Thu 22 May – Einstürzende Neubauten: Alles wieder offen Tour

I put on my avant-garde hat last night at the Forum to see Einstürzende Neubauten.

The first act was Otto von Schirach, and he played the same sort of shrieking, glitching breakcore set that he did when I saw him open for Skinny Puppy. There was no bananaSLOTH this time. I didn’t appreciate him any more this time, although I laughed when he did a short cover of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy”.

Next up were an experimental noise duo from China called White. Both members have pedigrees in…

Tue 20 May – Spiritualized, Sian Alice Group

Opening act was called the Sian Alice Group. They were cool in a post-rock repeat-the-groove rock-trance kind of way. Pretty heavy with some light touches from the singer. They switched up instruments a lot; I like that.

I was glad to see Spiritualized again. I’ve caught Jason Pierce’s band twice before: once at the Brixton Academy in very intense band mode, and once at the Forum in a more reserved semi-acoustic mode (Pierce sat for the entire performance). He’s since come close to death but is touring to support a new album…

Sun 18 May – Roger Waters

Last night I was at the O2 arena to see Roger Waters on his first London night of his Dark Side of the Moon tour. It was, as expected, amazing.

I saw Roger once before, about 8 years ago in Montreal on his In The Flesh tour. He was good then. He might have been better last night. Close call.

On this tour, Roger is playing a set of highlights from his Pink Floyd and solo career, then a set where the band performs the entirety of the classic Dark Side of the Moon…

Thu 8 May – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Last night I saw one of the coolest men on a stage anywhere: Nick Cave, with the Bad Seeds.

I got to the Hammersmith Apollo early enough to catch first act Barry Adamson. Adamson was a Bad Seed for a while and played bass on four of the band’s early albums. Since then he’s made solo albums and done work for film soundtracks (Lost Highway, for instance). Adamson’s dub-tinged jazz songs are as cheezy as they are swinging. I’ve got his last album, Back to the Cat,…

Tue 6 May – Lightspeed Champion, Operator Please, Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man.

Fun gig last night at Koko to see UK indie scene darling Lightspeed Champion.

The fist act (catching me off guard, since they weren’t advertised) was (I found out later) actually Lightspeed’s bass player with backup from a couple of other musicians. He played guitar and sang in a bluesy sort of rock style. It was rough and only lasted a couple of songs, but I liked what he was attempting.

Then came Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, a four-piece band of young guys that I thought were pretty cool. They come across a bit…

Thu 17 Apr – Björk

Wow. Björk. Amazing show.

I showed up at the Hammersmith Apollo in time for the opening act, Iranian electronica twiddler Leila (aka Leila Arab). I liked her 35-minute non-stop set. It was equal parts glitchy noise and records, mixing bleeps with Bowie and the Stooges and Snoop Dogg. I think some of the crowd wasn’t sure what to make of it, and there were a few uninteresting bits, but I liked her.

Soon main event showed up, though: Björk (aka Björk Guðmundsdóttir). I’ve been a fan since her days in The Sugarcubes, so this was…

Thu 10 Apr – Portishead

The first act was A Hawk And A Hacksaw. They’re a mishmash of Americans, Brits, and Hungarians who play upbeat Balkan instrumental jams. Most of their songs are created on accordion, kick drum, violin, trumpet, and one of those eastern-European mandolin-type stringed instruments that every folk culture seems to use. There were few vocals, mostly just fast, repeated dance patterns. It was a bit hypnotic at times, though a bit dry at others. Maybe what Sigur Rós would sound like if they were gypsies instead of Icelanders.

Then came Portishead, just starting a tour to…

Thu 27 Mar – Buck 65

Canadian music overload last night!

First up was the oddity known as Mayor McCA. A lo-fi one-man band, the Mayor played a sad ukulele ballad, sat atop a kickdrum he played with his heel, made use of set of bass pedals, threw in some electric guitar and keyboards, and treated us to a wandering clarinet solo. He was stoner-goofy but endearingly good natured and funny. The epic “Hey Man You Gotta Nice Job” featured a crowd singalong and a snazzy tap-dancing interlude.

Next up was CR Avery, a beatboxing Tom Waits poet. He was…

Mon 24 Mar – R.E.M., Foals, The Duke Spirit, Robyn Hitchcock

After returning from a day out, I made tracks for the Royal Albert Hall. The concert event there was in celebration of the 60th anniversary of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. There were four bands playing, and in a gorgeous setting like the Hall I wanted to be there to see them all. Luckily, I’d been able to score good seats on the lower tier.

The first act were one of the NME-buzz-bands-of-the-moment, Foals. They’ve got a hard-grooving indie rock sound, and their songs are mostly long dancey jams…

Mon 25 Feb – Saul Williams, Charlie Dark, Scroobius Pip versus Dan le Sac

I was at east-end London club Cargo last night for part of the London Word Festival. There were, as promised, a lot of words. It was a jazzy, funky, word-filled evening. I like Cargo: it's an underground, stone, bunker-y place. Yes, it's a bar.

When I got there, DJ Charlie Dark was responsible for the beats. A few minutes later the first act, Polar Bear, came on. He was a poet from Birmingham, and put out a few funny, very British, rhymes.

Immediately after, we were…