Sleep Spent

First of all, please note that I’ve finally put up the pictures from Italy and Greece. I still haven’t written down everything that happened to me in those 5 days I couldn’t get access to a computer, but I’ll get to that eventually.

Tonight I went to a FREE concert at the Notting Hill Arts Club. There were to be five acts, but when I got there I discovered that the two bands I’d never heard of had decided not to come. So I heard Crooked Fingers, Azure Ray and Her Space Holiday.

I can’t decide whether I liked Her Space Holiday or Crooked Fingers better. CF was very indie with slightly Idahoesque lyrics (but not nearly as bad as “Levitate”). I knew I was at an indie show when he busted out the megaphone. The guitar and piano work were simple and melodic, in a very pleasurable way. I found myself enjoying listening to CF quite a lot; I’m going to have to look into them more.

HSH, on the other hand, was far different from what I expected, and extremely interesting. I have a ripped CD of theirs (Audio Astronomy) that doesn’t sound anything like what I heard tonight. HSH relied heavily on strings (either sampled or synthesized), which were really beautiful. And backing them up they had some very interesting dare-I-say hip-hop beats.

As I’m sure you’re aware, I’m the last person on the planet that would normally be interested in anything that could be descibed as hip-hop inspired. And yet here I was, dancing (in my own non-dancing way) and grooving to HSH’s infectious sound. I think the decidedly indie feel of the vocals kept me from being turned off; no flowing here, just normal indie singing. The strings helped, too.

I’m glad HSH didn’t have any CDs at the merch table — I would have been tempted.

Azure Ray was all right but boring. They have a bunch of pretty songs which are all pretty in exactly the same way. It’s something you might throw on a mix tape or have as part of a set of really mellow music, but I can’t imagine listening to a whole CD of the stuff; I’d either fall asleep or lose my will to live.

Note to self: you really need to get some ear plugs. You look like a freak holding your ears for half hour stretches, plus it hurts.

In addition to some great music, I met a really nice guy tonight named David. He is from Australia and is staying somewhere north of Camden Town for the time being. I think I shocked him a bit with the fact that I am addicted to the new Peter Gabriel; here’s hoping we can get past that. Anyway, we exchanged e-mail addresses. He is actually the first person I’ve “met” in London, which is kind of sad. I’m in a little American womb here at Hyde Park Gate. I’ve decided to do my best to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people.

Lastly, I wish to note that this concert was FREE and infinitely better than the £10 Do Make Say Think show I went to see a few weeks ago. cough*ripoff*cough