My 2012 Best and Worst

I saw so many really good gigs this year that it’s hard to decide on a winner. Jack White with the Kills was special. British Sea Power’s Krankenhous’s were fantastic fun. Pulp at the Royal Albert Hall were as always, excellent. The Joy Formidable’s intimate gig at Kings College was also rather good. To close the year, the Hives as always were seriously good fun.

Best gig: Pulp playing for the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall

The way Pulp approached this gig was first-rate. It was pitched perfectly for the occasion. Jarvis as always enthralled the crowd. They even played the little heard ‘My Lighthouse’ accompanied by his sister and school friend. The song was Pulp’s first single released when they were still teenagers. Somehow, it seemed so fitting.

Pulp at the Royal Albert Hall

Band of the year: Jack White

Not so much a band but a man with two bands. Jack White was easily the ‘band of the year’. I saw him four times this year. Touring with two separate bands, the all-female Peacocks and the all-male Buzzards. Playing with no setlist Jack chose songs as the set went along. Playing material from across his career, reinterpreting each song for the different sound of each band. Each gig felt amazing. Of the two bands, The Peacocks impressed me the most. But both bands are very good.

Biggest disappointment: Joint winners – Mazzy Star and Frankie and The Heartstrings

I missed Mazzy Star when they were first around. Only recently getting into them. In the ‘iPod’ era I’ve fallen into ‘shuffle’ mentality. Listening to new albums a few times and then each song stands on its own feet in the ‘shuffle pack’. Sometimes my love of bands increases with shuffling as it’s somehow easier to see each song for what it is. Mazzy fall into this category. But this is where the problem lies. Their sound is different from most of my music so stands out. But an hour listening to dreamy music unfortunately turned out to be a mind-numbingly boring experience. Songs just seemed to run into each other. It got to the point where the entire set just washed over me leaving me completely numb.

I loved Frankie and the Heartstrings debut album. It was good old fashioned rock and roll. Simple, stripped back. It seemed to be just good fun. I managed to get free tickets to see them at the 100 Club. A double header with another band I’d been trying to see, Veronica Falls. Unfortuantely, for whatever reason, poor sound, too much beer, or most likely a rusty band who’d not played live for sometime, their set lacked everything that made the album interesting. I was left thoroughly disappointed.

Best support act: British Sea Power supporting Daniel Johnston

Ok. British Sea Power, or Texas Sea Power as they were known on the night, provided support for Daniel and acted as his backing band at the Union Chapel. To be honest. It was a short set. But they’re my favourite touring band. So they win by default.

British Sea Power at the Union Chapel

Best new support act:  Hey Sholay

I saw several really good new bands this year. Stealing Sheep, Lumineers and Hey Sholay stood out. It’s close between Stealing Sheep and Hey Sholay as to who is the winner. But Hey Sholay just edge it as they were the first of four bands supporting the Jezabels at Koko and still managed to stand out.

Hey Sholay

‘Weirdest’ gig: Ok Go

Watching a band taking the stage at an IBM conference at 8am in a Disney Conference Centre. That’s not normal.

Best gig in the ‘face of adversity’:

Hey Sholay at Hoxton Square. The band unfortunately had their instruments stollen a few weeks before the gig but managed to borrow enough equipment to put on a show. They played well, but everything was just ever so slightly off as they struggled to recreate their distinctive sound using their borrowed equipment. But I think everyone appreciated the effort they made to ensure the gig went ahead.

Best new band: Dead heat – The Savages and Alabama Shakes

I left out of my list of best gigs of the year two stunning gigs from The Savages (at Electrowerkz) and Alabama Shakes (at the Bostom Music Room). It’s a dead heat as to which band were the best. Both are simply stunning live.

A notable mention goes to Japandroids who were very close to making it a three way dead heat.

The Savages at Electrowerkz

Alabama Shakes
Best venue: The Lexington

The Lexington continues to be my favourite venue in London. It’s really convenient for my Kings Cross train. It has a great audio. Bands seem to enjoy playing there. What’s not to like about they place.

The US-themed Lexington
Best new venue: Madame JoJo’s

This venue surprised me. It was the first venue of the year. It’s a cabaret club in Soho. But it had a really cool retro ‘valvy’ quality to the sound. It doesn’t seem to be that great for stuff like beer and the doors seem to open late. But sound-wise, it definitely impressed.

