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Post by the dark fourth on May 17, 2010 22:30:30 GMT
No I saw them in Cambridge actually, at the Junction - stonker of a set as you'd expect. Interviewed Paul before the gig for student radio which was nice.
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Post by jemi on May 24, 2010 21:26:51 GMT
Just purchased my tickets..
Was uum-ing and aah-ing about this one for a while, but I can never say no to some PRR. See you all there.
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Post by admin on Jun 8, 2010 13:03:13 GMT
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Post by jemi on Jun 10, 2010 23:58:38 GMT
...so how was it?
I had full intentions of going, but got a pinched nerve in my back and was in too much pain to go. I hear there was another amp-blowing-up fiasco...
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Post by the dark fourth on Jun 11, 2010 3:20:24 GMT
Well opinions were somewhat divided but I think pretty much everyone agrees this was a stonker of a gig. In my personal opinion, this was the best gig I've ever seen any band do ever.
The set:
Les Malheurs
*Black Morning* (aka sample 3 on the album sampler)
Apogee
Deus
Victorious Cupid
*Fight Fire* (aka sample 1)
Twyncyn/Trembling Willows
*sample 2, i don't know it's name*
AVO
***
Bright Ambassadors
Intention Craft
The sound was phenomenal, they'd obviously practised long and hard, everything sounded tight, well-rehearsed and seriously powerful. The band is evolving but is on absolute top form. There was a soul-melting meatiness to the guitar riffs, everything was sounding incredibly dark and heavy, it was so cool. The vocals were really loud and clear, which was an added bonus.
First up, Les Malheurs had been slightly reworked, with new guitar parts in the chorus and a heavier second-half (less piano, more drums and guitar) - the best I've ever heard them play it. The new song, Black Morning, as many people had predicted, was simply staggering. I think this is going to be the new Deus in terms of show-stealing abilities. The riffs were huge, the hooks were beautiful, the vocals were perfect.
Apogee and Deus were of course amazing, Deus in particular was on fine form, maybe I'd just forgotten how truly good a song it was. Really works well with the new stuff. Victorious Cupid and Willows were pretty much the same as always - and yes amp problems meant Jon couldn't play or sing the last part of Willows but it wasn't a major thing, it got sorted pretty quick at the end of the song.
Opinion was divided on Fight Fire - lawrie and I love it, alexmachina and blonde ambassador aren't so sure (though alex said it was lots better than the sample suggests). It features incredibly prominent lead vocals from Chloe - she really pulled them off spectacularly I thought, it sounded really cool. And it also had more awesome riffiness.
The third new song was my least favourite of the three, though still really really really cool.
Unfortunately they weren't able to ditch ambassadors, which got pulled out in the encore, which was a shame, as it diminished the cool electro-dirtiness of the main set. Still, the crowd seemed to love it and the band looked like they really enjoyed playing it, so I won't complain too much. The crowd, btw, was unusually great - really energised and almost as excited as us die-hards at the front. Awesome.
Acording to Jamie, the awesomeness of the new songs they played - which, let me tell you, was incredibly awesome - was nothing compared to how cool the new album is going to be. He also confirmed said album will *definitely* be coming out in October.
Oh, and support act Nedry were also awesome, for anyone (like me) who likes portisheadery. The ones before them, Islington Boy's Club, were pretty rubbish and took themselves incredibly seriously.
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Post by Lawrie on Jun 11, 2010 8:35:12 GMT
Would've posted something myself on the gig, but was too tired when I got in last night... partly due to having got back an hour later than I should've done because I dozed on the train home and overshot my station: damnit!  TDF has pretty much covered it, but I have a little list of additions and differences with how I experienced the gig: - *sample 2* in TDF's setlist is "Chimeras", according to Chloe. - Jemi, yep you were indeed right that there was an amp blow-out [how word travels!] - Jon's amp took a crap and died during Twyncyn/Willows, and the band bravely soldiered on playing a very bass-heavy Willows half of the song before it could get fixed (which took a few minutes before resuming with AVO). Jamie did an excellent job of bantering with the crowd in the downtime, especially - as he said - it's usually *him* who has the amp malfunctions! - I thought that all 3 new songs beat the pants off everything else played that night, partly because (to my ears) the sound mix sounded as though it had been optimised for the new songs rather than the older material. Might've just been some sort of placebo effect arising because I was so excited to hear the newbies, but they did sound much closer to a 'studio quality' kinda mix than the rest of the set to me. - I was very happy with Ambassadors being in the set and there are LOADS options to choose for dropping before that goes, IMO. I get the reasons that some people would like to see it make way for a gig or two, but even to this day I still think it is one of their best live numbers and probably the song that the band play best from a technical point of view. It can stay as long as it wants for me. - On the other hand, I'm slightly underwhelmed by Victorious Cupid (other than the glorious "And if we die like this right now" part) every time I see it, and that would be very high up my list of live set songs that could be sacrificed if the band wanted to try some new/different material. Last night proved to be no exception. - In terms of crowd liveliness/overall enjoyability of the gig, last night's was certainly at the higher end of the scale for me. Not quite reaching the heights of my favourite ever PRR gig which was the London Water Rats in April 2008, but part of the reason the Water Rats was so great was down to the fact that I was at the front in a venue that was massively over-sold out in ticketing terms, and so there was a *really* electric buzz in the crowd that night. Therefore, it's a little bit unfair to judge last night's gig on those standards, and objectively speaking it was a good gig by any standards. - Yep, TDF has it spot on - Nedry were great and Islington Boys Club were almost verging on Raygun-levels of poseur crapness. - Lastly, Nikos, where were you my son?! I was keeping an eye out for you all night so that I could share a little bit of non-threatening manlove with you about Spurs marching into the Champions League next year! (Might need to persuade Jon to slip the CL theme tune into the live walk-on intro samples, just so Jamie doesn't forget what that music sounds like in a year where he won't be hearing it... ) |
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Post by blondeambassador on Jun 11, 2010 9:42:37 GMT
- *sample 2* in TDF's setlist is "Chimeras", according to Chloe. That's interesting, wasn't what I was told...I was told it's been through a few name changes... I'll write more later, at work at the moment. Brilliant gig though, really enjoyed the night and I'm absolutely in love with the first new track they played, Black Morning. It's a stunner.  It was also great to see everyone, I hadn't realised quite how long it's been! |
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Post by Lawrie on Jun 11, 2010 10:46:29 GMT
I think Chloe's words were something along the lines of "oh, that one is called Chimeras... at least, I think it is: we've had loads of name changes!" - not an exact quote, but that was the gist. Looks like it's still up in the air what that one will be called!
