GIG REVIEW: Concrete and Glass
- Posted on October 13, 2008 12:37 PM
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Concrete and Glass
Star-rating: ***
Ocotber 2nd – 3rd.
Review by Solange Moffi
Concrete and Glass was a much-publicised new two-day art and music festival in Shoreditch, land of the arty-farty, and based on the same principle as (the slightly older fest) Camden Crawl, which requires you to skim your way through, from pub to pub, to see bands of your choice.
Artwise, Thursday only allowed enough time to see intimate portraits of Icelandic minimalist Rocksters Sigur Ros at various stages of their recording and touring their last album “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust”, by music photographer Eva Vermandel.
But as attendance numbers proved, music was the real attraction of the fest, starting at Cargo with sound process experimentalists Owl Project, a Mancunian collective.
This led us to go and check out Brighton experimental Folk quartet Mechanical Bride at The Strongroom, just a few streets down. We were pleasantly surprised at the discovery of this perfect cross between Cat Power’s Chan Marshall and fellow Brighton local Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes. Singer Lauren Doss did a rendition of Rihanna’s hit single “Umbrella” that exposed the song’s true melodic quality.
We then moved on to Hoxton pint institution The Macbeth, to hear the very last few notes by surf Electro combo the Wave Machines (an enigmatic quartet sporting weird masks, Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”- style) , which by the sound of it were worth regretting not to have arrived on time for. Hoping for a consolation prize in hearing Über-hyped Essex gal Polly Scattergood, it was with disappointment that we left the scene after three songs: her overprotective management, the technical glitches (which interfered with her Pat Benatar/Patti Smith-tinged vocals) and her lack of stage presence that couldn’t convince otherwise.
Only did she show an ounce of a Rock chick in the third song called “Number 24” but that just wasn’t enough keep anyone’s attention
We then ended the night at Catch, to watch what I can confidently claim to be the best band in the UK today, The Dead Kids, who performed to the most multicultural crowd, making Louis Armstrong’s “A Wonderful World” reality.
Live, The Dead Kids are the complete antithesis of their name: the band exposed Shoreditch Electro Punk at its best, with all the rituals that go with it, from stage diving to a front line of horny groupies. Generally speaking, the band sounds like Prodigy meets Social Distortion, and with the lead singer “daring [US] to love [THEM]”, they won hands down!
Friday was definitely more artful: first off, we bumped into the “Scene In The Making”, a collection of socio-politico work in progress, which quite frankly, may only speak to their authors. We then were dazed by the insightful creativity of “Fifteen Artists” on the up. We stopped for free beer and a glance at Sam Pelly’s “Alina’s Ailment” show, and indeed a glance is all the size of the venue really allowed….
We eventually did get the “whole idea of a music and art event” as envisioned by the Concrete & Glass organisers, thanks to “The Glass Onion Shop”, where the two art forms finally became one, through Yoko Ono’s painting, John Cage’s sound composition and Dennis Morris’s photography.
Back at The Macbeth, we stopped to check out DiS’ darlings, Let’s Wrestle, a teen trio, with a singer who looks like a long-haired and cherubic Frank Black, and who do have a few Weezer-y melodies under their belt.
We then had to drag ourselves to Brick Lane’s 93 Feet East to hear the charmingly goofy and sweet Folky Pop of Euros Childs.
A few meters down the road, we rushed to watch Swedish princess Lykke Li at Café 1001, who made herself desired, sending her band to proceed to what has to be the longest sound check of all time! But as the crowd was starting to get impatient, she appeared and delivered her bubble-gum quirky Pop, including the addictive “Little Bit”. The set was fast-paced, her voice hypnotically ethereal, the crowd hers….
She proved her ‘cooltitude’ when she encored with a rendition of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?”- simply grand.
What then? What about TV On The Radio, “the best band in the world today” (says Saul Williams)? Oh well, quite frankly, we just admitted ourselves beaten and couldn’t face having to queue for an hour at Cargo’s entrance only to see ourselves turned away two peeps down the line like it’s happened before , so we just didn’t bother. But no doubt it must have been great for the lucky ones who did get in, i.e. the fans, the real ones.
A final note on Concrete and Glass: not bad, just not sure what distinguishes it from the Camden Crawl, which is indeed more straightforward in terms of navigating from one venue to the other (Camden High Street is that long straight road that Shoreditch just isn’t) and apart from the showcase of ‘that thing called art’, C & G only comes across as a ‘redundant duplicate’ (get it?:)….
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