nialler9
Irish-based MP3 blog - Indie, Electronica, Hip-Hop - A Chronicle of Musical Delights
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The Go! Team, Cadence Weapon and the marketing sharks
Nov 22 2007
Where to start with last night’s gig? Let’s start with the positive. The Go! Team absolutely ROCKED Tripod. It was a masterclass performance from a band adept at crowd interaction with a barrage of exciting polychromatic indie pop tunes. Ninja commands the attention of the audience with her dance moves, jump rope skills, old school hip hop rhymes and call and response with an audience who gave the venue its best atmosphere I’ve witnessed since the re-opening.
Cadence Weapon arrived late after missing his flight and tried to get a crowd magnetised to the bar to join him which he did to some degree by getting into the audience and jumping around the front row. He was joined by DJ Weasel, a Canadian farmboy with some severe scratching talents. He culminated Rollie’s set with an impressive headspin before leaving the stage.
Super Extra Bonus Party had the unenviable start time of ten minutes past opening time and as a result, people were only starting to file in, gravitating towards the bar as if the dancefloor has some kind of disease. Despite a 25 minute set which was cut short by one song, the reaction they received was positive as were my accompanying visuals but I’ll get to that debacle in a little bit.
OK, so now we get to the negatives. I’m not an overly cynical person but a few things last night pissed me the fuck off last night. Let’s start with the so far unmentioned gig sponsor Nokia and their Trends Lab idea which their manifesto claims as “a series of experiments designed to support your creativity… a physical and virtual hub of mobility experiences. Nokia wants to enable creative thinkers to push the boundaries of how they use mobility in their creative process.” OK, so basically they want to sell the idea of their phones to you at gigs. Bluetooth! WOW! Shitty short-range radio frequency technology!
In fairness, the room wasn’t as branded as the Electric Picnic stage they ran but there were enough annoyances to warrant a bit of a bashing. Twats in boiler suits hassling everyone coming in about Trends Lab with the greeting “Join our Experiment”. They may as well have said “Join our Mobile Phone Cult, mere mortals!”. Loads of cringeworthy footage between acts consisting of bands roped into talking about how great their Nokias are and how they use it interspersed with a call to text to win a phone at the gig. Does anyone in Nokia PR/Marketing understand how annoying this is for regular Joes and Janes? Do they honestly think that people are going to walk away from the gig going “Yeh, Nokia and the Go! Team, what a great partnership. Nokia kick ass!” WHAT THE FUCK?
My biggest gripe with the sponsor of the event was a personal one as a Nokia team in charge of visuals on the night. Never before have I had to negotiate with a PROJECT MANAGER when setting up visuals. I arrived at 4.30pm and told the Nokia guys I was present and ready to setup for the show. They looked at me like I had two heads and dismissed me straight out. Come on fellahs, I want to get in the creative process and experiment with you guys!! This pony-tailed smarmite took great pleasure in telling me they couldn’t accept my video input while the project manager was upset that nobody told him I was going to be doing my thing. He was upset that Nokia would not be able to do visuals for all the acts and they were basically down to one act and all the in-between nonsense. He told me I would have to collaborate with them by using some footage of the gig people had Bluetoothed to their desk (Which I didn’t) as well as the admittedly impressive onstage Nokia phone cameras sending live feeds which I didn’t have a problem with. This was the only way I would be able to do my stuff. Smarmite even tried to get me to don one of their Nokia labcoats, the fool.
Thank god for the presence of Eoghan Kidney who was the voice of reason on the night. He was able to convince the others that it wouldn’t be a problem so I was able to do my job. Thanks to Eoghan for allievating the bullshit and helping me out. After I did the visuals for SEBP, I let Eoghan use my computer for Cadence Weapon’s set and when I returned the ponytailed smarmite chimed in with some more sound reasoning. He was trying to tell me I COULDN’T TAKE MY OWN LAPTOP. WTF? His flawless logic was that they did me a favour by letting me do my job so I had to leave my laptop there until they were ready to return it to me. What an asshole. Eoghan, yet again was the voice of reason and I took what was rightfully mine.
