MUSIC: Enter Shikari : Camden Roundhouse - 10/10/09 (Live)

For those of you who may not have been to a gig, it starts off with one or two support bands playing before the main act. Whilst at most gigs, crowds grin and bite their tongue if a support band isn’t to their taste, Enter Shikari fans haven’t got that ability within them apparently. True Tiger were the victim of an onslaught that came from the crowd. Glowsticks were encouraged to be thrown, but as the crowd began jeering and demanding the next support act whilst sticking their fingers up at the band, you couldn’t help but feel sorry for True Tiger – my hat goes off to them for sticking it out and finishing their set, yet this incident left me a bit apprehensive for how the night would turn out.

It turns out I needn’t have worried, the crowd was relatively calm, which was unusual as they should have been going mental! The music is untouchable and Enter Shikari have a fantastic ability to perform perfectly live, however the live presence just didn’t seem to be there. Some would say this is due to their new album ‘Common Dreads’ which seems to be stepping away from the Metalcore of their ‘Take to the Skies’ debut, however the new songs slide in perfectly adjacent with the old songs, especially Zzzonked which was astounding. It’s also unfair to say that the band aren’t trying, they put their all into playing their songs live as they obviously did when writing them, with the band being political in their messages. There just didn’t seem to be anything particularly special about the performance.

I was quite happy later on then to be informed by a fan that this wasn’t one of their best gigs, she in fact put it that this was one of the worst out of the tens of times she has seen them. Maybe they had a bad night in Camden, maybe this could have been due to the fact they’re friends with True Tiger who the crowd had thrown so much abuse at. Hopefully opportunity will rise for me to see Enter Shikari again and see them do as good as I’ve been told they can, I will just have to wait until then.

***

MUSIC: Paolo Nutini : Nottingham Rock City - 28/09/09 (Live)

Paolo Nutini is only at the tender age of 22, yet when he walks casually onto the stage as his band The Vipers play there is no fragility showing, just pure love. Love for music.

There is something strange about his persona, he does not seem to be the most confident person in music – hardly talking to the audience at all within the hour and a half set, yet on the other hand when he’s singing, confidence seems to ooze out of him leaving the audience mesmerized. His pure passion for what he is doing is contagious; people who may not have been the greatest fan of Paolo before the gig were leaving as in love with his music as he is.

His show itself would not be out of place in a jazz club, playing mainly songs off his latest album ‘Sunny Side Up’ or classic tracks reworked to sound like his new album, the rhythm is intensely catchy. You can see his appeal as the audience are embraced by the songs but the thing that is most fascinating as you look around the audience is the total variety of people. You have people from all works of life, young and old, those that listen to Radio One and those that listen to Radio Two – all coming together because Paolo’s songs cannot fail to connect with you; they preach messages of love and happiness which touches everyone who listens to the lyrics.

As his hand moves along with the music and Paolo crouches over the microphone, you can see he is in his own little world, and with a live performance like this - what a nice little world it must be.

*****

COMEDY: Rhod Gilbert - And The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst : Loughborough Town Hall : 05/10/09 (Live)

To write a review of Rhod Gilbert, who within 10 minutes of his set had launched his anger straight towards the press and their reviews of his personality, is somewhat unnerving. Should I take it as a reason to lay into him and his anger problems which are a main theme to his new show or do I do the opposite, being unordinarily nice to him which would make me one of the only ones who is ‘on his side’ as he so pleadingly puts it during the show.

Loughborough gave Rhod not one but two warm welcomes after one man in the audience felt that the welcome had not been good or personal enough, so Rhod came out again making the audience address him personally. In fact the audience were as much a part of the show as he was. One mention of swine flu came up with a series of pig jokes from the crowd with the jokes not fading out for at least twenty minutes, leaving Rhod to jokingly suggest he ‘might as well go’.

However, Rhod did have a show to do and a beautifully structured one at that. Whilst his rants and ravings at the newest models of Hoovers, washing machines and a certain brand of smoothies may have seemed ridiculous – his anger towards these things was hilarious, especially an anecdote about being kicked out of ‘Fruit Towers’ after claiming the packaging invited him to have a look round. From these rants though, came a much more intense climax towards the end which many probably did not expect, however the climax left the crowd laughing so hard their jaws ached and left them begging for more, which they received with a video excerpt from Rhod’s radio show.

