The Photographer

It occurs to me that of late this here blog has become more about me and less about my photography. So with that in mind I'm not even going to bother trying to find a photo to post today.

Last night I went to Wilco. It was f*@kin awesome. Quite possibly the best show in a f*@kin awesome year. The guys are such pros - fantastic musicianship (especially Glenn Kotche and Nels Cline), Tweedy is such a showman. Their first song was 'Sunken Treasure', and about sixty seconds in I had a revelatory moment. The song was unmistakably familiar, as was the voice, and IT WAS COMING FROM THE GUY A FEW METRES IN FRONT OF ME!!

It was a slow start, a rockin' start, but Jeff let half a dozen songs go by before talking to us - "so is it tradition round here for everyone to wear heavy metal t-shirts the day after easter?" - and from there things picked up. Both the band and audience seemed to relax and really start enjoying themselves. I have to say seating is the worst possible thing at a gig like this. You wanna dance. And even when you stand up you're still trapped by the seats.

Such an awesome show. They played bits from most of their catalogue - no A.M. or Mermaid Ave 2 - to make up for never having been here before. Part way through 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)', which turned out to be the last song of the evening, I said to myself "I wish I had gone to Whitianga ... and then to Auckland ... and then here." They were that good. (Or I'm that sad.)

They played my request, "How to Fight Loneliness" (not that they mentioned it being my request), and my second request, "Reservations" (not that I requested it), and pretty much most of my favourites, and a few unfavourites too, all of which were fantastic. The whole thing was. The two hour set was way too short. I could 've gone another two hours. Whether Wilco could have is another thing. Next time they come, you should go, they're good.

This year started with Low at the Kings Arms. And it was wicked. They're not a band whose records will appeal to everyone, but I would think that anyone who sees them live will be instantly converted. Like Jeff Tweedy, Alan Sparhawk is a showman - and a guitar hero. For two guys and one girl to hold a few hundred people in silent rapture for an hour is amazing. Like last night, I was smiling like a nutter throughout. Save for maybe a Dimmer gig a couple of years back, Easter 2005 maybe, it was probably the best gig I'd seen and I left wondering if it could be topped.

Then two weeks later was Big Day Out, as previously reported. It was a great day. The revelations for me were LCD Soundsystem and Dizzee Rascal, but their recordings don't live up to their live act. And of course we can't forget Arcade Fire. Another awesome show, and a band I really want to see do a full set in, say, the Opera House, sans seating.

And then on February 12 we had Explosions In The Sky at SanFran. I knew they'd either be fantastic or dire. I didn't dream they'd be this good. The friend I went with named it her best gig ever (from memory), and she's been to quite a few. Definitely top five for me. Such energy, such volume, kinda primal, kinda spiritual. Freaking awesome.

And last night. Where can I go from here? It can't get any better. I noticed The Bats are playing on April 5 so that'd be a quick trip back to reality - not that they're bad, they're just not Wilco or EitS etc. Dudley Benson is playing April 4 which will definitely be an experience and a fairly unique gig. So maybe ...

This internet thing is kinda cool. I've been downloading too much music of late. But some of it's really cool. I found this guy via google, and have since downloaded a lot of his stuff - note that a lot of the older links don't work. KiwiTapes put me on to this which is a really cool way to eat up the gigabytes. I have found some crazy stuff here though - like Chris Knox's very rare first solo album.

Some of these are kinda entertaining, not astounding, but worth a listen. And this fella isn't shy about writing about NZ music which is cool. And I just discovered that Simon Sweetman has a blog about music and stuff.

And for something a bit more intellectual, Charles Darwin anyone?