Rarely Wears Lipstick: May 2009

This week's outing to see Maxïmo Park at Brixton Academy has not made it into my top five gigs list. Probably wouldn't make it into a top ten, to be honest. Still, as I want to keep the list, ready for possible future updates (I'm looking at you Spiritualized), I thought I'd re-post it here for your perusal.

1) Muse, Wembley Stadium, June 2007 - There were lights and video screens a-plenty and the band appeared in the centre of the new stadium amidst much smoke/glitter/cheering, before Muse crashed through one awesome song after another. Starting with with the tremendous Knights of Cydonia (cue thousands of people singing "you and I must fight for our rights" at the tops of their voices) and ending a full two hours later with Take a Bow, they never once looked and sounded anything other than utterly fantastic. This beats my first-time Muse live experience (MEN Arena, November 2006), and I really didn't think that was possible.

2) Royksopp, Royal Festival Hall, April 2009 - Both supported and enhanced by the enigmatic Fever Ray, Royksopp looked like an Edwardian Orbital (according to the Teletext review) but they sounded far far better than that. When Robyn popped up on stage for The Girl And The Robot, I felt the same level of excitement when the Pet Shop Boys joined Electronic on stage in 1991... only this time my high wasn't shattered by a venue with the acoustics of a multi-storey car park. If only all my favourite bands could perform in venues this perfect. Makes me wish I'd been able to get tickets to see Muse at the Royal Albert Hall.

3) Mew, Manchester Academy 2, February 2006 - Gorgeous songs, perfectly performed. If I could see these guys play a slightly bigger venue with fewer tossers in the crowd, I'd be a very happy girl.

4) Depeche Mode, Crystal Palace, July 1993 - Supported by the Sisters of Mercy, this was DM at their drug/alcohol/nervous breakdown fuelled best. Until concert number 1 on my list, I had never been part of a bigger crowd who were all there to see the same band. Not even for the Foo Fighters at Old Trafford. When they played 'I Feel You', I think I actually screamed.

5) The Darkness, Manchester Apollo, October 2003 - Better than the Arena gig I saw in 2004 once they'd peaked, this concert was almost cosy because of the venue. More costume changes, more acrobatics and better sound than the arena tour. OK, so they were never going to be the best band in the world, but this gig was so enjoyable that it left me grinning like a fool for a week.

NB. These concerts were chosen for music/atmosphere/how excited I was, rather than just simply how good the musicians were. Special mentions go to Foo Fighters, Courtney Pine, The Cure and Polyphonic Spree. (I really should get round to doing a top 10 one day.)

I have forgotten exactly when it was that I first bought my domain, but 19th March 2003 was the date of my first Movable Type post and therefore the official birth of my blog. After many years of ranting and rambling about all kinds of subjects, I moved house to a more exciting city where I gradually became rather too busy to blog and also, like most of the online world, became quite engrossed in Facebook. As my 'spare' time online became somewhat limited, this resulted in an unintentional year out in 2008 but I thought I could resurrect the blog in 2009. Sadly, it looks like I just can't remember to update anything other than Twitter these days though, so I figured the time has come to move on.

My aim is to simply add notes/links and photos to this site when I feel the urge, eventually switching from Blogspot to my own domain (thus ditching the Movable Type blog archives forever - how daring!), and then making it pretty somehow. It'll be like spring cleaning my online life. Hmm... while I'm at it, perhaps I should delete all the accounts I have on websites I no longer use. Now, what was that password again?