Much of the crowd had only seen Rhod before from his various television appearances, especially the variety performance which he himself mentioned, yet I can’t help feeling there will now be many who want to see him live again as soon as possible as this is the environment where Rhod really surpasses himself.

****

Well...

It looks like thats as far as I can go with archiving my reviews, I know theres been a fair few done just today but all those are past reviews as far back as I can collect, there are many others but these have been lost in the wonders of the internet, maybe one day I will find them and if I do they will be put on this blog.

But.. stop looking so sad, loads more reviews are to come over the next days and months, including Rhod Gilbert, Enter Shikari and Paolo Nutini this week alone. So keep coming over and checking the blog, its very much worth it!!

Tom Price

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COMEDY: Russell Howard - Dingledodies : Nottingham Concert Hall (Live)

Russell Howard’s childlike exuberance engages the audience and makes for a good hour and a half of comedy. With a lot of the audience being teenagers, in particular screaming girls who went wild when one of their friends name came up in Russell’s jokes, I did not know how the show would capture an older audience. In two words, it wouldn’t, an older generation simply wouldn’t understand or like his humour, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Russell’s on stage presence is awesome, drawing the audience in with his energy and his charisma. You can’t help but love him, he’s the kind of person all men would want to have a drink with and all women would want to introduce to their mum, as one woman asked in the q and a session at the end of the show.

Russell seems genuinely delighted and entranced with everything, his personality rubs off on everyone but you are left wondering how long he will last with this childlike enthusiasm, he will grow up and then where will his comedy be? But instead of worrying about this, catch him before he grows up, catch him whilst he’s hot.

Dingledodies are people who you cannot fail to be uplifted by, and so is apt due to the fact that noone in the theatre would have failed to leave without a smile on their face after spending time with Russell Howard.

****

MOVIES: My Bloody Valentine 3D [18]

Slasher films usually stick with what they do best, bloodthirsty gore and lots of it! Not often do you find a slasher that has quite a deep storyline and twists involved as well. My Bloody Valentine 3D has both, surpassing expectations of the film greatly. How well both are used is a different story.
The film revolves around Tom Hanniger, a man returning to the site of a horrific mining disaster which he caused, and which ended up sending a miner Harry Warden mental. Hanniger has plans to shut the mine but these are stopped by the towns people, plus Warden is back in town.

The film stretches the 3D effects to their limit with one scene in which a gun is pointed at you and a bullet is shot being particularly effective. The thing is with 3D generally, at the cinema it works and you come out amazed whilst on your own television screen, you are left unimpressed and disillusioned at the effects. 3D is not meant for DVD and this is one of the things filmmakers are looking past now, making 3D for the hell of it and not realising people just don't want to be sitting in their lounge wearing cardboard 3D glasses staring at a screen seeing red and green for an hour and a half.

My Bloody Valentine has much more depth in the characters, each character suspicious in ways and leaving you guessing right up to the last scene who exactly is Harry Warden. The film is a good horror, 3D effects are a bit overused but this is made up for with a deeper storyline.

***

MAGIC: Derren Brown - Enigma : Adelphi Theatre (Live)

It's hard to write a review of Derren Brown, not only because the audience has been sworn to secrecy about the contents of the show but also because Derren leaves you in a speechless state as you leave the theatre.

Everything about the show works, from the set, Derren's awesome showmanship and the staging of the show, you slowly become to realise that everything that happens during the two and a half hour show has a purpose and there is no way that you could figure anything out, Derren is
just too smart for the likes of us!

The tricks that happen on stage are mindnumbing and amazing but it is also frightening how Derren gets the volunteers to do some things, frightening to think of what could happen in the wrong hands. This is especially shown when Derren attempts to put a trance on the whole audience, leaving several in a 'sleepwalking' state listening to Derren's every word.

I tried as hard as possible to be part of the show, with my face being used in a more elaborate Derren Brown version of guess who, hints for people who want to be involved - get to the theatre an hour early! Quite a few people on my row caught a Frisbee to get on stage but, unfortunately for me, it was not my time to be manipulated by Derren.

Derren Brown’s show is unique, there is nobody in the same league as what Derren does, the show is scary but most of all, the show is very, very entertaining, if you miss Enigma - you really do miss out!

*****