Madame Jojo’s

Worst Venue: The Forum Hertfordshire

I hate to have to write this as I work for the University of Hertfordshire. But the Forum continues to be the worst venue. It’s not the venue itself. Sound-wise it can give most venues a run for its money. No, it’s simply because no one seems to attend any of the events I go to. For one gig, the support band were literally playing to me (a very uncomfortable experience but I couldn’t leave because that would have been even worse). There’s a few gigs coming up this year that hopefully will be better attended. Unfortunately, I suspect that they won’t.

Grainne Duffy, one of several bands playing to an almost empty room

Most embarrassing experience at a gig: Getting my ear plugs lodged in my ears

Bought some near ear plugs that were so small they managed to get wedged into my ears generating really awful high-pitched sounds. So I had to make an embarrassing trip to the medical room to get them removed missing much of the Robert Plant gig.

The offending items

Best gig photo: The Hives at the Roundhouse

With improved cameras. I took loads of photos this year. Choosing the best has been difficult. But the one that for me was the ‘best’ (it’s not ideally framed) that just seems to work with puppeteer background was this one from the Hives gig at the Roundhouse.

Best / Worst published photo: Mazzy Star

I was published for the first time – I don’t mean my photos appearing on a commercial website. That happens regularly. No I mean a photo appearing in a music magazine (Uncut). Unfortunately, it was an awful shot. But there were no photographers so they had little choice but to use the audience photos on Flickr. But unfortunately the lack of lighting was beyond my poor little Olympus XZ1’s capability. But still, I’m published.

Best gig video: Pulp – ‘My Lighthouse’

I rarely take videos at gigs. I find I either miss too much of the gig because I’m concentrating on the video or I’m spending too much time watching the gig and not the screen that I end focusing on the lighting. There’s also the issue of sound. If you’re at the front. Usually the little microphones on pocket cameras distort. But despite this problem effecting the winning video. The best video of the year has to go to Pulp’s rare ‘My Lighthouse’. Not the best quality video, sound or camerawork. But it captures the very rare event and that’s the most important thing.

Music Application of the year: Songkick

Songkick’s gone from strength to strength. It’s now replaced Last.fm as my source of information about upcoming gigs. It manages to keep me informed of most of my favourite bands and constantly throws up gigs that I’d never have known about.

So what’s in store for 2013?

Although 2013 will see me make a return to SXSW. The cost of the trip will most likely mean that I’ll have to curtail the number of gigs I attend for the rest of the year. I’m sure SXSW will throw up some new bands for me to follow that will keep me busy this year. But I’ve already got a handful lined up. The always excellent Black Crowes return to the UK in March. British Sea Power will be releasing a new album and will no doubt tour the country and hopefully play somewhere interesting that’s worth a visit and hopefully the Savages who are quickly becoming one of my favourite bands, will start to make some traction and I’ll manage to catch them a few times this year. So I’m sure I’ll be kept busy

The Minutes

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Black Keys

The Black Keys

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China Rats

Hey Sholay

Hey Sholay

Wild Palms

Public Service Broadcasting

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Hey Sholay

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The Crookes

The Crookes

The night started well with a decent set from the Fossil Collective.

Fossil Collective

Then Lumineers put in a very good confident set. I’d not heard them before. But they have that folk indie sound. Not as tightly produced as say Mumford and Sons, but have enough of a personality to stand out in what’s becoming an increasingly crowded music sector.

Lumineers

Then it was time for the Civil Wars. Hindsight is a great thing. Although I’ve seen many good reviews of this gig, and it was a good, enjoyable gig. At the gig I was pondering how I would review it. What struck me tonight was that I had a thought at the gig, have the Civil Wars run their course? The spark that made them special seemed to be missing. The ‘artificial flirting’ was that makes their songs even more special was missing. Instead there were just two fantastic vocalists making lovely music. It was very enjoyable and to anyone who was seeing them for the first time, I’m sure they thought it was a great gig, but that extra spark that made the Union Chapel and Shepherd’s Bush gigs special just wan’t there. It wasn’t until after the gig that I saw their tweet saying that they were cancelling their tour due to ‘irreconcilable differences’. Who knows what the real reasons are. Has Joy decided that it’s difficult touring with a tiny baby or did John Paul find it difficult to be around a family while he’s several thousand miles from his? Who knows? It’s sad when touring partners who had something special decide that they need time apart. But we don’t own bands and it’s more important that people are happy rather than them continuing a tour for the sake of the fans, so I appreciate them completing tonight’s gig. Hopefully they’ll continue to produce music together. But it will be a pity if they can’t tour together. Hopefully they’re discover the spark.

The Civil Wars