Renaissance - Northern Lights

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8uvKqlcQY

Destination outward bound
I turn to see the northern lights behind the wing
Horizons seem to beckon me
Learned how to cry too young, so now I live to sing

The northern lights are in my mind
They guide me back to you
Horizons seem to beckon me
Learned how to cry too young, so now I live to sing

You know it's hard away from you
Travelling roads and passing through
It's not for money and it's not for fame
I just can't explain, sometimes it's lonely

Marking the space between the days
Early hours pass away
I sing to you of northern lights
I sing for you of northern nights

Past or future, here or there
Shelter comes in words from you, so talk to me
I hear your voice, it comforts me
In morning dreams I take your hand, you walk with me

The northern lights are in my mind
They guide me back to you
Peace enfolds the still night air
Home again I look for you and find you there

Desintation homeward now
Take the easy way, bring me down
Making the hard way now I see
Hard to be really free, I'm missing you near me

Marking the space between the days
Early hours pass away
I sing to you of northern lights
I sing for you of northern nights

The northern lights are in my mind
They guide me back to you
The northern nights are in my eyes
They guide me back to you

The northern lights are in my mind
They guide me back to you
The northern nights are in my eyes
They guide me back to you

The northern lights are in my mind
They guide me back to you

 

 

Mountain Goats gig - Manchester's Albert Hall 17th November 2022

Mountain Goats gig - Manchester's Albert Hall

The Albert Hall is a great venue and one of the many great things about it is the height of the stage. It’s about five and a half feet off the ground so you can be the shortest person standing at the back and still get a great view.

The hall was designed in eclectic style with Baroque and Gothic elements for the Wesleyan Mission in 1908. A meeting hall is on the first floor with a horseshoe gallery, sloping floor and coloured glass rooflights. The finely detailed terracotta is formed into large windows at gallery level, and the interior is abundant in floral decoration in the plaster work and glazed tiles. 

1. Make You Suffer
2. Dark in Here
3. Pez Dorado
4. Bones Don't Rust
5. Younger
6. Tidal Wave
   John and Matt:
7. Wear Black
8. Soft Targets
   John Solo:
9. The Water Song
10. Jenny
11. Thank You Mario but Our Princess Is in Another Castle
    Full Band:
12. Waylon Jennings Live!
13. In Memory of Satan
14. The Diaz Brothers
15. Incandescent Ruins
16. Prowl Great Cain
17. Song for Dennis Brown
18. Broom People
19. Up the Wolves
     
     

    
    
     
    Encore:
20. The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums
21. The Mess Inside
22. This Year ** 
     
    
     
23. No Children
24. Spent Gladiator 2

 ** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaKoCvPq0QM

Bon Iver - First Direct Arena, Leeds

 

On 19th October 2022 Sophie & I went to Iberica 

for a meal before going to the First Direct Arena to see Bon Iver (rearranged). It was Good/OK but not brilliant for me. Sophie loved the lighting effects. 

The support - CARM - was horrendous in both our opinions (we went back to the Black & White lounge for a drink!

Obviously the reviewer in The Guardian had a very different view of the Bon Iver paar of the gig then we did (see below).

A Review from The Guardian

Justin Vernon’s sublime falsetto and robust versions of songs from i,i are met with shrieks of delight in an unusually intimate arena gig by Dave Simpson Thursday 20 Oct 2022 12.18 BST

Justin Vernon has come a long way since he decamped to a Wisconsin log cabin to make his stunningly introspective alt-folk debut as Bon Iver, 2007’s For Emma, Forever Ago. Since then, there have been Grammy wins, chart-topping albums and collaborations with Taylor Swift, James Blake and Kanye West, and his music has shifted into hip-hop production and electronic orchestration. 2019’s i,i featured a seven-piece band and no less than 39 additional musicians and a choir. Crucially, Bon Iver songs are still strong enough to be performed with just voice and guitar. But the 41-year-old has eschewed the well-worn singer-songwriter archetype in favour of intriguing new shapes. There’s plenty of that at tonight’s gig at Leeds’ First Direct Arena, with an array of sounds ranging from percussion that sounds like an exhaling pressure cooker to robotic vocal effects. This never detracts from the gentle beauty of the songs, and for an arena gig – this one long delayed by Covid – it feels unusually intimate.

Simply but wonderfully staged … Bon Iver at Leeds First Direct Arena. Photograph: Claire Powell

It is simply but wonderfully staged. The six musicians are encased in luminous geometric patterns, which change colour to suit the songs. At one point, another set of glowing geometric shapes descend to frame the crowd in a beautiful autumnal glow, which almost makes the audience part of the performance. They watch with a churchgoer-like reverence, which increasingly gives way to ecstatic cheering and whooping. Where most arena acts pack their sets with hits, Vernon performs no less than nine tracks from i,i, one of his most challenging records. The songs are more robust live – with long-term keyboard-percussionist Sean Carey and drumming colossus Matt McCaughan beating up a storm – but somehow more delicate. Vernon’s sublime falsetto and harmonies with Carey or guitarist Jenn Wasner provide human vulnerability amid the other worldly electric storm. Occasionally, there are old favourites. Re: Stacks, performed acoustically, and the mesmeric likes of Holocene and Flume are met with shrieks of delight.

