Wed 6 Feb – Joan Osborne, Dawn Kinnard

I only caught the last few songs by Dawn Kinnard. She seems a pleasant, wispy, singer-songwriter; in most ways, the typical girl-with-a-guitar. But it was a bit too soft and breathy for me. I would've liked a bit more vocal oomph.

I was in the Scala for Joan Osborne, though. You'd be excused for scrunching up your nose if all you know of Osborne's work is the annoying 1996 number 1 smash "One Of Us" ("What if God was one of us/just a slob like one of us"). I hate that song.…

Fri 1 Feb – Soweto Gospel Choir

Last night we went to the Royal Festival Hall on the Thames South Bank and saw the Soweto Gospel Choir. They were great, a lot of fun and energy. The group of singers, dancers and musicians from the Johannesburg township tours nine months of the year, and their current show is called African Spirit. It was two hours of upbeat singing, and “spirit” was a good word to describe it, whether meant as a celebration of religious or human spirit.

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Most of the songs were South African, and even if you didn’t…

Thu 31 Jan – The Duke Spirit, Dead Kids, Four Dead In Ohio

London has quite a few underground public toilets. I quite like these: they’re handy when you need them, and sometimes have interesting architectural bits like wrought-iron gatework aboveground and coloured tiles below. Sure, they’re often unpleasant, since they’re most often used by bladdered pissheads, but it’s to be expected: they are toilets.

A couple of them have been converted to other uses, however. One such is Ginglik, no longer a loo but a scruffy-cool subterranean bunker bar at the point of Shepherd’s Bush Green. Giving a new…

Sat 26 Jan – Henry Rollins

Rollins came on promptly at 8pm, and didn’t stop ranting, even for a drink of water, until just after 11pm. He’s nearly 50 but he still channels that punk rage, and in a really entertaining way. He talked about his penchant for visiting places like Islamabad, Damascus, Tehran, and Beirut on his own, wandering the streets and meeting people (he was in Pakistan when Bhutto was assassinated). He talked about being disappointed by heroes like Ted Nugent in his youth, but finding new ones like Van Halen. He talked about being an obsessive musical…

Thu 20 Dec – M.I.A., Santogold

I’m just back from seeing M.I.A. Met with some mates downtown and, after a bite and a drink, we ended up at the Coronet at Elephant & Castle. We were nominally just in time to catch the main act, but since she started 50 minutes late we wound up having plenty of time.

M.I.A. was pretty good. She had a better stage presence than I’d read in earlier reviews, but I suppose that’s a normal evolution. The beats were big, fat and loud. All the catchy tunes from Arular and Kala came out, and…

Wed 19 Dec – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

The missus and I were at the O2 arena last night (barely: we were very high up, but luckily not far from the stage since the seating is so steep). It was, as the legends promised, a terrific live performance. I’ve seen Bruce live just once, and then he was on his own, and only a surprise guest for a couple of songs for Lucinda Williams and didn’t even sing.

I’m far from the greatest Springsteen fan in the world. I love his folk album Nebraska. I have…

Wed 5 Dec – Black Mountain, Miracle Fortress

I missed the first act entirely, as they were on very early. I caught several songs by Montreal’s Miracle Fortress. Indie-sounding, trying to capture a bit of that Arcade Fire buzz (and there’s nothing wrong with that). I liked their songs okay, musically and lyrically, but neither bandleader Graham van Pelt nor the rest of the group can sing well enough to make it enjoyable.

Black Mountain were brilliant, though. I was really impressed for a number of reasons:

1. They sounded great live. Stephen McBean’s voice was stronger and more in-tune…

Wed 21 Nov – The Duke Spirit

Cool gig last night: The Duke Spirit.

It was at 229, a club (just a big room with a raised stage, really) on Great Portland Street I’d never been to before. I only caught the last song by the first act, a bunch of kids called Beggars. Interestingly, that was of a rocked-up cover of Leonard Cohen’s “The Future” (it can be heard on the link I’ve given), which I thought was quite fun.

Second act were a guitar-drum duo called Creepy Morons. They were nicely dressed in white suits and rocked pretty…

Sun 18 Nov – Vieux Farka Touré

I drove down to the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the South Bank Centre to see Vieux Farka Touré. Touré is from Mali, the son of the famous guitarist Ali Farka Touré, and an excellent songwriter and guitarist in his own right. He’s released his first album, and this is his first tour of the UK.

We got there just in time to see his band start. They laid down a desert-blues groove, a reggae-tinged African rock sound that was irresistible. Touré doesn’t speak English, but the crowd understood his French enough to know…

Fri 16 Nov – UNKLE

Man, the Roundhouse is a cool venue.

The support act was Fujiya & Miyagi, an electronica three-piece from Brighton. Their set was okay: nothing startling, but they’ve got a good groove that makes you smile.

The main act was the James Lavelle-led trip-hop pioneer group UNKLE. I remember the first time I heard of these guys when, in the last ’90s, a friend took me to a record shop in search of a song called “Rabbit In Your Headlights” that featured Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. I’ve never been a huge trip-hop fan, so I didn’t develop…