the sweetest path?

Doesn't this path look as if it leads to a magical land of whimsy?!  Ok, maybe not quite, but it does look like it could lead to some exploring opportunities.  I spent an afternoon on this very path, cycling and taking photos of the lovely nature that surrounded me.

Post Gigathon and Glasgow Love

I've had quite some time to reflect over my gigathon experience.  There are two main outcomes from this reflection:

1) I am ridiculously happy that I did it

2) I fell in love with Glasgow 

There is a sort of third, but it's this huge, emotional outcome that's going to be difficult to collate and put into any sort of cohesive narrative.  I'll try.  (Feel free to ignore all that bit when it comes).

But first, 1) and 2).  Simply put I feel so empowered and relieved that I went ahead and made that week a real experience.  I love that on quite a whim I decided 'fuck it' and booked a week off work to traipse around the UK willy nilly listening to some (favourite) bands that happened (amazingly) to be playing within days of each other.  When I type it out like that, I do get a slight 'woah' moment.  After all the emotional trauma I've dealt with in the last few years and some of the physical results of that I am beyond ecstatic that I did something truly for me.  It may be the first instance of that to be honest.  It felt incredible.  Music, art and film really do feed my soul and as far as I'm concerned (other than having amazing people I love in my life) are my primary and most significant joy in life.  I truly believe it's music and film and art that essentially helps my breathe and feel and be.  The experience of totally enveloping myself in all of that, completely alone, it wonderfully overwhelming and feels so pure in its intentions.  It really has changed my life.

I'm so glad Glasgow was a part of this experience.  What a wonderful place.  It felt like home, to be honest.  That scares me slightly.  I have this terrible fear of being in the wrong place in life, and it did shake me to think that maybe I'm supposed to be somewhere else (particularly having tried to move away a few times over the past couple of years.)  I am trying to put that thought aside slightly, as I want to truly enjoy what was the coolest place I've been (since Berlin?) that made me feel good about being me, and loving what I love, and feeling at ease with what is at its core just my nature.  

Glasgow is a shit city if you're a graffiti hunter like me though (see bottom picture) as there is very little.  Or I found very little anyway!

I'm not going to harp on too much about point 3, which isn't really a point as I'm still fuzzy about it.  But I guess what points 1 and 2 do collectively is make me feel really comfortable in my own skin about what I adore about this world.  Creativity, searching for beauty, feeding my soul.  In recent months I've met some wonderful people (now friends I hope) who love what I love.  For the past few years, due to changes in circumstances (blah blah blah) I have been without people in my life who are 'into the same stuff as me.'  I have amazing friends who have helped me survive my lowest ebb and have helped me celebrate my highest peaks, and they are what makes my heart beat.  But I have felt that the one thing I was missing was someone to spill out all of my thoughts and feelings about music (and film) to.  Meeting these guys in the last four or so months has brought me such joy, and also a sense of relief.  I don't feel stifled by my obsessions anymore.  I feel liberated, as there are people I can reach out to who get it.  They just get it.  And they are helping me feel more alive each day because I feel less alone at a time in my life where I could feel completely and utterly lonely.  It's incredible.  People are incredible.  Music is incredible, and how it brings people together has changed my life.  From the small things to some of the major things.  I said I wouldn't harp on too much...

Below are some shots of Glasgow.  I begin and end with 'graffiti' in a somewhat ironic way!

Until next time Glasgow...

Until next time gigathon...

And hopefully, the next time I feel like the truly liberated Gwyneth won't be far away...xoxo

She's about to pick up that guy.  This is also the first Glasgow photo I took.  I'm happy with that!

Someone must have walked home barefoot

Sunshine!

Booze and locals

The darkest clouds

Glasgow is a city of contrasts.  Where some amazing old building are cherished and cared for others are demolished to make room for modernity.

Truck decor

Worst graffiti ever...fact.  Glasgow was not the place to hunt graffiti.  If someone knows differently, let me know!

