Poparazzi

THE double-bill concert at the Esplanade Theatre was sold out. So naturally I wanted to see what the fuss was all about too.

As it turned out, The xx was all about the colour blue. Swathes of it in fact. Making the whole stage look like some Na’vi stronghold. It was a great effect for the dreamy, almost depressingly melodramatic music produced by The xx, but terrible for photographers, because everything just looks blue.

The sound was a touch too bass-heavy for my delicate ears, but then again maybe I’m getting too old for this sort of new fangled sonic assault they call music these days.

Unfortunately, the xx didn’t do anything for me. Still, everybody else in the theatre seemed to be transported to another plane, so maybe it’s just me.  Oh well, as Chris Delia’s girlfriend would say, to each his own.

Florence And The Machine on the other hand, was mesmerising in a good way. Dressed in what I at first mistook for a nightie, but in the end looked more like a magician’s cloak, the flame-haired singer played the part of a musical high priestess and everyone was there to worship at her altar.

Florence preaches to her congregation

Her mic could shoot rays of light

A supernatural performance

Okay, I was trying for the "Dylan at the Concert For Bangladesh" shot but not quite pulling it off

Florence And The Machine in full flight: Even the musicians can shoot beams of light

Tags: Esplanade Theatre, Florence And The Machine, The xx

DESPITE earlier reports in the news that the Australian Laneway Festival might be making an international stop to Singapore, it appears that those reports might be wrong after all.

Then again, I’m of the “unless I can see the holes in his hands” school of not believing anything I read on websites. And so far the official site hasn’t included Singapore in the list of venues.

A bummer, to be sure. No Echo And The Bunnymen, Florence And The Machine and the other bands on the Laneway lineup. 

Ben Harrison (left) of ETC rawkin’ out (pic by Kamal)

But then, we’re getting Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Muse, +/- {plus/minus}, The Coronas, The Buzzcocks, Angela Chang, LMF and more; PLUS we’ve got a whole slew of local bands playing gigs from now till the end of the year: Audiocean, Armchair Critic, Deputy Siren, Waiting For Nothing, Pixel Apartment, Quick Quick Danger, Budak Pantai, ETC (above), etc, etc, etc.

So we can’t really complain can we?

Tags: +/- {plus/minus}, Angela Chang, Armchair Critic, Audiocean, Australia, Budak Pantai, Deputy Siren, Echo And The Bunnymen, ETC, Festival, Florence And The Machine, Laneway, LMF, Muse, Pixel Apartment, Quick Quick Danger, Singapore, The Buzzcocks, The Coronas, The xx, Waiting For Nothing, Yeah Yeah Yeahs