Monday 28 November 2022

Sunday 27 November 2022. POPPY live at Shepherds Bush Empire. 27 year old American female singer-songwriter is promoting her fourth album "Flux". Poppy's musical style has been described as pop, heavy metal, rock, electronic, industrial, and experimental. Poppy was recently the opening act on the Smashing Pumpkins / Janes Addiction North American Tour. ----------- All three acts tonight had female singers, and the show looks like a full house. Nice to see three drum kits all set up on the stage and ready to rock. BAND OF SILVER on stage at 8pm for their 30 mins set. They play some decent indie-pop tunes , they hail from Nashville, USA. WHITE FEVER on stage at 8.50pm for their 30 mins set. They had three females at the front, and a male drummer. They played some decent indie pop-punk tunes. POPPY on stage at 9.40pm for her 60 mins set. Poppy is looking very EMO goth punk in her look, and her loyal fans adore her. Poppy is able to pivot from whisper-singing to a soaring chorus or a ground-rumbling scream, Poppy has become more adept in cohesively mixing up her vocals in a way that makes the songs varied and exciting. Lots of moshing in the front stalls standing area, and an enjoyable show. Full POPPY setlist played tonight... Lessen the Damage Breeders BLOODMONEY Pocket Her Sit / Stay Flux All the Things She Said (t.A.T.u. cover) FYB Anything Like Me Hysteria As Strange as It Seems Never Find My Place Encore: I Disagree Bite Your Teeth ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Saturday 26 November 2022. HARRY HILL live at Shepherds Bush Empire. Harry Hill (now aged 58), is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an off-beat, energetic performance style that fused elements of surrealism, observational comedy, slapstick, satire and music. When performing, he usually wears browline glasses and a dress shirt with a distinctive oversized collar and cuffs. ---------- It is stalls seated tonight and Level 3 is half empty , so maybe 1000 folks here. Harry Hill arrives on stage in his trademark white oversized collar shirt and brother creepers. He is on stage for 1 hour 40 mins over two sets of 50 mins each. He has a big screen showing some images to help with the routines. Harrys visual and verbal tomfoolery flows in such a spate that there’s always something coming to make you laugh. Hill tutors us in the four basic shapes of chicken nugget and mimes bathing himself with a wet-wipe, but the standout moments are the bigger set-pieces: casting an audience volunteer as a rescue elephant, say, then manoeuvring them into a slapstick duet with an ironing board. There’s a winningly freewheeling shaggy-dog story about a recipe box delivery, and – tonight’s undisputed showstopper – a socks-based physical comedy number that finds our host dragged, writhing, across the stage. Musical comedy includes him singing "Come Up And See Me (Me Me Smile)" with half a dozen impersonations during the song including Mick Jagger and Morrissey. At such moments, a Harry Hill gig is just a joyous place to be. But there are a few fallow periods between the fertile ones here; moments when you can admire the dottiness of what Hill is doing (a non sequitur Coleridge recital, for example) without finding it especially funny. An oft-repeating onscreen joke dividing foodstuffs, famous people and more into “traybakes” (not cool) or “tear-and-shares”(cool) overstays its welcome a bit and ended up with the front two rows standing up one by one to face the crowd , and for the audience to shout out "traybake or "tear--and-share". It was funny to see a couple of the women give the crowd the middle finger when they shouted "traybake" at them. The show ended with his version of "My Way" with his own comedy lyrics. There was enough funny moments to make it an enjoyable show. ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Friday 25 November 2022. FONTAINES DC live at Hammersmith Apollo. Irish indie-rockers play the second of three nights at Hammersmith Apollo on their UK tour. They are promoting their third studio album "Skinty Fia" , which was number one in the UK. All three of their albums have made the Top 10 in the UK. A speedy rise to success for them, where they can headline three nights at this 5000 capacity venue. ------------------- Not a good idea to have a gig , when England are playing a 7pm kick-off World Cup footie game. Even though the show is sold out, the venue is less than half full for the support act, and the headliners delay coming on stage by 15 mins to help those watching the game nearby. Support act WUNDERHORSE arrived on stage at 7.55pm for their 35 mins set. They played some good indie-rock tracks from their debut album "Cub". FONTAINES DC arrived on stage at 9.15pm for their 85 mins set. Singer LEWIS CAPALDI is sitting front circle, just a couple of rows away from me. Lots of strobe lights used during their set , with horizontal stripped lighting bars behind them. They have a string quartet with them for a few songs. The stalls standing is lively, with folks dancing lots. They change and rotate their set each night, which is always good to see. They had some confetti over the stalls standing near the end. They open up with "Nabokov" with its great instrumental intro. They whizzed through their songs, with not much stage chat. A good show. Full FONTAINES DC setlist played tonight. Nabokov (With string quartet) A Lucid Dream (With string quartet) In ár gCroíthe go (With string quartet) Sha Sha Sha Hurricane Laughter Skinty Fia You Said I Don't Belong Big Shot Big Televised Mind Jackie Down The Line Roman Holiday A Hero's Death The Couple Across the Way (With string quartet) Encore: Too Real Boys in the Better Land I Love You

Posted 26th November 2022