AN OUTLAW TORN IN CHAINS: October 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Brandon Flowers - Brixton Academy

A truly enjoyable night, Brandon Flowers and his backing band brought the songs from his debut album to life went it came to this live performance. I hadn't given 'Flamingo' that much of a listen but I was familiar with the tracks prior to the concert. I found most songs to have too much of a similar vibe and sound, but the live energy made up for this. The few Killers tracks presented along side the Flamingo tracks were standouts and had the crowd singing every word with an extra oomph of grace. Human and Mr Brightside both featured Stuart Price who had re-worked the tracks.

The solo material was still incredibly well received and the mostly young, female filled audience were hanging to every syllable, lipped word.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

GRINDERMAN - LIVE AT THE CORONET

The dingy, urine scented South London 'Coronet' provided the perfect atmosphere for the sleazy, primitive facial haired but charmingly suited Grinderman quartet to deliver their performance in.

Cave, Casey, Ellis & Sclavunos delivered a blistering set consisting of songs from their two albums. The crowd enjoyed every track, every sexual reference, every lyric and hang on to the stunningly energetic performance that Cave is still able to deliver as he "kicked those white mice out..." all over the stage. The sweat, ominous lighting, loud and clear sound all aided in making this gig an experience. Grinderman's music allows for dancing, moshing, raving and singing, and all were present and delivered accordingly to their mix of psychedelic, rock maniacal sound, which is superbly fresh in an age where artists and listeners are striving to find new un-laboured musical territory. Ellis' screeching tenor guitar is an energetic, raw, visceral tool that fills the old cinema with a sound that others will envy as his fingers draw emotion from one's musical intoxication, by playing tracks such as 'Evil' & 'Get it On', that simply rumble the walls of the Coronet. The band seem to enjoy performing and the the rawkus crowd responded, which begged the question; What took them an 1 1/2 hrs to get on stage?

Besides the wait, the concert was superb, GRINDERMAN are not The Bad Seeds, something which a couple of crowd 'Mercy Seat' requesters should have learned before and let's hope after the gig...