Tag Archives: Nick Cave

FIB

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Well, we survived the festival… but I’m glad I had the extra couple of days’ break at the end of it. I think I’m still recovering now.

Highlights of the concerts were: Nick Cave, Basement Jaxx, The Kills and Peaches. I didn’t see LCD Soundsystem… which I now regret.

I spent an obscene amount of money, drank too much Heineken, and didn’t get enough sleep. (Well you try sleeping at 7am when the mercury’s rising and the soundsystems just don’t stop).

All in all, the festival was a huge success, and we would certainly like to go again. We’ll have to see what the lineup’s like, but why not next year?!

FiberFib 2005

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In just three weeks, we will be pitching our tent at the Festival Internacionál de Benicassim (Fiberfib)… after about four years of talking about it!

The line up for the festival is pretty good, with some ‘smaller’ bands (I just can’t help liking The Kills… I know they’re a Royal Trux rip-off, but I like the sound of their music playing) as well as Oasis, who I’ve never seen and whose first two albums are proper classic, and Nick Cave who’s a bad seed. I’m not that fussed about The Cure, but am willing to see them in the context of ‘important band’. I do like Basement Jaxx, Yo la Tengo, The Raveonettes, !!!, Peaches and someone I know likes Dinosaur Jr. So it should be grand.

Also, there are loads of DJs playing, there’ll be a shirtload of sunshine and grease, and more than a little of the Vino Tinto will flow. It also falls on my 25th birthday. So I’m allowed to get well wasted.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy live in Barcelona

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Last night we went to see Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Matt Sweeney play the Sala Apolo on Paral·lel.

The show was fantastic, but marred very slightly by the crowd. As usual. Thing is, in Barcelona, people go to concerts to chat with their mates. But I go to hear the music and see the performers. I find it incredibly rude when during a quiet bit (and with artists like BPB, the quiet bits are some of the most sublime), crowds of people around you start laughing and chatting. It’s one of those irritating things which if you complain about them, you sound like a loser… but the reason I wanted to go to that concert was to get away from the shittiness of living in a time when it’s practically a crime to take anything seriously.

Ah well, never mind.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy mostly played tracks from the current album Superwolf, recorded with his cohort Matt Sweeney. Perhaps in a reflection of the many references to the sea in his songs, BPB’s live show seems to rise and fall like the ocean swell. Listening to the music, I was at times reminded of Nick Cave, Arab Strap and even some post-rock bands like Mogwai. His lyrics are bizarre and fascinating, often concerning animals and on this album, death in the sea.

He also played a firm favourite with the audience, Ease Down the Road, which I hadn’t heard before but will remember. Not even the dickhead with his big hair who couldn’t stand still and kept swaying and twitching around in front of me, obscuring my view until I moved, when he would twitch again to re-block my view… not even he could ruin my enjoyment of this concert. Mainly cos we moved to the other side of the room from him.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Matt Sweeney at the Sala Apolo – 1 out of 1