The Rocky Horror Show

Patrick Entertainment, Theatre, UK Life

Crowds of people congregating in front of a theatre dressed (or undressed) in various costumes including vinyl nurse outfits and outrageous fishnet stocking can only mean one thing… The Rocky Horror Show is about to begin. On Tuesday night I ended up seeing this classical musical and found it extremely bizarre especially since I had not seen the movie before and had no idea what the story would be about. If there is one thing I concluded from seeing this musical, people do not go see the movie for its story.

Of all the shows that I have seen so far, this one had much larger audience participation, boosted by a number of cast extras strategically scattered throughout the crowd. The extras throughout the night hassled the actors on stage by shouting out comments and obscenities at certain parts throughout the play, sometimes proving comical, but at many other times failing dismally as they missed their cue or as the band drowned them out.

I found the songs and the music piercingly loud, despite sitting in the middle of the stalls and not in front of any particular loud speaker. The crowd obviously had watched the musical, or at least, had listened to the soundtrack a lot as many of them sang along throughout the performance.

I think this long running musical has a lot of fun points and I think you will enjoy it as long as you don’t take anything too seriously. It is definitely not the highest quality musical showing at the West End, but its fame from the classic movie and quirkiness will easily win any fans over.

TheKua.com Rating: 6.5 out of 10

AvenueQ

Patrick Entertainment, Theatre, UK Life

Avenue QLast night I saw the musical Avenue Q, the show most well known as described as Sesame Street with adult themes. This musical had shown on Broadway for the last six months, has been on preview in the West End for the last three weeks and this week marked its first official showings. If you have never seen Jim Jimson puppetry live, the experience is completely worth it, and even though there are people manning puppets on stage, you slowly stop noticing the people as they take on the same character they are puppeteering.

The show is done in true Sesame Street style with the entire show about self discovery and purpose in life and even with “Idea!” screens popping up describing keywords in cartoonish manners. Unlike Sesame Street though it tackles some issues you would never see such as sexual orientation, internet porn and racism.

I was extremely impressed by the lead puppeteers with many of the actors playing multiple characters and having the difficult chore of singing in multiple voices as well as acting them out. Their body language shined and fit well with the subtle body language of each of the puppets. I really enjoyed the light heartedness of the entire play though parts of it were definitely not something you could bring kids to.

Thekua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

The Rakes @ Islington Academy

Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

The Rakes (Capture Release)The last two weeks finally caught up with me midweek, and though I managed to recover from it with a record twelve or so hours sleep in, I think I’m still in recovery mode. Due to this, Tuesday was my last night out this week where I spent it watching The Rakes perform at the Islington Academy. They are yet another awesome British rock band – part punk, part indie and part alternative. Their lyrics are simple, entertaining and extremely catchy. Definitely check out their latest album Capture Release if you can, or better yet, see them live if you can find any tickets to their ever-popular gigs.

I had never been to the Islington Academy before, and I was quite impressed as it was a good sized venue (not too large) and had air-conditioning to boot! Admittedly the venue was probably not as full as it could have been, but I was thankful it wasn’t on our particular night. The Rakes definitely filled the venue that night and put on a performance that pleased the crowd, and the best part about the night was that it was free because it had been sponsored by Converse – bargain!

Lior at the Spitz

Patrick Music, UK Life

One of the great things about London is that sometimes good things from back home come over to visit, such as Lior. Last night was the third time that I’d seen this Sydney-based song writer and artist, and it was great to see that his popularity reaches across the globe (okay, well with many other Aussies who happen to be living across the other side of the world). The event was held at The Spitz, one of the smallest venues I’ve been to so far, but was a great atmosphere easily filled with 200-300 of his fans as well as new listeners of his amazing vocals and music.

Lior at the Spitz

He started with his two most popular songs, Autumn Flow and Daniel and interweaved a number of newer songs with a number of his very popular songs from his album. Lior enjoys interacting with the crowd, and last night was no exception with a number of close tales and jokes shared along the way. I think everyone was very impressed by his performance, all amazingly acoustic and stunned by the vocal range he achieves when he performs. He even tried to get the crowd involved with his Superficial song but I think failed to evaluate the (lack of) talent in the crowd – after all, we are there to listen to him. He finished the night off with his hauntingly stunning song, Grey Ocean and finished off with a Hebrew prayer.

TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

Pete Murray at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Patrick Music, UK Life

Pete MurrayI just got back from watching Pete Murray perhaps at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Out of the number of venues I have been to in London so far, this is one of my most favourite since it is relatively intimate and close to where I live. Pete Murray’s concert was announced a while back and sold out quite quickly. He soon announced another one, to which I fortunately got tickets to go and see.

