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Music Live in London

My weekly rant

Heather Mccormick posted a beautiful picture with the legend “Stop imaging the apocalypse; start imaging the revolution”. I’ve been watching @DamiLeeArch. She introduced me to the term “Solarpunk”. Cyberpunk imagines technology creating a dystopian future. I might love the art but it’s not a world I want to live in. I replied “Solarpunk not cyberpunk”.

I write software. Architecture is a term used in computing to describe the structure of the programs. The design reference was called Design Patterns. It’s a collect of common design idioms. It’s modelled on a collection of architectural patterns from the 1950’s.

Many of these design patterns have been obsoleted by improvements in the languages. My main language is C++ and there’s huge difference between the current standard (2023) and when the design bible was published (1995). This is crux of my rant; Biden’s Whitehouse said don’t use C++. The NSA says it’s inherently insecure. This is just wrong. Here’s Bjarne Stroustrup explaining why.

And my life is only bearable (cyberpunk, outdated knowledge, people in authority talking about thing they don’t know, the oncoming apocalypse in climate, war, ecomics, etc) with music. Here’s Aircooled supporting The Jesus and Mary Chain at The Roundhouse, Camden. I bought a ticket for Saturday but I saw they were playing on Friday, so I bought another ticket. I’ll see JAMC twice ‘cos I’ve loved them for 30+ years.

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Music Live in London

I need better equipment

I saw Freya Beer again last night. The bass was so high up in the mix you felt it in your bones. I got Write Her Off on my crappy camera phone. Compare that with same song a couple of weeks ago in Camberwell.

The low-end in non-existent in this video from last night. And the auto-focus is silly.

They were supporting Black Dolldrums but I didn’t capture any video. Here’s Sad Paradise from last year at The Black Prince, Northampton. That was the first time I stayed overnight for a band and I really like the atmosphere there.

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Linear Maths in C++

..and this happened

At the end of October I got to see my friend Andrea Giommi play with his band The Glass Key. I didn’t know much about anything – the venue, the artists or the main band. They opened OSPs Psyche Festival at The Victoria, Dalston a few weeks earlier. I got there a bit a late and missed then, so I was glad to have to opportunity to see them.

Even more striking was Agathe Max on violin. I got to see her with her band Custy Gamut (Track 1 andTrack 2). She was on Radio 3’s Late Junction on International Women’s Day.

The main band was World Sanguine Report. That’s Andrew Plummer on guitar and vocals and Ruth Goller on bass. Ruth’s solo album Skylluminia get’s a 4-star review in The Guardian.

Andrea plays at Two Palms, Hackney tomorrow (14th Mar) with his band Sons of Viljems. Tickets on DICE to make things easy.

Categories
Music Live in London

Only music can save me now

Apparently everyone respects my C++ skills, but I’m so bored with it. I wanna be a rock-star. If I don’t get to see a live band often, I get miserable, especially in the winter. This week I saw three cracking acts.

On Thursday 7th March Mango In Euphoria played at the Dublin Castle, Camden. The first song is a little unsure, but I’m not sure if that’s her or us, the audience. By the time she gets to Can’t Be Cured, we’re loving it. I want to dance but I want to get another song of hers. I didn’t know what the third song is but the audience are now eating out her hand. Every is clapping along as instructed (except me, filming).

Friday 8th March I went the awesome Night Owl in Finsbury Park. The headliners JE T’AIME were bill as “Parisian post-punk cold wave hybrid”. For an all-male band they had some great tunes and sensitivity. I captured two of their songsThey were supported by PALINDRONES – “Electronic duo mixing pounding beats and blistering synth drones”. They got me dancing (when I wasn’t filming).

I had to go out and missed Agathe Max on Radio 3’s Late Junction. That programme is on the BBC Sounds app for 28 day only. I have seen Agathe Max perform before.

I keep saying I’ll perform on guitar soon. I’m going to gigs recently just watching the guitar player for all I can steal, er, I mean take and learn from. More shows next week.