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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Live Review: Kings of Leon in Johannesburg

It’s been far too long since we have had some fresh and exciting rock band visit us in Johannesburg. Sure we had U2 and Coldplay, but the last of the more edgy rock bands will have been Oasis or Muse.

Needless to say I snapped up tickets when the Kings of Leon show was announced only to end up waiting half a year when they postponed it to 29 October 2011. It was well worth the wait though.

Supporting Acts:

The Black Hotels

I have seen these guys before, and blogged about them before (check my first Parlotones review). They have come a long way since then and sounded much better this evening. One thing that was clear this evening was that the opening bands were at least given a great sound system for the stadium and came across very well from a sonic point of view (Springbok Nude Girls sounded appalling opening for U2 in the same venue).

Shadowclub

There is a lot of hype around Shadowclub in local media, with their debut album ‘Guns and Money’ recently released. I can understand why – they have a great hard rocking sound going on. They are a power trio who have some great songs and excellent music ability.

Die Heuwels Fantasties

This band put on a good show, but for me at least were over-shadowed by The Shadow Club (no pun intended). But I could see that conversely, for a lot of the audience, this was the best SA band on show tonight.

Kings of Leon:

With all the media stories about a Caleb meltdown, I really did not know what to expect. What we got was a real rocker of a show!

The stage was quite simple, but really effective, with some split screens and lights set up that worked extremely well, never detracting from the music or the performance.

The bulk of the material came from ‘Only by the night’, but they threw in some earlier songs, the second song they played being ‘Taper Jean Girl’.

The audience was amazing, singing along to a lot of the songs: ‘Crawl’, ‘Closer’, ‘Revelry’ and then almost drowning out the band with ‘Sex On Fire’.

I have found that now since seeing them played live, the songs off ‘Come around sundown’ work better for me. It was not initially an album that had the same impact with me as ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ or ‘Only by the night’, but now it is making more sense.

The band trooped off the stage after ‘Sex On Fire’, only to come back with a blistering encore that included a stunning ‘Use somebody’. Audience participation on this song was even more lusty that ‘Sex On Fire’. They closed out with a spectacular fireworks show.

Kings of Leon put on an under-stated, solid rocking show. They have a great bunch of stadium filling songs to choose from. The pace changed variously throughout the show, and it was good to see how well their slower songs carried in the live context.

I can’t wait until they come again!

December 2011 Update

It’s been some time since my last update, but that just means that I now have more to blog about.

New Music (to me):

I got the new Feist Album – Metals. This is really good, a combination of rootsey, poppy songs that reel you in.

I also obtained Kate Bush’s - Directors Cut. This is a real bargain, three albums for roughly the price of one. It includes The Red Shoes, remastered, which I never owned before. I find it a great album with some high credibility guest artists. Then there is the Sensual World album. Including this is great for me since I only ever had it on vinyl. The third CD is re-workings of songs from these two albums that provides some fresh takes on songs.

Also recently acquired is the new Felice Brothers – Celebration,

Florida. This band goes from strength to strength. Their sound evolves and they definitely do not get stuck in a rut. My favourite track thus far is Ponzi.

Then of course there is the new Bon Iver album called Bon Iver- get it, it is truly awesome. He has also expanded his soundscape in very positive ways.

Other:

Check out www.justmusic.co.za this is another good website for reading about music news.

For some end of year lists, check these out:

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&title=

http://www.nme.com/list/50-best-albums-of-2011/255135/page/5

One good for a laugh:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/12/14/143699630/the-20-unhappiest-people-you-meet-in-the-comments-sections-of-year-end-lists


Friday, July 15, 2011

Summary July 2011



It's been too long since I have updated my blog.

As a summary I will mention various topics.

1) New(ish) music:
The Robert Plant - Band of Joy album is brilliant.
Paul Weller's - Wake up the Nation is also good.
The new Bon Iver - Bon Iver is beautiful.

2) Discoveries:
The Pitchfork website is good reading - pitchfork.com
Wolfgangs Vault is an amazing website for watching and listening to an incredible variety of live recordings for free - wolfgangsvault.com. There are also Ipod and Android apps that can be used to access this on your mobile devices. Extremely cool!

3) Live concerts:
I saw the Parlotones again at Teatro at Monte Casino recently. They have a revamped live show. There are a variety of props, dancers who remind me of the zombies from Pinball of the Dead (had my flipper fingers twitching), and more polished songs. It was an enjoyable experience. There are some pictures at the beginning of this posting.



I saw U2 live in Johannesburg. I had a seat way out at the top of the stadium, but it was still and excellent show. A stunning experience. Opening acts were Springbok Nude Girls (the sound quality was appalling it was difficult to recognise even their most famous songs), and Miriam and Amadou (also suffering from poor sound quality).

I have tickets for Kings of Leon who were already meant to have come, but due to injury were not able to make it. Apparently they will honour the tickets in October. I can't wait.

4) Deaths:
Since my last posting, three of my heroes have sadly passed away: Ronnie James Dio, Gary Moore and Clarence Clemons. I believe that you can hear Clarence on Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory.