I went to London
May. 11th, 2008 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreySo. Anyway. I was in London yesterday. Worked a half day on Friday, took a train down, went to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, y'know. Tried not to collapse from heat. Mostly succeeded. Jackets, it turned out, were not necessary.
Anyway. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Live. In front of me. Did the Bad Seeds actually have female backing singers? I'm sure I can hear some on a lot of the songs, but there weren't any at the gig and no-one seemed to mention that any Bad Seeds were missing, and two of the male Bad Seeds song some of the backing for Lovely Creature. Anyway. It was a curiously civilised gig. The new flat shoes/trainers I bought partly for it are white, and I mostly expected them to get horribly trampled and scuffed, but there was nothing like that. There was no moshing, which happens at most gigs I've been to. One girl got up on someone's shoulders but that was about it. We were at the Hammersmith Apollo, which I think is a theatre a lot of the time, and just had the seats removed. It was lovely though - small enough that you felt pretty close to the stage wherever you were stood, and there was a balcony above where people could sit down.
BUT ANYWAY. Nick Cave. He was there. Playing with the Bad Seeds. It was great. I hadn't listened to most of the new album, only half of it on the train down, but it was good because I knew some songs, and didn't know some others, but got to know, and love, them as they got played. He really is very good. His voice sounds the same live as it does on the CDs. He's never afraid to just dance around like a lunatic. He's quite hot. He kept having to wipe his face with a towel. He was hot in more ways than one, but I mean, it was really, REALLY warm and I was hot just standing still and he was there singing and playing and leaping around for us, and he just did it and ocassionally wiped his face with a towel, and it was lovely. Halfway through the main set he stripped off his jacket. That was also hot in more ways than one. Anyway. He played Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, which was great, and Today's Lesson, and We Call Upon The Author To Explain, with bits of Moonland slotted in the middle, after the "Nothing a pair of scissors won't fix" part.
He played Tupelo, and for the second time I failed to enjoy a live version as much as the recorded version. I think it's because the recorded version is quite understated and that suits it, whereas they always seem to make the live versions huge and wild. But anyway. They played Red Right Hand, and Deanna. I got to sing along with Nick Cave to a live version of Deanna. They played Get Ready For Love, and Lovely Creature. Nick kept messing up the lyrics. I love that he messes up his lyrics a bit. He's perfectly free to, obviously, he wrote them and has to sing them. There was a bit where he kept messing up Lyre of Orpheus though, and having to stop the band or come down a bit, and try again. It was terrible, because he'd asked for audience participation on the "Oh, mama" bits. But it was fine, it was lovely. People shouted unintelligible things at him in between songs, and he just said "What?". Someone shouted something like "We love you, big boy", and he said he didn't know what they'd said but it sounded like some kind of proposal. It was great. People came and stood directly in front of me, as people often do to anyone at gigs, but it was all quite great. I fell randomly in love with a drummer who was banging two tambourines together and using a tambourine to play his drums, and with another drummer who went wild and did a solo.
Nick Cave. Standing on a stage in front of me. Moving around and singing. They went off after the main bit, and when they came back for an encore Nick was wearing a tour t-shirt, of the same kind I'd just bought in the lobby. He came back on to play Into My Arms and The Ship Song (I think that was an encore). It was great.
And I managed to get the semi-last tube back to Cee's. Hurrah. Yesterday, I woke up pretty early and set out again to go see the British Museum. By the time I found a cafe that would give me beans on toast, wandered through a couple of music stores looking for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds albums, gone to a shop looking for something I'd seen in Islington the last time I was there and caught the tube, it wasn't quite as early as it had been, but there you go. I went to Russell Square station, checked my handy pocket map, went through Russell Square and the P.G. Wodehouse Summer Picnic, and found I was pretty much there. It is amazing. I was a bit in love with the excess of space and glass ceiling in the main hall. It turned out that walking to a concert where you have to stand up for 3 hours, then walking back and the next day walking to somewhere you have to walk around was not the best plan, but it was well worth the visit. I wandered around a room full of Egyptian sculptures, some of which were huge, and then through a room which was just covered in Assyrian wall carvings of lion hunts. Apparently they really liked lion hunts in Assyria. I was looking at a sculpture of Isis, Osiris and Horus, because I do love Isis, and I suddenly got surrounded by a tour, which I realised was a Bible Tour. The guide was asking about which gods they were and what a group of three gods was called, and then said that if the Trinity is true, then how come God didn't mention the other trinities to the Hebrews? Why did he say there was only one? It was all a bit quiet and for a minute I thought I might get caught up in a fight or a Holy War, but he just said "It's funny that, isn't it?", and led them off somewhere else.
