once part of Efterklang). The audience is suitably quiet (rapt in awe I suspect), and the incessant gas click from the bar makes for an unwelcome percussive addition. I have to say that the song he says his ‘Dad used play’ was so affecting, it actually broke my heart a little.
October 26, 2010
0
Supersonic Festival 2010 – Saturday
By Ash in live
Saturday afternoon, and I arrive in time to hear the musical thrall of Robert Lowe’s ( from TVOTR amongst others) Lichens. ‘Kirlian Auras’’ gorgeous meandering drone drips from the speakers in the Old Library. The sounds are supplemented by a mesmerizing, continuous, kaleidoscopic series of blotches on the screen that resemble a trip through the sky. So…like an aeroplane, then. But as the drone subtly shifts and extra melodies are added, the visuals run thick with psychedelic colour. One man with fabulous hair and a synth becomes the best thing of the festival thus far.
October 26, 2010
0
Supersonic Festival 2010 – Friday
By Ash in live
(Covered for MusicOMH)
Freaks! Hipsters! Hipster haters! Sonic warriors! Aural artists! All these groups and many more gather at Birmingham’s Custard Factory to get thick and gooey to the noise and activities offered by Capsule’s Supersonic Festival.
Starting on a cold, dark Friday night in downtown Digbeth, there is a queue stretching all along Gibb Street leading on to site. There’s a good mix of people here, with a range of ages across both genders – though it is absolutely fair to say that this is a festival dominated by the presence of men. The site is not huge, and sound does spill across areas such as from the Outside Stage into the Theatre.
September 19, 2010
0
Apollo – Performed by Icebreaker with BJ Cole
By Ash in live
A majority of the earth’s populace will never visit space. Thankfully, there are books, records, and films innumerable enough to fire the imagination and prevent us being distraught by that unsurprising fact. And let’s face it, from what we know, the moon is a pretty boring place. Dust, rock and a few flags: it’s hardly worth saving up for one of those Virgin Galactic tickets.
Brian Eno‘s Apollo is a cheaper, and more accessible option than the Apollo program, and – judging by the Tom Hanks film – it’s vastly more enjoyable and less stressful. So, it is with a supercilious air that the audience of the Queen Elizabeth Hall take to their comfortable, padded, leather seats to watch the 12 musicians of Icebreaker attempt to recreate those warm, ambient tones with the aid of BJ Cole on pedal steel guitar.
August 9, 2010
11
Big Chill Twitter
By Ash in live
Those of you hip enough to Twitter and foolish enough to follow me will already know I live tweeted The Big Chill Festival. However, you may have missed a random thought that makes me look stupider than this picture or just not read any of them at all.
So, you can now download all those 140 character thoughts in an easy to read document by clicking the link below.
Now, I’m off for a shower.