I remember when Ben invited me to see Pete Murray at The Rev, a much smaller and even more intimate venue in Brisbane. I was impressed with his tunes back then, and it was just before he got really big. The next time I saw him play was two months later where he played for a massive crowd at Splendour in the Grass after which his then album, Feeler, rocketed through the charts.

His latest album, See the Sun, has seen the same success as his previous, and as of this writing, currently one of the top ten albums in Australian charts. This album is filled with the same husky vocals and acoustic guitar sounds as his previous album but the tunes and lyrics tend to take a more summery and brighter feel.

Tonight’s concert was a good mix of good and old, starting with a classic and finishing with a classic all backed by another awesome band, The Stonemason’s. The venue was completely packed out with a good mix of English, Canadian and other antipodean people all taken by the set lasting for almost an hour and a half. Pete himself seems fairly timid, unlike your typically flamboyant rock star, but he still manages to play a mean song.

Definitely one of the best gigs I’ve been to this year!

X-Men 3: The Last Stand

Patrick Movies

Last night I finally got to see the third instalment of the X-Men movies at the Camden Odean theatre. Movies in the UK seem to take a lot longer to show than they do in the US and back home in Australia. A big shout out to Simon who arranged a great turn out and welcomed us all into his very nice flat, where we watched X-Men 2 before heading to the cinemas.

Turning a comic book into a popular movie will always be a difficult task, with the expectations of comic books fans not necessarily aligned with newer fans and other crowds not even exposed. On many levels, the movie succeeds at what it probably set out to achieve – an action packed movie filled with special effects and at the same time touching on contentious issues of minority group rights and the ethical choices society and individuals have to make.

XMen 3

I personally think the movie was far too ambitious and the result is far too many characters and subplots that don’t really lead anywhere. Hugh Jackman continues to play an awesome Wolverine while I’m yet again disappointed by Halle Berry still playing a weak Storm, despite having fought for a stronger role. I did like Famke Janssen’s darker side in the movie, though her intense glares wore thin after a while.

Don’t misinterpret my view as an overall negative view on the movie – for something in this genre, there will always be plenty of special effects, inconsistencies and clichéd lines, but this one succeeds at being entertaining and visually fun for the most part.

TheKua Rating: 7 out of 10

The Camden Crawl 2006

Patrick London To Do, Music, UK Life

The Camden CrawlAsk any music aficionado in London and one of the big events for the year will most likely be the Camden Crawl. It’s a yearly event that has been going strong for a number of consecutive years running with numerous venues in Camden effectively hosting an entire music festival for an entire day. Best of all most of the bands tend to be up and coming. The ticket gains you entry into any of the various places, and gives you a double CD sampler containing at least one song from each band, and with the inset playing the double role of map and timetable for the event. Many of the artists consequently make it big with a number of last years performers including The Kooks, Hard-Fi, Maximo Park and The Magic Numbers.

Thanks to an ever efficient organiser (thanks Liz!), I had my ticket booked a while ago, but both due to being located in Poole for my current project, and missing a train by 10 seconds, I ended up joining the trailing flanks of a dissipating crowd to only catch the Dirty Pretty Things do their stuff in the Electric Ballroom. I did still get my CD and am listening to it right now, discovering the new talent. Til next year then (maybe)!

The Delays @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Patrick Music, UK Life

youseecolours.jpgDespite being under the weather this week, I still managed to drag myself out of the house and see The Delays perform at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Tuesday night. The best thing about seeing them at Shepherd’s Bush Empire is that it’s a smoke-free zone, and frankly I didn’t need any additional help coughing on my own.

I have always enjoyed listening to The Delays after hearing their first album, Faded Seaside Glamour, a great example of the hauntingly different indie-pop-rock tunes they can produce. They apparently had a fair amount of airplay in the UK, but they also got some airplay back home on Triple J. This particular concert promoted the release of their new album, You See Colours, on Monday. They played a number of songs off their new album, and even though there are definitely heavier rock undertones in contrast to their first album, the poignant vocals and lyrics that are distinctly ‘The Delays’-only is still there. It’s one of those ones that I am going to have to listen to fully sometime very soon.

They mixed playing their new songs with a number of the crowd’s favourites from their first album including Long Time Coming, Bedroom Scene, Nearer Than Heaven and Wanderlust (and so many more). The light show, obviously themed to be consistent with their newest album was amazing and the band did not disappoint on Tuesday.