Vernon has struggled with success and loss of anonymity, but he explains that lockdown allowed him to reflect and here he seems to appreciate such a loyal and enthusiastic audience. He expresses gratitude throughout, virtually shadow boxes with excitement during a thrilling Hey, Ma and even pulls off a Yorkshire accent. “I love you too … luv!” he grins. “It’s great that here you say ‘luv’ to everybody.”

Gradually, the gig becomes a magical communal experience, passing the 100-minute mark by the time the band dip into electronic contemporary jazz. Conversely, first encore Blood Bank rocks like, of all things, Neil Young and Crazy Horse. “Spread the love,” Vernon beams as they exit, and you wonder where on earth his restless muse will take him next.

Goodbye Mr MacKenzie - set list - Brudenell Club October 6th 2022

Set list - Goodbye Mr MacKenzie

Brudenell Club October 6th 2022

 

 

 

1. You Generous Thing
2. Open Your Arms
3. Hard
4. His Master's Voice
5. Love Child
6. Niagara
7. Sick Baby
8. Green Turn Red
9. Here Comes Deacon Brodie
10. Normal Boy
11. The Way I Walk
    (Jack Scott cover)
12. Now We Are Married
13. Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie
14. The Rattler
15. Encore:
16. Working On The Shoo-Fly
17. Blacker Than Black
18. Goodwill City

 

Stone Sour - Through Glass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIzDsGyxsQM

I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
Oh God, it feels like forever
But no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

'Cause I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
All I know is that it feels like forever
When no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

How do you feel? That is the question
But I forget you don't expect an easy answer
When something like a soul becomes initialized
And folded up like paper dolls and little notes
You can't expect a bit of hope
And while you're outside looking in
Describing what you see
Remember what you're staring at is me

'Cause I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
All I know is that it feels like forever
When no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

How much is real? So much to question
An epidemic of the mannequins
Contaminating everything
When thought came from the heart
It never did right from the start
Just listen to the noises
(Null and void instead of voices)
Before you tell yourself
It's just a different scene
Remember it's just different from what you've seen

I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
And all I know is that it feels like forever
When no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

'Cause I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
All I know is that it feels like forever
When no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

And it's the stars
The stars that shine for you
And it's the stars
The stars that lie to you
And it's the stars
The stars that shine for you
And it's the stars
The stars that lie to you

I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
Oh God, it feels like forever
But no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

'Cause I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
All I know is that it feels like forever
But no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

And it's the stars
The stars that shine for you
And it's the stars
The stars that lie to you
And it's the stars
The stars that shine for you
And it's the stars
The stars that lie to you

Who are the stars
Who are the stars, they lie

 

Marie McKee - Life is Sweet & Perfect Dress - Live London 1996

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=431uGD2CFbo&list=RDGMEMJQXQAmqrnmK1SEjY_rKBGA&index=3

This one is for the girl who says she's unlucky in love
You deserve to have the world at your feet
And if one person, one man could be enough
I wish it could be me
I wish it could be me

This one is for the boy whose daddy never had time for him
I Wish I could build you a little house for you to hide in
And give you back your summers
I'd give you back all your summers
You still have summers

Life is sweet life is sweet life is sweet
Bittersweet
And the days keep rolling along

This one is for the girl who says those voices in her head
Never leave her alone
Don't listen to your teacher, you're not crazy
Just smarter than the rest of them
Paint a picture, write a song
Tell your story, bang a gong

Life is sweet life is sweet life is sweet
Bittersweet
And the days keep rolling along
Rolling along

This one is for the boy who's not allowed to be part of the gang
You don't need those losers I think you're beautiful
And you meet a girl and you fall in love and it doesn't work out
Well it won't be the first time and they don't make a cure for that
So you eat your breakfast, read a book
Open up your window, be alone

Life is sweet life is sweet life is sweet
Bittersweet
And the days keep rolling along

 

You send me color
Pulled through the needle of you
Torn up I'm wearing it
What I wouldn't give

To change the weather around you
I'm never cold
I'll never cold

Lost as we spin
I'll sew you in
This perfect dress
Skin of our skin

Woven our hands
Silk is our breath
Wear it for you
This perfect dress

This perfect room
This little death
Birth without womb
What I wouldn't give

To tear riddle from riddle for you
But all I know
It's all I know

Lost as we spin
I'll sew you in
This perfect dress
Skin of our skin

Woven our hands
Silk is our breath
Wear it for you
This perfect dress

Lost as we spin
I'll sew you in
This perfect dress
Skin of our skin

Woven our hands
Silk is our breath
Wear it for you
This perfect dress

 

The War on Drugs - Under the Pressure

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByrKdwQMGYc

Well the comedown here was easy
Like the arrival of a new day
But a dream like this gets wasted
Yeah, without you

Under the pressure 

Is where we are
Under the pressure, 

It's where we are

You're the only one
Like an illusion

When it all breaks down and we're runaways
Standing in the wake of our pain
And we stare straight into nothing
But we call it all the same
You were raised on a promise
Found that over time
Better come around to the new way
Or watch as it all breaks down here

Under the pressure

Well the break down here
Stole it all the way across
I wanna climb down the river
Stranded on
When you come here and I'm wasted
Lying on a field
Dancing in the rain
Hiding in the back
Loosening my grip
Wading in the water
Trying not to crack
Under the pressure
Yeah 

That's where we are babe
Under the pressure
Woo!