@*A TRIUMPH FOR MEW"+

Saw Mew last night and I even took some pictures, more so than I usually do. Most of the time I take zero actually. But my recent photography workshop meetings have inspired me to take more pictures and keep playing with the depth of field and which subject to put the focus on. So that was kind of my assignment and the kind of pictures I wanted to take. Well, a couple of them turned out okay. The thing is, I never look at what I've photographed when I'm at a concert. I just click and then click again, without looking at what I captured. I do this to not get disappointed when a picture doesn't work out and prevent me from getting too caught up with trying to get the right picture. First and foremost I'm there to see the band play not to be a photographer. So I want to enjoy the music as well and therefore I try to not take too many pictures. But last night I balanced it out quite well. Some pictures could have been nicer would Jonas Bjerre, lead singer of the band, not have held his microphone in front of his face so much, but I'm already happy to have taken some really clear pictures without any blur. I also used my lomography camera three times I think. But with that one it's even more of a mystery of whether the pictures turned out okay or not, especially considering I've already wasted two film stocks! Now let's go to the actual concert and leave the photographs aside. It was one of the best gigs I've been to this year. Passion Pit take note, this is how you do a concert, 'cause those guys got a lot to learn. What immediately struck me was Mew's professionality. They have a lot of experience which isn't strange for a band who already put out so many albums, recently having released album number five! And that experience can be very well heard. At certain moments I felt a bit Phoenix-esque even though both bands are pretty different. I guess at the core however, they're kind of similar both making rock music with a strong pop sound added to it. Maybe it was also the great light show which reminded me of the Phoenix concert I went to earlier this year. Whatever it was, I was reminded of them, that being a very good thing. But Mew is definitely a band of their own with Jonas' vocals being a great part of that. I don't know how he does it. I can't believe he really sounds like this and his voice was so clear, it sounded perfect. I wonder how his speaking voice sounds. His voice is one of the most unique ones I've heard. It's high, but not in a girly way, not at all. But I love listening to it and live he sounded just as good as when listening to him in mp3 format. They played some songs from their new record while also playing some from their earlier ones. So far I only listened to their latest release as well as their first album A Triumph For Man, the other three I've started listening to only yesterday actually. So last night I didn't know every song, but the energy of the band and that of the audience made that I could fully enjoy those songs as well without having the feeling of not fitting in. Instead of Mew I could have seen another band last night in Paradiso called Miike Snow. But because they're fairly new I chose the more experienced band with a larger fanbase. I did this because I expected the Mew audience to be way more enthusiastic than those people at Miike Snow who might have been a bit reluctant to dance and fully let go considering Miike Snow is still such a new and fairly unknown band. I doubt there's anyone who already proclaims them as their favourite band. With Mew it's a different thing which showed, 'cause I saw some people walking around in the band's merchandise. So I knew a lot of people were going to fully enjoy this and it wasn't a surprise to me that the concert eventually had been sold out. From what I experienced last night I can say I really enjoy the Mew crowd. You could see it was filled with some die hard fans and not only those cool and hip looking people for whom going to a concert also means to be looked at. I like it when you see some people not caring about the clothes they wear 'cause it shows all the more they're here mainly for the music. Because it was sold out the place was packed which made that I could feel the energy of the audience really well. Some people jumped and really went wild others danced and enjoyed the gig but without the crazy arms. At the start however, the concert almost got completely ruined as there was this guy who just took up my spot out of nowhere. I thought he wanted to pass me so I gave him some room but instead he just stayed and basically took my spot. I just could feel the waterfall of tears inside me pouring down. I felt so hurt. How could you do that to me?! I was so into the concert after the first song, so full of surprise with the awesomeness of Mew and then this shitty guy just decides to take over my spot. I was so taken by surprise that I couldn't even say anything about it. I just could not understand why anyone would do that. It was just cruel. But I managed to put it all aside and some minutes later I was completely enjoying the concert again. But whoever this kid was, not cool to just take over my spot like that! But like I said it was one of the best concerts I saw this year. Great atmosphere, great sound, fun light show and visuals. I couldn't have imagined it any better. Mew might not be one of those bands I would totally go crazy for but they're definitely a great band to see live. When they return I would definitely like to see them again which isn't something I can say about some of the bands/artists that I like even more. They're really one of those bands who bring a whole new experience to their music when playing live. I can't wait for this month to be over and December 4th to come. Could Julian Casablancas be even better? Considering his album and how much I love it, I'd say yes. But we'll see. Anyway, I'm so excited for that night, it's gonna be fun.









