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Sometimes you are reminded why you keep on going to concerts; that it is not just seeing these people, who made those records you have, in the flesh. It of course makes perfect sense when you go to a concert of improvisational nature, but what about a rock concert, where they are merely playing the tunes?

This was the fourth time I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and it was the fourth experience – if anything links the performances – it must be the desire to open up the music, to show how the songwriting and the songs are not static, but something that you can bend and shape, to fit the tour or even then mood of the night. Thus I think I heard the fourth live version (excluding recorded versions) of my all time favourite Bonnie song, Nomadic Revery from the 99 album I See A Darkness.

To me the concert started out rather peculiar with a song(?) that I have never heard before. The notable thing was that a simple sentence was divided between four voices forcing the listener to pay attention to get any meaning out of it. Naturally this reminded me of the approach by me and my friends in koordinat for our multiple voice poetry readings. The show continued with a gem from the Palace songbook; The Brute Choir, in a version not unlike the one found on “Greatest Palace Music” and I was already happy and texting Filip: “…and I never held someone so sweet”.

Next high was when Will Oldham (dare I write this?) put away his guitar and did a duet with the female singer and violinist for “what are you?”. Other highs of the concert was classics “Gulf Shores”, “Ease Down The Road” and “A Minor Place”, and newer songs “The Seedling”, “Cursed Sleep” and “Beware Your Only Friend”. But the most uninterrupted joy was the three songs of the first encore: “In Spite of Ourselves” as a duet with Susanna, already mentioned Nomadic Revery, and finally the devotional I’ll be Glad. The crowd wouldn’t settle for this and the show ended with another encore and the cover of R Kelly’s “Worlds Greatest, hmmm…..

Once again I forgot my camera – this time I really regret it, as there were a lot of Kodak moments, and I was actually pretty close to the stage.
Well it all started with my posting in my facebook status (who the fuck uses Twitter anyway) that I was going to see Metronomy later that night, and Bjarke reacting to it – so we decided to go together, have a few beers and talk about the past, present and future – and a lot about cigarettes.

We met up at de Baile for a Columbus on draft before heading to a crowded Paradiso where Bloc Party was playing on the big stage and all the indie kids were sweating. Well tonight I had left the avant garde attitude at home so had no problems with walking up to the balcony and catching the last two songs by the British rock band, before heading into Kleine zaal where Metronomy was playing.

Metronomy are fun – and possibly my favourite indie act from last year. They came on stage all dressed in black with touch lamps attached to their shirts and a happy go lucky human robotic attitude reminding me of Devo. Probably not to concerned with being super tight they played their asses of, and had a pose for any moment not touching their instruments.

The set was mostly made up of songs from 2008′s Nights Out, but also a few tracks from the former one-man-band debut from 2006, that I mistakenly bought after the show. I found myself singing along and dancing, when not sipping one of the large beers that Bjarke insisted us drinking. I could tell that the band was hoping for a more eager crowd, but they still delivered, and made me smile throughout the whole concerts.

We stayed to watch We Have Band who played afterward. I remember meeting Petra and that they played an uninteresting cover version of a song that I have now forgotten – it was not a bad performance, but I am sure i will not remember it by the of the year. The Metronomy concert however I will.

A couple of years back I saw Gang Gang Dance in Copenhagen after their release of God’s Money, a record I at that time found interesting, but not mindblowing. The concert turned out to be a complete mess, and I was not at all impressed.

Gang Gang Dance

That event let to my more or less total disregard of last years Saint Dymphna until I out of boredom downloaded it anyway. It turned out to be one of my absolute favourites of last year, but with the previous concert in mind it was with some doubts that I went to see them again friday night at Paradiso.

Gang Gang Dance

Nothing to be afraid of though. Gang Gang Dance delivered the best concert so far this year. The focus was a little for on the percussive side of their (new) sound and with longer repetitive sections, but most of the stuff was recognisable as stuff from their most recent record. Not always 100% tight, the show was an hour long non-stop borderline danceable tour de force of the sound that makes the Gang Gang Dance quilt. I believe that this is as modern as it gets in widely accessible music right now.

Gang Gang Dance