It's a colour that I can't describe, it's a language I can't understand

[venta]

The Levellers @ Oxford Brookes SU

Now, last time I went to see the Levellers I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.

This time, I'd remembered that, so though I was experiencing a certain amount of "er... well... s'pose so" when Samantha said she wanted to see the Levellers in Oxford, I gave myself a good talking to and told myself I'd enjoy it when I got there. And, to be fair, I did. Everything I said last time still stands.

But, but... It still makes me sad that, playing an hour-and-a-bit set they'll play a couple of new songs, maybe one per album back to the late 90s and then hefty chunks of Weapon Called The Word and practically all of Levelling The Land. They're still producing new work, they' still rock live, but... nothing they've done in ages has been, in my opinion, as good as those two albums.

During the encore I was thinking that there isn't really one Levellers song that you'd expect to hear at a gig - there's a bunch of first-equal songs you could reasonably expect. But not one that really acts as a defining stroke by itself. Then, at the close of their encore, a couple of them stepped up to the mikes and suddenly...

Liiiiberrrrrtyyyy

Oh yes there is. As a song, I don't really rate it all that much but, like Kick Out The Jams, it does provide one of music's great rallying cries.

But, apart from the deal the Levellers seem to have struck whereby they all have short hair except the bassist, who has enough dreds for all of them, they're still the same bunch they ever where.

I've lived (including my hokey-cokey student days) in Oxford for nearly eleven years now. So when I go to concerts and the like, I see people I know. Or kind of know. I grinned vaguely at the small, darkhaired girl who used to work in the Celtic Shop and who shows up at Red Sky Coven gigs and very occasionally at Intrusion. She either smiled back in recognition, or smiled back hoping the nutter would go away, now, please. I'm not sure which.

There was the girl a few people along from me whom I recognised because I chatted to her on the tube on the way back from a Pixies gig last year. There was a bloke who looked like a taller, broader addedentry whom I vaguely associate with IMSOC, though I can't quite work out who he might be. And another bloke who used to go to Panic back in my first year.

I occasionally wonder whether, as a pensioner, I'll shuffle down the High Street here, occasionally meeting people and reminiscing about our lost youth. Maybe by then I'll know their names.

Some time last week I was talking to ChrisC when he mentioned that he would be seeing Bloc Party the following Wednesday. "So are you", he added as an afterthought.

"Am I?" I asked in surprise.
"Yes. You asked me to get you a ticket."
"Did I?"
"Yes, and you paid me for it."
"Did I?"

... or words to that effect. So, thanks to ChrisC having a brain even if I don't, I also present the following:

Bloc Party @ Astoria

Thinking about it, I've quite possibly seen Bloc Party more times than I've seen any other band. I think New Model Army are the only band I might have seen more times, and my NMA-seeing career stretches over ten years. All the times I've seen Bloc Party have been squashed into a little less than two years.

This presents me with two problems. One, I'm running out of things to write. I can write a general review, talking about their overall sound, and it'll sound like what I wrote about them last time. Or I can write a very specific review, which probably won't be very interesting to people who aren't fairly familiar with the band. I feel like I know their material too well to write a big-brushtrokes review, but not well enough or, on account of their short career, in enough depth to write a review which would appeal to hardcore fans.

Two, my brain sticks when I start thinking about it. Last night the Astoria was packed with people screaming, dancing, clapping and crowd surfing and, as I write, Bloc Party are playing a second sold-out night there. Yet it's the same four blokes who, two summers ago, were playing third-support in indifferent pubs. Sure, they've come on a lot since then, but how come people go mad now when, in 2003, they barely managed to drag their eyes away from their pints to look at the same people playing (some of) the same songs ?

Yes, I know there's some sensible reasons to do with exposure, and production, and even marketing. But... I just don't get it.

So, yes, four blokes. Fierce guitars. Lots of bass. Weirdly tacky lights. I was pleased to hear a couple of the old songs, which didn't make it onto the album, come out of the wood work. And yes, in answer to a question posed on my friends list a few weeks ago, I do think they live up to the album when they're playing live. A couple of the songs have even begun to evolve slightly away from the album versions, which I usually regard as a good thing.

I know, I'll put the problem off by talking about the support instead. Last year, during a period of profligate album-buying which has now, unfortunately, had to be curtailed, I liked a single I heard and bought the Pretty Girls Make Graves album. While it's never become a top favourite, it is pretty good and I was looking forward to seeing them.

They're from Seattle, which seems still to be trying crawl out of Nirvana's shadow, and are broadly a little-bit-punk-a-little-bit-rock, with a singing-snarly female vocalist. Sadly, on stage there was only a couple of songs that lifted them out mediocrity. One was the single I originally liked, This Is Our Emergency, and another a wonderfully empty, bassy song that I didn't recognise.

The singer has a very flexible voice, but somehow it didn't seem to be on form last night, and at times the six-piece band seemed a little lost on the stage. The remaining five members made little impression on me (beyond noticing that the keyboard player occasionally whipping out an accordion or, heaven help us, a melodica, and having a brief argument with the person next to me about whether the drummer was cute or not.)

All in all, Pretty Girls Make Graves get a resounding "uh, ok". I enjoyed the set but, given that they're a band I might plausibly have payed to see headlining, I'm kind of glad I didn't.

Comments

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

They're from Seattle, which seems still to be trying crawl out of Nirvana's shadow

Seattle's marketing budget is still trying to crawl out of Nirvana's shadow, but as far as I could make out from the people I spoke to and the local music rag in the entire week I was there, actual people in actual Seattle aren't terribly interested in grunge. By the time the rest of the world went nuts for Nirvana (and PearlJamandSoundgardenandStoneTemplePilots), they'd had grunge for at least 2 or 3 years, which is just about how long it lasted out here, too. I've read claims (by some music journalist or other, so it may not be true) that there was a "second wave of Seattle grunge" which consisted of the swarms of Cobain fans who descended on the city expecting to hear loads of up-and-coming undiscovereds, and realised that everyone who actually lived in Seattle was into either student rock/punk or house, same as everyone had been before grunge, so they had to be their own bands. But they weren't very good, so they didn't last long.

[j4.livejournal.com]

there isn't really one Levellers song that you'd expect to hear at a gig

Oh, but, it's got to be One Way! "There's only one way of life and that's your own," sing a thousand identically-tie-dyed Levellers fans, their fists punching the air in perfect unison. It's a fantastic jump-up-and-down anthem and it comes with its own built-in irony. What more could you want? Don't get me wrong, I love the Levellers to bits, and actually getting to see them at Glastonbury was like finally getting all my teenage wishes granted ... but still, eh. :-)

(There was a question about the Battle of the Beanfield in the pub quiz last night. I had to be forcibly restrained from singing. And from shouting at people who'd never heard of the song or the story behind it.)

there isn't really one Levellers song that you'd expect to hear at a gig

[eostar.livejournal.com]

Oh Yes! One Way! without a doubt ... complete with irony ;-)

*starts jumping then realises work colleagues are staring*

[eostar.livejournal.com]

but... nothing they've done in ages has been, in my opinion, as good as those two albums [Weapon Called The Word and Levelling The Land.]

I agree. For me those two are the quintessential Levellers albums. I have to confess that I was quite glad that they played so many songs from these two albums. 'Brings back memories of my mis-spent youth :)

There was a bloke who looked like a taller, broader addedentry whom I vaguely associate with IMSOC

[diffrentcolours]

Did he look like this (possibly without the deely-boppers)?