Animal Collective

I need to visit more British cities to be completely sure about this next statement, but I'm pretty sure Glasgow is the coolest British city.  It just oozes cool.  Particularly music cool.  Some of my favourite bands are Glaswegian and I geeked out a little when I was up there for this Animal Collective gig.  I flew from London up to Glasgow for it, and it was the last of the four gigathon gigs.  By this point my brain was pretty much in shreds, and for once my body was less tired than my mind.  The other three gigs had blown my mind out of the water and I had built the AC gig up to be the pinnacle.  I was extremely excited to see them live.  My adoration of AC went from zero (i.e.. unaware of their music) to hundred (in love with their music) really quickly, and I am super keen on the new album.  (I know not all AC fans are, but I really like this direction.  I like its confidence, and the sound is so clearly theirs.)

Like I said, I'd really built up this gig in my mind and was beyond excited for it.  I'll just say it now; I wasn't disappointed.  I loved every second.  I was really lucky that again I managed to be right up at the front.  (My photos are all bitty because I was too close to get everything in one shot!)

The vast majority of AC's set was Centipede Hz stuff.  This is one really tight knit group, and for such (at times) dense sound structures they are so in tune to each other.  You'd expect this from a band anyway, but you don't always get it and it can ruin the sound completely.  Here you are carried away by how in sync they are...it's incredible.

Visually this was a really incredible show.  The set demanded your attention, but wasn't overwhelming and totally complemented the sound.  I remember the first time I really listened to AC, it was probably Merriweather Post Pavilion, and I just kept thinking "this is so good I almost feel like I can't understand it" and "where the hell did they get this sort of sound from?"  Seeing them live I definitely still had these thoughts as they were doing their thing, but I felt like I started to understand more where it comes from.  These are guys who push their love and understanding of music to the edge and all components come together in one immeasurable burst of...of....something I can't define.  All I do know is that I adore it, and I adored what I saw on stage.  A band that can make so many different sounds (and sometimes sounds that seem bizarre and alien to the norm) be so natural and wonderfully easy to listen to is a band I rate.

I definitely heart Animal Collective.

(Cue awful quality iphone photos, and lots of them)

Spiritualized

I saw Spiritualized back in February, and was hoping for a little more from this November gig.  To begin with the Roundhouse is a much better venue and has a really special atmosphere, particularly when compared with Bristol's O2 (the more I go there the more I wish I wouldn't.)

This gig was a little strange.  It felt like (like it did at the last one) like J. Spaceman just isn't that keen on being there.  That mysterious musician thing wears a bit thin, especially with such a well established band.  Having said that (and I feel bad for saying it) it may be that being so well established, with songs that people adore and crave at a gig, maybe that makes it difficult to bring new material into a set.  I don't know.  

Despite the above, I really enjoyed the gig.  It felt really refreshing, and so different to GYBE the night before.  I was right up at the front, and it did help with feeling connected to what was going on on stage.  One thing about Spiritualized I love is the way the vocals tend to drip off the melodies so easily.  This definitely is the case on record, and it becomes even more palpable live.  Every syllable means something, and you're supposed to take it all in exactly as it's presented to you.  That's what I really love about Spiritualized live.  The set and graphics are almost a bit underwhelming, but in a good way.  Too much would detract from all the subtleties in the music and you'd lose the psychedelic wonder of the whole package!

Spiritualized feel to me like one of my staple bands.  I listen to them to obtain something really specific from the experience, and after seeing them twice this year, I now know this is how they work live too.  When I really take a minute and think about what I've observed and heard, it's pretty epic and special.

I know I started off sounding as if I was a bit iffy about this gig, but I wasn't.  It's just irritating to me that twice I've felt that I'm watching a very reluctant frontman, but if there's anything about J. Spaceman's public persona it's that he does things his way and isn't pushed by others musically.  His word goes, I guess.  Thinking like this makes me feel better about the whole reluctancy thing.

I'm not going to lie, I don't think I've told you much in this post about the gig, I've just confirmed for myself exactly who and what Spiritualized is for me.  An opportunity to experience a trance like gig with frontman who knows exactly what he's doing, even if it doesn't always seem like he does.