2 posts tagged “beth orton”
Well then, I finally sat down to get some of my thoughts out of my head.
The Came So Far For Beauty shows were simply amazing. It wasn't even so much who was part of the lineup, even when it was impressive, but just the whole atmosphere altogether. An atmosphere where no Lou Reed is more important than Mary Margaret O'Hare, or a Nick Cave is a bigger star than Teddy Thompson. It's all about Leonard Cohen's song, no matter who's doing them.
The variations were immense, from some doing their best to do the best possible rendition of the songs, to others (mainly Jarvis Cocker) taking one of the songs and making it sound completely like one of his own, almost giving a deeper, double meaning to it, most befitting a Pulp song. The mixed audience were kind of funny too. From Leonard Cohen die hards to corporate whores to Lou Reed fans and so on. Most people probably didn't know even half of the people on stage and their reactions to the different performers was interesting and sometimes, frankly, unexpected. Apparently that varying divided opinion wasn't purely limited to the audience. The reviews in the papers the next day were all over the place, with the Irish Times hailing in the Handsome Family and Teddy Thompson, totally dissing Gavin Friday to the freebie Metro type paper calling Gavin the highlight of the evening. I am very curious about these variations of opinion and what causes them. I can see the pros and cons, and how they'd cause some people to like one thing, and others not. For example, Gavin and Mary Margaret's rendition of Hallelujah was so original, so different from any Hallelujah version ever heard before, people were bound to either love it, or hate it. If you associate the song with Buckley's version and then get exposed to this, you might hate it, whereas if you decide no version of Hallelujah will ever be better than the original, it may actually be very refreshing to hear this new, avant garde kind of rendition of it. I absolutely loved it, simply because it was new, refreshing and original.
It was also my first time ever seeing Lou Reed live, which rocked. I did think his version of the Cohen songs were a bit guitar heavy though and I preferred the song/duet he did where he didn't play the guitar. Beth Orton blew the audience away, as did Antony. I'd never appreciated Antony much before, but all that has changed. His voice is so pure, so simple and so freaking stunning it's impossible not to appreciate it. Him doing backing vocals to Gavin is bound to make Sue jealous for not being able to make it over. Sorry Sue :-]
Friday we drove down to Glendalough with the intention to go fo a good hike and see the waterfall and whatnot. Well, we made it about as far as the cemetary and never even got a glimpse of the waterfall for all the rain pouring down on us. So not surprisingly, we ended up in the pub munching unexpectedly gorgeous sandwiches and sipping hot tea. Dropped off Caroline in Dalkey after which Stu, Sandra and me joined up with Patrick for food and drinks at the IFC. Another old favorite of ours, I suppose. The nachos were great, and the atmosphere was good, just loud enough to not hear everyone's conversation, but quiet enough to talk amongst ourselves. Very mellow, relaxing evening.
Saturday looked like I might spent all day trying to either find accommodation or suck up to the ex-boyfriend to kip on his couch, but I really didn't want to do that. None of that necessary however, since the tourist information centre sorted me out really quickly. So instead, I headed off to Nude for a turkey bagel and one of them Wu-Tang juices I love. In the evening I headed off to the Village, up next to Whelan's to see if I could scrounge a ticket for The Fall. The Village has a lovely bar with pictures of all bands that played there, that kept me entertained for a while. They even had one of the Dirty Three, but also the Magic Numbers and a couple of others. Slummed there for a while and talked to the tout hanging around there and a few folks. Nobody seemed to be having spares and even the tout seemed to be despairing. Bit of a grim outlook really, but I shouldn't have worried, really. Funny how I have been ticketless so often but always manage to get a ticket anyway. Whatever the case, I paid only face value and ended up in prime position at the Village. Great little venue it is too. It holds maybe a couple of hundred, with a nice little balcony and a nice, low stage. Possibly the only downside is the insane security.
Fujiya & Miyagi were the support. A Brighton based band (I think) who I hadn't heard from before, but proved to be very entertaining indeed. The Fall started off moderately calm, but everyone kind of went berserk during "What about us?" I absolutely loved it! Loved it, despite the bruised knee and smashed shoulder I'm now suffering :) The crowd was absolutely nuts which, considering the average age there was about 50, was pretty damn neat. Lovely evening, and very glad I went.
Today then is your typical sunday. Grey, drizzily, nothing really going on. The place I am staying in now is right next to the Music Centre where the Automatic are playing tonight. I don't really know them other than one or two tracks I may have heard on Xfm, but I think I'll go see them anyway. They are soundchecking at the moment with the Killers blasting out of the stage door. Heh. I'd like to take some pictures, but my camera is kind of running out of juice, and I didn't bring a charger. Hopefully it'll hold up during the gig.
Oh, and I kind of need to remember to buy a ticket for Nina Nastasia when I get home. Reluctant to go home (and back to work) at the moment, but c'est ca. At least it's only for 10 days, until I go to Budapest ;) How lucky am I? And, OMG, only 10 day to sort out my Halloween costume, nevermind a horse sitter. Hrm. Feeling slightly disorganised here. What else is new?
Boo. No free/unsecured access points near, so I'll have to post this later.
Update: Munching from the early bird menu @ Fitzers and abusing their free hotspot. The fishcakes aren't bad at all.
Doggie is doing slightly better. I mean, in so far in that she's eating again. She's still not well though, dragging her little feet, but at least if she eats she'll grow a little stronger again. Well, hopefully anyway.
Was supposed to take my CCNA exam today, but it got postponed as they don't have enough space for me to actually do the exam. Truth be told, I'm glad it did, cause frankly, it'd be a 100% fail. Those 80% pass exams just suck. They're too hard :-/ Now it's up somewhere in November, so that buys me a little time.
Not much going on at the moment. Work's dragging along. Couple of meetings which bored the hell out of me and a few minorly challenging things to sort out. That and about half a zillion technical design drawings. Those drawings take forever to make. Somewhere along the way I am supposed to set up our new branch in Leeuwarden too, so I'll be spending some time there. To make a long story short, I'll hardly be in the office for most of October, which suits me fine.
Been listening to Gogol Bordello all day and Bonnie Prince Billy now. Drums on his latest album are played by Jim White, who's the Dirty Three drummer. He's got the most gentle, almost bluesy touch. That, and he's such a nice guy. Whenever he plays the drums, he reminds me of an octopus, arms waving around all over the place. That's after you get over the "scruffy pizza baker" look though. I think that's cute though. Haven't spoken to him for a while now, but he's sorted me out with tickets a couple of times where he didn't have to. I was kind of hoping maybe he'd be playing with Beth Orton in Dublin. Whatever the case, he's been very busy doing Wil Oldham's latest, as wel as New Buffalo's "The Last Beautiful Day" and Nina Nastasia's latest "On Leaving". He certaintly did the Came So Far For Beauty shows as well, as mentioned in this article, speaking of the upcoming shows in Dublin. Can't wait.
Note to self: Check out Last Harbour's latest, The Drones and Loene Carmen