I had an over-priced sandwich at the cafe, complete with over-priced chocolate mousse and an over-priced coke, and picked up a map which I realised you could get free, and tried to decide where I actually wanted to go. I ended up, when I was finished, going up to the Chinese room, but ended up in the other end, with the Indian exhibits. Which are brilliant, and really no less brilliant than the Egyptian exhibits. It makes me a bit sad that we essentially stole them from other countries and possibly are refusing to give them back, but it was quite wonderful to be able to see them. I got caught up in another tour who gathered around the bench I was sitting on, and got a quick talk about Hindu mythology and symbolism based around a Shiva statue, and then the symbolism of a Buddha statue on the other side. It was the famous Shiva statue, and I mostly want a replica of it. Do they do those? I think the British Museum would make a mint if they started doing replicas. Who wouldn't want a replica Assyrian wall carving of a lion hunt in their bedroom? Who, I ask?
Anyway. One of the guards shouted "No touching!" at a visitor who perhaps hadn't seen the 'Please do not touch the objects' signs, and for a minute I thought I was in an episode of Arrested Development. I went through to the China exhibit and stared at the headdresses, then through the Chinese Jade exhibit, then up to the pre-Roman Britain and Europe rooms, after a short wander trying to find the toilets (of which there aren't a great deal). It was sadly less impressive than some of the other exhibits, but then maybe we left most of our carvings and objects pretty much where they were. I do like the torcs though. And then I had to go, because my train was at five o'clock-ish. But I don't think you could do it all in a day anyway, and I had a pretty great time while I was there. I'd love to go again at some point, preferably without a huge backpack.
I managed to make it well in time rather than at the last possible second or missing it completely. And then I came home. And then I went out again to see Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? Which is good, though I thought some of the stuff at the beginning was a bit cheesy. And I don't think I took a lot of it in, properly, but most of it, and it was interesting. It's a good film, and I quite love Morgan Spurlock. And my God, Israel is fucking scary, at least the part of it he went to. The Jewish part. There's a good chance I don't really understand properly about Israel, but if you see the film you'll know what I mean.
And then today I had to do all the jobs I didn't do yesterday. Except not all of them, because my feet were killing me. But mostly I think I'm good.
It's been a week since Iron Man was released, and people still aren't writing Tony Stark/Obadiah Stane slash. What's up with that?
Anyway. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Live. In front of me. Did the Bad Seeds actually have female backing singers? I'm sure I can hear some on a lot of the songs, but there weren't any at the gig and no-one seemed to mention that any Bad Seeds were missing, and two of the male Bad Seeds song some of the backing for Lovely Creature. Anyway. It was a curiously civilised gig. The new flat shoes/trainers I bought partly for it are white, and I mostly expected them to get horribly trampled and scuffed, but there was nothing like that. There was no moshing, which happens at most gigs I've been to. One girl got up on someone's shoulders but that was about it. We were at the Hammersmith Apollo, which I think is a theatre a lot of the time, and just had the seats removed. It was lovely though - small enough that you felt pretty close to the stage wherever you were stood, and there was a balcony above where people could sit down.
BUT ANYWAY. Nick Cave. He was there. Playing with the Bad Seeds. It was great. I hadn't listened to most of the new album, only half of it on the train down, but it was good because I knew some songs, and didn't know some others, but got to know, and love, them as they got played. He really is very good. His voice sounds the same live as it does on the CDs. He's never afraid to just dance around like a lunatic. He's quite hot. He kept having to wipe his face with a towel. He was hot in more ways than one, but I mean, it was really, REALLY warm and I was hot just standing still and he was there singing and playing and leaping around for us, and he just did it and ocassionally wiped his face with a towel, and it was lovely. Halfway through the main set he stripped off his jacket. That was also hot in more ways than one. Anyway. He played Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, which was great, and Today's Lesson, and We Call Upon The Author To Explain, with bits of Moonland slotted in the middle, after the "Nothing a pair of scissors won't fix" part.
