Gig: Deerhunter @ Shepherds Bush Empire 31/3/11

As mentioned in a previous post, I was really, really impressed by Deerhunter's most recent album, Halcyon Digest, and so I had really high expectations for the gig. They were still way, way more amazing than I thought they would be.

First on were Lower Dens, who I got there early to see because I really like their stuff up on MySpace: lovely shoegazey, reverby stuff. About half of their songs sounded identical and fairly boring (mainly thanks to the very, very boring drummer), but the rest of their song were really, really good and I'd definitely like to check them out again.

Just after Deerhunter came on, singer Bradford Cox informed the audience that "Steve the lightman" told him that the legendary Old Grey Whistle Test series was filmed there, which was a lovely factoid to start the show. They opened with a new song, which sounded great, and then went into an overly feebacky version of 'Desire Lines' which, while being my favourite song on the album, was not as impressive live without the backing vocals.

The gig went from good to AMAZING when they played 'Nothing Ever Happened' from Microcastle. They jammed for ages on the outro and it just sounded fucking fantastic. From that point on, all the songs linked in with each other and were extended to great psychedelic effect. A few of my personal favourites were 'Helicopter', 'Little Kids' and 'Memory Boy'. It was all so good, I didn't even mind the crazy middle-aged man screaming random lyrics in my ear.

Here's some videos (I'm really glad people got it on film, but the videos really understate the experience of being there):

This was their encore. It was brilliant (especially the joke).

The noises at the beginning of the video gives you a small taste of the amazing sonic soundscapes they conjured up throughout the gig.

This was the new song they opened with.

This was the brilliant Magazine cover that they also played on BBC 6music the night before.

And on the way home, I saw a man in a suit throw up what looked like bloody maggots. It was great.

the band in Heaven [sic] (and The Radio Dept.)

the band in Heaven

I recently stumbled across the band in Heaven whilst reading a live review of a band they supported at some point, somewhere. I thought I'd look them up as they were described as "blissful shoegaze" and I quite like shoegaze, as well as bliss.

Although I (evidently) like the band, I wouldn't quite describe them as blissful (the shoegaze tag is fair enough). They're more crunchy and skuzzy, seemingly partly due to the particular type of guitar distortion they use, and partly because of the lo fi recordings. They do make a fantastic noise, and they also sound quite beautiful at times, in their own crunchy, crunchy way.

I downloaded three fantastic free tracks (what more could you want) from their Bandcamp, including a wonderful cover of The Cranberries' 'Dreams'. I would advise doing the same if you like noisy lo fi and/or the slightly messier side of shoegaze. I'm aware that the lo fi/shoegaze mix isn't the first of it's kind, the difference being that the band in Heaven don't sound like complete over-hyped wank.

	The Band In Heaven - Dreams (Cranberries Cover)
	Found at skreemr.org

The Radio Dept.

I have loved The Radio Dept. for quite some time, and I was amazingly happy to find out today that they let you download lots and lots of lovely music for free off their website, including their great new politically charged song, 'The New Improved Hypocrisy'.



I just don't know what I'd do without their commentaries on internal Swedish politics.