Legends of the Sun Pig

Flightstats.com is using icons of X-Wings instead of airplanes today (May the 4th) for flights in the air:

At least I hope they’re using non-representational icons. I don’t imagine a 10-hour flight in an X-wing would be particularly comfortable.

The shows I’ve been to so far this year have all been big productions (Imagine Dragons, Hamilton, Bastille) or have involved travel to get there (Thumpers, The Cool Quest, Gaz Coombes). This one on what I consider to be my home turf: Paradiso Noord at the Tolhuistuin, on the North bank of the IJ. It was a hot day, and I cycled there without a coat, and enjoyed a cold beer when I arrived super early. Early enough to grab a place right in front of the stage, in touching distance of Andy Stack’s drum kit, because I couldn’t stand to have another gig where someone squeezed in front of me and blocked my view. Selfish maybe, but I’m working on finding a way to live with myself.

I came to Wye Oak via Jenn Wasner’s side project Dungeonesse, which is super-synthy and upbeat as opposed to Wye Oak’s more earlier sombre indie/folk/rock-ish outings. But Dungeonesse heralded a change of direction for the duo, and their 2014 album Shriek was much more electronic, experimental, and filled with a kind of heavy beat-driven shimmering menace that is right in my wheelhouse (e.g. “Glory”). Their follow-up Tween in 2016 follows a similar path, but their new album The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs takes it to another level. The syncopations that Andy Stack lays down on tracks like “The Instrument” and “Symmetry” are intense. There are times when it feels like he’s playing for a different song entirely, but then the bass catches up, and Jenn’s vocals bring it all together on a soaring chorus.

To be honest, I hadn’t really been looking forward to opening act Suno Deko. I had listened to a few tracks on Spotify, and they hadn’t grabbed me. They felt too ethereal and abstract. But watching him live was a completely different matter: he loops together guitar and vocals in a thoroughly mesmerising ensemble — a style I first remember from seeing Zoë Keating play.

This was the first night of their tour, which was another reason to be excited about it. Jenn, Andy, and their bass player tuned up on stage themselves for a bit after Suno Deko before taking a break and then coming back on stage for their own set. The stage was simple, no fancy light show, and just a large backdrop featuring the iconic sand and sky from the new album.

After a prelude of “(tuning)”, they launched into “The Instrument” and I was left agog watching Andy play. It’s a fast, driving song, but it’s really hard to sway and bop along to. Because I had the best spot on the floor I was able to watch him play all of these fabulous rhythms with metronome precision in fabulous close-up the whole time. For some songs he even casually plays a keyboard with his left hand, like “oh, no big deal”. When the gig was over, I went over to him at the merch stand and gushed my admiration like a total fanboy. Fortunately, he’s just as cool and unflappable off stage as he is behind the drums.

Meanwhile, Jenn was switching between guitar and keyboard as she rendered beautiful vocals throughout, her face animated and alight with expression. When she was digging hard into the guitar solos, she reminded me a bit of Ritzy Bryan of The Joy Formidable. Some songs they played just as a duo, with Jenn picking up the bass on “The Tower” and twanging aggressively through the solo parts. “Watching The Waiting”, a favourite of mine, she played in a slowed down version with barely any drum accompaniment at all. It was gorgeous.

They didn’t play an encore. A few songs before the end of their set Jenn said they were just going to play a few more songs, and not bother with the whole leaving the stage, and coming back on again thing. I approve; it often feels a bit silly. They had already played “Civilian”, their best-known song, and they closed with “The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs”, ending the show in up-tempo style. I loved the show, and hope I’ll get to see them again some time.

Set list:

1. Tuning
2. The Instrument
3. Lifer
4. It Was Not Natural
5. Shriek
6. Spiral
7. Symmetry
8. Say Hello
9. Over And Over
10. You Of All People
11. Glory
12. Holy Holy
13. Hot As Day
14. That I Do
15. Watching The Waiting
16. The Tower
17. Civilian
18. I Know It’s Real
19. The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

I’ve been to TivoliVredenburg a couple of times before, but this was my first time in the “Grote Zaal”. It has a stage in the centre of the room, with steeply raked seating on all sides. When I booked our tickets (for Fiona and Abi and me — Alex wasn’t interested) it was clear that this was going to be a popular gig, because it sold out in minutes. But it was also on a school night, and there were going to be two support acts we didn’t know before the main event was scheduled at 21:00. We didn’t execute our Ziggo Protocol, but we didn’t show up super early to secure good seats, either. By the time we got there, the first opener (Charlie Barnes) was already on stage, and the only seats we could secure for the three of us in front of the stage were in the back row, tucked into a wedge between the wall and the ceiling.

