2008 - part 1

A thing that annoys me a lot about not having ears that work properly at the moment is that I can't really do much with all the 'best of 2008' lists that have been announced lately. I'm concerned that if I try to listen to some of those tracks or albums (that I haven't heard yet, mind) mentioned on said lists I might get the wrong impression because my hearing doesn't do them justice - so I'll have to wait. But maybe a good way to start out in this blog could be a look back on the musical year of 2008 for me. With concerts it's been a lovely year. I, being only 16 years old and living in a not-very-big town in Denmark, rarely have the chance to go to concerts or gigs. I would love to go to a concert two or three times a month if I had my way, only when you live where I do it's nearly impossible to do so. But in 2008 I went to more concerts than ever before during one year, so it seems to be going in the right direction. Back in February, 2008, I had the pleasure of seeing The Kissaway Trail (a danish indiepop band who've been featured in a few british music magazines) in a tiny little venue here in Viborg where I live. My friend and I counted and there were only about 27 people in the room that night. But everyone in this little crowd seemed very glad to be there so of course we had a ball. With lots of "lalalala"s, naturally.

Then in April I went to see Foals in Aarhus and saw a band being sharp and energetic playing live. I bought a t-shirt and have worn it quite a lot since then since Foals are one of the few bands who don't have ugly and tasteless merchandise with band pictures and unnecessary logos everywhere. Most people don't even notice that it's a band t-shirt which makes me like it even more. But yeah, it was a great gig. And as far as I remember the DJ set afterwards was pretty nice as well. In July I went to London (also known as my favourite place on the planet) and to the first day of the Ben & Jerry's festival. I didn't watch a lot of the bands, mostly just fooled around and ate icecream. But I did see Florence & The Machine as I had planned to do. It was actually a bit mindblowing. I already knew the songs and that Florence Welch, the frontwoman, was a bit, well, crazy. Like a young Kate Bush, Flo's an all jumping, kicking, banging-on-drum, singing and dancing machine. Just watching her energy live was wonderful. She's gonna be big in 09, so I'm very happy that I got to see her before she becomes a big popstar. In August I went to a festival called Danmarks Smukkeste Festival ("Denmark's most beautiful festival"). With a taste in music like mine it wasn't the best line-up possible but I did have a good time watching Franz Ferdinand in the pouring rain and later note that, though Kaiser Chiefs might be an entertaining band to see live, their music will never really do anything for me. And I enjoyed watching Turboweekend and Yoav aswell. Even if the line-up rarely suits my taste, I guess Danmarks Smukkeste Festival will always have have a special place in my heart - it has got the greatest atmosphere and really is very beautiful.

In October I went to see The Last Shadow Puppets, the side-project of Alex Turner and Miles Kane, and I must say... I couldn't help but find it a bit weird. It was similar to what I would expect an early Take That or Backstreet Boys gig to be like - screamning fangirls who were oh so excited that they got to see the oh so pretty Alex Turner in person. Luckily both the supporting band Ipso Facto and Turner + Miles + string section + band did a surprisingly good job (from what I could see and hear between the loud screams of 'I LOVE YOU!' and camera phones held up) so it wasn't all bad. All in all the gig reminded my why I'm happy to be mostly into smaller bands... less crazy fangirls.

The last two notable concerts I went to in 2008 were Vampire Weekend in Hamburg and CSS in Copenhagen. The Vampire Weekend gig was very good and I was delighted to find out that their music actually sounds a lot better live. On record it tends to be a bit tame but when played live it definitely comes alive. The CSS gig left me a bit disappointed to be honest. I've never thought they were fantastic - they just made fun and charming music. Alas, they second album just wasn't very funny or charming, just a bit 'oh, we've grown up and become serious'. So in the first place I didn't really attend the gig for the sake for the music but more for the party and fun a CSS gig should be. And it certainly wasn't boring - balloons, speakers hidden behind cardboard robots and beer give-outs all made for much entertainment. The only problem was that the music simply couldn't catch up and I doubt that Lovefoxxx (the band's leadsinger) hit many right notes that night.

Playlists with videos from some of the gigs - recorded by either me or a friend who isn't as fond of being in the frontrow as myself:
Florence And The Machine: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C10803C2D74E7AFF
Vampire Weekend: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D99C07DD105D078A
CSS: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0F7DFFB23153EBCC