In some minutes I'll go take a shower and then get back into the metro to retake all those pictures I took with my lomography camera but which didn't work out. Plus, there's a place I've wanted to visit for a long time so I'll be going there today. And tonight my third photography workshop! It's gonna be a fun day. Hope not too much rain :(

>_NEW YEASAYER = ♥+)

Sometimes you think you can't find new love for a band you already think is amazing, but Yeasayer have officially achieved just that. There new song Ambling Alp is not just good, it's brilliant! It's one of their best and most catchiest songs to date. It's as if they've made passionate love to Animal Collective and this is the result. I've played this song out loud in my room several times now and it just gets bettter and better. I should not listen too much to it though. At one point I thought it might be better to stop listening to it completely so that when the full album is released I'm able to experience the complete effect. No doubt that Odd Blood is my most anticipated album right now. I can't wait to hear it. I'll probably die of excitement :-)

I've added the song to the music player so when you scroll down long enough it automatically starts playing.
I also think I like Mumford & Sons as well as Sea Wolf, two bands I'll keep my eye on!

I still have no internet at my place, girl must be on vacation or something. Here's to hoping that my neigbour has the password.

A picture for you



Jakob Wiechmann by Gehrke
Via The Fashionisto

I want to buy my Julian Casablancas ticket, but I cant. Something's up with the Ticketmaster site and it has been like this for days now. Paradiso was going to make an anouncement for why the selling of tickets for this concert has been put to a halt. Hopefully I can get mine soon and the gig will still happen!

Last night I went to see Passion Pat. This concert was supposed to take place earlier somewhere this summer but than they cancelled because of vocal problems. I then saw them at Lowlands and was very underwhelmed because the singer' voice was so weak and completely overpowered by the music. This time, however, he sounded way better, though there still seemed to be a lot lacking. I've been wondering what it is and here's what I came up with. :-) They seem to not believe in themselves too much as a band as a result that I constantly felt amazed by all these jumping teenagers who appeared to have been to to there first cocnert ever 'cause I kept thinking, why all this excitement, it's just Passion Pit, not MGMT or Franz Ferdinand or any other band!!! Passion Pit is just okay. It made me wonder, because at a time I did really like Passion Pit and they could have been a serious 'it' band for me and during the time their album leaked onto the net I had mad love for them. But then I saw them at Lowlands and the whole thing just fell flat and ever since my love for them has been very low. I'll call this the Black Kids effect 'cause there was a moment I went crazy 'bout this band, telling everyone they should take a listen, but then I grew tired of them and apparently they still had to learn a lot 'cause there live shows didn't seem to be too good. As a result, a band like Fleet Foxes who also received similar buzz at that time, grew immensely in popularity because of a solid first album and great live performances while Black Kids' flame quietly burned out. I'm not saying that the same will happen to Passion Pit, their songs are still really good and I think better than Black Kids', but if they continue being like this live, I have doubts they will last this long. What I'm saying is that they too seem to think as themselves as just another band. I have a feeling they won't ever grow a really large fanbase and it seems to me they have that same believe. Last night I occasionally felt they were just a background band who would play at a wedding for instance or who are similar to a DJ playing in a club. When you're in a club dancing, being on a night out, you don't constantly watch the DJ, you're not faced with your head towards the DJ booth to see how he/she's doing. When you're at a concert everyone's attention is focused on the people on stage. But with Passion Pit I felt I could have easily turned away from the stage, 'cause what was happening out there was not that interesting to see. I felt like I was watching them rehearse or play by themselves. Even though it was live there was no live energy. It was as if they were playing for themselves like us people in the crowd weren't there. And Michael Angelakos, the singer, doesn't have any real stage presence, he doesn't know how to command the stage. It's like he's not singing to the audience, but just to himself. It's hard to explain and you probably can only fully understand what I mean when you would have been there yourself. In the end I even was hoping for it to be over soon 'cause I was tired and wanted to crawl into my bed. Next week I'll be seeing Mew. I expect them to be way better, so I'll see this as having been just a warm-up for the great things to come!

