May Gig Review
A belated May review, I seem to have been gigging none stop in June. With two music festivals, it was a great month for new music and a really good month overall. It was my first time at Primavera and first time in Barcelona. Primavera’s a fun festival in a great city.
I tackled the Great Escape with a more realistic attitude and managed to discover some new music and hard a hectic but enjoyable short break in Brighton.
At Primavera I discovered some oldies still know how to rock. Babes in Toyland, Patti Smith and Tori Amos were all ‘new’ to me.
A good month
This month’s bands
New bands are in italics
Bands I liked:
Baby Godzilla, God Damn, Public Service Broadcasting, Prom, Aldous Harding, Queen Kwong, Flying Colours, Jpnsgrls, Black Honey, PINS, Fable, The Garden, Bully, Shopping, Pinkshinyultrablast, Crows, Tuff Love, The Picturebooks, Theo Verney, Saint Agnes, Honeyblood, Swans, The Ukrainians, Jon DeRosa, Poppy Ackroyd, The Twerps, Viet Cong, Benjamin Booker, Thurston Moore Band, Ex Hex, Patti Smith, The Julie Ruin, Tori Amos, Torres, Mourn, Babes in Toyland
Bands I didn’t dislike:
Let’s Talk Daggers, LTNT, 18 Nightmares on the Lux, Service Bells, Meat Waves, Yonaka, The Waletones, Liberto Wolf, The Carnabys, K.I.D, Xcerts, Saskwatch, Zun Zun Egui, Dunwells. Menace Beach, Spector, HAUS, Winter Villains, Occellot, Childhood, Hiss Golden Messenger, Yasmine Hamdan, Spirtualized, Black Keys, The KVB, Opatov, White Hills, Belle and Sebastian, Sleater-Kinney, Death from Above 1979, Bohicas, Interpol, tUnE-yArDs, Spring King
Bands I won’t be going out of my way to see again:
Palm Reader, Smoke Fairies, Jack Robert Hardman, Gloo, Model Aeroplanes, STAL, Ward Thomas, Dark Moon, All Tvvins, Mt. Wolf, Forever Pavot, Loris, Lion Babe, Lawson, SWOONS, Tatcho Drom, Antony and the Johnstons, RIDE, Ariel Pink, Kevin Morby, Holy Paul, DIIV, We Used To Pray, American Football, Strokes
Most tardy band of the month:
Virginia Wing – already running late, but decided to take a comfort break. Therefore I left and moved on to another venue. Pity, they were on my list of bands to try and catch at the Great Escape.
Best gig:
Day 1 of TGE was pretty sweet. Black Honey and PINS probably edge it.
Best new band:
Lots of new music and some surprising old music. It should be a difficult choice. But it’s actually an easy choice. Torres was simply wonderful at Primavera. Playing without her band. Just her, a guitar, and some fantastic songs. Loved every second of her set.
Best photo:
Despite lots of gigs, festivals didn’t really allow me to take too many good photos as I was often too far away. But I like this one