El Guincho

Photos from the free El Guincho instore on Saturday:

Alaska In Winter and Broadcast 2000

I’m on a roll now, so here’s a quick recap of the Alaska In Winter and Broadcast 2000 show I witnessed for free at 93 Feet East on Friday.

First band on (at 22.30 might I add) was Broadcast 2000.

I really enjoyed their set, they were alot of fun. They invited audience members on stage to operate the shakers, because they were lacking a percussionist. If you head over to the band’s myspace you can see Joe has uploaded one of my photos to their pictures. I hope to see them play again sometime soon.

Finally, Alaska In Winter took to the stage. AIW is a one man band in the shape of Brandon Bethancourt, who hails from New Mexico. The ‘band’ is made up of projections of Brandon playing different instruments shone against a screen at the back of the stage, while Brandon does the vocals live. It was definately alot of fun to watch, but I can’t help but feel it would be so much better if he got a live band. He also bizarrely stripped down his clothed several times and changed outfits to match what the projected versions of himself were wearing. Brandon had some fun dance moves, and I think he’s pretty brave for heading on stage alone with no instruments to hide behind. The stage was so dark that I had to really push my camera to get any shots, this one turned out ok, it’s of Brandon after he changed into his completely white outfit. To conclude, it was a good free show.

Tilly and the Wall 25/10/08

My first blog post on my fresh new blog! This was my second time seeing Tilly, and it was alot of fun!

During the day I popped over to Rough Trade East to see Barcelonian el Guincho play a free mid-afternoon set. I foolishly stood by the speakers to deafen my already near-deaf ears. The band were enjoyable, I took a few photos which I will upload when I get on my laptop. Walking around Brick Lane during a Saturday is a big mistake if you’re hungry- there’s food stalls everywhere! I set myself a budget of £2.80 for the entire day, and all I had eaten that morning was a banana and 7 Jammie Dodgers. On the way back to my halls I stopped in Sommerfield and got myself a sandwich. 

After a short rest I took a stroll into central London and went to find ULU. It wasn’t too hard to find, although I was a little confused about where the entrance was. I met a couple of 16 year old boys who said they were queueing, but it seemed strange because nobody else was around. The boys were friendly, but extremely hyperactive, jumping around, punching each other and doing hand stands. We soon found where the actual queue was, and entered the venue promptly. I met another photographer who I had met at a free Pure Groove instore a while ago. We both hand our cameras taken from us at bag inspection, darn it.

I got a great spot on the second row right in the centre of the stage. The first band on were Moshi Moshi favourites Slow Club. The band were great, I really enjoyed their set. They seemed really happy to be playing for us and there was a nice atmosphere. If I have the money I’ll hopefully get a ticket to their Union Chapel show in December.

After a quick change around Tilly took to the stage! This was the second time I’d seen them, the first being in April 2007. The band have come a long way since then, and I actually enjoyed the show much more than I thought I would. I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of their latest record, so I was hoping they’d play more old songs than new. They did play a healthy dose of oldies, we got Reckless, Freest Man, Bad Education, Nights of The Living Dead, Lost Girls, Fell Down The Stairs and Sing Songs Along. I enjoyed Cacophony and Beat Control was alot of fun too. The sound was great and the band were a visual delight. I love watching bands who are having fun, and Tilly were definately having alot of fun. Neely set off a tube of confetti right above our heads and we all sang and clapped and it was a huge amount of fun. I noticed the guy from CSS was there too, singing and dancing along at the back of the stage.

I was sad to see my Tilly experience come to an end, especially since I had so much fun. We went and collected our cameras then I power walked down to Charing Cross to get the train back home. It’s a nightmare walking down Charing Cross Road on a Saturday night, the streets are flooded with tourists dwindling about and walking slowly.

This is where it all went pear shaped! I got on the train and a flock of drunk women in military fancy dress poured into my carriage. They were literally rolling on the floor, falling about, screaming “THE TRAIN’S MOVINGGG” and being loud and crazy because it was one of their birthdays. This is fine and well, but I wanted to listen to Beach House and I couldn’t hear Victoria and Alex’s dreamy tunes over all the screaming, so I changed carriages.

It wasn’t until we ended up at some random place called Frant that I realised something was wrong. It turned out that instead of the train dividing at Ashford like it normally does, it divided at Tonbridge, and I was in the wrong half. Bums. So I had to get the help of the train conductor, which was awkward because I didn’t have a ticket. Oops. He was a really nice guy and said that he’ll try and get the people at Hastings to:a) let me stay in the waiting room b) take me to the police station to spend the night or c) ring control and try to get me a taxi. He said to just say I lost my ticket. The guys at Hastings jokingly asked me if I could fight, to which I replied ‘Errr no’, so they decided it was best not to send me out into the mean streets of Hastings. They were so lovely and called me a taxi to Ashford (this is worth abaout £60) and charged it to the rail company. I am so grateful to them, I didn’t expect such kindness.

So I eventually got back at 3am and then dreamed the whole night through, I dreamt about Tilly and trains, yep.