!>ALL 11 SONGS + 1^(

Yes I was nervous. NERVOUS!!! I know, crazy right? But just a little bit. Like when I'm about to see a new Gus Van Sant movie or, for example, I know I will be gasping for air when I will watch the new Haneke Das Weiße Band just because I know it has been received so well and it's Haneke I love him, you can always expect some controversial stuff from this guy, so I can't wait. I don't know what happened, well I do, I clearly do, but I ended up completely at the front. I didn't mean to and actually didn't even plan on standing front row. The thing is, we had to wait upstairs after already having waited outside for something like 40 minutes (!) not cool Paradiso, not cool - but anyway, considering what I got in return of course it was worth it :D So I was waiting upstairs just leaning against some doors of the entrance to the place where the gig was going to take place. I thought that the doors next to me were the once that were going to be opened but then all of a sudden the doors I was leaning against were the first to open so I was the first to go inside which is so weird 'cause you walk into this empty room and I didn't quite realize yet that this was it. In my mind I know there was some corner where I was wondering should I walk towards the stage already? Luckily my legs didn't hesitate one bit and immediately walked towards the stage. Some guy almost managed to take my place as suddenly he came running passed me and took hold of one of the best spots. But he was about the only one running so there was still enough space. All I had to do was go stand next to him to his right which was actually the best place if you wanted to stand at the front. This was center front, a spot crazy fans would die for. I have to say standing completely at the front makes me feel a little awkward and somewhat naked. It's like I don't have anyone around to hang on to. But it was okay. First up was Holly Miranda and me being the fashionisto of late, first thing I noticed were her shoes which were incredible. They were these black boots that looked totally worn out. Such gems. Like she found them somewhere hidden in a dusty corner of her grandpa's wardrobe. Lovely boots. The guy she was performing with wore some cool boots as well but they could not compare with hers. But so much for fashion, on to the music. I didn't have time to listen to Miss Miranda before the show so I had no idea what to expect. I thought she was just some singer songwriter. Girl with guitar, that kind. But I was pretty wrong. Her songs were almost all accompanied by some really nice intermezzo kind of thingy where they went heavy on guitars. A bit WOMEN-esque actually. I loved it. I was amazed. And girl has a really nice voice as well. And then, yes, it was time for the almighty The xx! Anticipation was high which I could already feel standing in line outside. I came right on time and there were already a few people waiting. Before leaving the house I already felt so excited and so fortunate as if I was this contest winner who received the opportunity to see The xx. It just felt that special knowing they're like the next big thing. I remember before Vampire Weekend was going to break out onto the scene big time there was this gig they were about to do and people on the internet were saying that the people attending the gig should really cherish it 'cause it would officially be the last time Vampire Weekend would play at such a small venue. After it didn't take long before these guys really blew up and were touring all festivals. This is what might happen with The xx. This was already the last time these kids were playing at the small space of Paradiso. Next time they will doing Paradiso's big concert hall and from that moment there's no return to small venues. So I've been one of the lucky ones to have been allowed to experience these kids in a small scale setting. Before they came on stage pieces of paper with their setlist were stuck on the floor. From where I was standing I could easily read the papers and found out they were about to play the entire album (!) plus their cover of the song Teardrops by Womack and Womack. The entire album! All 11 songs! A dream. If they ever manage to get passed recording a second album and their music will still be popular by then people will crave for them performing songs from their debut like I do with a band like Bloc Party. And here I was tonight, getting a full album showcase. And I was experiencing it as if I was standing in the middle of it all. So I was a bit paralyzed in the beginning. When you look forward to something like this ever since you realized this album of them is the next big fanatastic thing it can all be a bit overwhelming and unreal. It was so much at the same time. You hear the music you've come to be so familiar with and at the same time you watch these people play these songs live. It's revealed to you which instruments make up these songs, the chords, tabs, all that stuff. Near the end I felt I got a bit more loose, but still it was quite unreal. But I enjoyed every second. With some songs the bass was so loud, everything started to vibrate, I could feel it going through my entire body. Kind of like when I'm at home, but just a bit stronger. 'Cause I do play my music loud and it often happens that I notice some objects vibrating :) So they played every song, all of them. Their voices, just as good as on the record and even better 'cause you know, it's live! It's a shame I was feeling sooo tired. It's because I went to school in the morning, having to wake up real early and I had to wait quite a long time for the train to arrive when I went back home in the afternoon. But I'm always really tired after class. All the drawing and painting sucks the life out of me. And when I get home I'm not the type that's easily able to just take a nap. Instead I continued with the painting I started in class while listening to my music. So as I'm writing this my eye lids almost start to close. This gig was so special and amazing that I decided to take the time to take a picture! :D And it's not blurry! So I'll post it. Lots of people were taking pictures though. I guess they were all the reporter type or fanatic bloggers. The 16th of February they will be back in Paradiso, this time in the big concert hall. I just bought my ticket! :DD Yes I'm crazy for The xx, how can I not be?

