Tales of Pot Noodles, Disappointments and a Monster
Well, looks like I might still be able to produce children, despite the best efforts of my father-in-law (curse him). Did another 10km yesterday and around 14km today. I'm not going to be able to sit down at this rate!! Still, I have discovered that it is a necessity. We went into Seville yesterday to do a bit of shopping and I was particularly after the new Real Betis shirt (they are my in-laws team and it is their centenary and, as I'm a big footie fan, it had to be done!). Bugger was, they have a tendency to produce shirts that are a little, how shall we say, skin tight. This was all well and good a couple of years back when I was relatively slim. Now, however, years of booze and Pot Noodles have started to take their toll. When I put on the shirt when I got home, I was rather shocked to discover that I had managed to conceal a spare tire about my person. Well, I say conceal. I was greeted with a chorus of guffaws and I immediately decided that the cycling is necessary if I have any hope of turning my life around. I don't intend on looking like the Michelin man in my mid-30s. Screw that. Pot Noodles will have to take a back seat for now.
Anyway, Seville looks much better now the road works habve calmed down. However, my once vociferous support for the new tram system is starting to make me look foolish. Although the streets look much better, they poles used to support the tram lines are ridiculously large and rather too in your face. They decided that black would be a good look, leaving the city a mass of black poles and wires, rather spoiling the view of the cathedral. Dammit, Seville, your making me look silly with my 'it will be great when it's finished' routine. Sort it out pronto!!
On the plus side, a new music/technology place has opened in the centre. Hard to beleive that they didn't have a single reputable record shop these past few years. This one is called fnac and it is pretty impressive. I was certainly happy when I walked out of there with Rage Against The Machine - Live At The Olympic Auditorium, Radiohead - Meeting People Is Easy and Monster by REM (the only REM album I have ever really got into, but then it was released in 1994) - all for under ₤20. Result!! Right, I need to go for a walk before my bums stiffens up. Adios!
Well, what a night! And what a nightmare sequence of events leading up to it!! For a short time, on Sunday night, it looked like my wife would have to go to work and the whole thing was going to go tits up. Thank fuck it didn't as I had a superb night (much as I suspected). I guess I ought to tell you all about it.
Idlewild were the opening act on Monday night and, I have to admit, I hadn't heard much about them previous to the gig. Although they didn't blow me away, I was quite impressed with some of their stuff, enough to want to try out one of their albums. The only thing that bothered me was the vocalist. For some strange reason he seemed to prefer facing to the side when he was singing (or even with his back to the audience at one point). I couldn't get used to it, it was almost as if he was scared to face the audience. However, that aside, they were quite enjoyable and they certainly 'warmed me up' for the main event.
Then it came. The lights went down, Master/Slave began to fill the Arena with its chilled out vibe and then, the moment I had been waiting for for 15 YEARS - Pearl Jam made their way out onto the stage. The sudden, expectant surge was forthcoming and the crowd went wild. It has been 7 long years since they last played a proper Arena gig in the UK, now the end of the famine was in sight. Luckily we got pretty close to the front and, although we weren't quite within touching distance, it was quite an awesome feeling to finally see these guys up close. There's no way these guys could let me down and give a poor performance, and they proved me right with a blistering performance from start to finish.
They opened the set with Long Road which had the crowd singing along right from the start. This was followed by Severed Hand, one of the stand-out tracks on the latest album, and then some classic tunes almost perfectly designed for the moshpit. I was breathless by the time the pace slowed down during Low Light. One thing was clear as they made their way throughout the set, this was a fans set list. The well known hits were shunned in favour of well loved, yet little known, classics from the Pearl Jam back catalogue (which is vast). Of these, the stand-out songs were State of Love and Trust, Porch and Present Tense (a track that is popular amongst all 'true' Pearl Jam fans). Porch was particularly well received, with crowd surfers doing their thing while Eddie strode from one side of the stage to the other taking a moment to check out the audience, whilst Mike McCready did his thing, mesmerising the crowd with his superb guitar work (not to mention his endless generosity throughout as he threw out countless plectrums into the crowd). Breathtaking stuff. I could barely believe I was there.