PS: There's a good chance I'll be waking up in Paris first day of the new year ;)

%*ARCADE FIRE+}

I don't know what took me so long, but I'm finally having a real Arcade Fire moment. I especially love their EP and that song Old Flame. Probably my favourite song of theirs.

I'm still dissapointed about the Passion Pit gig. Especially because right now their songs still sound fresh and noy yet overplayed. By the time November arrives I'll probably have played their album so many times already that a bit of the magic will be gone. But who knows, maybe not. We'll see.

$&THIS JUST IN"+

Dear Mr./Mrs,

The show of Passion Pit, that should take place at Paradiso in Amsterdam on the 13th of July 2009, has been rescheduled because of voiceproblems of the artist. The new date will be 4 November 2009. Tickets remain valid for the new date. If you are not able to attend the show at the new date, please return the tickets before 4 November 2009 to one of our outlets for a refund of the ticket prices.


:(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

I was so looking forward to this!!!
:-(

Sadness

Now I have to find myself something else to do tonight...

&?NEXT TIME I WEAR THEM SKINNY JEANS AGAIN>"

I'm so bad at sleeping lately. I wake up way too early and go to bed after 12. So yesterday I was easily able to fall asleep during the middle of the day. I was watching Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) which is the most magical film and not at all for little kids even though it's animation. Some of those studio Ghibli films can be watched by the youngest kids without an adult having to watch with them. But Mononoke Hime is not one of them. The character San aka princess Mononoke can even be seen spewing blood and does so in the most causual way. She is also one of the most sexy drawn figures you will ever see. I didn't sleep one second while watching it but I so easily could have. And now too I'm sitting here and it's not even 9am yet. Last evening happened to be the evening of the Ratatat gig. So standing there I also was pretty tired. It was really good though. Next time however I should either just wear a belt or put them skinny jeans back on, because this jeans I was wearing kept sagging. And normally I can wear them without having to hold them with my hands to avoid them from falling off. But last evening they even seemed more wide. Maybe I started to lose weight because of the dancing? Could be. Also my hair which apparently has grown quite a lot since my last concert was more annoying than usual. It kept jumping all over the place trying to cover most of my face. But now let's cut to the music and performance. For some reason at times I can still be very surprised when I see a band perform live and notice how they really play every part of the song live without anything pre-recorded. I know that's the whole idea of a live gig. To actually play live. But apparenlty sometimes it can still surprise me to see a band perform an entire song live. This is what happened to me last night. They really played every bit of every song thay performed live. I guess of course I didn't expect differently but this didn't make me less amazed. And it was just the two of them. I had seen concert footage where they played with more people, someone on drums I believe as well. But last night it was just Mike and Evan playing. Some of their songs seem so layered and I apparently always had the idea that their songs were much more complicated. So I was pretty musch amazed when at the start of the gig they started to play some of the melodies I've come to know so well on a keyboard. In my mind I always assumed their music was way more special than that. I just could not imagine it was just coming from a random keyboard. It's like in my mind it wouldn't do their music justice. So instead I just imagined some very high-tech machine producing their music. But of course they happen to use normal instruments. Anyway the sound was great. They started off by playing some of their tracks which are a bit slower and as the gig went on they came to play more of their very fast paced tunes. Of course they ended the night with Seventeen Years and the crowd went wild. I was amazed that people started to jump on their songs as well and some people even appeared to mosh on like two or three tracks. Their music is such a mix of sounds ans styles. At times their beats make for a more R&B/hip-hop-ish sound, while other songs are much more rock with the guitars realy dominating the tracks. Both guys looked really into it and most of the time they performed like true rock gods especially during the guitar solo bits with them kneeling down on the stage and shaking their heads. The crowd was a really good one too. I'm always happy to see people around me getting really into it. To me it's one of the most essential things. When the crowd sucks it can really influence the entire atmosphere unless the band I'm seeing is such a favourite of mine that I don't need anyone to dance/move along with me. Those moments I'm more than capable of doing it all by myself. I guess last night I could have been higly capable of it myself too so it was even more nice to see the entire crowd enjoying the music as much as I did. As always many times I had my eyes closed because that's what happens when I'm really into something. I believed they also played Kennedy but it seems that I sometimes happen to lose part of my memory. It was like when I saw WOMEN and I couldn't remember if they performed Black Rice or not and then afterwards someone who also attended the gig told me they did. So I assume they played Kennedy but I cant really remember. :D It might be because of me being a bit tired. I was very aware of where I was but sometimes during some moments I guess I kind of space out. Might be the effect of the music on me as well. Sometimes I'm a bit in trance. Next I'll be seeing Passion Pit in Paradiso. Hope to see another gig before that one though 'cause the Passion Pit one is July the 13th which is still a bit far away. One thing I know for sure is that I will wear a pair of jeans which fit me and doesn't have me worrying about them falling off all night especially during the jumping parts :)

