A brief interlude

Somewhat back to reality after Sigur Rós' extravaganza. Not in the least mundane, though! Wednesday 19th we went to Clwb Ifor Bach to see Cage The Elephant headlining (after their stint supporting The Subways earlier this year).

A short word on the support (although we missed 1st band Bleached Wail so can't really comment -try their myspace): average but pretty forgettable. Obviously friends of Cage the Elephant, Autovaughn were, all in all, pretty dull. They weren't awful, and were pretty competent musicians, but just didn't have any real variety or selling point.

Not so with Cage The Elephant. I recall from their support slot with The Subways that they had a very confident prescence, and singer Matt Schulz then had a vague resemblance to a young Mick Jagger. Not any more (hair now shorter and blonde) but the confidence is, if anything, even easier. Handily, their songs (set was, bar 1 song, from current selftitled debut album) have a great combination of new and familiar, so even though I have only played said album a few times, I was happily bouncing along. Cage The Elephant's promotion must be doing well, the show was 14+ and there was, for once, an even split between youngsters and relative oldies like us. The link to The Subways also shows in the similarity of their audiences, especially the enthusiastic moshers at the front! It wouldn't surprise me if Cage The Elephant followed the trajectory of previous Subways support bands, of growing far beyond their original mentors (see The Kooks). Overall very well recommended.

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Music, Poetry and Cake (Gateshead and Lanchester)

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From Black Rose to Buena Vista

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