Playing The Building – Roundhouse, Camden, London

I went to check out David Byrne’s Playing The Building art installation today in the Roundhouse in Camden. The Roundhouse was built in the late 19th century as place to turn around trains. There are tunnels that stretch from the basement to the stables market. This was used to ferry horses up to turn the trains around. Then after there was no need to do this the building was turned into a factory for producing gin. Now it’s an art piece.

There was a bit of a queue to get in but it didn’t take long, maybe 15 minutes. We were warned that it’d take about 40 mins to get to actually play the thing. The thing being an organ which when played triggers off three different types of sounds: motors; pipes and pillars. The keyboard of the organ is in fact a control panel which switches different valves sending compressed air through a bunch of pipes. At the end of each pipe is a different “machine” which manufactures the sounds. The bass keys control motors, the mid range sends air through pipes which make a flute noise and the trebels trigger hammers which hit the pillars.There were no speakers being used in the space.

Seeing the queue was so long I lay down beside a pillar. It was strangely relaxing to feel the pillar being banged every so often. I noticed that the pipes (flute sounds) were mostly coming from the other side of the room so I moved over there and lay down again.

The different members of the public playing the thing created different feels but mostly it just sounded like a strange racket. It wasn’t as loud as I was expecting but it was good. My friend who came with me found it so soothing she fell asleep. But she loved it.

Towards the close of the day – about an hour later maybe – I noticed that the queue was quite small. I joined it. The lady informed us – the last people in the queue – that she was supposed to turn it off at 6 but she’d wait til we got a go. Very nice of her. We jumped on and played away. I found the motors to be the best sounds, they were properly placed in the bass keys. I noticed that the pipes were seemingly in tune but after some tinkering they weren’t at all. The pillars in the treble were just a bit too much – I had heard enough of them over the previous hour.

I found the whole thing as I say strangely relaxing. Probably more art than music. But hey, what the hell is music? Just a bunch of sounds at the end of the day.

Did you play it? What did you think?

David Byrne Videos On Youtube – Songs Of David Byrne And Brian Eno

I still have to read the manual of my Canon G9 so I am afraid I captured these videos in poor quality. You get the idea though. See my pictures here.

David Byrne Review: Songs Of David Byrne & Brian Eno ~ Royal Festival Hall

The way this gig was billed I was thinking that Eno was going to be playing with Byrne. (“What on earth would he be doing I kept wondering to myself.”) Alas there was never going to be any Eno, just his music. This ended up being a good thing as it gave Byrne more brainroom to concentrate on delivering a show that would have to rival those from the Stop Making Sense tour.

Byrne came on and was on the best form I’d ever seen him (having seen him about half a dozen times so far). He greeted us with a Happy Easter and explained that the menu was going to be of early stuff with Eno and stuff from their 2008 release Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. And he would be our waiter this evening. And his name is Dave.

There was a very large gathering of photographers for the event. They were given their cursory three song allowance at the beginning. Byrne also invited the “amateurs” to take photos and email him the good ones to him so he can put them on his blog. Nice to see the guy having a more inclusive approach.

Here’s the set list (based on this photo):

• Strange Overtones
  • Nice groover from the new album. Paul Frazier‘s opening slinky bassline and percussion from Mauro Refosco and Graham Hawthorne told you this was going to be a great gig.
• I Zimbra
  • Dancers came on for this one. Theme was that they were teaching the backing vocalists how to dance.
• One Fine Day
  • Mauro Refosco moving onto some weird one drum percussion. (Was it a sampler?)
• Help Me Somebody
  • Byrne explained that this was taken from an album he recorded with Eno in which neither of them sang but instead featured “found vocals”, i.e. pre-sampling (and lawyers). Tonight he would be the sampler.
• Houses In Motion
  • Souped up version from Remain In Light with dancers lifting it also.
• My Big Nurse
  • Mauro Refosco, Redray Frazier and Steven Reker on acoustics with Byrne on electric
• My Big Hands
  • From the brilliant Catherine Wheel which was a piece choreographed by Twyla Tharp who has performed at the RFH and was not responsible for the choreography for this version. “That is all you need to know at this stage.”
• Heaven
  • An obvious audience favourite which reminded me that this show was possibly better than Stop Making Sense. Kaïssa sang main backing vocals.
• Poor Boy
  • Funker from the new album. Excellent keys from Mark Degli Antoni.
• Life Is Long
  • Dancers providing almost a narrative with a beautiful outro from Steven Reker
• Crosseyed and Painless
  • Beautiful dancing from Natalie Kuhn. Excellent guitaring from Byrne.
• Born Under Punches
  • This is the song that got everyone on their feet. And me to the from where I took most of my pictures.
• Once In A Lifetime
  • Dancers ensured that you didn’t know where to look for fear of missing something.
• Life During Wartime
  • I’d seen this song performed with a string section and usually they provided a fantastic outro. This time the outro was left to Lily Baldwin
• Feel My Stuff
  • Mesmerising piece

Encore I

• Take Me To The River
  • Solid funker. The picture below was taken during this shot.
• The Great Curve
  • The great ripper

Encore II

• Air
  • Weirdly counted in in Japanese. Choreography probably meant that it should have been Guitar, but it was Air.
• Burning Down The House
  • The climax.

