London Grammar

When: Wednesday 5th March

 

Where: Troxy

 

Why: Good question

 

Wasting my young years. At this gig, I think I was a bit. It was certainly a few hours of my life that I’ll never get back. I returned to the Troxy for the postponed gig that got me my free Future Cinema tickets, and realised what a brilliant venue it is for music. It’s congenial and beautiful, with great bars and views even right at the back, and the little booths are lush. However, once I’d taken all this in, sat through the support (Dan Croll – good, bit Made in Chelsea but a nice presence), I was ready to be carried away and impressed. Instead I ended up lost and floating on an uninspiring, lukewarm sea of dullness. With currents of irritation carrying me along, thanks to the film crew constantly dicking about running backwards and forwards in my eyeline.

 

There is definitely such a thing as being too understated. It can verge on being not at all interesting. And having no stage presence. I have no doubt that London Grammar are all nice, inoffensive people, but that doesn’t make for a great evening of entertainment. Hannah Reid’s voice is genuinely good and has a powerful haunting quality, but it can get a bit unvaried after a while. The group were filming the music video for their song Sights, which meant that Hannah had to leave the stage for a three minute Lemsip session before they performed it, during which time the cameramen went into overdrive, practicing their runs up and down the stairs (see the long shot at the end of the video below and you’ll see what it was they were up to). I really think you should commit to one thing – either do a gig or film your video. Or accept that if you use your live performance as your video, it might be a bit ropey – don’t REPEAT it as your encore (that was the point that drove me out of my stupor to get up and leave). As a group, they really didn’t have the charisma to charm a crowd into going along with the whole video charade, to make up for the annoyance with their persuasive power and banter. The audience all just seemed to be having a good old rumbly chat throughout the entire gig. I’ve seen beautiful, dream-like performances hold an audience spell-bound (Beach House, I’m looking at you), so I know it is possible. But London Grammar definitely aren’t there yet.

 

Brixpig x

 

Future Cinema - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

When: Thursday 20^th February 

Where: Troxy

Why: FREE tickets thanks to postponed London Grammar gig

Firstly: Shadwell is terrifying. I’ll just leave that there.

Yeah it was good considering it was free. I don’t think I’d pay for it in future, unless it was a film I LOVED – essentially if they did a Sense and Sensibility one and I got to go home with a young Hugh Grant, that kind of thing. I think getting into the venue was the most entertaining part, lurking round the side entrance of the Troxy yelling potential passwords at a monkey doorman. Apparently we should have actually known the password but thanks to an email I didn’t get, it took longer than expected to guess the right one… Once inside though it was clear that the venue was perfect for the show, very retro and with plenty of dark corridors for Jessica Rabbit to lurk in.

It was a bit like going to an ambiguously themed student ball. Lots of balloons, uninspiring food, and ‘crazy’ thesps dressed as various movie creatures running around causing havoc. The film started quite suddenly just as we were settling into the entertainment, and from then on it was essentially just a very fancy cinema trip. There definitely could have been more done with the characters acting out scenes from the film, although they did do a bit (mainly Jessica Rabbit walking seductively from one side of the auditorium to the other every now and then). The night ended on a high though with the entire cast and audience up on the stage dancing (it has long been my dream to jive with a monkey in a suit. I mean, not really, but it should have been). 

Brixpig x