Two days after seeing Lily Allen for free, and exactly a week after A Camp at King’s College Union, I went with some friends to see The Dø at the same venue. The opener was Moriarty, a sort of folk/bluegrass band. Superb. I agreed with Julie that this was probably one of the best opening bands I’ve ever seen. When a band comes on stage with antique instruments and equipment like this, you really don’t know what to expect; the drummer used an old suitcase as a bass drum. They really rocked, I highly recommend them.
The Dø sounded excellent of course, and their show was much like the one I saw a couple months before. I got my hand shook by Olivia during one of her songs, for some reason. I also got handed Dan’s bass guitar during a particularly violent ending to a song. That was fun. These are the benefits to standing front and center. The only problem I have with being right on the stage is that the sound may not be balanced correctly, e.g. it will be harder to hear the vocals because the amps are all directed out toward the center or back of the venue. I’m a vocal-centric listener.
At the end of the encore, the audience joined in for the final chorus of the final song. They repeated it as the band left the stage. It continued for a while, until the band actually came back on stage for a third time, just to say thanks and leave again. I’m not an experienced concert-goer, but I’ve never seen that before, so that was cool.
Went to see Lily Allen for free (plus the cost of a tube ride) a couple weeks ago. Since it was supposed to be at a seeecret location, I had to wait around outside for a while until an old school London bus (the kind that loads from the rear) took us to the Tabernacle, a place near Notting Hill. Had to wait around once we arrived there, also. It was weird. Anyway, the concert was good, it was basically the same concert as the one I saw in January at Koko. Lily is still as immature and classless as ever, but her music is a lot of fun. There is some kind of correlation there, I guess. Also, understanding Britishisms makes it so much better. Also also, in the middle of not one, but two of her songs, the band broke into straight up drum and bass. They played “Day ‘n’ Nite” one time. It’s a London thing–people here particularly love drum and bass, I don’t know why.
It’s hard to get a photo of her with her eyes open when she’s singing for some reason, but here’s a couple of photos. Note that since this was a costume themed concert (the theme was London Underground stations), she was wearing a [Queen] Victoria outfit for the greater part of the night, and only changed out of the corset (in which it must have SUCKED to perform…literally…) for the encore.
Old school London Transport bus.
Lily "acoustic".
After changing out of a corset into some more loose-fitting clothing.
Lily Allen is having a free concert somewhere in London on May 11 to coincide with the release of her new single (plus she’s actually releasing her cover of “Mr. Blue Sky” on the iTunes music store). I’m really enjoying being geographically near to European artists.
There was a few inches of snow in London yesterday. We went up to Primrose Hill, where there were a bunch of people sledding (“sledging”). Someone told me that apparently, Lily Allen had been sledding there prior to our arrival. Twitter confirms it. By the way, I saw her at KOKO on 28 January, it was superb.
So now I’m really upset. I’m never going to get a rock star girlfriend if I keep missing these golden opportunities.
Here’s the video for the first single, “The Fear“, from her new album:
Riding the bus is fun! All the buses in London have two levels for some reason! To use an inversion of Lily Allen’s “Nan You’re a Window Shopper“, the top is so much better than the bottom…so much better. Not only do I get the added benefit of a wider view of the city (and whether I have already missed my stop), but also, never before have I felt that I have personally added to the rollover risk of a vehicle in which I was riding. A thrilling experience all its own.
Because I have a ten or fifteen minute walk to class from my “residence hall” (dorm), I have taken it upon myself to listen to appropriate (i.e. British) music for walking through London. Music I have listened to within the past few days:
Posted by Jeffrey 
Posted by Jeffrey 
Posted by Jeffrey 