Encore III

• Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
  • Byrne usually finishes on a downbeater. Lovely song.

I think it actually surpassed the Stop Making Sense show as the dancers interacted moreso with the performance that you would expect giving it all an extra lift. Every song had something different. Thank God Eno wasn’t there, otherwise the spectacle would have suffered. Still would have been nice to have seen him bashing something out on a Casio or something all the same. Meantime lads get back to the studio and knock some more stuff out.

Duration: 2 hours. Flickr. Youtube.

Placard @ Netaudio In Shunt

Just played a couple of sets in Placard. Arrived approx 9.15pm just as ex-colleague/Placard main organiser/fellow improviser Alex McLean was about to begin an unscheduled slot. Alex played some of his great gabba, code techno and I got the banjo out for an improvised set. I really enjoyed it. Spontaneous and lively and unpredictable and good craic. Enjoyed getting people on stage roaring down my banjo. We were also helped by the loud, ambient pumping beats from the next arch down.

Shunt is a great venue. I won’t say any more than that. Go.

The festival was pretty awesome. Live bands, DJs, installations. All random. In fact the only song I heard that I recognised was playing as we left – Once In A Lifetime. The Netauidio Festival was a total sell-out. One in, one out witha long dense crowd queuing up outside the length of the wall in London Bridge. The festival continues tomorrow. Go.

My last (or main set) went down great. Am glad it did. It my last time doing that show. Time to move on to my next piece.

If you caught my act and enjoyed it sent me an email and I’ll pop you on my mailing list.

Chrs,

xc

The Undertones – The Best Band In The World Ever

As an apprentice, if Jesus could have made any musical instrument he would have made a Gibson Les Paul guitar. And if he then could have played in any band in the world he would have played with The Undertones. Why? Because they are the best band in the world ever. So why didn’t He? Because they didn’t need Him.

The Ramones had the energy, Talking Heads had the concepts but The Undertones have it all, except for the looks maybe. But that is what also makes them so brilliant. The aceness of their music overpowered any notions of sex. Even though that is all they ever seemed to write about. And chocolate.

The Undertones played Dingwalls in Camden tonight opening up with the awesome You’ve Got My Number. I stood alongside my cousin Ciaran McKeever who taught my brother Emmet how to play Teenage Kicks, who in turn showed me and that was my birth into the world of rock music. So forget memory lane. This is memory heaven.

The Undertones seemed to grab me like no other band did before and before long I was in a band with Emmet and I was able to play the basslines of all the songs of the first two Undertones’ albums. (I didn’t have the other two on vinyl yet.)

Seeing them play tonight I was blown away all over again. Here I was, man-grown, and even more appreciative of how rich and complex their music is. And that, I have to say, is what sets The Undertones apart from The Ramones. I have always said that Abba are the Mozart of pop. Well tonight I realized that The Undertones are Mozart of rock. And that makes them better than Abba because rock is by default better than pop. (If in doubt compare Led Zeppelin to Steps.)

In a way it’s a shame Teenage Kicks is so popular because it overshadows the genius of their other many perfect (and I mean perfect) pop songs. The riffs of Hypnotised blow you away as do I Gotta Getta, Girls Don’t Like It and Family Entertainment. The best song though for me tonight though had to be When Saturday Comes.

I saw Sex Pistols and Madonna in the last month and though the Sex Pistols were great and Madonna’s show was extravagant, none matched the musicianship of these Derry Beach Boys.

The Undertones are touting their new release – an anthology if you will, complete with new old stuff. Buy it now and play the air guitar like Jesus would be now doing in The Undertones Heaven in Heaven where John Peel is God. Yes.

Great Songs To Walk To

1. Controversy – Prince
2. Get Up Offa That Thing – James Brown
3. 1+1+1 = 3 – Prince. (If it’s a live version be sure to stop on the one. Thanks).
4. Hot Pants – James Brown
5. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel – Talking Heads
6. Don’t Get me Wrong – The Pretenders
7. Standing In The Way Of Control – The Gossip 
8.  The Gumbo Variations – Frank Zappa
9. D. J. – David Bowie
10.  Eyeball Kid – Tom Waits. (Though you have to stop for the ‘But you  got to have a manager that’s what it’s all about’ line. Start walking again after ‘I know you can’t speak and I know you can’t sign so cry right here on the dotted line’).