First off I was taking a young couple who had just got engaged. So as we met up at my place and I cracked open a bottle of champagne to wash down our early supper. Seemed the right way to start. Its always nice to have company for a gig, particularly when its this charming.
We walked up to the Ally Pally just avoiding the rain, well almost, in time to see most of the set by Chvrches (no, that really is the way its spelt) a Scottish Electro pop band who could have come out of the 1980s. Indeed they will make an interesting comparison to OMD, a genuinely 1980s electro pop band who I will be seeing on Friday. They were really good - I will happily see them headlining sometime. I must have been the only person in the audience old enough to make the comparison between the voice of their lead singer and Claire Grogan, former lead of Altered Images and the love interest in the film Gregory's Girl. I should at this point say that the audience was VERY young. Even my friends at either side of 30 were way above the average age here, which I doubt would have topped 20. It had to be a Saturday night really or most of the crowd would have been in school uniform.
Then onto Everything Everything, a band I had seen before but who have since had a bit of a push with a new album, publicity and a bit of a new look. Ok the look is slightly fascist, but still cooler than before. Black shirts need reclaiming. Better stage presence and a bit harder edge too, and clearly the kids had actually heard of them. They went down well, and the lead singer's strong high pitched voice is distinctive. One can see a decent future for them.
So much for the hors d'oeuvres, now the main course. I can't quite articulate why Two Door are so good. Its not their image, although that looks smart and sharp, nor I would have thought sex appeal. Lots of girls in the audience, but lots of boys too. They are fine on stage but you wouldn't say their stage presence is anything remarkable. They stand and fall by the music. My lack of any musical education probably doesn't help here. Put simply if you really like jangly guitar music as much as I do, well this is the cream of the crop. Now with a very decent second album, Beacon, to add to their tremendous debut, Tourist History, they can put out a storming set, which they proceeded to do.
If one compares their sound to Everything Everything, I would say it is sweeter and above all more uplifting. This is very much a feel good band. And they do have several outstanding anthems; This is the Life, Undercover Martyn, Do you want it all? You can't beat having 10,000 folk singing along.
This was, as they told us, the biggest gig they had ever played, . Indeed I was also at their previous biggest gig, at Brixton. And I expect to be seeing them on the next step up ie one of the arenas like Wembley or the O2. They really will just get bigger. Alex Trimble has a nice distinctive, slightly yelping vocal style and the guitar work is just excellent. One of Northern Ireland's best exports.
So there was the company to enjoy, two very good support acts and a brilliant main act. What else for the night? Well its my local venue and rather than battle the hordes at the local station I can just walk home. And a half hour walk when you are buzzing after a gig is just the ticket. As a venue Alexandra Palace isn't great inside as its just one huge hall with no rake. But its an impressive building from the exterior with equally impressive views across London. As its on a hill (a bit of a climb getting there but rewardingly downhill coming home) the front hasn't been built on, leaving uninterrupted views, a nice park and even a little bit of woodland. A really pocket sized bit of woodland - woods for the agoraphobic.
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