Tuesday 4 May 2010

Amanda Palmer. Koko.

The ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull grounded all flights across the UK which meant that Jason Webley couldn't make it to the Evelyn Evelyn gig at Koko. Instead of cancelling all together, Amanda Palmer performed solo. Her support for the evening included the likes of Bitter Ruin, Robots in Dusguise and Melissa Auf der Maur. WOW.

We arrived at Koko about halfway through Bitter Ruin's set and found a space on the balcony. Ben Richards (guitar and vocals) and Georgia Train (vocals) describe their music as "haunting and dramatic noir indie folk". An extremely captivation acoustic duo that I hope to catch again soon.

An old friend introduced me to the catchy tunes of Robots in Disguise a while ago so I was quite familiar with their older hits. I enjoyed their set, but I did feel that Koko was a little bit too big for them... They played their new single 'Wake Up' twice and were really vocal about getting the audience to download it from iTunes. Funky tune.

I'd not heard of Melissa Auf der Maur before and thought she was pretty fantastic. She was stuck in the UK for the same reason Jason was stuck in the states so was invited by Amanda to come and do a set. She commandeered instruments from the other performers and rocked out with her fellow (starnded) band members.

All the support acts were wonderful in themselves, but they had nothing on Amanda Palmer. She is absolutely mesmorising/captivating/talented/beautiful.

She sang a few Evelyn Evelyn songs with Jason Webley (who made out that he was on a plane to the UK, but it was just a video. Amanda sang over the recording). From there on in, it was a typical Amanda Fucking Palmer gig. My favourite was 'Delilah'; Georgia from Bitter Ruin joined Amanda to provide backing vocals. She also indulged us with a brand new song that she's co-written with Neil Gaiman, 'Fuck the Ash Cloud'.

Previously that day Malcom McLaren's funeral procession had travelled through Camden and to pay tribute, Amanda lead us all in singing 'Anarchy in the UK' by the Sex Pistols. She used this opportunity to crowd-surf. Brilliant.

There are some wonderful on Flickr here.

A thought.

I was blind and now I can see. It's a metaphor.

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