So, Berlin has had some lovely guests in the past weeks. Ed Harcourt, Grizzly Bear, Black Wire...OMG GREAT GIGS.
Ed Harcourt made me sad. Probably because I love his music so much. Sometimes, especially lately, i feel like a fickle music fashionista falling in love with every new band. It is nice to have a stack of albums from the same musician. Albums that i bought too. Its nice having the cd covers.
His gig was performed in front of a select few in Magnet. For one of the songs which he played on the piano, he had to sort of play standing up as he was leaning towards his old-fashionedy microphone for some parts of the song. I'm not sure why but this singing/leaning forward into an old-fashionedy mic...really affected me. Swoon, thud. (Yes, i was very aware of his beautiful, amazing violin playing wife standing several feet to the right playing her heart out.) He did alot of fun loop tricks, setting up beats and little guitar hooks before launching into the songs playing live on the piano. he even had this little...thing..which played a song as he rolled a piece of paper through it. That was looped too. After the show he explained slightly bitterly that his record company in Germany here weren't really looking after him very well (during the gig he wondered aloud if anyone from BMI Germany was there and then said he didn't really care..) They had not done any promotion for the tour or lined up any interviews or anything for him while he was here. I feel bad for not shouting about here and plagueing him for an interview. Although we had a very brief chat after the gig it would have been amazing to interview him properly. Though, i am sure bloggers isn't what he meant when he was talking about interviews..still, I felt bad. The next day he said he was going to be playing in Hamburg, and was very excited indeed about visiting a store that specialises in wierd old antiquey musical instruments that noone has heard of.
I have the set list rolled up at home (how much does a set list with the edward harcourt's notations and also chicken curry stuck to it go for on ebay?) but i cant remember exactly how it went. I was disappointed that I didnt hear some of my favourite songs..But he did play "Apple of My Eye", which i think is the first song of his i ever heard, and i remember falling in love with it instantly. He did play some brand new things off his new album out soon, soon.
The opening act was Sandy Dillon, who seemed as though she had been dragged up from the depths of the Mississippi to perform for us that evening. She took to the stage like a carnival performer, her eyes peering out at us impishly from under her blonde fringe, her smile crooked as she sang. Her slight frame and angelic features belies her deep, throaty voice. The songs and voice were so similar to Tom Waits (and guess who came on the soundsystem after the show?) though sometimes she sang softly and sweetly, it was mostly this gravelly harsh bellow..which just seemed such an unlikely voice from this waifish blonde who i couldnt tell if she was 30 or 50 years old..Before each song she would tell a little story, "My mother always says to have 50cents in your pocket. She calls it "mad money". This is a song about mad money." or "i had the worst dream ever last night that i lost all my teeth...Then I found out that everybody has this dream - it's a universal nightmare!" Her drummer looked strangely familiar. It was Harcourt, in disguise in a baseball cap and t-shirt.
Oh god. I just read this on his myspace page.
Berlin! I like Berlin. Walked about three miles with Gita and Fiona into the area where it used to be east Berlin and all the artists etc squatted and secretly created and live un-oppressed lives or something..Bought some military hats and a russian sailor's top! very turbonegro. Played drums for Sandy tonight which was a blast; the gig itself was wonderful - probably my favourite of the tour. I expect I made an extra effort as a result of the night before. Josh Pearson from Lift to Experience turned up and we all played songs after the show and left the venue at 6 in the morning. At this point I was in a pretty good mood and I think I got to bed by about 10.00am. Watching the sun come up indeed. Whilst listening to SLAYER. Hmmmm.
Did he really stay there til 10am? oh jesus. He was walking around a bit afterwards but I really didnt think anything else would happen. We left before 1am. Heart..break. Bleed A River Deep indeed..
