Eskimo Joe at Koko

Patrick Music, UK Life

Wednesday night saw Australian band, Eskimo Joe take to the stage at Camden’s Koko. I love the venue having been here multiple times but I didn’t even know about the other floors that tower high above. We ended up in the JD lounge on the top most floor where you need to pass through a menacing leather bound door that make it looks like some sort of private members club. On the way back from the toilets, I passed a couple who looked cautious about entering and was about to turn around when I told them that it was fine and open to everyone. Unlike other venues with multiple floors, you still got a great view of all the action down on stage.

koko

I can barely remember the name of the support act. It was a bloke from Leicester who had a decent voice but played some fairly average tunes. He played about five or so songs before handing the stage over to Eskimo Joe who came on at quarter past nine. Having seen them several times back home, what always impressed me about them is that they made some decent effort to connect with the audience and chat such as giving a bit of a brief background to some songs without turning it into some sort of soppy lecture. They always joke between themselves and seem pretty down to earth. As an example, their lead singer, Kavyen apologised to the entire audience when he realised his fly wasn’t done up somewhere through the set. None of this dashing off stage or anything like that.

eskimojoe

Eskimo Joe played a great selection of plenty of songs mainly from their last two albums, and a handful of newer ones that will be coming out for their new album in a couple of months. What struck me about their newer songs is that they sounded very retro, very 80s-like and you can see that they’ve been experimenting with their sounds. Even their third album compared to the previous two was a lot moodier and sombre than the upbeat tunes you’d find on the first two.

It was a nice mid-week break to go and watch some live music. Particularly listening to some live music from a band that I enjoyed listening to when I was back home. It seemed like the very heavily anti-podean crowd enjoyed them just as much.

TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

Deep Cut at The Tricycle Theatre

Patrick UK Life

Last Monday I went along to one of the final screenings of Deep Cut on show at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn. I’d never been up to Kilburn before, so had a bit of time to walk around the high street and grab a bite to eat. There seemed to be far too many kebab stores for my liking and didn’t really have that much time so ended up having dinner at Nando’s instead. The other places along the high street made me think how different the modern, bright and artful Tricycle Cinema and Theatre seemed slightly out of place. Anyway, on to the play.

Deep Cut focuses on the story behind a series of apparent “suicides” at the Deep Cut Barracks between 1995 and 2002. The play focuses particularly on perspective from the family and friends of Cheryl James, one of the officers who died during this period and the anguish, puzzlement and anger they went through seeking proper closure on Cheryl’s death. The play does a great job at presenting all the details behind their story, the unanswered questions, and the frustrations of a government system that failed to apply due diligence in what appears like a simple cover up.

We sat in the second row from the front, but since the theatre probably only fits a hundred and fifty, I’m pretty sure everyone else felt the same way that I did. The combination of the moving dialogue and the clever way that they pieced the story together really made me feel for the family, and particularly concerned with the way that the other parties involved failed to repeatedly apply due consideration over a series of events.

It’s a shame that this play doesn’t continue for a while more, although I’m glad that it did get a fair amount of press coverage from newspapers like The Guardian.

TheKua.com Rating: 9 out of 10

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Patrick Movies, UK Life

As part of the Anime Season showing at the Curzon cinema, I went along to see the screening of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence a couple of weeks ago. The first Ghost in the Shell is a classic cul movie and although I don’t really remember what its story line was about, I do vaguely remember some of the characters.

As part of the festival, a lady told us a few points to focus on throughout the movie, and described some of the events and thinking that lead to the 2004 release of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Sure enough, many of the points she listed hit true to their mark. The movie is superbly visual, almost to the a point where it is cloying with its oversaturated colours and the soundtrack is unnervingly haunting, adding to the overall atmosphere of the movie.

The storyline follows the same robotic investigator from the first movie, although this time he is partnered with a new human investigator after the apparent demise of his first partner. Their investigations follow a set of related murder cases involving a specific type of robot model doing the murdering and then committing suicide afterwards, both apparently violating well known rules of robot law. I won’t go into any other detail because I think the movie does a much better job of uncovering the details behind the murders and their origin.

I’m glad to have seen this movie on the big screen. I can hardly imagine the sounds and rich pictures having as much impact on a much smaller TV, or in a home environment. I’m not sure the movie will be for everyone, particularly those not interested in watching anime movies but I still think it made a pretty good movie.

TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10

Returning from Japan

Patrick UK Life

I’ve not had a chance to update this site for a couple of weeks since I spent the last two weeks in Osaka and Kyoto. I’m almost through the plethora of email that stacks up in two weeks and will post something a bit more interesting.

Secret Cinema meets Metal on Metal

Patrick Entertainment, Movies, UK Life

Metal on MetalOn Sunday I ended up at Shepherd’s Bush Empire to participate in one of the Secret Cinema events, a themed evening out where the movie is secret right to the very end and the location disclosed just a few days earlier. When I signed up for the ticket, all I knew was that there were going to be “Rock Gods” and “Shady Promoters”. Later I find out the theme of the evening is 80s rock, so I end up buying a vintage leather jacket on the weekend to accommodate. I found a decent bargain at Rokit in Covent Garden too, so pretty stoked about that.

To be honest, I don’t remember that much about the 80s other than lots of curly hair and bright coloured slacks. After all, I hadn’t even hit my teens at the end of it. I had a much better understanding of 80s rock when I saw everyone else. Ripped shirts, brightly coloured, tight fitting trousers and tights, and lots and lots of messy hair apparently was the idea. The extras hired by (or from) Secret Cinema also came in complete theme and entertained us as we lined up in all of our different lines. We had bikes come through, rock papparazi, a skirmish between two rocked out blokes that made the line up in Fabric on a Friday night look super tame.

When we entered the empire we took to our second floor seats, complete with a bottle of Vitamin Water and a packet of crisps. Other attendents stood around in the aisles, handing out small buckets of popcorn as everyone else eventually made it to their seats. Complete with band kit, it wasn’t long before we witnessed a rock weding, watched a small film about a Heavy Metal Drummer in the middle east and began the session with Toronto based band, Cauldron.

It wasn’t long before the real movie was announced, apparently the premiere of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, though my sister had recently been to yet another “premiere” of it earlier in the week. It’s a great movie though be warned it’s a documentary and probably not for everyone. I’d seen it advertised and I can’t say it was one that I’d go to the cinemas for. It follows the tragic tale of a Canadian band who had a profound influence on the heavy metal music scene, yet never found the fame that they deserved. Throughtout it, we see them and their, almost, unwavering belief and passion for their music. What was surprising at the end of the movie was that Anvil the movie was suddently displaced by Anvil the band in real life. They played three songs before calling it a night, and what a night it was!

Traces

Patrick Entertainment, Theatre, UK Life

Last weekend, my sister asked me along to see a new circus/art stage show at the Peacock Theatre called Traces presented by a French-Canadian based troupe of four guys and a girl. The performance is best described as a fusion of different performance styles encompassing everything from dance, various circus skills, some acting and comedic styles. Everything had clever touches including the welcome note at the start and the intermission joking about the things that you could do that most other theatres would prohibit.

I was particularly impressed by their use of less conventional circus objects including basketballs and skateboards to create some visually stunning tricks. Considering that the stage wasn’t that big, and there were five constantly moving bodies, it’s obvious they’d rehearsed a great deal to put on a show that truly impressed. Not everything worked out well including their mock simulation of a “big brother”-like vote off, but for a couple of hours it was still worth the money we paid for it.