Saturday, April 01, 2006

Noise Noise Rock and Roll and Something Else Too.

Last Friday I moved house. For some reason the hardest part was getting everything down the 5 flights of stairs at my old place. After all the packing and carrying, I was pretty damn happy to finally be in my new place..and those worries i had about going to see unknown bands were easily overcome by "WOOHOO I MOVED TODAY I WANT TO CELEBRATE!!!!112" excitement. So i totally went to see the The Noisettes and The Rifles at Kalkscheune. With my flyer it was only 6 euros in. I like that. It was my first time at a gig there, but it felt eerily similar. (Mirror balls, red velvet...Is it owned by the same people as Magnet?). A really big crowd turned out for this gig including a guy who was disco dancing in a wheelchair (not the same guy i mentioned sometime before. this dude was probably 50 and took over the floor before much people had turned up yet. he ran over my foot later on while waiting for the Rifles.)

The Rifles came onstage and incited absolute mayhem in the crowd, for some reason. Me, I was falling asleep. I escaped the mosh pit but had to keep going further and further back as it just kept growing. Once or nine times I was really tempted to just leave, I was dead on my feet probably after the mad day i'd had, but also probably cos the band was a bit boring. And there had been a long wait for the gig to actually get started. So, im not sure if it was my tired state or the fact that maybe the band just is a bit same old same old. The very last two songs they played in their encore were definitely the best of the night.

Oh, i came across this. it think it explains better than i can how i feel about the band's music:
Oooo this shimmers, glitters and gapes with the yawning hole of shiny mediocrity. What’s-a-happening, there’s a black hole in one of the biggest music cities on this planet and it’s sucking the point out of everything; or at least sucking everything to a point where the urgent need to do something all your own seems to have been lost. The Rifles must have been kicking back waiting their turn while Oasis ransacked the mod revival for ‘inspiration’; ‘cept they’ve skipped the initial crime-spree kicks and bad-drug adrenaline rush of 'Definitely Maybe and jumped straight to the jaded nonsense of that awful fourth album.

Found here.

They told the crowd we were better than Munich, and that this was only their second gig outside of London. They were really excited and happy that people were going mad. Im glad they couldn't see me...

The Noisettes were actually on first but i feel like they should have been the main band on this evening. I want to finish this post on a positive note so I decided to write about them last.

So, imagine if bambi was a young black woman wielding a bass guitar...that's Shingai, the frontwoman of The Noisettes. She's...??!! Hard to explain. She came onstage in a bolero jacket and black suspenders, knee length leather trousers, sparkly lederhosen, one silver eyebrow and one chandelier earring. One or two of her curls were dyed bright pink or teurquoise and her eyes sparkled with intense energy. Her performance is very theatrical and her face is so expressive and animated as she sings, its hard to take your eyes off her. Before they'd got through their second song she had kicked off her shoes, i wonder by the way she moves if she spent some years as a dancer. Even doing rock n roll stage antics she looked lithe and graceful. Dropping to her knees, kicking her leg in the air and leaving it there, or hanging it over the end of her guitar, jumping up on speakers...Her voice is amazing and beautiful and its a shame because her mic didn't seem to be loud enough. She looks at odds with the rest of the band, the two boys whom she introduced as Wednesday and Friday. I am sure they have a real names and i hope they know how lucky they are to have Shingai because she really makes the band. I have no idea how to describe their music. That's probably a good thing. I stole a poster. I really hope they come back!

Here is a good link to an article/interview on them.

The Knife are playing this Thursday. Deep Cuts broke my heart last year in uni and this year in Berlin and now I finally get to see them live, !!! It's going to be an amazing show. I just know it.

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