Eddie was on good form that night as well. Cracking jokes and looking like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, he has become the peerless front man. And what a voice. At one point he thanked the crowd for 'putting up with [his] voice' all these years. With a voice like his, I could put up with it for a very long time and never get bored. Perhaps the finest moment came at the beginning of Indifference. Eddie had just been telling the crowd how he may have written some 'shit lyrics' but he was 'really proud' of these - cue Indifference. Unfortunately, just a couple of lines in, Eddie had forgotten the words that he was most proud of. Luckily the crowd pitched in and it all came back to him! He certainly saw the funny side as a broad smile spread out across his face (yes, that's right all you doubters, Eddie does know how to enjoy himself!!!).
Eddie also took the opportunity to share a new song that had only been played once before. 'No More' was an acoustic offering that was spawned via conversations with a man who had returned from Iraq and was paralysed from the chest down. Whilst the rest of the band were backstage, Eddie performed the song alone with his acoustic guitar and his usual passionate voice. It's difficult to know whether this will be staple of the Pearl Jam live set, but it was a fantastic moment to hear a new song debuted in the UK.
The remainder of the second encore had a distinct political theme to it, perhaps unsurprising given his comparison to Bush as a 'drunken driver' before 'No More'. Whatever, the atmosphere was electric in the Arena and, even after a 2 1/2 hour set, there was a sense that everyone would have been happy if it had gone on all night. Sadly, it wasn't to be. However, Pearl Jam had given a fantastic show that will live long in the memory. Although I had waited 15 years for this moment, I feel I have seen one of the best Pearl Jam live performances. Certainly that was the impression I got from various message boards and from the crowd on the night. It was well worth the wait. Pearl Jam were in their prime. Long may it continue.
Last FM has had a bit of a touch-up and it's even cooler than it was before. In the 'Recently Played' box in the sidebar, the Last FM widget allows you to play 30 second snippets from the songs I have been listening to. How cool is that? All you have to do, is click the little play symbol and away it goes. They have also added a widget to display your 'music quilt', which is equally cool. If you haven't done so already, I seriously recommend signing up. It opens a new world of possibilities. And best of all, it's an English invention (as are all great inventions!!).
So, I was going to blog about this album a few days ago, and then Wes beat me to it. Despite an overwhelming sense to shout 'what's the point' and embark on some crazy spree of mindless vandalism, I have decided to blog on it anyway. That's just the kind of guy I am. So anyway, I guess I had better share my thoughts on this album with my fellow leaves.......
Now, I know that some of you will be shocked that I have an album by a band that doesn't have it's origins in the early nineties, but I like to surprise people every now and then (and the odd badger, but that's another story.....). I picked up Silent Alarm a little while back and I have to admit I kinda liked it, although I have to admit I preferred the remix version. They had a very Londonesque sound, and sounded a little different from the clones that dominate the music scene at the moment. When I saw that they had released a new album, I thought I would give it a try. It wasn't the kind of release that I would rush out and buy, but I would give it a little bit of my time. After all, man cannot survive on avocado alone, right?
So, what do I think? Well, although it hasn't blown me away, one track does stand out as being particularly good. Song for Clay is based on the work of one of the finest contemporary writers in the English language. As I guess that title might suggest, it refers to Clay from the superb novel Less Than Zero, by Bret Easton Ellis. The song plays on many of the same themes as Ellis' debut work, quoting several passages from the book, including:
"People are afraid to merge on the freeways,"
and
"disappear here."
Now, that might be a superficial reason for liking a song, but personally I love Ellis' work. American Psycho is, in my opinion, one of the finest works of fiction of the past twenty years. Yeah, it is pretty stomach churning, but see through the violence and you see a pretty savage attack on consumer culture. As an aside, the film is also very good as it does a great job of playing down the violence and playing up the black humour of the book. In short, any work that references Ellis gets my vote.
As for the rest of the album, there are some notable stand out songs like Hunting for Witches, The Prayer, Uniform, Where is Home? and Kreuzberg. All good songs, but nothing that is really ground breaking in my opinion. It does, however, have the distinction of being far superior to some of their peers on the UK music scene. However, it has managed to displace Incubus' Light Grenades at the moment, which is some achievement (that is a superb album, Incubus back on form after the dodgy A Crow Left....). Overall, a worthwhile purchase with songs that really grow on you over time.