My picture of The xx (or actually two out of the four members)



Tomorrow night Kings Of Convenience!!!!! Could my life be any better??!!

_$DIRTY PROJECTORS + TuNe-YaRdS @ MELKWEG^'

Before Dirty Projectors appeared on the stage the stage as well as the crowd belonged to TuNe-YaRdS. I think this is the first time I went to a show where the crowd actually got really excited during the supporting act and didn't hold back. I even felt they were more enthusiastic during TuNe-YaRdS than Dirty projectors but maybe that was just me. They're a two man band, but the focus is mainly on singer Merrill Garbus who is actually TuNe-YaRdS. I had heard her song Sunlight before which is a nice one but didn't blow me away. I haven't listened to the album yet, but I definitely will especially after last night. Though something tells me their music is much better and fun when being played live than on the record. Merrill is such a force of power. She owned the stage like this crazy woman. The crowd seemed to love it. The responses were extremely enthusiastic and Merrill even spoke of us as her dream crowd. She's amazing live. Her voice so powerful. If I didn't like Dirty Projectors' songs more I would say that TuNe-YaRdS upstaged them performing with so much energy, even though Dirty Projectors were still top quality. A great thing was that it didn't take that long at all before the Projectors came on stage after TuNe-YaRdS. Most of the time it takes quite a long time before the main act comes on after the supporting act, but Dirty projectors appeared very quickly performing the beautiful Two Doves as the first song of their set. It seemed to me though that their set was rather short or perhaps I was just enjoying it too much that I completely lost sense of time. I love Dave Longstreth's voice and on the albums the three girls accompany him beautifully and live the addition of the girls' voices works even better. Their drummer Brian McComber was amazing as well and Amber Coffman looked very pretty as did the two other girls. The best surprise came at the very end when they all of a sudden started to play Knotty Pine. I had searched for some setlists from previous concerts of them this year but I didn't see Knotty Pine being on any of them and because it's a song recorded for the album Dark Was The Night, which is a collaboration album featuring songs by various artists, I didn't expect them to play it. So when they started playing the song I filled up with excitement. It took a while before it actually sunk in that they were playing the song. It was a real surprise. It's one of my favourite songs by the band and the one which actually got me into them. I had heard about them before but they seemed a difficult band to get into. Of course when Bitte Orca received so many great reviews, many people saying that it's the best album of 2009 together with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillon, I couldn't ignore them any longer and started really listening to them and fell in love. Another song I really love is Rise Above and they played it. A shame they didn't play What I See and I don't remember them playing No Intention either, but I could be wrong about that :) Sometimes it happens that I don't really recognize songs any more at concerts and forget which one is what exactly. It happened during WOMEN :D

Here are two videos from YouTube of both Dirty Projectors and TuNe-YaRdS

Dirty Projectors


TuNe-YaRdS


Thanks to jacquestourneur

Update!

Even more Dirty Projectors videos including the Knotty Pine performance!!!

Knotty Pine


Stillness Is The Move


Temecula Sunrise


Remade Horizon

Thanks to Fransle38

&?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