Dalston, The Proper Ornaments, Omi Palone, Echo Lake

I made my way out to Dalston last night (thursday) to see a No Pain In Pop show at the Shacklewell Arms which I later discovered was apparently a sort of a fundraiser for the British Heart Foundation.

The first band on was Omi Palone, who I happen to consider to be arguably the best indie rock band around at the moment. I'd seen them once before and been a fan ever since. suffice to say they didn't disappoint. Incredibly strong songs and a fantastic sound make for a pretty potent combination. Also, I'm frankly always happy to see an indie band not harking back to britpop or (still) trying to be the Strokes! Everyone needs to see Omi Palone in a small venue before they surely graduate to much bigger things.

Next up came my highlight of the night in the form of the Proper Ornaments who are now without doubt one of my favourite bands. I had heard of them around the place before and possibly heard the odd track but somehow before last night they had somehow largely passed me by which is doubly strange as I am pretty partial to Veronica Falls!

The set didn't start ideally as there appeared to be keyboard problems which were tinkered around with for a while and eventually solved by dumping the keyboard entirely!! However, after that the band soon got back into their stride and were spectacularly good. At first they seemed to be almost psychedelic, then shoegazey, and after a while I'm not sure what. What suddenly came to mind was the Jesus and Mary Chain playing American Beauty (the Grateful Dead album rather than the film of the same name), which as far as I'm concerned is absolutely perfect. The only shame was that there wasn't anything of theirs for me to buy.

The night was headlined by Echo Lake who I suddenly realised have a quite beautiful dreamy sound (even more so live than recorded), but at the same time manage not to drift off into the realms of easy listening and chillout which so many similar bands seem to struggle with. They periodically develop a harder edge when needed to jolt everyone back to reality and keep things lively. 

One of the best complete lineups I've seen recently, and it turns out that Dalston isn't as much of a hassle to get to and from as I had originally suspected.

Lido

Finally got around to properly listening to Lido by Darren Hayman over the last few days. Although I've had it on vinyl for a while, a series of complications have meant that my record player has been somewhat out of action for almost the same period of time! Fortunately it is now back and in the same place as me. Anyway, I had heard parts of the album both on free download and when seeing Darren Hayman & the Long Parliament live and had been pleasantly surprised given the dread that instrumentals commonly inspire (I'm pretty sure that I can't think of a second genuinely good full length instrumental album, although perhaps someone can), and was as a result quite keen to see how Lido was as a whole.
I can now say that it is in reality a truly fantastic thing. As hard as it is to imagine I absolutely found myself transported to the world of the Lidos while listening to it the whole way through. Each piece seems to suit the different location in it's own way and tell a little imagined story about what might or might not have happened there over time, with the ones now closed seeming to incorporate that funny sense of loss without drifting in to being too sombre. Also, the drawings included in the notes are tremendous.
Certainly worth a listen or two as far as I'm concerned.

Odd Box, Gigs, 7" Vinyl

I attended an entirely fantastic gig at the Wilmington Arms in London last night. It was an Odd Box show so it was to be expected that it would be good, but even by the standards already laid down the quality was pretty much unparalleled. The lineup was; Post, Wake the President, T.O.Y.S, Casual Sex, of which I had only really heard of T.O.Y.S before who I had also tried and failed to see several times over the last six months or so. I can now safely say that I am extremely pleased to have seen them and almost certainly will be again. They and Wake the President were arguably my personal highlights of the night. On the one hand a periodically somewhat moody modern post punk (maybe post post punk is the term...) tinged with bouncy bass and keyboards, and on the other awesomely funky jangly Glaswegian indie pop  that deserves an infinitely wider audience than it's probably destined to receive.

It always seems that if even parts of sets as good as these could somehow be transmitted onto sky tv or computers live on a Saturday night then more people would see what they're missing out on and support something exciting and different by actually going out to see it. Especially at £6 a ticket on the door (and less in advance online for those like me who worry that everything will sell out) I consider it close to impossible to believe that someone could attend and not find something they like and by extension not do anything other than enjoy themselves.

Being at the gig caused me to listen to a whole load of 7" singles this morning as well, which is always good and was doubly so this time as it reminded me to listen to Chips for the Poor much more often!
A triumphant return to the Wilmington Arms by Odd Box!