Let there be flutes
Apr. 22nd, 2008 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaI've been to lots of gigs of late, and not got round to reviewing any of them. They're well past their blog-by date, and possibly past their remember-enough-to-write-about them date, but we'll give the first couple a whirl.
One kudo to anyone who can correctly identify the band in the first review purely from the text in the cut-tag; it's a description from someone else standing near me watching them.
I know practically nothing about Nightwish. But, you know, if someone's prepared to enthuse about a band and invite me along, I'll very probably go. My Finnish colleague menaced me until I bought tickets, and promised to lend me albums... but somehow the lending never happened so I went along with very hazy ideas of what to expect.
As far as I can tell, Nightwish have cherry-picked the bits they liked best from folk music, opera and metal and come up with something which is instantly likeable. You can kind of sing along even though you've never heard the song before, and they share with Jim Steinman the ability to make almost every moment of each song sound like an epic climax.
The Astoria was packed, more full than I've seen it in ages, and I was right at the back. Behind someone very tall. So I couldn't see well, and was quite surprised when it became apparent halfway through that there were actually two long-blond-haired guitar-playing types. I thought he just moved around a lot :) I did think I was going to have to leave, because they introduced a bagpipe player at one point - however, he turned out to be playing nice, friendly pipes so we'll let him off.
All in all, a surprisingly fun gig. Full of quite surprisingly polite people.
And for something completely different...
I had (before trotting to the Apollo) never knowingly heard a Jethro Tull song. But, you know, if someone's prepared to enthuse about a band and invite me along, I'll very probably go.
Having dredged around in my memory, all I knew about Jethro Tull is that they are fronted by a flute-player. More dredging pulled up an image of a slight, fey bloke with huge hair, balancing balletically on one leg while playing. If anything, I suppose I was expecting 70s prog-folk. In fact, on reflection I knew considerably more about the seed-drill guy than I did about the band.
So, a guitarist, a bassist and an operator of a huuuuuge drumkit took to the stage. Then from the wings Ian Anderson, flute in hand, capered onto the stage. He's not so slight, and not so fey, and definitely not so big-haired, but he still leaps around the stage in a manner than makes you wonder how he ever managed in the days before radio mics. He does still occasionally stand on one leg, the other foot tapping his knee. I can't work out whether he's getting a bit old and creaky, so only stands on one leg when he remembers to - or whether he's aware that he looks a bit of an idiot, and therefore only stands on one leg when he forgets.
Despite the band clearly underlining that their glory days were in the 70s (they were on a 40th anniversary tour) by constantly projecting old images, playbills, headlines and footage of their earlier selves onto the backdrop, they don't actually sound all that 70s. Sometimes they sound a bit proggy, then a bit free jazz, then suddenly it's all folky and singing about horses.
It was a proper show - two halves and an intermission with ice cream - and I'm not sure I'd have expected me to sustain interest in an unknown band for such a long time. I did, though, and really rather enjoyed it. And it's not that often you get a drum solo which makes you laugh out loud.
I should go to gigs in theatres more often, too. They have, like, actually decent sound systems that mean you can hear people speaking on stage, and it can be turned up loud without making your ears fall off.
One kudo to anyone who can correctly identify the band in the first review purely from the text in the cut-tag; it's a description from someone else standing near me watching them.
I know practically nothing about Nightwish. But, you know, if someone's prepared to enthuse about a band and invite me along, I'll very probably go. My Finnish colleague menaced me until I bought tickets, and promised to lend me albums... but somehow the lending never happened so I went along with very hazy ideas of what to expect.
As far as I can tell, Nightwish have cherry-picked the bits they liked best from folk music, opera and metal and come up with something which is instantly likeable. You can kind of sing along even though you've never heard the song before, and they share with Jim Steinman the ability to make almost every moment of each song sound like an epic climax.
The Astoria was packed, more full than I've seen it in ages, and I was right at the back. Behind someone very tall. So I couldn't see well, and was quite surprised when it became apparent halfway through that there were actually two long-blond-haired guitar-playing types. I thought he just moved around a lot :) I did think I was going to have to leave, because they introduced a bagpipe player at one point - however, he turned out to be playing nice, friendly pipes so we'll let him off.
All in all, a surprisingly fun gig. Full of quite surprisingly polite people.
And for something completely different...
I had (before trotting to the Apollo) never knowingly heard a Jethro Tull song. But, you know, if someone's prepared to enthuse about a band and invite me along, I'll very probably go.
Having dredged around in my memory, all I knew about Jethro Tull is that they are fronted by a flute-player. More dredging pulled up an image of a slight, fey bloke with huge hair, balancing balletically on one leg while playing. If anything, I suppose I was expecting 70s prog-folk. In fact, on reflection I knew considerably more about the seed-drill guy than I did about the band.
So, a guitarist, a bassist and an operator of a huuuuuge drumkit took to the stage. Then from the wings Ian Anderson, flute in hand, capered onto the stage. He's not so slight, and not so fey, and definitely not so big-haired, but he still leaps around the stage in a manner than makes you wonder how he ever managed in the days before radio mics. He does still occasionally stand on one leg, the other foot tapping his knee. I can't work out whether he's getting a bit old and creaky, so only stands on one leg when he remembers to - or whether he's aware that he looks a bit of an idiot, and therefore only stands on one leg when he forgets.
Despite the band clearly underlining that their glory days were in the 70s (they were on a 40th anniversary tour) by constantly projecting old images, playbills, headlines and footage of their earlier selves onto the backdrop, they don't actually sound all that 70s. Sometimes they sound a bit proggy, then a bit free jazz, then suddenly it's all folky and singing about horses.
It was a proper show - two halves and an intermission with ice cream - and I'm not sure I'd have expected me to sustain interest in an unknown band for such a long time. I did, though, and really rather enjoyed it. And it's not that often you get a drum solo which makes you laugh out loud.
I should go to gigs in theatres more often, too. They have, like, actually decent sound systems that mean you can hear people speaking on stage, and it can be turned up loud without making your ears fall off.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 08:53 pm (UTC)They were a bit flat, tired and disappointing when I went to see them though.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 08:43 am (UTC)Did they play Living in the Past? They hate playing it because it was commercially successful, apparently.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 09:04 am (UTC)Way to stick it to the Man! Bloody hippies.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 04:33 pm (UTC)Highlights: New Day Yesterday, Heavy Horses, Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Darma for One (which made Venta laugh), Thick, Pussywillow, and a couple of numbers with Dave Pegg.
W