Sunny and way too hot, but glad it's finally summer. For my 2 days in London, I had packed the minimum. The (too) excellent wheather forecast allowed me to travel extremely light. No coat no hoodies. T-shirts and shorts are ruling the weekend. People seem to be in an extra good mood in summer, and I felt no different. Especially when I can go to London to see one of my favorite bands in such great wheather conditions. Only a few weeks ago, I had a whole rainy day in London for my visit to Camden and Alkaline Trio at the Roundhouse.
On concert day, I was up at 4am to get to Brussels Eurostar station where I would first meet up with touring buddy Nic. One breakfast -including a much needed large and strong cup of coffee- later, we checked in. Trip went smoothly and we arrived at St Pancrass station after 8am. No creditcard hassle this time, I brought cash ;-).
I wasn't able to make a reservation at my usual hostel in Camden, it was already booked. I settled for a new one near St.Pancrass and still close to Camden. The YHA London St.Pancrass turned out to be an excellent hostel. Never seen such a clean hostel. I think this will be my new London favorite.
It wasn't easy keeping my new tattoo out of the sun, because with this kind of wheather, you don't want to stay inside the pubs. We spent the whole day walking around London and checking out shops. HMV Record Store in Oxford Street is very tempting and I always want to buy the whole store. I'm not used having records available in the racks. What a choice. Right there, no orders and endlessly waiting. No hassle. Anyway, the most interesting shops are in Carnaby Street and at the Camden Lock Market, which was a bit too crowded. The extravagant techno clothing store Cyberdog in Camden is a must see, even for those who hate dance music, it's a real touristic attraction. We got excellent food at the Pizza place across the Roundhouse. I ate there last time and it was great.
We got to Brixton Academy about an hour before doors opened. We shopped for more food and drinks and on our way to the venue, I recognized Gallows singer Frank Carter right in front of us walking to the venue.
Having seated tickets was a bit of a downer, view could've been better too, but was not really bad. The sound was good. I enjoyed opening band The Sharks, but I'm not such a fan of the next band: Twin Atlantic. I was thinking about Amsterdam next Thursday and how I had to get myself through thàt again.
Everybody seemed on the edge of their seat waiting for The Gaslight Heroes. It was soccer weekend and on the day before Germany vs. England, there was an English flag hanging on the ceiling of the venue. Lights went out and from the darkness, you could hear the band start the tilte song of the new album American Slang.
And bang! It immediately felt like they played the roof off. You just felt this gig couldn't go wrong. Second song Old White Lincoln locked the gig into the highest gear. Absolutelyfuckingamazing. Gaslight played only songs from the 2 latest albums '59 Sound and American Slang. '59 Sound is a stomping feet-rocker while Slang has a more dancy feel and mixing those songs just worked perfectly. By the end of the regular set, it was time for some older stuff: a superb version of 'Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts'. The real surprise was the last song of the regular set. Gaslight surprised the Londoners by taking the challenge to cover London's most famous band The Who. And they did it in all their greatness. 'Baba O'Riley' was the perfect finale.
Even though the band is as great as last year at Dour festival, biggest difference to me is Brian Fallon who grew as frontman. So far, I've tried to avoid the Springsteen comparison, but his short stories in between songs are cool. I usually don't like it when artists talk too much, but when the artist is called Springsteen, Palmer, or now Fallon, it adds a mood to the concert. And like Springsteen, lots of encores. And finally a song from Sink Or Swim: 'We Came To Dance'. The show ended with 'Backseat'. WOW, what a gig.
Bruce, there's a new kid in town.
After the concert we took the Underground to the hard rock bar Crobar. In our train there was a girl with the Gaslight setlist in her hands. I took a picture and I realized it had the song 'Drive' on it. I'm still wondering if they skipped it or if I was enjoying the show so much that I forgot about that song. Anwyay, just around the corner of where the famous London Astoria (RIP) used to be, there's the Crobar. It was smaller than I thought it would be and it had the dirtiest toilet I've ever seen in real life. I've seen pictures of CBGB's toilet, but this one definitely comes second! Crobar has all the reasons not to go there, but I'm sure I'll be back. We also planned on going to some Rock night club near the hostel, but when we arrived there shortly after 2am, the thing was closed already. Which confused me a lot, this was Saturday night right?
We decided to go back to the hostel and catch some sleep, because we were tired anyway.
The next day we did another stroll around London. We went back to Carnaby Street to actually buy something this time and we ate at the pub. Vegetarian 'Fish' n' Chips... that's new... We also passed by London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.
We went back to St Pancrass early, hoping we would find a TV to see the first half of Germany Vs England, as the we would be on the Eurostar during second half. There were screens at the Eurostar station so we witnessed the story of the 3 Blind Referees. Maybe, the only downer on the whole weekend. It would've been fun to see the English go crazy over a victory. But instead of watching celebrations in a pub, we watched mourning at a train station.
But hey, whatever the score is, it's Gaslight Anthem who's ready for the next round.
Pics below, videos scroll further down.
all my videos at my youtube channel www.youtube.com/frantiek
Video: The Gaslight Anthem at Brixton Academy: the first song, 'American Slang'Video: The Gaslight Anthem at Brixton Academy: the London Surprise: The Who's 'Baba O'Riley'
