Toby's journal

Went to a breakcore evening at Pony last night.
Some live acts, some DJs. The best live guy was definitely Sado, who played early in the night. DC105 was starting to sound good too, but it was getting late and I left halfway through his set.. I doubt many other people heard him, as two avant garde noise acts prior had just about emptied the club.
The first avant garde guys had one screaming incoherently into a microphone while another guy played with filter effects over white noise. Rather unlistenable.
The second pair were initially more interesting, just due to the setup - one guy had an AM/FM radio and a cassette player, a bunch of cassettes, and a few guitar effects pedals. The second guy then knelt on the floor in front and bashed away at more effects pedals, and occasionally ground up and popped some bubble-wrap with an odd expression on his face. Again, the end result was like walking down a very windy tunnel.

I know it's performance art, but damnit, couldn't they at least put a slight hint of rhythm in there?
And maybe have a warning prior that says "Please don't leave, there will be normal* stuff on afterwards again".
(* Well, as normal as breakcore and rhythmic noise can be..)

For Syn(thclarion), or anyone else who would like a quick laugh at his expense: John Peel and the Syn.

(OK, so this has probably come up years ago and it's old by now?)

Squee!! The Anathema gig was fantastic. Not many of their old songs played - they played a lot from Alternative 4, Judgement, and A Natural Disaster, plus some tracks off their most recent album, and a couple off their upcoming one. All good fun. (And how am I supposed to go to bed now, when I'm still bouncy?)

Also, in order to avoid the issues of the last metal gig I went to, this time I found a good spot at the back where I could perch up high and see over everyone - and brought binoculars. I am /so/ hardcore, sometimes it hurts. 8)
However, I hate nothing more* than spending a gig seeing nothing but peoples' armpits and the occaisional elbow, so I think standing at the back definately wins out for personal enjoyment.

And as a nice surprise, I met a random Aussie backpacker who'd arrived in London just today, and ended up chatting to her for hours about music after the gig ended. :D

As far as work goes.. well, about all I can do is quote Douglas Adams, with "I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by."


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*: Well, OK, so there are quite a lot of things I hate more, or at least equally.. The tube in rush hour.. R'n'B.. American foreign policy.. my attempts to pronounce "certificate".. Places that only stock nasty lager.. Microsoft products.. Chavs.. The fact that socks take so long to launder.. Traffic.. Insurance companies.. White van drivers.. Banks.. the list could go on and on. Maybe I should revise my original statement to "However, among the many, many things that I hate (of a similar order of magnitude), one of them is spending a gig..." -- however that seems to lose some of the punch of the original.

I went to Electrowerkz last night for the AMμnition gig (lots of Planet Mμ people playing live).
Oh my god. I have never seen that venue that packed before. It reached a point (when Venetian Snares finally came on at 4am) where the bouncers actually stopped any more people from going to the top floor. Of course, it reached the point of being uncomfortably full way before then..

So, that was a downside to the event.

The music that I did hear (mainly on the middle floor) was good though, and what I caught of Luke Vibert and Venetian Snares upstairs was good too.

And today I feel rather hungover. Bother.

Global Warming vs Sick & Twisted
Which they describe as "2 rooms of hardtek_hardcore_beats_&_breaks"
Friday 24th February
10pm to 6am. £7.00

Sounds good to me.