Finally got to see ‘Battle Royale’, although I had to be in London to do so, ‘cos the exciting! big! multi-screen! Warner cinema in Reading still shows only the most mainstream movies. BUT, consider my surprise, upon realising that I didn’t actually like the film all that much – it was entertaining, sure enough, but ultimately I found it cheesy, confusing in parts, a very very good idea messed up. The idea behind the film (if you don’t know it) is that due to kids being little fuckers these days, why not drop batches of them on a deserted island and let them kill eachother? (it’s not quite as simple as that, but that’s the gist)…. my friend said afterwards that she always considers whether she’d enjoy foreign language films (Battle Royale is Japanese) the same if they were in English. And in this case, no way, as the dialogue is at times super-childish and unrealistic. a shame… and a real let down.

Well The Dismemberment Plan were fun. They had tunes and a cute geeky singer with some robotic dance moves. For some reason the audience was mostly made up of crazy american college students who ran down the front, danced wildly, whooped, sang along and heckled. There was a group of them at the front then a foot of space and the all the local crowd standing bemused at such outward displays of enthusiasm over a relatively unknown band. one of the guys was heckling so enthusiastically during one song that the singer kept giggling while trying to sing and ended up inviting the guy onstage to dance to the next song. I like gigs where you spend half the time laughing even when you’re there all on your own [sob etc.]. very funny guys and they seemed to be having a great time too. There seemed to be some people from Fracture there as well but I don’t know who. I’ve spent all morning trying to organise my million of photos and now I think I might wander down to Byres Road and do some shopping before Wil Forbis of Acid Logic webzine arrives.

So, on Tuesday I went to see Trans Am and The Fucking Champs. And one song by Eska, since the 13th Note now seems to open the doors at the time noted on the ticket and not an hour later. Dammit. Eska are really utterly fantastic these days. I mean, they were always utterly fantastic but now they’re utterly ROCK fantastic. If the new EP isn’t deserving of the word ‘awesome’ I’ll be very surprised. I went down the front to take photos of the Champs [actually to eye up Tim Green..ahem..] but after about three songs my ears were aching and my legs wobbling from the shuddering wall of power guitars. R! O! C! K! etc. it was mighty. I watched the rest from a safe retreat at the back of the venue where the floor still vibrated in shock.

After that, Trans Am had to be a disappointment and they kind of were. Some of it was great but mostly when they sounded like Tortoise or Brainiac. when they came back for an encore I was not too happy but they played their best song yet so that cheered me up immensely. And Chris gave me another corporate pen for my collection so another good night all round.

Now I’m off to see The Dismemberment Plan tonight. Does it ever stop? No.

okay, now I can find time to write about the burnt out festival. very timely considering the last few days have involved burning buildings at my place of work. I just went down and took some photos of the burnt botany building. it looks pretty sad with no roof.

the burnt out festival is on all this week in glasgow and they really went to some effort. really nice old-church type venue, slide and film projections and even printing the tickets on fancy cardboard. anyway, I went on the first night for Hood and Very! Special! Guests! Mogwai!

which obviously was wee stuart b dj-ing for well over an hour. he didn’t do his mobile indie disco but instead did a damn good proper dj set with fancy mixing skills and sticking in a whole bunch of stuff from hip hop to electronica to cheesy garage to digital hardcore to heavy metal to sesame street. but I think he mainly likes dj-ing so he can put on a long record every now and again and run about getting another beer and chatting to people. I expect this to get worked in to Mogwai’s set at some point.

Hood were the main band and they were really great. it all just worked together really well. the electronicy stuff, the guitars, the projections and everything. and they did a fantastically loud rock out bit to finish on. I was rather impressed.

Good night altogether. And John from Mogwai bought me a pint! what a guy!

I’d just like to say that it wasn’t me that set the QMU on fire in the hope of making Starsailor die a horrible burning death. Despite working in a building mere yards away I have witnesses to the fact that I was involved in the complicated task of breaking our own websites while being electrocuted via the static electricity conducting devices that are my polyester slacks.

and I’ll post about Hood and Mogwai later. But before I go out to see Trans Am!

there’s an A and a C in wack, too

woo, i legally purchased fugazi (i’m getting the hang of the bold things now) today, but i haven’t had a good listen yet. i got the mogwai single too, which is great obviously, and the six by seven single, which ain’t. hooray for long overdue record buying.

i legally purchased the new fugazi yesterday. also for reasons too lengthy to relate here, i got a penny off the asking price. bonus!

yeah, thursday was les savy fav/enon/econoline in london. i was fashionably late so i missed the start of econoline’s set, but they were splendid, as expected. one day i’ll be early and get to see them from the start. one day. enon were interesting and fun enough, but i wasn’t so into them – i was still giddy from econoline’s set, i expect. les savy fav were excellently insane – plenty loud and wild with lots of hilarious antics. and they’ve so got the tunes. and, as ollie mentioned, a step ladder. must take up a lot of room on the tour bus though.

well, enon didn’t play conjugate the verbs, which made me a bit sad. but les savy fav had a step ladder, which made me happy. so, a fairly balanced evening all in all.

didn’t get to talk to greg and luke much though. ho hum.