Recently in Gig Category

As anyone who reads the Daily Links will know, I'm a huge fan of The Daily Show and its host Jon Stewart (and have been for many years, even back when its host was Craig Kilborn)- it's certainly the best thing on TV at the moment (yes: even better than Lost). Which why I was very pleasantly suprised when my sometimes extremely lovely/othertimes extremely hostile flatmate just showed up and gave me ...

I've long held the theory, mainly generated from my experiences watching live gigs in small venues, that it's nearly impossible to hear what a live band is supposed to sound like if you haven't spent some time listening to their studio recordings- and I held this belief simultaneously, without contradiction, with the opinion that live performance is the most powerful way to experience music. I th ...

Every now and then, without warning or expectation, life just deals you an ace card. Wandering through the lobby of my work, looking forward to little more than cooking up a curry and settling in to watch Star Trek and The OC. A quiet Tuesday night. Turning on my phone, you have one new message... "Daan, duude, get back in touch with me, it's Kathy, your mad friend buddy! Uhm I've got tickets, I ...

You know, One of the recurring arguments that occasionally pops up between me and my friends is: "Is Bono a wanker?" I think the answer, as much as it pains me (and, probably, you) to say, is probably yes. I mean, the last time I saw U2 live, thirteen years ago (!), was the ZOOTV tour, which I found to be a much more 'structured' show than the Vertigo tour (and also a more 'polished' show, ...

Yes, it's true, I did see the greatest rock n' roll band in the world this weekend. U2? Hell, no: DIE! DIE! DIE! The Spreadeagle in Shoreditch is a funny old venue for live bands. It's basically a tiny wee pub with a drum riser. The bands weren't so much playing in front of the audience as in and around the audience (which was packed into every nook & cranny). First up was the always-excellent Gr ...

"Hey bro, I need your help with something." "Yeah, sure thing, what's up?" "I'm ah, I'm going to see U2 live in concert on Sunday and I'm ... It's tough to say this ... but I'm ... not very excited about it." "What?" "Yeah, just, like, I'm completely nonplussed. Wait, does that mean, like, what does nonplussed mean?" "Dazed and confused." "Oh. Then I'm not nonplussed. I'm plussed. I'm just ...

I don't mean to bag to my favourite songstress, but her albums have been going downhill a bit recently. I think what happened was...her songs stopped being about anything. They always were a bit stream of conciousness, but post-Pele this tendency became exaggerated to the point that you couldn't actually pin down any one song and figure out decisively what it was alluding to beyond gigantic zebra ...

Er, God, I can only pick one? The pressure, the pressure!!! Right, well, a song I really haven't been able to get enough of recently is ah, hey, 'Drop the Pressure' by Mylo. This is all Ross' fault, having turned it into the skiing anthem (song you hear in your head when you're skiing) earlier this year. So whirl this one on the dancefloor and I'll start grooving to the left and to the right, sla ...