Blondie at Brixton

Come Friday its my fourth gig of the week. And comfortably the most expensive at £75 a pop. Also for once seated since one of my companions didn't feel up to standing for a night. So we had seats up in the balcony.

And the subject of our attention at Brixton? Blondie of course. Didn't begrudge them the money. This is their pension after all. Debbie Harry is 72, which is quite old for a sex symbol. It is fair to say that we in the audience were creaking a bit too. Not too many of  us under 50 I guess. But we enjoyed it enormously.

Even at 72, Debbie has stage presence, and a very decent voice still too. She can't quite get the highest notes, but you only notice that on a few songs, like Picture This if one compares it to the sound on records. But that is carping. And anything lost in vocals is in my view made up for the accomplishment of the band. Chris Stein on guitar and Clem Burke on drums are as great and skilled as ever, and they can craft many of their old classics even better now, with long versions of songs like Atomic. They were also not above seguing into cover versions, like Beastie Boys' Fight for the Right to Party, and Donna Summer's I Feel Love.

A young friend of mine asked weren't Blondie originally punks who then sold out? Well, yes in a way, but another view is they simply adapted their music to follow popularity. And what's so wrong about becoming more appealing to a wider audience? They developed. Here we didn't get Denis, probably their one punk hit, but a lot from the classic Parallel Lines album. And a lot from their new album Pollinator which I have to say is quite decent. Most of their tracks from that were not too shabby in the company of their classic tunes.

 Minus side? Well they are starting to get a bit nutty. They have started a crusade in favour of bees, with Debbie coming on in a bee mask. And a jacket bearing the slogan "Stop fucking the planet". Which is all very well, but where do pop stars get off trying to pass on homilies to their audiences? Why don't they consider that we might be at least as well informed and intelligent as them? And few of the world's  major issues can be properly aired in two sentences between 80s pop ditties to an audience who have had a drink or two on a Friday night, So why bother? Stick to what you are good at.

The Lemon Twigs

For my third gig of the week I went to the Forum to see the American band the Lemon Twigs with three other middle-aged blokes. As one of them said the four of us have more than 200 years' experience between us.

I had not seen this outfit before, and indeed know no one else who had heard of them either. They had however become popular on the festival circuit for their idiosyncratic performances. They are fronted by brothers Michael and Brian D'Addario. They both front because they switch between playing drums and performing guitar and vocals. 

A confident pair of young men. Certainly a lot more dynamic than the War on Drugs. BUT. There s always a but. I can't say the music really grabbed me, or rather the songs. The problem is so many of them seemed like disjointed collections of ideas, chorus verse and instrumental parts seemingly having little to with each other. Only occasionally did they hang together like on "As long as we're together", which sounds like a proper song.

Danny Ayala on keyboards in a costume straight out of 70s disco

 Time for younger brother to take over.

As it happened my mate Thibault was having a drink in a nearby pub in Kentish Town with his family, so after the gig rather than join the throng on the Tube I had a drink with him. And then headed back to the office to pick things up for an early meeting the next day. A late night!

War on Drugs at Alexandra Palace

Almost got stuck at work on this one. But with a bit of mild jogging (I don't do any other kind) I managed to catch a fast train and in the end arrived with 15 minutes to spare (although missed the support act), managed to meet up with my mate, and got a decent spot at the front. So all in all very happy with my work.

Oh and the gig itself? Well it got a two star review in the Times, solely because they described the band as taking lack of interaction with the audience to new heights. Which was sort of fair. A couple of thank yous and that's all we heard. Otherwise they just got on with it. But what, you might well ask, is wrong with that? Banter is just not what  lead singer Adam Granduciel does. He is too intent on vocals and the intricate guitar work that goes into their songs.

Rather like the National, I find their following interesting. A very wide age range, and given they are not exactly household names, its impressive they can sell out somewhere as large as Alexandra Palace. And as my mate (who frankly knows and thinks more about music than me), commented, the amount of rehearsal that must go into such an intricate set of songs must be prodigious. You don't just go out and thrash at a few guitars to produce this quality of sound. Particularly awesome was the long version of Under the Pressure they performed.

So animated they were not. Do you get a lot more than just listening to the album at home? Well yes, but not as much as one might like. But then they are hardly alone in that - see Interpol, or the Strokes or Kings of Leon. Just enjoy what you hear. The audience did. I heard no complaints.

And finally a view from the back as we tried to escape ahead of the crowds during the encore...