Plus more of Fashion Week Paris. This time I bring you Dries Van Noten, Stephan Schneider, Louis Vuitton, Gaspard Yurkiviech, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and Emanuel Ungaro.

The good:

Luis Vuitton - Shows you can keep things simple. It's about putting clothes together, making the right colour combinations. That's the most important. All the shoes look really really nice. Even their flip-flops work and I felt they were already a bit out of fashion, but here they happen to look so good. Overall the looks are all so classy. Real gentleman-ish. Love how the shoes and socks are put together. Proofs you should not hide them. Love the orange, the green with grey and brown. Like their long coats more than I would expect. Sometimes the looks may look slightly feminine but it's all about making it work and in this case it really works. And of course the bags are nice as well. Love those in grey and the bigger the better I would say.

Oh those green shoes how they stand out so perfectly:





















Probably my favourite look from the collection. The orange works so well here:



Pretty colour combination:



Cool jacket:










Gaspard Yurkievich - I already had a glimpse of this collection last week and noticed it was pretty good. Love the puffy shirts as well as their low cut out blazers. Yum. Just overall it's very good and interesting design. The looks sometimes don't work that well and not everyone could pull it off wearing them, but the clothes themselves are gorgeous.

This jacket is very different. I like it:












I like these shoes. Nice blue colour.








Best blazer:



Dries Van Noten - Dries Van Noten is one of the best and this collection shows why. Great combination of unusual printed pants with classic looking blazers. Those lovely prints even come on shoes! Give me a pair of those! Very striking combinations. Such gentleman looks. Overall very elegant and pretty. One of my favourite collections. Here some of the best looks:














Love this shirt and tie combination. Must say that the hair of the model makes it all look even better :)










I came up with the tie as a belt idea myself too :)





Nicely printed shoes!:



This is rather lovely:



I like this jacket/cardigan kind of thing. Good colour:









Jean-Paul Gaultier - Not everything works that well but it's one of my favourite collections. I love how he dares to try new things. That's what fashion and design is about. Putting a new spin on traditional pieces. Just like Yurkievich does with the puffy shirts. He puts a new spin on things, Gaultier does the same. I appreciate him for doing that and most of the time it works out really well. All of those jackets and coats are great. I would love to own them all. I also like the shorts. I love those flappy things on some of the blazers. The stripey pants don't always work that well same for those girly kind of tops which cover the lower part of the chest. Above that you would expect breasts to show up. So I'm not sure if that's a thing that works for men. :)



This stripey trench is actually quite lovely:




This shirt shows what I mean with putting a new spin on things:












Now this is my kind of style Love this look:




I would love to wear this coat:





Someone get me this red jacket!!!





Now I don't know about these two looks. Hit or miss? I would say more miss than hit. It doesn't work that well on guys. Leave them for the women to wear.




The mediocre:

Emanuel Ungaro - I'm not a big fan of pink and some of his looks are way too pink. I'm not a big fan of the pink white combination either. I do not like his full neck covering scarves. Some of his looks are extremely nice though. Those happen to be showing the more darker pieces. So I guess I would say he'd better stick to black and drop the pink/white. So overall some things are very good, but there's just too much within this collection I do not like. But here are some of the looks I do like:





These two are simple yet chique:









This one is really really nice:



Stephan Schneider - Guess he's still a young and new designer 'cause he didn't get to show many looks. So I'm not sure what to think. I don't like his fruit prints though. They aren't really my thing. Don't always like the thin scarves. This time I didn't like them either. But these two looks I present here are okay, especially what is shown in the second picture.




All images from WWD.com