Broken Bells

When: Monday 24th March

 

Where: Shepherds Bush Empire

 

Why: James Mercer’s voice

 

When I rented a room in Three Bridges during an internship a few years ago, the first Broken Bells album was a godsend to me. I used to listen to it every day, usually when I was wandering along to the library or aimlessly roaming around Horsham town centre, pretending I was in a movie about a girl with a really boring life. (I could also only listen to the Sand Band’s album first thing in the morning at that time… I tend to get very set in my musical ways during times of upheaval). And when the second album came out, years later, it made my train journeys to another hated office job much funkier. Again, James Mercer’s voice was the hopeful backing track to dreams of a more exciting future involving less paperwork and Thameslink train journeys.

 

The second album, After the Disco, is a cracker – 80s, synthy, both retro and futuristic at the same time, with a couple of banging BeeGees-esque tracks (Holding on for Life is my absolute fave), it manages to be low-key and uplifting at the same time. Shepherds Bush was totally sold out, and the crowd could see their little faces projected onto the screen on-stage, staring back at their excited expressions and ready for a groove. The show began with Perfect World, the first track from the new album, and we found ourselves taking off from the earth in our psychedelic space ship, complete with huge silver globe and a stunning light show and visuals, on a nearly two-hour journey with our talented hosts.

 

Influential producer and musician Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer make up Broken Bells, and it’s fair to say that they’re a very understated presence on stage, personality-wise. Danger Mouse (more prosaically known as Brian Burton) remained stoic throughout, and it is hilarious how little Mercer speaks – not even a greeting to the crowd, but giving an occasional mumble of the upcoming song title. Having seen the Shins previously I knew what to expect, and somehow Burton and Mercer's seriousness and focus makes you take their whole enterprise more seriously and forces you to appreciate everything else they’re doing up there – their music speaks for them and is charismatic enough by itself. And Mercer’s soaring voice is just outstanding.

 

We landed gently back on earth, after some fantastic views and a euphoric journey, expertly piloted by two unlikely but impressive captains.

 

Brixpig x

Turin Brakes

When: Wednesday 20^th November

Where: O2 Shepherds Bush

Why: Love of old skool

When I told my friend I was going to see Turin Brakes, she texted back with “Never heard of them. Is that a typo?” Admittedly, they’re not the sort of band I ever would have encountered either, if it hadn’t been for a friend’s collection of copied indie CDs in my first year of uni. Once I had found them however, they became fixed in my life as a firm napping soundtrack favourite (alongside bands like Nizlopi, Starsailor, and the Corrs). That sounds like a dig but it’s actually a huge compliment; I have to be able to relax into a band to be able to nap, and their sound welcomed me in and helped me to chill out and have a think, which is vital when most of the rest of your uni time is spent either in total denial about upcoming exams or stress-writing essays at the last minute (two of my key areas of expertise, I’ll have you know).

This tour was to showcase their sixth album We Were Here which stayed true to their sound but with a bit of a “psychedelic edge”, which is almost never a bad thing. The concert was mild mannered but enthusiastic, with some epic jazz flute action and bass guitar flipping. During pauses between songs, the guys made sure to charm the crowd to keep them involved – “We tune because we care” – and it definitely worked, judging by the obvious affection for the band emanating off the crowd in waves. My favourite song of all is their classic track Painkiller which is a constant on any playlist I create, and always takes me vividly back to sitting in my tiny college room in Durham drinking a 50p pint of coke, leaning back on my chair and casually wasting my time in the most delightful way possible.

Thanks for a cracking evening boys.

Brixpig x

Laura Marling

When: Wednesday 2^nd October

Where: Shepherd’s Bush O2

Why: I’ve wanted to see her for so long

Laura Marling is quite frankly a genius. She takes her singing very seriously which sometimes makes me chuckle, but she delivered her beautiful songs with self-confidence and self-deprecation. She has an understated modesty which is a breath of fresh air compared to the ubiquitous self-indulgence of a lot of artists (coughlanadelreycough), and she told the story of how delighted she was when she found her stage outfit (a long, white, Victorian nightie style dress) in a vintage shop, which was great on so many levels – firstly, she looked bloody great and I wish people wore that style more often (period drama style capes, anyone?) and secondly, a female singer just standing there and singing and not making it all about the outfits and the legs and the gyrating was more than inspiring.

She held court on a simple stage, tuning her own guitar and not coming back out for an encore (doing it her own way, man), and she was utterly spell-binding. There’s no artifice, just a totally real, forceful performance that soars and envelops you in its beauty and strength. The story she told about her cab-driver on her journey to the venue was brilliant – on asking where she was going and finding out it was actually her headlining rather than just heading to a gig, he apparently said, “Oh god, you’re not one of those female singers always droning on about their husbands making them miserable are you?”, which she replied to with a self-conscious “Noooooo…..” Loved it, especially as whenever I mention Laura Marling to my mate Claire she always chirps out a mournful “maaaaaa husband left me last niiiiiight”, which makes me howl.

