Last gig you saw, As it says on the tin Options

[Hobbes]

I went to see Ben Folds at the Hammersmith Apollo yesterday and dear Lord it was a great show. The guy is a natural entertainer, a virtuoso musician and a lovely lovely man to boot. He played for 2 1/2 hours, everyone there wanted more. The only downside was that the gig wasn't long enough for him to completely satisfy everyone/play their favourite song. He barely touched on Ben Folds Five stuff, which was a shame as some of that is so wonderful, and generally avoided the quieter numbers which are also some of his best – 'The Luckiest', 'Alice Childress', 'Boxing' etc.

The fact that my only complaint was that the show wasn't long enough should probably tell you all you need to know. If you like Ben Folds but haven't seen him live, rectify this situation as soon as you can.

[Llama]

I really would like to see him live. I just want to take part in 'Not The Same'.

[Hobbes]

'Not The Same' was really something Llama. Talk about making the crowd feel included in your music. One of several occasions the hairs on necks stood on end. It helps that he comes across as a sensationally nice man in every way. I would give almost anything to have the kind of natural talent he has: seeing him play piano in real life just reinforces how utterly gifted he is, and he's a brill live singer as well. He's also got a rare ear for live arrangement and so much energy that even the songs which I'm not massively fond of were tremendous.

I'm definitely going to see him as many more times as I can, just to see how his setlist changes. Yesterday he played 27 songs without really touching on Ben Folds Five stuff, and didn't do any of the quieter numbers I mentioned before. Lord alone knows how good the gig would've been if he'd banged through his 20/25 best tunes. I probably would've cried.

Ben Folds Five played a one-off reunion gig a couple years back in North Carolina. I would have paid substantial amounts to see that based on how good he was last night.

[Hobbes]

Just got back from Ryan Adams playing a solo acoustic set at the Barbican. Guh.

Just guh.

[maian]

I've mostly been seeing local bands recently since, for the first time since Uni, I seem to have lots and lots of friends who are in bands from the Sheffield scene. The best I've seen recently recently, i.e. in the last week, are Algiers, which is comprised of my friends John and William, who made this nice video for the forthcoming Tramlines festival.

This post has been edited by maian: Jun 23 2011, 08:12 PM

[Jessopjessopjess...]

Here's a vid from the Amon Tobin show at the Roundhouse last week. Quite simply the best AV show I've ever seen.

The technique is known as projection mapping and this is the most spectacular application I've seen of it. It was perfect for Tobin's cut-up futuristic machine soundtracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR7_q1bZyNU

[Llama]

Foo Fighters at Milton Keynes. There are no words. Maybe just "fuck."

[Jon 79]

Pulp at Wireless yesterday.
They so rocked!

[Sostie]

As expected, Japanese punk legends Guitar Wolf were nothing short of phenomenal last night. Featuring everything you'd expect from one of their shows - a relentless barrage of blistering rock without pause, a human pyramid of audience members, a temporary guitarist plucked from the crowd (by far the stupidest person I've so far seen them pick) and no removal of the leathers regardless of the amount of sweat cascading down their bodies. To top it all Seiji, the frontman, came on after the encore and performed a whole song solo without any power to his mic or guitar to the bemusement of the stage crew and bouncers.

I challange anyone to leave one of their shows without a huge grin on their face, a sense of awe and tinitus. Remember kids, click those fingers. NO CLAP!

[Kick in the Head]

Excellent pics, Sost! And I'd echo your sentiments entirely. They certainly put on a hell of a show. Bo Ningen were a good warm up in the sense while their music is more psychedelic metal than straight up rock'n'roll, they certainly tested the sound levels and audience ear drum tolerance to the maximum.

Part of the fun was watching the increasingly exasperated staff during the first and second encores as not only did they play over time but probably broke numerous health, safety and audience involvement laws - and what was with that guy? Everyone understood "NO CLAP!", why couldn't he understand "JUMP!"? There's milking it, and then there's just not getting it. Good on Guitar Wolf to carry on playing despite their sound being cut and the house lights coming on - maybe they could release an acoustic album?

[Sostie]

One odd moment at Guitar Wolf (in a night full of odd moments) that I've just remembered is the girl in the audience that seemed to have an orgasm at the beginning of one of their songs which was received by the crowd with a round of applause.

[marshaa]

Those japanese punks look insane. like proper old school punk insanity. :/

the last person i saw live was Claude Von Stroke Djing... and the last concert was Laura Marling. she was goood, if a bit shy.

[Kick in the Head]

One odd moment at Guitar Wolf (in a night full of odd moments) that I've just remembered is the girl in the audience that seemed to have an orgasm at the beginning of one of their songs which was received by the crowd with a round of applause.

That was peculiar. Bo Ningen were an odd moment unto themselves.

[HAD0KEN]

Last show I went to was a couple nights ago. It was Neil Diamond at the London O2. I was sent there to review the show. Never listened to his stuff before but he was pretty good!. But this year I've been to see Rob Zombie, Turisas, X Japan, Mono, Moby, Steve Martin & Roger Waters

[Ade]

One odd moment at Guitar Wolf (in a night full of odd moments) that I've just remembered is the girl in the audience that seemed to have an orgasm at the beginning of one of their songs which was received by the crowd with a round of applause.

Ah yes. Gig-gasm.