Alaska In Winter

Another night, another gig. This time it was off to Brick Lane for an evening of dodging curry house proprietors and off beat indie music.

The opening act was Marianne Dissard, a French chanteuse who sang accompanied by an accordionist. She had a pretty good voice, but I'm not sure I would want a whole evening of it. She seemed pretty nervous, which probably wasn't helped by the sparse crowd. I would comment on the songs, but it's been a long time since my GCSE French, so whilst I can confirm that none of the songs were about filling up the car with 4-star petrol (fait le plein au super), that's about as far as I can go.

Then onto Mitch & Murray whose singer bore a startling resemblance to Alan Bennett

The band were similar to iLiKETRAiNS, but had a much better line in between song banter, with some nicely droll black country wit on display. They definitely warrant further investigation.

There was no doubt that Alaska in Winter was who the punters wanted to see; there must have been double the crowd for him than the support acts.

Having played pretty much all the instruments on the album himself, there was no backing band, just him and his lap-top with video of him (and the occasional collaborator) being beamed onto the back screen.

Showing excellent attention to detail, the outfit changed to match the video for each song... Not quite a Madonna level of costume changes, but amusing nonetheless!

These New Puritans / Blood Red Shoes

The first of this weeks two-pronged gig attack was Blood Red Shoes on Thursday. The support band (well the one we saw, we missed the openers after getting sidetracked by some pub grub. Tut tut) were These New Puritans. The only think I knew about them was that they come from Southend in England's finest county, Essex.

And that's still pretty much all I know about them. There sound was kinda shoe-gazey with layers of electronic drone and so on, can you tell i'm struggling to characterise them? So I wont try except to say they were pretty good, and may well see them at Great Escape.

Then on to the headliners, Blood Red Shoes...

They were excellent. They (obviously) played pretty much all of the debut album, which is finally out soon. Saving the best to last they closed with "I wish I was someone better" which was excellent, barrelling along at 100mph.





The end was a good laugh as some of the crowd got up on stage, leaving plenty of room for the rest to have a bit of a bounce down the front.

British Sea Power

Bit of a "catch up" post this one, but I didn't want to let it slip by without mentioning it... Britsh Sea Power played a gig just down the road from me on Canvey Island for the culture show. Imagine it BSP, who are an amazing live band playing in a pub to 200 people. Seriosuly, do I need to tell you how good that was!
After a slightly slow start the whole gig caught fire, particularly "waving flags" and "no lucifer" and the absolute highlight was Wilko Johnson coming on for the encore.
Unfortunately Auntie only showed a little bit of the gig, but here goes (we can only hope to see the rest one day?)

This Week's Gigs...

It's a busy week on the going to gigs front...

On Wednesday it's Blood Red Shoes at Kings College Union



They're back by These New Puritans who have been getting plenty of good press...

Then on Thursday I'm off to see Alaska in Winter at 93Feet East


It's kind of a regular beat recording showcase with Mitch & Murray and Marianne Dissard in support... Liking Marianne Dissard's stuff on her Myspace.