I knew something was wrong with the sound straight away. It was harsh and unpleasant, and when Charlie Barnes spoke between songs I could barely make out his words. To Kill A King were the second opener, and it was even worse with them. High, snappy tones like the snare drums, cymbals cut through a wash of blurred guitars and vocals like gunshots. The applause between songs was even worse. It was like all the bass was being diffused before it reached to us, and all the treble was being concentrated and compressed into blasts of sound that I found physically painful.

Part-way through the set I left my seat to see if the sound was better elsewhere. I tried a few doors lower down in the auditorium, and to the back of the stage, where the view was worse and there were still spare seats. The sound was better but still not great. After To Kill A King left the stage I took my seat again in the hope that they’d been using a different sound system, and the engineers had been holding back the good stuff for the main event. Unfortunately, nope.

Abi had reassured me that it was OK if I wanted to move around and find a different seat, but I still felt reluctant to do so. But I also remembered a poor experience I had a few years ago seeing The New Pornographers at the Fox Theatre in Oakland when I didn’t move out of a bad seat, and didn’t enjoy the concert as much as I could have. Combined with the offensive acoustics, this pushed me into action. I left after a few songs, and found myself a spot slightly behind the stage with better sound, and a great view of Chris Wood on drums as well as the extra percussionist they had with them for this “Reorchestrated” tour.

The gig itself was fine. The extra musicians (horns, strings, percussion, choir) added depth and texture to the sings they played straight-up, and allowed them to deliver lovely alternative arrangements of others. However, this is the second time I’ve seen Bastille and not entirely enjoyed the experience. Hmm.

Set list:

1. Pompeii
2. Snakes
3. Send Them Off
4. Warmth
5. Laughter Lines
6. Blame
7. The Anchor
8. No Scrubs (TLC cover)
9. Icarus
10. Two Evils
11. Flaws
12. Glory
13. Of The Night
14. Cut Her Down (with Ralph Pelleymounter from To Kill A King — together they are the band Annie Oakley Hanging)
15. These Streets
16. Oblivion
17. Things We Lost In The Fire
18. I Know You (Craig David collab, minus Craig David)
19. Fake it
20. Laura Palmer
21. Good Grief

Encore:

22. Get Home
23. World Gone Mad
24. Weight of Living, Pt I

In January of last year Abi booked us tickets to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London. Last Saturday was our date!

We flew to Stansted on Friday evening, and had rooms at the Holiday Inn Express (nice breakfast) on Old Street in Shoreditch. On Saturday morning Alex and I took the tube to Finchley to pick up a copy of Sidereal Confluence from Leisure Games (a late birthday present). In the afternoon we met up with Abi and Fiona who had been raiding art supply shops in Shoreditch and had some lunch. Later on Alex and I took a leisurely walk through the city in the general direction of Victoria, taking the tube the last of the way when we realized we were pushed for time. Meanwhile, Abi and Fiona met up with James for some dog time. Around 17:30 we grabbed some food at McDonalds, and made our way to the theatre.

The show was, as expected, great. We have been listening to the music for literally years now, but finally seeing it in person was something special. The original cast audio recording stands alone brilliantly, and you can follow the story and the characters and enjoy the songs perfectly without the visuals. But the choreography of the stage production is fabulous in its own right, and there are many nuances of the live performance that add more layers of humour and pathos to the experience. Highly recommended!

On Sunday we were all tired, so we took it easy. Abi and Fiona took the tube to Tottenham Court Road while Alex and I walked there. We hung out in a Starbucks for most of the afternoon, sending out various expeditions to nearby shops for books (Foyles), videogames, and more art supplies. Late afternoon we picked up our bags from the hotel, and took the train back out to Stansted. Alex was teetering on the brink of a migraine as we manoeuvred our way through the airport’s nightmare hellscape departure maze. But with the aid of fluids, massive doses of painkiller, and an eye mask, we made it home — late, exhausted — without incident.

Quite a weekend.