not paying

it's clear we live in a fickle world.

i was one of many subscribers that helped Marina Gasolina's debut solo single cause a mini stir among the blogosphere.

it just seems such a shame that those willing to give exposure to Marina's talent in an online forum weren't quite so keen to turn up in person for a free gig when Marina Gasolina hit Brixton's The Rest Is Noise last week.


the bar hosting the gig is probably best known as a place to hook up with friends and knock back a few drinks before gigs at Brixton Academy, me and my brother found ourselves stood at the bar at a little after eight, waiting to get a pint among a whole bundle of Deftones fans and then trying to find a spot to perch and wait out the inevitable exodus that would occur.

sure enough, come nine o'clock, the punters still inside the Rest Is Noise were actually outnumbered by the bar staff.


and as there didn't seem to be an awful lot of activity on the tiny stage i became a little concerned, and was uncertain if that really was Marina Gasolina sat just a couple of feet away from us.

it was Marina, although i didn't know this at the time, she certainly looked different from the last time i had seen her hanging around at an M.I.A gig at London's ICA, but all of this is regardless - it had now gone 9 and i was starting to wonder if anything was even gonna happen and started to fret that we may have had a wasted journey to the far flung end of the Victoria Line for nothing.


instead of approaching the maybe Marina i thought it best to avoid embarrassment by simply asking at the bar if the gig was still going ahead, at which point i was told that she would likely be on once it had picked up again, probably about half 10, going on 11.  something that wasn't entirely evident from the details of the event that i had previously seen that simply said the gig was 8 - 12.

a little flummoxed by this, i ordered the next two pints, hoping we could make them last otherwise this 'free' gig was going to work out pricier than i imagined since i was buying for both me and my artistic (translated as currently unemployed and broke) brother, and more importantly i actually had no intention of getting drunk at all and knocking back beers was hardly gonna achieve sobriety


so how exactly do you make a pint of beer last an hour and a half?

by providing enough of a distraction by raiding the bar's table full of games! that's how!

Connect 4, despite it's simplicity and the fact we had to substitute fingers for missing red counters if the game wore on too long, probably kept us going the longest, this may also be down to the fact that not all of the pieces for Frustation and Downfall were in the respective boxes and we wasn't sure we'd have time to conquer the world playing Risk

the only other option left was a boardgame version of Blockbusters, sadly missing it's instuctions, and since it looked like quite a complex game to set up we simply made it up as we went along, unpeturbed by a lack of guidelines and possibly bolstered by a slight boredom of Connect 4

The Bishop was just about to start his Gold Run (that i was gonna have to make the rules up for) but the game finished in a forced draw when the band started up....

this was intended to be a Marina review, getting a little sidetracked here


midway through the first track, and just outside the streets of Brixton were suddenly awash with four thousand deftones fans, with a number of passing punters steadily streaming in and refilling the empty bar and giving Marina something resembling an audience to work with

perhaps it was down to the unfamiliarity of those gathered and the fact that the bar had been practically empty just five minutes previously, but it was hardly the performance that i was hoping for given her history (and mine) with Bonde Do Role

gone were the baile funk beats and the extrovert antics, in was a style more associated with Juliette Lewis and the Licks, backed by a more traditionally accepted band of guitar, drummer and bassist, Marina fronts the band with a tearaway attitude and a punk-tinged but pleasing singing voice, something that wasn't evident from her tenure with Bonde.

talk of working with producers such as Radioclit, had my salivating, but little of the electronic influence bleeds through into the show i witnessed, although, by her own admission, Marina had managed to spill an almost full pint over her sampler just as her set began, which may have left us without an important ingredient of live proceedings.

i could hardly chalk this one up as the most inspiring performances i have ever seen, but i pin most of that on my pining for even a nod towards old school Bonde Do Role, but despite the changes, Marina is still a rather unabashed entity, willing to work for a crowd, and when she flashes a cheeky grin or swivels her hips it is like a tease of the way things use to be, and i only hope that her audiences will grow alongside her newly forged solo career.

a free download of Marina Gasolina's debut single was featured in my post from earlier this month

paying (part 1)

before i was a music journalist and a blogger, i was a music fan (as i continue to be).

thankfully, getting myself in to review gigs is an inexpensive way to indulge my passion, but last week i actually went to two gigs that i had to pay for, deciding that i couldn't just take the chance that an opportunity to get on the respective guestlists would arise.

first up was M.I.A, who i had been desperate to see touring her new album after catching her rare London appearances whenever possible over the past 6 years.

i shouldn't have bothered.

/\/\/\Y/\ is a heavy, broodding beast of an album that warrants being played at high volumes in order to become fully immersed in the dense urban beats and leftfield sound effects, and in theory should have birthed a riotous live show.

but instead i ended up shelling out for a gig where for the most part the vocals were barely audible, the setlist choice left alot to be desired, and i think M.I.A, despite being at the gig in body, was hardly there in spirit.

i don't know where to lay the blame, but things have changed, perhaps motherhood has sapped the chaotic energy she was renowned for, perhaps her family ties to the CEO of Warner Music has made life too comfortable, perhaps it was the crossover success of Paper Planes and the new fans it garnered that changed the gig's dynamics, or perhaps it was just a bad night

all i know is that it didn't feel like i was witnessing the same person on that stage that i had seen before

it would be an easy assumption to blame it on the venue, M.I.A works far better in a more intimate environment, fuelling the fantasy that you've joined her for a genre splitting underground rave as i've encountered first hand at the ICA and at Fabric, nowhere was this more obvious than with the rather desperate looking stage invasion that the security had quite clearly been briefed to allow (and even lend a hand) but simply resulted in a small gathering of people poncing around onstage which quite frankly looked embarrassing.

i still class myself as an M.I.A fan, i'll try not to let this one incident ruin the memory of far happier times we have shared together, i must admit tho, that the experiences have been tainted.

but when you are being outshone by your own faltering and awkward Ginger B-Boy, M.I.A must realise that things haven't been going great recently.

 M.I.A - Steppin Up