Maximum Black in London last night

[neptune]

Hey - was anyone else at the London gig? If so did anyone see that really scary ticket tout guy? I was in the queue and he was walking up and down saying "who wants a ticket for tonight?", and some joker asked if he was giving it away for free, and the tout went crazy and started telling him a grimly hilarious story about the time he was sexually abused at young offenders' prison. Then later I saw him hurling an almost-empty can of guinness original against a wall. Nice fellow.

Also, did you notice that there were a huge number of people who were either drunk and obnoxious, didn't want to see FF, or both? It was a weird atmosphere.

Owen was fantastic though...

[jon]

or the huge number of disgusting looking people making out in front of everyone? that was great. i had to stand behind a couple for all of owen's set and all i could smell was love-musk.

[jules]

it does pay to be there early, you just get to hear the distance rumble of the rabble from the front in the quieter moments. I doubt it was a good night for the touts as I think they sold tickets on the door, although it did look like it was fairly full mid way through the evening.

[funkage]

Im not sure people were that bad, I was at the front though so I didnt hear much noise, until people started clapping (out of time as well)!

Also, I really wanted a t-shirt but didnt have enough money. Is there anywhere else where they can be bought, or are they just for sale at gigs?

[jules]

funkage said:

Im not sure people were that bad, I was at the front though so I didnt hear much noise, until people started clapping (out of time as well)!

Also, I really wanted a t-shirt but didnt have enough money. Is there anywhere else where they can be bought, or are they just for sale at gigs?

Details for obtaing T-shirt are in this thread (near the bottom)
shzine.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=fantasy&action=display&thread=1202734987

I should allow a few days fro a response as the webmaster is travelling at the moment and won't be home for a few days.

[littleblood]

The disgusting-looking people making out thing - guilty as charged, I think? It was my first anniversary, if that's any excuse. But I was definetly stone cold sober and there to see FF! Do you think anyone went for (snigger) the Alexander Tucker and Stephen O'Malley duo?

As to the gig itself, Owen was fantastic. It was an awful shame he banged his head on the mic during the first song. D: I wanted to kiss his lovely snugglepuppy head better.

[jules]

littleblood said:

Do you think anyone went for (snigger) the Alexander Tucker and Stephen O'Malley duo?

I was sufficiently interested in seeing them. I'm all for a bit of musical diversity. Not my exact cup of tea and from where I was standing you had to crane your neck to see the screens. Probably could have worked better if it had been about half the length, but there were some subtle phases in there and I think it would have worked a lot better listening whilst imaging vistas of sparse lands far away. I wouldn't go out my way to see them live but it wasn't bad music, just different. It was a big thing for them to play to a pure indie type audience rather than one that would immediately appreciate what they were doing. Maybe because I like rambling ambient sounds I was less put off than others. I mean I have Sky Yen by Pete Shelley, Electronic Sound by George Harrision and Machine Language by Warren Cuccurullo as part of my collection.

[sortika]

Ah, I agree with half the length, or maybe a quarter.. I was at the front so it was incredibly painful to twist and watch the screens, and also pretty painfully loud in the first few minutes. I wasn't a fan of the rambling ambient sounds, and this may have been affected by the fact that I'd been standing up for 3 hours and waiting for Owen. Any musical appreciation pretty much went: Ooh, look, a new section with viohgodaargh, it's still going!

Littleblood: "lovely snugglepuppy head"? That's a priceless expression!

[citizenmeh]

To follow on from Comrade Jules' post, I've read on other message boards that some people thought Alex and Stephen were the highlight of the night, which just goes to show: 'different strokes for different folks'. Or, alternatively, "some people are really fuckin' weird".

[sortika]

This is seriously getting weird now. I just wrote that expression (dif'rent strokes) about 5 minutes ago. And, highlight of the night? I can appreciate liking them, but the highlight? As in, the best?

My eyes, they might bleed.

[phang]

oh god, someone else who got exposed to insane drunk borstal tout man. me and jennywren (off UKK) were standing immediately behind the guy he was shouting at - it was horrible, you didn't know where to look. but even so i'm going to be regularly shouting "all i got was a mars bar. THAT'S WHEN I LEARNED" at my friends without explaining for the forseeable future


also, waaaay too many people left after dirty projectors. strokes for folks and all that, but jesus christ


ps owen was really good, again, but it felt like a really short set. i mean, it wasnt particularly, but it felt like one. oh well.


pps alex and stephen went on about 5 minutes too long - i was relieved when they were done rather than excited owen was next

ppps too many people were too noisy, even during owen's set. Wish we'd been a bit closer all in all, bar be damned.

pppps there are no more postscripts now, none

[jon]

i really loved frog eyes and the dirty projectors. alex and stephen weren't bad, just horribly wrong for that moment. it was a long night and they came right at the end... but what the heck was the yellow blob on the left screen?

[jollyness]

Alexander Tucker and Stephen O'Malley made me feel sick. Honestly I had to leave the floor and go get a drink as the sound reverberating through me.

Dirty Projectors were awesome. I'd never seen them before and was very impressed to say the least. Cannot wait to see them again.

Owen was great as ever. It's amazing how tight the performance has come on since say, the Spitz gig. I have to say though that as this was the 6th time I found I was a little bored. I think I was enjoying the wonder of my friends who had not seen him before. This isn't a negative but it's true, you can have too much of a good thing.

[Deleted]

^ Owen has always been tight, just not consistantly, which is totally understandable though.

The best final fantasy preformance i've seen (live or recorded) was April 2005 in Toronto.
It was his fourth night in a row opening for arcade fre in a big ass movie theatre.
To this day many lives has never been preformed better.

Hey owen, do you have one stand out show that went flawlessly(or whatever)?

[phang]

jollyness said:

Owen was great as ever. It's amazing how tight the performance has come on since say, the Spitz gig. I have to say though that as this was the 6th time I found I was a little bored. I think I was enjoying the wonder of my friends who had not seen him before. This isn't a negative but it's true, you can have too much of a good thing.

nah, not really.