If you can see LM live, just bloody do it. I will, every opportunity I get.

Brixpig x

OneRepublic

When: Wednesday 24^th April

Where: Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Why: They do nice tunes

Yeaaaaah OneRepublic! You know them! No, you definitely do…! …You know the song ‘Apologize’, with Timbaland? Yeah, that’s them… Yeaaah, they sound a bit like the unofficial soundtrack for One Tree Hill? Exactly.

I still think this is a pretty good way to sum up OneRepublic (in a complimentary way, clearly – I loved One Tree Hill). But after seeing them live I do appreciate their musicality a bit more – they do some cracking instrumentals, their lead guitarist is FIERCELY good, and lead singer Ryan Tedder’s voice is insane (also, how cute a surname is ‘Tedder’? I want to marry him). He spoke a lot about his gospel church experiences as a child (a song on the new album is called ‘Preacher’, about his grandad being, well… a preacher) and this has definitely influenced his voice and his range. It also turns out Tedder has written songs for about a billion other artists (see his Wikipedia page if you don’t believe me) which is impressive.

I also love the face that OneRepublic are a proper band, a little collective with multi-talented musicians, and who all sat around for a jam session half way through the set which was sweet. Their cellist is perfection – if I wasn’t marrying Tedder for his surname, I’d be marrying the cellist for his all-round brilliance. Tedder’s special lighty-up piano was also a hit, especially when it changed from red to blue alongside the lyrics of his acoustic performance of ‘Apologize’, which he then merged with ‘We found love’ - an interesting combo. It was an evening of mash-ups, as it happened, with the original and modern versions of ‘Gold digger’ and an epic encore mash-up of 7 nation army / Adele / Roxanne (he does a great Sting impression) / Sexy back. Impressive. My personal fave was the interweaving of my favourite song of theirs, ‘Good life’, with the backing from M83’s ‘Midnight City’ (aka the Made In Chelsea’ theme tune) – see the video for proof. Smasher.

They pulled up songs from all three albums which formed a brilliant set and finished on a joyful and euphoric ‘If I lose myself’ from the new album ‘Native’ (which is great) and a confetti canon (which you don’t see enough of nowadays, in my opinion).

Awesome.

Brixpig x

Beach House

When: Monday 25^th March

Where: Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Why: Love em

“This is our nineteenth performance in London, so I feel like an oooooold pony… That’s it, sorry to interrupt our evening.” A funny little announcement from Beach House’s singer, Victoria Legrand, which made me chuckle and brought me back down to earth after floating around the heavens on her voice. I only discovered the day before the gig that Legrand, the lead singer, is in fact a girl, which even though I have seen her live I still have trouble believing when I listen to Beach House now. It’s like the time I found out that Cher was actually a woman (I was around 11 years old… shameful). With Cher it was like, oh yeah that actually now makes sense. But I still can’t fully realise it with Beach House. Which I quite like really, it’s mysterious. And also, doesn’t matter at all obviously. Legrand’s voice is like an androgynous French angel swooping over electronic clouds, with a killer guitarist (Alex Scally) in tow on the cloud behind, and hair that could literally destroy you if you came too close. She did seem to be channelling something of a pony with her amazing headbanging mane – her hair has a life of its own and was almost like the third member of the group. She was so passionate and seemed almost fused to her keyboard, which was appropriate considering how blended and seamless their music is.

I got into Beach House after hearing ‘Take Care’ at the end of an episode of New Girl, and hadn’t listened to them that much before I went to see them in March. Ever since then I’ve had them on almost every day and just love them so much. Their genre is kind of associated to ‘dreamfolk’ (not an enormous fan of that term but it kind of works) and to be fair, the experience of seeing Beach House live is like being caught up in a beautiful dream. The atmosphere in the Shepherds Bush empire was nothing like I’ve experienced there before – the crowd were SO quiet, like they were dazed or just respectfully speechless at what was going on (which just never really happens, or at least not at the gigs I’ve been to…). It’s impossible not to get caught up in their performance, and the teaming of the lighting with every note of the music was simple but perfect (see my video below of ‘Take Care’ – persevere and about half way through you’ll see what I mean). Legrand’s voice is a bit like if Debbie Harry sang only at the bottom of her range – husky, characterful and enrapturing.

Beach House are a perfect example of why recordings are never enough – you HAVE to see music live to experience how it’s really meant to be and to allow the visuals to let you connect with the band and to get into their personality.

Love them.

Brixpig x