He played Tupelo, and for the second time I failed to enjoy a live version as much as the recorded version. I think it's because the recorded version is quite understated and that suits it, whereas they always seem to make the live versions huge and wild. But anyway. They played Red Right Hand, and Deanna. I got to sing along with Nick Cave to a live version of Deanna. They played Get Ready For Love, and Lovely Creature. Nick kept messing up the lyrics. I love that he messes up his lyrics a bit. He's perfectly free to, obviously, he wrote them and has to sing them. There was a bit where he kept messing up Lyre of Orpheus though, and having to stop the band or come down a bit, and try again. It was terrible, because he'd asked for audience participation on the "Oh, mama" bits. But it was fine, it was lovely. People shouted unintelligible things at him in between songs, and he just said "What?". Someone shouted something like "We love you, big boy", and he said he didn't know what they'd said but it sounded like some kind of proposal. It was great. People came and stood directly in front of me, as people often do to anyone at gigs, but it was all quite great. I fell randomly in love with a drummer who was banging two tambourines together and using a tambourine to play his drums, and with another drummer who went wild and did a solo.
Nick Cave. Standing on a stage in front of me. Moving around and singing. They went off after the main bit, and when they came back for an encore Nick was wearing a tour t-shirt, of the same kind I'd just bought in the lobby. He came back on to play Into My Arms and The Ship Song (I think that was an encore). It was great.
And I managed to get the semi-last tube back to Cee's. Hurrah. Yesterday, I woke up pretty early and set out again to go see the British Museum. By the time I found a cafe that would give me beans on toast, wandered through a couple of music stores looking for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds albums, gone to a shop looking for something I'd seen in Islington the last time I was there and caught the tube, it wasn't quite as early as it had been, but there you go. I went to Russell Square station, checked my handy pocket map, went through Russell Square and the P.G. Wodehouse Summer Picnic, and found I was pretty much there. It is amazing. I was a bit in love with the excess of space and glass ceiling in the main hall. It turned out that walking to a concert where you have to stand up for 3 hours, then walking back and the next day walking to somewhere you have to walk around was not the best plan, but it was well worth the visit. I wandered around a room full of Egyptian sculptures, some of which were huge, and then through a room which was just covered in Assyrian wall carvings of lion hunts. Apparently they really liked lion hunts in Assyria. I was looking at a sculpture of Isis, Osiris and Horus, because I do love Isis, and I suddenly got surrounded by a tour, which I realised was a Bible Tour. The guide was asking about which gods they were and what a group of three gods was called, and then said that if the Trinity is true, then how come God didn't mention the other trinities to the Hebrews? Why did he say there was only one? It was all a bit quiet and for a minute I thought I might get caught up in a fight or a Holy War, but he just said "It's funny that, isn't it?", and led them off somewhere else.
I had an over-priced sandwich at the cafe, complete with over-priced chocolate mousse and an over-priced coke, and picked up a map which I realised you could get free, and tried to decide where I actually wanted to go. I ended up, when I was finished, going up to the Chinese room, but ended up in the other end, with the Indian exhibits. Which are brilliant, and really no less brilliant than the Egyptian exhibits. It makes me a bit sad that we essentially stole them from other countries and possibly are refusing to give them back, but it was quite wonderful to be able to see them. I got caught up in another tour who gathered around the bench I was sitting on, and got a quick talk about Hindu mythology and symbolism based around a Shiva statue, and then the symbolism of a Buddha statue on the other side. It was the famous Shiva statue, and I mostly want a replica of it. Do they do those? I think the British Museum would make a mint if they started doing replicas. Who wouldn't want a replica Assyrian wall carving of a lion hunt in their bedroom? Who, I ask?
Anyway. One of the guards shouted "No touching!" at a visitor who perhaps hadn't seen the 'Please do not touch the objects' signs, and for a minute I thought I was in an episode of Arrested Development. I went through to the China exhibit and stared at the headdresses, then through the Chinese Jade exhibit, then up to the pre-Roman Britain and Europe rooms, after a short wander trying to find the toilets (of which there aren't a great deal). It was sadly less impressive than some of the other exhibits, but then maybe we left most of our carvings and objects pretty much where they were. I do like the torcs though. And then I had to go, because my train was at five o'clock-ish. But I don't think you could do it all in a day anyway, and I had a pretty great time while I was there. I'd love to go again at some point, preferably without a huge backpack.
I managed to make it well in time rather than at the last possible second or missing it completely. And then I came home. And then I went out again to see Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? Which is good, though I thought some of the stuff at the beginning was a bit cheesy. And I don't think I took a lot of it in, properly, but most of it, and it was interesting. It's a good film, and I quite love Morgan Spurlock. And my God, Israel is fucking scary, at least the part of it he went to. The Jewish part. There's a good chance I don't really understand properly about Israel, but if you see the film you'll know what I mean.
And then today I had to do all the jobs I didn't do yesterday. Except not all of them, because my feet were killing me. But mostly I think I'm good.
It's been a week since Iron Man was released, and people still aren't writing Tony Stark/Obadiah Stane slash. What's up with that?
