Archived news for January 2011
Report – Union Chapel
It's December 15th and we make our way to a frosty London on the train. By the time we get there it's dark and wet and within minutes so
meone has slipped down the steps to the tube. Still, somehow London in the wintertime is a bit special. A wander past the Christmas lights of Oxford and Carnaby Street leads us to our first stop; tasty dinner with very lovely fellow fans Laura and Sean, and then a hurry off to Union Chapel.
Unsurprisingly late, we find Porcelain Raft half way through his set and the middle column of pews totally full, so after a visit to the merchandise stall to pick up programmes we claim a row down on the right next to an enormous glowing Christmas tree. The Chapel itself is cosy and rimmed by candles, warmly lit and thrumming with excitement up to the balconies. Having dressed for a cold stone room we soon find ourselves gently roasting under heat lamps as people continued to file in and fill up the reserved seats behind us. Unintrusive cameras hover near the stage to remind us what we're watching is going to be watched by other hitherto unknown beings around the world.
Porcelain Raft is shortly followed by the much-hyped James Blake with what I understand is his second ever live show after the RNCM. Being totally unfamiliar with his work, his slow, eerie beats and delicate vocals feel appropriate and unexpectedly experimental and sparse. 
An impressive performance if a little unsure and unstructured (never having heard him before I couldn't tell how much of that was on purpose).
Having quickly given up on the packed bar and loaded up with water bottles, we sit and wait for the main act and study our programmes – 26-page fully glossy lovelies filled with rehearsal photos and info about the show and support acts, with an enormous double-sided A1 poster inside (album art/lyrics sheet – pics to follow). Laura and I wonder if the album will be played in order while Gareth watches Beyblade on the iPad of a boy in front of us. The audience is the usual EE mix of eight to ninety eight year olds. Special mention goes to the row of senior gentlemen near the front who were downright headbanging whenever we looked over.
Soon enough the orchestra make their appearance along with Everything Everything themselves, beaming and looking well snappy in suits, audience cheering. The excitement is palpable. The first notes of Schoolin' answer our question – what follows is a shuffled setlist that adds an enjoyable air of unpredictability. Ingrained and familiar songs seem to transfer effortlessly to the ensemble where they're stirred up into a new mixture of brassy noise and strings, elements jostling to be heard and sometimes so raucously loud the music is almost lost underneath. The best and most memorable moments come when the orchestra takes precedent and the balance is struck – Suffragette Suffragette stripped down to its harmonious bones, Final Form at its sweeping string-led best, immediately followed by the ridiculously enjoyable Photoshop Handsome bolstered by some entirely appropriate brass and an additional chorus of yelps from the string section. Quieter tracks are given appropriate levity by the environment; Jonathan retreats to a piano at one point for an affecting rendition of NASA Is on Your Side.
Simple, bold colours atmospherically light the stage throughout, throwing contrast over the intricate stone arches and beauty of the setting. Unfettered by keyboards the band give a fantastic performance and the audience receive it with thunderous applause and eventually, following the booming finality of Weights, a standing ovation, wrapping up the show with a feeling like it's All Come Together. Special. Should a DVD of the show emerge no doubt I'll be first in line along with everyone else in the audience.
Setlist
Schoolin'
QWERTY Finger
Come Alive Diana
Leave the Engine Room
Suffragette Suffragette
Two for Nero
MY KZ, UR BF
Final Form
Photoshop Handsome
NASA Is on Your Side
Tin (the Manhole)
Weights
Other reviews
Glasswerk
The Times
NME
Gigs and Stuff
RNCM reviews
Manchester Music
Photos
acejace on flickr
Report: EE at Scala – Giddy as a baby in a centrifuge
Words by ~GARETH~
Photo by Frankie
With feathers in our caps and springs in our steps we arrived just in time for the last song and a half from support act Visions of Trees, who earlier this year provided a remix of Schoolin’ (which can be found on the Japanese EP and also on the download single). If we’re being at all honest here, I didn’t get to hear much, but I did like what I heard. Sara Atalar has certainly got quite the voice.
The interlude saw us meet up with our trusty foil Mark Higgins, purchase liquid refreshments and wonder why Say My Name by Destiny’s Child was played twice in a row (no bad thing, of course).
Soon enough the now-familiar notes of the intro song started playing, signalling that the EE crew were now entering the room and that we had best get ready for some boppin’. Getting straight down to business, they opened with the raucous QWERTY Finger, much to the delight of those who were there specifically to bop.
The infectious summery beats of Schoolin’ came next, followed by the sombre Leave the Engine Room to calm us all the hell down. This plan was subsequently derailed by the band playing album track Come Alive Diana, a new entry in their live roster on this tour, which was very well received by the audience. Fears about the transition of the trumpet to keyboard were allayed as the track sounded genuinely amazing.
Next up came Final Form, which looks to be fast becoming a crowd favourite, and had everyone cutting a rug. Jonathan’s vocals sounded particularly fantastic throughout this track.
Another new addition to the setlist followed in the form of album track Two for Nero, which in Friends terminology is “the one with the harpsichord”. I was unsure how this track would be received, given its slower tempo and complete lack of beat for the first half of the song. I needn’t have worried, as it got a big cheer from the crowd after it came to its harmonious close. Proof that harpsichords, like fezzes, are cool again in 2010.
An even bigger cheer was elicited for the next track, although it was understandable given that it was current single MY KZ, UR BF, which everyone and their mum has surely heard by this point. At this stage in proceedings, the audience’s bop mode was set to whatever the maximum is on the scale (“Grand Mal Seizure”, I’d wager).
Thunderous set closer Weights came next, rounding off the show in typically chaotic fashion. But wait! HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER! The guys totally psyched everyone out and launched straight into ambiguously-chorused Suffragette Suffragette, bringing things to a temporary close in a harmonious fashion.
A brief interlude followed while the band did whatever it is they do back there, before coming back to perform a two-song encore in the form of lovely Tin (The Manhole), then rounding the night off in style with Photoshop Handsome.
This was our fifth time seeing the band, and with there usually being a gap of a few months between each show we have seen, it has been really interesting to see how the band has evolved since the beginning. If Wednesday’s performance at the Scala is any indication, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with Iceland, New York and the Seychelles(!) better get their best boppin’ shoes on.
Setlist
QWERTY Finger
Schoolin’
Leave the Engine Room
Come Alive Diana
Final Form
Two for Nero
MY KZ, UR BF
Weights
Suffragette Suffragette
Encore
Tin (The Manhole)
Photoshop Handsome
SPECIAL BONUS BIT
The Lexington, just up the road from the Scala, played host to a bit of a party after the gig. Personal highlights include the sexy EE boys, meeting the lovely Visions of Trees duo, lovely Duncan, and Jonathan dancing on an ornate chair to R. Kelly. The less said about the ghastly toilet incident, the better.
Report – Barfly and HMV + pics
Hi buds. I thought I'd write up a little report and share some pics and a video from our London trip. (Feel free to skip to the photos k)
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