Friday 21 January 2011

Top 5 Gigs of 2010

A cracking year for gigs. Plenty of contenders for the top five and a couple of enjoyable nights watching bands of my friends (here & here).

1. youthmovies at The Borderline (26th March) - Second to last gig ever and final London appearance by the sadly overlooked Oxford based uncategorizable combo. A really special night in which they played just about everything I could have asked for. Support from Adam Gnade was excellent too.
Picture courtesy of Drowned In Sound.


2. Les Savy Fav at The Electric Ballroom (22nd November) - Second gig of the year at the Electric Ballroom. A Silver Mount Zion were a little under par, in March, but Les Savy Fav were absolutely mental. Lead singer, Tim Harrington, spent most of the night in the audience (par for the course for LSF) whilst the band played as tight a set as you could possibly ask for.


3. Japandroids at The ICA (23rd February) - First of two trips to see Japandroids who totally rip it up on stage. Crowd reaction was a little disappointing, possibly due to a "too cool for school" scenester crowd. Saw them do a similar show at the Garage in May in which the crowd got a little more involved but the band energy at the ICA made for a stunning night.
Picture courtesy of catgirl at SongKick.


4. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan at The Barbican (10th September) - After a number of sweaty "jumping up and down" style gigs it was quite pleasant to see a more sedate sit down show. I'd been wanting to see Isobel & Mark for a while and they didn't disappoint. Very little interaction with the audience (none at all from Mr Lanegan) but a brilliant set of songs taken from all three albums. Willy Mason supported and came on mid-way through the main set to do a couple of numbers with Isobel.


5. The Godfathers at The 100 Club (17th June) - Close run thing between the Godfathers and Arcade Fire at the O2 for the final place. This was a celebration of the Godfathers 25th anniversary and a chance to see them in a great venue. Having seen them a few times recently I probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise but it turned out to be a cracking show and one of the best I've seen them do.
Picture courtesy of Daniel Luis Garcia at Flickr


Check out this summary of my gig year from the good folk at SongKick.

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