Near misses

[shermarama]

Today has been very fluid, very frustrating in places, pretty good in others and is not over yet.

I'm going to Cornwall for a week tomorrow. Dude, I'm looking forward to it sufficiently that I'll say that again, I'm going to Cornwall for a week tomorrow. Now, I also have to be back in the western outskirts of London on Tuesday, for reasons, but it's not really that long a journey from St. Austell to London by train it seems and also cheap so I have bought train tickets for going to London Monday night and back to St. Austell Tuesday night. There was an option of an overnight train from Paddington to St. Austell; I don't know how they make that take seven hours when it's four and half any other time but they do, and that would have got the sleeper train thing from the 101 List, as well as being, I dunno, somehow fitting. But I asked and it would have been just normal seats, not proper sleeper carriages, which wouldn't have been half the fun, so that one's saved for another time.

There was also an exciting possiblity of seeing Queens of the Stone Age. They were playing some alleged festival in Hyde Park today and it would have cost forty quid face value for a ticket, when I wouldn't have been able to go to half the day and I couldn't give a relative toss about any of the other bands anyway, especially the headliners, the White Stripes. Being in town and all though, and needing to get a cable from somewhere in the vicinity of TCR to enable another of the list items, I strolled along that way after work to see if I could maybe pick up a ticket outside for not much. I ran into someone I know from New Cross at the top end of the park who'd had a similar idea, and apparently there were few spares and they were going for face value or more, so I gave up on that idea. She also told me that there was a nice spot by the north side where you could see the main-stage screen through a production gate, though, and sit on the grass and hear the music. I wandered that way and it was true, and sitting and listening and seeing fragments for no money seemed like a better deal than paying through the nose to get in, so I thought I'd do that. QotSA weren't going to be on for a bit at that point so I thought I'd wander down the park and see what I could find. Some short way away from the south end, all unplanned since I'd had no real idea where it was, or where I was, Harvey Nicholls appeared on the horizon and I thought to myself, "I'm wearing rolled-up urban combats and an Orange Goblin t-shirt, I've got freshly shaved sides and a big smear of oil on my leg from cycling in this morning, and I've been thwarted in the achievement of two 101 Things things today already. Clearly this is exactly the right time to go and buy Uncle Joe's Mint Balls." So I did that.



I got back to the nice spot by the gate (you can just, just see the blue of the main stage canopy between the gates there) in time to take that and then five minutes later QotSA were on. They got forty minutes, I could see the main stage screen surprisingly well though I'm certainly not going to count this as having seen them, but best of all I could hear the music really well. Especially the bass drum; I wanna get to play a bass drum that can be heard that far away some day. And I'm liking Joey Castillo's drumming more and more every time I hear it, assuming it was him which I reckon it was. And, and, and, there was Mr. Homme. Before the start of Turnin' on the Screw, the first one on the new album which is already an earworm; "This one is absolutely, positively about fucking." Is it now? Well. And, and, interlude in the middle of Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, which basically went on about how people dance like they fuck, which actually I have to tell you is only tangentially true but is still a powerful idea. Anyway, yes, Mr. Homme in talking and singing about fucking, there, good stuff.

So now I've got to start packing, before two strange men come and start strapping bikes to my car before I get home from work tomorrow, and then I've got to make it to bed in some sort of time to be as certain as possible of... no, fuck it and fuck him, QotSA made me forget *all about that* for forty minutes and so I'm going to let them keep it out. Ha.

Comments

[nja.livejournal.com]

I think the sleeper train to Cornwall stops in a siding for a few hours overnight.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Certainly the Glasgow->London one does.

[shermarama]

Bizarre.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Nah - otherwise you'd get to Euston at 0500, and then what?

When I took it it did arrive an hour or so ahead of schedule, so I don't think it's so much a deliberate slowing down as a staying out the way of goods trains.

[shermarama]

Getting to Euston at 0700 is pretty much as far into the 'this is freakishly early' category for me as 0500. At least then there'd be slightly more point in going home and going back to bed.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Yes, but at 0700 the Tube and other trains are running so you can get to wherever you're going.

Also, the sleeper journey has to be long enough that you don't absolutely need to sleep when you get there - otherwise paying extra for the sleeper hasn't really solved anything.

[shermarama]

But the tubes start running around five. And I'd get a 24-hour bus home from there at that time anyway. 0700 is still early enough that I'd want to go to bed, is my point, while having to get up again an hour or so later, as opposed to going to bed and getting a nice three hours...

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

but best of all I could hear the music really well.

That's because you were outside. I didn't go yesterday, but based on my experience of Hyde Park last summer for Foo Fighters, Motorhead and QOTSA, no-one inside could see or hear anything, but the people who hadn't bought tickets and sat outside had a great time.

