Live in Edinburgh This Week – 23rd November 2008
You can’t fucking move in Edinburgh this week but for accidentally walking in on a quality gig. Honestly, you could end up with a liver like a cricket ball if you went to all of the bastards, so there may be a few orange juice gigs (yes, I know, boom-tish and all that) for me this week, or I’ll have to spend all of December sobering up.
Given what Christmas is generally like anyway, I suspect that’s what January is likely to be for but, as with Christmas itself, it seems that the party season is starting earlier than ever this year. Anyhow, there are a couple of really major ones this week, so unless you are at gigs from Wednesday until Sunday with barely a pause for breath, then bollocks to you.
Wednesday 26th November 2008: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at the Corn Exchange.
I don’t think I need to tell you what a legend I think Nick Cave is. Along with Tom Waits and Bob Dylan he forms some sort of Unholy Trinity here at Song, by Toad and as his age increases so, seemingly, does his swagger. Dig, Lazarus, Dig may not have been the most brilliant of his albums, but the stage show is still pretty amazing, helped considerably by the presence of demonic dervish Warren Ellis, torturing his violin to within an inch of its life. Not to be missed.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Opium Tea
Wednesday 26th November 2008: Mary Hampton & Pete Greenwood bring the Green Man Tour to the Bowery.
If you can’t face the plastic glassed, beer stained, sweaty aircraft hangar which is the Corn Exchange then this is place for you. The Bowery’s cosy setting is as perfect as I can imagine for the kind of delicate folk that the Green Man tour will be bringing to town. Peter Greenwood is a little more popsome than Mary Hampton, so the two should provide a nice counterpoint to one another and a splendid evening altogether.
Pete Greenwood – Negotiations & Last Words
Thursday 27th November 2008: The Limbo 1st Birthday Party at the Voodoo Rooms, with Micachu, A-Lix, Dead Boy Robotics & Ex Lion Tamer.
Quite how Limbo have managed to put on a gig every week for a year is bloody well beyond me. This will be at the dancier, electro-spazzier end of the spectrum of music you’ll hear about on this site, but then again this is supposed to a party after. So well done to Dave and Andy at Limbo, and you can be assured that I will be there with bells on. And, while we’re at it, well done to Ex Lion Tamer on signing with Seventeen Seconds Records.
Ex Lion Tamer – Go Ghost
Thursday 27th November 2008: Oxjam at the Hive, with Thieves in Suits, My Tiny Robots, Found, Sorren MacLean, Black Diamond Express Saint Jude’s Infirmary & the Wee Baby Jesuses.
Forgive me if I don’t link to every single MySpace page for this one, but you can all use Google. This is the second of two nights in the capital this week with an all-star lineup of bands and all sorts of shadowy-sounding extra entertainment, like Ox-Factor stage, a Guitar Hero Arena and a cocktail bar.
Friday 28th November 2008: Withered Hand, Ish Marquez, Stanley Brinks and an Uber-Secret Special Guest at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Even without the Very Special Guest this is a pretty special lineup for fans of scratchy anti-folk twisted with unrest and disquiet. Withered Hand is pretty much head of the Edinburgh arm of the anti-folk society, and certainly the one who fits most cleanly with their sound.
Jeffrey Lewis – If You Shoot the Head You Kill the Ghoul
Saturday 29th November 2008: White Heath & Fanattica at The Tron.
I am not entirely convinced about White Heath’s recordings on their MySpace page, but Euan put them on at Trampoline the other week and said that they were excellent live, so this should be worth checking out. Recorded, there is quite a straightforward indie rock foundation to songs subsequently spiced up with real instruments. Live apparently there is much more of an unhinged carnival atmosphere than I have thus far detected, so maybe it’s just not quite been captured on the recordings. Fanattica are excellent live, with plenty of influence from the considerable Edinburgh Polish population, which they churn up with plenty of spirit and deliver with plenty of mayhem.
Saturday 29th November 2008: Gimme Shelter at the Caves, with pretty much the cream of the Edinburgh music scene. I can’t be arsed linking all the MySpace pages, but here’s the list: Broken Records, Ballboy, Wake the President, Steve Mason (DJ Set), The European Union, De Rosa, Found (DJ Set), Withered Hand, Meursault, eagleowl, Jesus H Foxx, Little Pebble, The Kays Lavelle, Team Turnip, Kat Healy. Basically, as you can probably tell, one great big fuck off extravaganza of music. Surprisingly enough, my tip for the day is Team Turnip. It may be a silly name, but Russell was one of the first people to ever submit music to Song, by Toad and his songwriting is really good. He’s been under the radar somewhat since then, so I’ll be really interested to see how he’s getting on after almost two years.
also on thursday there’s The Wee Rogue, Wounded Knee, and The One Ensemble playing Stills.