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Post by the dark fourth on Jun 11, 2010 11:07:05 GMT
- I was very happy with Ambassadors being in the set and there are LOADS options to choose for dropping before that goes, IMO. I get the reasons that some people would like to see it make way for a gig or two, but even to this day I still think it is one of their best live numbers and probably the song that the band play best from a technical point of view. It can stay as long as it wants for me. - On the other hand, I'm slightly underwhelmed by Victorious Cupid (other than the glorious "And if we die like this right now" part) every time I see it, and that would be very high up my list of live set songs that could be sacrificed if the band wanted to try some new/different material. Last night proved to be no exception. I'd be happy with Cupid being sacrificed, though I do enjoy it. I just think that in the modern PRR era, Ambassadors detracts so much from the new refined, coherent and electro set that they've got going...I really felt it took all the cool vibe that had been built up out of the atmosphere. It's fine to play it every now and again for a bit of fun, but really it should not be an essential part of every set. - In terms of crowd liveliness/overall enjoyability of the gig, last night's was certainly at the higher end of the scale for me. Not quite reaching the heights of my favourite ever PRR gig which was the London Water Rats in April 2008, but part of the reason the Water Rats was so great was down to the fact that I was at the front in a venue that was massively over-sold out in ticketing terms, and so there was a *really* electric buzz in the crowd that night. Therefore, it's a little bit unfair to judge last night's gig on those standards, and objectively speaking it was a good gig by any standards. I felt the crowd were a lot better than Water Rats - to be fair the Hoxton venue was a lot larger and it was still packed. For me, it felt like there were a lot more real fans at this gig than any other I'd been to - everyone seemed excited and engaged, and the roar when Deus started was awesome. In terms of pure enjoyment, this wins hands down for me as my favourite PRR gig. In terms of sound quality and music quality this is also probably my favourite gig, though maybe only just ahead of Cargo and Berlin the November and March before last respectively. |
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Post by ryan on Jun 11, 2010 11:46:07 GMT
God damn am I ever jelous and bored of being poor.
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Post by blondeambassador on Jun 11, 2010 13:46:39 GMT
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sossity
Ambassador in Training
Posts: 8
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Post by sossity on Jun 11, 2010 15:44:46 GMT
This was my first time seeing them, and despite the little technical glitches, i thought they were fantastic!!!
They were well worth the cost of my hotel room and travelling expenses. ;D
Maybe later, i'll give a fuller view of the evening's experience. Oh, just have to say, yeah...Islington boy's club were not great!! But the lead singer made me laugh, (unintentional comedy, on his part) so all was not lost.
I was thrilled to meet Chloë (pic' linked below) She's Beautiful, talented and so nice to talk to. Hopefully, i'll get to meet the other band members next time. i5.photobucket.com/albums/y170/Ella2/P1000014.jpg
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Post by Lawrie on Jun 11, 2010 18:48:59 GMT
Glad that breaking your PRR-live duck was all you hoped it would be, sossity - and I think the band are always very impressed and gratified when people have had to go to a lot of time and effort to see them, so I'm sure your presence was appreciated by PRR!
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Post by jemi on Jun 11, 2010 22:24:51 GMT
Thanks for all the write-ups. Sounds a lot better than I'd heard! My sources implied the amp-situation was borderline disastrous.. clearly an embellishment on his part. What time did the gig finish, out of curiousity? I heard that PRR didn't come on until 10:20.
Blondeambassador - Cheers for the links! I don't feel like I've missed out as much now. They're pretty good quality actually! I'm still not sold on Fight Fire with Fire though. It is nice to see Chloe take the lead vocals for once, it's just not my style of song. I'm definitely liking the other two tracks though, especially the 3rd song with the title-nobody-is-entirely-certain-of. I'm looking forward to the album release.. hopefully they'll grace Norwich with another gig date!
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Post by Lawrie on Jun 11, 2010 22:50:31 GMT
Er, don't remember exactly what time the gig finished - 11:20ish at a guess, but maybe someone else can confirm? BA - ta muchly for posting the links to those vids, they will be tiding me over until the full tracks come out. Maybe I can even get past the annoyance of people with video cameras barging their way into the front rows at gigs when their version is the only one you have to fall back on, pre-release...  EDIT - and in the Youtube of the One That We're Not 100% What It's Called Yet, you can hear "Chimeras" in the lyrics at 1:28 to 1:36 in a chorus-y sounding bit, so maybe some further weight to add to that being the title? |
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