Did you see the announcement of the gig in Wisconsin, RATM with QOTSA in support? Acronym-tastic! Man, I wish I lived in Wisconsin.

'Era Vulgaris' - genius album, disastrous artwork. WTF were they thinking?

[shermarama]

When you say 'couldn't hear anything', I mean, eh? Too loud and distorted, all the stacks pointing the wrong way?

And I rather like the artwork, despite the pink. Especially the worn-sleeve effect on the front cover, that's, I dunno, it amuses me. Have you heard/got any Eagles of Death Metal? I think that if you put those two albums in the timeline too, the recent progress of QotSA makes a little more sense, including this artwork. I'm much rather something like that than giving up and going for stereotypical band poses or the like; I thought the last album's covers were a bit boring, really.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

When you say 'couldn't hear anything', I mean, eh? Too loud and distorted, all the stacks pointing the wrong way?

No, couldn't hear anything as in "not loud enough". Perhaps it was because of the direction the wind was blowing, because my friend who lives in Marble Arch said he could hear it loud and clear. But it was virtually inaudible to those of us who'd paid stupid amounts for tickets. After that, I vouched never to pay to go to a Hyde Park gig again.

I've heard some of the first EODM album, but not seen the cover. I do see what you mean about 'Era Vulgaris' - certainly in a musical sense, it appears to be a clear progression from 'Lullabies'.

Can't agree though about the cover, it makes me want to vomit!

[shermarama]

Not loud enough. Lemmy must have been absolutely mortified. I'm glad I've found out about the Hyde Park gig thing now, though, that suits my general sense of value for money...

The order of recent albums goes, QotSA's Songs For The Deaf, huge commercial hit of general virtuoso-ness; EoDM's Peace Love & Death Metal, some fun and silly messing around with a mate that actually turns out to be kick-arse too; QotSA's Lullabies To Paralyze, which feels the loss of an important band member and is kind of dark and in danger of losing its way at times; then EoDM's Death By Sexy, which is also silly and fun and kick-arse in a more assertive, if slightly less outright fun, way than the previous one; and then this new one, which I think draws the two bands closer than they've been before, notwithstanding that they've now got the same drummer. It's EoDM's ideas being done darker, in the QotSA style and musical level, and it also feels like a return to having something new and exciting to explore like the first QotSA. Or that's how I see it, anyway, oscillations between dark/intense and light/fun that are closing in on something all of its own inbetween. Yeah.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I just like the tunes!!

[shermarama]

And I am a minor music obsessive at the best of times, and these are the bands I'm most likely to carp on about too. Sorry...

[eye.livejournal.com]

The worn-sleeve appearance is my favourite bit about the Era Vulgaris artwork, makes it look like a well-loved LP. Other than that I think the artwork is garish and a bit silly, but still fresh and different and therefore pleasing to my inner eye.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Mm...Josh Homme. STILL don't have the new album, must rectify. Although I find it hard to believe anything that ugly can sound good (the album, not the Homme :D).

[shermarama]

The whole thing can be heard on http://www.qotsa.com. I seem to rather like the artwork, but then it might be that I'm prepared to accomodate anything containing Homme.

*squints in reappraisal* See I'm not sure I'm *that* bad, though, I don't have any of the Desert Sessions stuff and I don't actually like everything he's done, so maybe I just quite like the artwork. At least it doesn't look like everything else.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Ooh thank you. Me shall listen.

It's possibly a matter of taste about the artwork then, it just doesn't do it for me :D I don't have any dessert sessions either, but wish I did cos I like all the stuff I've heard. I am extremely lazy.

[shermarama]

I don't have any dessert sessions either

And I thought you were a big fan of cake? *grins*

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

hey! I think I saw you on Tuesday on TCR - I was coming out of my gim and you were wandering up in the Warren St direction with a blonde lady? I would have said hellow but I can't remember if I had managed to get my breath back yet, and you were walking away from me, and my legs hurt, so instead I just got a chicken noodle salad and then went back to my office, had a cup of tea and so on. You know, the sort of thing that people do. Anyway! I SPOTTED YOU!

(unless it was not you)
(in which case this is a bit void)

[shermarama]

I was certainly about on TCR that day, although I'm not sure I was walking along it *with* anybody. But it could well have been me.

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

Ah crap, sorry about the duff tip there. The turnout yesterday was definitely higher than the ones last year, perhaps because they'd bothered booking a couple of decent bands this time. My ticket never turned up in time, so I decided I couldn't justify going over there and trying to buy something I'd sort of already paid for, but I wish I had now as free music and Uncle Joe's Mint Balls is an awesome combination.

The dude above is right about the sound - it's pretty quiet considering how big they've made the stage look, and they keep it at the same level all day so the early bands sound loud but the headliners get drowned out by the sound of lots of humans in the same place. It sounds crap if you don't stand in the centre too, maybe it's a speaker placement thing.