If someone had told me a year and a half ago that in a year and a half's time I would have seen Godspeed You! Black Emperor four times in a year and a half I would have questioned their soothsaying abilities. This prophecy was yesterday duly fulfilled in spectacular fashion. As with prior encounters, simply the gravity of seeing Godspeed is almost enough to make for a good gig. Combined with the calibre of music (and visuals) on show, it's almost impossible to not enjoy their performances. I would never get bored of seeing this band live, although let's leave it longer than a matter of days until the next one this time.
After some Columbus like navigating of the venue's stunningly ludicrous one way system, it was to the main stage for Australian act Liars. Whilst I'm a fan of their 2010 record Sisterwood, it was difficult for me to enjoy Liars' live performance. Next in the Great Hall were the highly anticipated and personal favourite Beach House, who drew a decent crowd and put on a solid performance. I am now in love with Victoria Legrand but unfortunately I detest getting sand in my shoes so it'll never work. One more trip around the entire Ally Pally premises landed us at Acoustic Ladyland's last ever performance in the smaller Panorama Room. I felt that the venue unfortunately let the band down. The sound wasn't great, it was really a bit too loud and the aforementioned kettling was in full Ian Tomlimson mode creating a cacophonous sauna ambience. Having seen Acoustic Ladyland before, I can attest to their brilliance and they will be sorely missed. I look forward to their future project, of which the name now escapes me.
By 5pm everyone's riding the two-and-a-half-drink buzz so what better way to kick the hornet's nest than Michael Gira. Swans may well have been the tipping point during my split second of indecision about whether to attend I'll Be Your Mirror and they didn't disappoint. Whilst it was almost inevitable that Gira would be trumped by the proceeding Nick Cave, I still really liked his arm waving and slapping himself in the face. Top notch stuff. In all seriousness though; loud, dramatic and dark doesn't cover it and I can only regret not seeing them already since their recent re-ignition.
Grinderman quickly followed and drew by far the largest crowd of the day. Having seen Nick Cave perform with The Bad Seeds a few years ago, I knew what to expect in the way of live theatrics from Cave and sidekick Warren Ellis but this really blew it all out of the water. These guys are an absolute tour de force live: without a doubt one of the best performances I've ever witnessed.
If you're still with me at this point then you're doing well and you may have some sympathy for how much my legs ached by the time we reached the event curators, Portishead. A band that needs no introduction, Portishead did a superb job at captivating an audience that had just watched Grinderman. Despite some relatively major mistakes, Geoff Barrow & co would have had to royally fucked up to drop the ball on this one and managed to all but wrap up proceedings in beautiful fashion. You can add Beth Gibbons to the enamoured list.
I poked my head in to Caribou for about 20 minutes and although they were absolutely smashing it, I had to leave and make my own way back to Dalston. Which, as it turns out, probably took me more time than it would have to travel from Minehead.
tl;dr - Nick Cave is the coolest man alive, I can go the whole day eating only a sausage and Portishead have still got it.
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