Last night I went to the lovely Roundhouse on the Chalk Farm/Camden border (it's all much of a muchness, really. Just don't say that to anyone who lives in Chalk Farm. Or anyone who lives in Camden, for that matter...) Anyway, I digress. I'm sorry. It's because I'm still on such a happiness high from last night. Because the reason I was at the lovely Roundhouse on the Chalk Farm/Camden border was because I was seeing the absolutely indescribably wonderful and brilliant Amanda Palmer perform with her new band, The Grand Theft Orchestra...
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I have been to a fair few gigs in my time. I have seen some fairly spectacular bands and shows in my years on the gig scene, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous; Lordi on Halloween 2005, for example, was an event so incredibly bonkers you really had to be there to appreciate it, and Muse at Wembley, Iron Maiden at Twickenham or Rammstein at Sonisphere are definitely up there as being among the greatest gigs I have ever been to. However, last night's extravaganza was so spectacularly wondrous I may very well never go to any other gig ever again. (I say that, but we all know I actually will go to other gigs. That's not the point...)
Now I have been a huge, huge, huge fan of Amanda since I first heard Coin-Operated Boy by The Dresden Dolls way back when; when the Dolls went their separate ways *sad face* and Amanda launched her solo career, I was equally besotted. And not only is she a great artist and performer, she is also one of the most engaging and engagingly political people you could ever hope to come across. It's weird; I don't have that great a track record when it comes to male heroes (Kurt Cobain was a junkie, Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend, to name but two examples of me sucking in that department) but in the lovely Sarah Jezebel Deva and the brilliant Amanda Palmer I seem to have nailed the whole "female role model" thing. So much so that my goddaughter also thinks they're amazing and is currently seriously pissed off with me for not taking her last night. I digress. Again. Where was I...? Oh yeah...so, yes, Amanda is pretty awesome when it comes to being inspirational, her TED lecture was just mind blowingly great and she has my utmost, utmost respect in any number of ways for any number of things.
Which is why I was a bit apprehensive about last night.
Now don't get me wrong, it was nothing to do with Amanda. While I'm a great believer in the maxim "you should never meet your idols, they will always disappoint you", on the rare occasions I have met people I really admire, like Sarah Jezebel Deva, I haven't been disappointed. I knew Amanda would be as awesomely smart and funny and brilliant as she always is, but because I was *so* looking forward to the show there was a voice in the back of my head warning me not to get carried away, just in case it didn't live up to the hype and I ended up being disappointed (see Type O Negative or Mark Lanegan...)
All I can say to that little voice is Shut. The Hell. Up.
Oh my stars. It was absolutely phenomenal, from start to finish. I missed the first support act but caught up with the rest of them, who were all pretty good. Bitter Ruin stand out in my mind as being the best of the night, it must be said, although I was also quite taken with Simple Pleasures as well. Definitely need to go listening for them. Then came what ended up being a highlight among highlights...I was introduced to Perhaps Contraption. It was bizarre - one minute the PA system was playing some random song, the next I thought "hold on, I can hear a tuba. What the fuck is a tuba doing in the Roundhouse?" Then I turned round and said tuba was right behind me - attached to someone playing it, I hasten to add; there were no tubas walking around the building of their own accord - along with various other marching/brass band instruments and what looked like half the venue following along behind dancing like nutcases. Perhaps Contraption were literally busking their way round the venue like some multi-instrumentalist Pied Piper and it was insanely brilliant. (Serendipitously, they were also playing the Village Green festival in Chalkwell Park today and I went up and told them I saw them last night and how awesome they were. Turns out Amanda saw them playing to half a dozen drunk people in a tent at Glastonbury the other week and immediately seized them and said "come play my show in London!!!" So they did. Because you don't turn down Amanda fucking Palmer).
So yeah, two intriguing support bands and a marching, busking musical extravaganza later, I was already smiling like an idiot. I went into full Cheshire Cat mode, however, when I bagged myself a spot at the very front and off to one side of the stage. Turns out if you tuck yourself the other side of the amp stack, you get a great view of Amanda and her keyboard, without the hassle of people jumping all over you. So I was set for the night. And you know what? It was NOT a disappointment. It was, quite simply, the greatest show I've ever been to. Hands down. Bar none. Amanda being Amanda, it wasn't all about her; not only were The Grand Theft Orchestra completely fab, but she hauled several of the support acts back onstage with her at various points to join in on songs with her. By the end of the show the whole lot of them were up there performing; it was mad.
Then there was the fact that, about two-thirds of the way through the show, Amanda brought the cast of "Limbo" onto the stage. "Limbo" is the show Nick and I went to see a couple of weeks ago at the Southbank, which you may remember I raved about quite a lot; imagine my surprise at seeing the whole blinkin' lot of 'em suddenly come onstage to do a quick mini-performance! I lost my voice for a bit after that because I was cheering so much.
And finally there was the set list itself, which was perfect. When they played "Missed Me" near the start of the set I was beside myself; by the time it got to the cover of Pulp's "Common People" I was hysterical. "Common People" is one of my all time favourite songs ever and Jarvis Cocker, although he doesn't know it yet, is going to marry me. (You will, Jarvis. You will...) It was completely bonkers to see an entire venue of glitter-bombed kids bopping along to one of the seminal tracks of my skinny indie kid, fourteen year old self's memories, but bop they did. As did I, obviously. While laughing hysterically, of course.
But then...ah, then came the icing on the entire goddamn cake. We got to hear a brand new song. Very brand new, in fact - Amanda wrote it about an hour before she came on stage. It was set to a lovely little waltz and was entitled "Dear Daily Mail". It. Was. BRILLIANT.
The reason the song came about is because a review of Amanda and the band's set at Glastonbury appeared on the Daily Mail's website. Only it failed to mention anything about the band or Amanda singing or anything, you know, important, because the focus was on the fact that her boob popped out while she was performing. SHOCK HORROR!! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!! It was the Mail's basic misogyny shit, but Amanda being Amanda decided to address the issue head on and this is why I love her. The song is hilarious but pointed and absolutely one of the best things I heard all night. Sadly my own video of the song didn't come out too well - mainly because I was either laughing hysterically, whooping like a mad person or jiggling my camera all over the shop as a result of the aforementioned laughing/whooping - but thank god we have YouTube and people with decent cameras...
And THAT, ladies and gents, is why I love her...
No comments:
Post a Comment