And also the Oxjam thing at the Hive, with the seasonaly titled Wee Baby Jesuses, My Tiny Robots, FOUND, Saint Jude’s, and others.
‘Tis the season to hassle people for money, and all that.
It’s cock-a-hoop!
But who is the mystery special guest?
I’ve still no idea….
The suspense is killing me….
Your post doesn’t give away any clues at all…….
Hassle!!!
i take offence!!!
Come on, Tom.
Forcing us out of our warm cosy homes to come and watch an incredible line-up of bands till some ungodly hour in the morning?
And asking us to pay a whopping £6 (or £8 on the door) for the priviledge?
It makes me angry just thinking about it.
and what do you fuckers do the other 51 weekends of the year………ha ha i win
Ohh… It’s White Heath…
Dylan, next time i see you, you are getting a slap!
I thoroughly enjoyed WHITE HEATH!
Clean out your ears…..
I was wondering why you kept asking me the question “Why, Keith?”
I mean, who’s Keith? I’m not Keith.
*slap!*
“What’s this band called?”
“Why, Keith?”
“Because I want to know, and stop calling me Keith!”
The best bit was when you did international sign language for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
running on the side of a hill?
No, Tom, that’s a different Kate Bush song.
oh…..sorry i’ll shut up and leave it to you 2
Sorry Tom, that was a bit rude of me.
Comedy gold though.
Shonagh’s international sign language for WH mainly involved waving her arms round like the puppets on Team America, but somehow, by doing so she managed to capture the essence of the novel.
did she look all Victorian?
No Dylan you definately should not respond to Tom’s comment or there will be another slap.
i can’t remember the Wuthering Heights moment, i’m sure it was beautiful!
yeah, what about the oxjam night, eh?
eh?
x
i’ve only got 5 of the top 50 mojo albums of the year….whats that all about?
everyone should go and get a copy of Mojo just for the photo of Liam Gallagher looking like a gimp on the front
mojo is a fucking waste of money tom. save that £4.80 and give it to charity eh?! It’s not like you do anything already! ;o)
£4.30 actually…it’s not so bad really…..but i like want a good music mag…..and Q is so pish these days….Mojo will just have to do…..
but only 5 out of the top 50? and i call myself a music fan!!!!
http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/getadvice
and this is what i do for charity…..tho i do get paid for it
I’ve given up on music mags.
I haven’t bought one in ages, but I picked up that last Mojo with Leonard Cohen on the cover when I was at the airport and it was hopelessly dull.
they should just transcript our banter and publish it
this is sort of published. and far more enjoyable than any music mag.
how many views does your blog get Mr Toad?
Mr. Toad’s not well today and has retired to his boudoir.
He’s been struck down with a surprisingly non-gin related affliction, by all accounts.
He probably skipped his breakfast gin on his cornflakes, and that caused the levels of gin in his system to drop to a level where microbes, bacteria and viruses could conceivably survive, and they subsequently swarmed his system.
About twenty people a day if I factor out you muppets.
(Actually, about as much as the circulation of a decent music mag. Not quite Mojo or Uncut or any of those, but the last time I checked the figures it was something at least on the same basic playing field, albeit a good way behind.)
And QJ, sorry about that, I got it confused with Gimme Shelter in my head somehow, but I’ve rectified it and put it up there where it belongs. Just ask Ruth, Bart and Euan, I seem to bloody do this all the time.
That many?
Candythief will be playing the Jazz Bar on Sunday – that’s one that I’ll really be intrigued to see – their last EP was brilliant.
yes he does. but he’s a trier and god loves a trier(which means nothing to him because he thinks all that religious stuff is shit as well) but we love him anyways.
and i find this blog much more interesting than a music mag. in fact, i find most blogs much more interesting to read than music mags. plus, if I don’t agree with something I can say and then have a discussion, which is far more interesting to me.
cheers toad, i like the use of the term shadowy – you could be more right than you know… (actually i’m not really involved in that side of things – i had to have guitar hero explained to me the other day, i thought it was a cartoon character…)
hope to see you there.
x
Yes, Dylan. If you look at the stats for the monthlies, we’re not doing too badly. Of course there are plenty of qualifiers with something like that, like drive-by mp3 croppers and allowances for repeat visitors, which WordPress is rotten at calculating. But it’s not bad.
what about using google analytics?
WordPress won’t allow any embedded Javascript if you aren’t self-hosted, so that’s unfortunately not possible. I will be trying to sort that out over Christmas though, so maybe we’ll get that sorted for the new year. Then I’ll have a far better understanding of what the real readership is.
The gig at the Bowery last night was excellent, it all felt very low-key which was fitting for the music. Mary Hampton’s songs are really beautiful as was her performance and Pete Greenwood was very understated and charming on stage. Maybe a little too self-deprecating, he ended a lot of his songs rather abruptly, followed by an unnecessary apology. A shame, but altogether an enjoyable evening.