Bloc, Brothers, London

Travelled up to Manchester last thursday afternoon, only got to see Manchester on the walk to the venue for the Bloc Party gig but it looked quite nice with all the christmas lights everywhere, although it was really busy, even on a thursday night so i guess it would get packed on the weekends.

The Bloc Party gig was held in a aircraft hanger style venue - we managed to get up near the front and had a great view for the whole night. Foals played pretty much the same set as last time I saw them, but it was good to hear it on a massive sound system. The cribs were a really average 3 piece so it was good when Bloc Party came on. The venue also had the quickest turn around between acts (about 15-20mins) so there wasnt much hanging around. Bloc Party set was pretty much split between their 2 albums, plus the 2 singles they have released. The songs off the 2nd album sound so much rockier and raw live because they don't use a lot of the synths and keys that were present on the album recordings which was good as it kept the upbeat tempo of the gig flowing. Kele was fairly chatty, running off into the crowd at one stage. The encore started off with Flux, and these massive green lasers. The next song featured 2 drum kits. It was a really great night and it was good to see a longer set than you would get at a festival. Only dissapointing thing was I didn't have any cash on me so I couldn't buy a t-shirt.

The next day we ventured down to London by bus (as it was cheaper than the train) but won't do it again in a hurry. The 2 bus drivers we had were pretty crazy, zooming in and out of lanes, using their horn every 10mins or so. The traffic was pretty ordinary, particularly when we got closer to London and we ended up being nearly an hour late.

The Chemical Brothers gig was at Brixton Academy which is the best sounding, nicest looking music venue I have been into. It looks similar to an old theatre and we had tickets for the upper circle, looking down onto the stage. We were right at the front of the balcony looking down and could see the whole stage set-up for both acts perfectly. Simian Mobile Disco played a different set to 2 weeks ago in Leeds, which might have been because of some technical difficulties they seemed to be having with a piece of equipment. It was a lot more abstract and experimental and they seemed to be playing around with the gear more, not running through track after track that they did in Leeds.

The Chemical Brothers performance was undoubtedly the single greatest music performance I have ever been to - and I still think that 5 days after. The 2 hour set featured a vast array of tracks and samples of every album they have done. They were very energetic, running around the stage, moving from one piece of equipment to another. The visuals were unbelievable and i've got some great videos and photos to show this (which i'll attach when i get back to my computer). The venue was sold out and downstairs was a sea of people and the balcony that we were on was moving up and down with the people on it. I bought tickets to see them when they play in Brisbane at the Future Music Festival, but i don't think it will come close to this massive performance.

Anyways, we have spent the last few days in London - doing some christmas shopping, walking through Hyde Park and visiting Buckingham Palace; we also went to the Science Museum which had some fun interactive stuff to do. We also went to the theatre (yes, very posh!) and saw Les Miserables which was pretty entertaining.