Another blotch the night was witnessing some rough handling on the security’s part on a few of the audience. My friend told me he witnessed a few thumps been thrown at one guy while another witnessed Rollie Pemberton get a mountain of hassle from security guards with walkie talkies when he walked off the stage to go to the dressing room because he didn’t have a wristband (He arrived late, but had just walked off the stage!). Another gig-goer jumped on the stage, danced with Ninja for a bit and then tried to get back over the barrier into the audience. He was caught on the cusp of freedom and was promptly dragged by the hair on his head out of the venue.
I’ll finish up with a few more positives. Myself and the SEBP lads introduced Rollie and his DJ Eric to a certain fine tonic wine called Buckfast. Rollie was a real nice fellah who has recently done a remix for Super Extra Bonus Party (on an upcoming Vinyl EP due out late January) and he talked about his new album “After Party Babies” (What his dad used to call him), Owen Pallet and Canadian rocket beer.
Another surprising highlight was the presence of Bob Jaroc, who was doing visuals for the Go! Team. Bob is a bit of a hero in my books having produced a great collaborative DVD with Plaid called Greedy Baby. I was delighted to find that was an agreeable, approachable, likeable bloke who was very encouraging about my visuals and surprised me by knowing some of the more obscure stuff I use. If you don’t know his work, start at his website.
So musically the night was fantastic and I met a guy whose a bit of an inspiration to me. Unfortunately all the corporate, bureaucratic nonsense detracted and overshadowed the positives for once which was a great shame. Still these videos give an accurate representation of the night as I would prefer it to be remembered.
Videos
Cadence Weapon - Sharks (3:23)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGWGNlDXe8o[/youtube]
The Go! Team - Panther Dash (0:49)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK_UibZ_HDw[/youtube]
The Go! Team - Ladyflash (0:49)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah638jckM80[/youtube]
The Go! Team - Flashlight Fight (3:00)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ufKKEK53g[/youtube]
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Sorry to hear of that Nokia bollox man.
All in all was a great buzz, Lads were great, The tonic was as always Beautiful and the visuals were fucking great man. Its an integral part of the Band man
Nice one
C
1I am not surprised to be honest to read of the crap that went on with the security in there, i recently got a ticket to Animal Collective, walked up to the bouncer who decided my ticket wasnt real, as there was a coffe stain on it after a small debate they decided it was ok, but asked did i have ID having never ever been asked for ID dispite my man-boy face they wouldnt let me in, my misses brought me down my ID to which i handed the bouncers only to be told that i snatched the ticket back out of the hand of one of them and as such wouldnt be let in. I asked for manager told i was talking to the manager who then turned away and walked inside never to speak to me again. After trying to explain myself and even thou it pissed me off so fucking much, apologise for nothing, they said no way. No one would give me a name as to who to talk to and during my debate with one of the bouncers then manager then turned from venue owner to head of secrutiy to manager of the security company in mere minutes also no one had a name. After standing there for 30 minutes and refusing to move from the the venue area or as we mortals call it the public sidewalk they decided to give me my money back just so i would fuck off, was meant to complain, something i bloody hate doing as i know what its like to listen to complaints from the public, i never got round to it call it being a lazy bastard. Anyhow rant over, so it just hurts so much boohoohoo hhhhmmmmmmmm tasty salty tears. Bob Jaroc’s stuff he did with Plaid live at Temple Bar last year was mind-melting, would love to see what he does with Go! team’s music.
2Just to echo the stuff about the bouncers in Tripod being dicks, a few weeks ago I was about to leave after a gig and saw a scrawny young hipster guy being dragged out by the head. A couple of minutes later I saw him again outside. He was walking away from the bouncers when one of them ran down the road after him, knocked him to the ground from behind and knelt on his head, all in front of dozens of people. Nice.
3(1) Regarding the branding of gigs, I can live with Nokia ads on the stage over Budweiser “beers” on the tap! Man, that wine tastes foul!
(2) Am I not surprised to hear complaints about Tripod security. Based on my experiences, they have the most discourteous and overreactive small event management in the city when it comes to live music. They seem to think that it is the nightclub and people are so drunk that they will put up with this sort of behaviour from them.
I find this to be a real shame, as the venue has put on some fine gigs this year and I have honestly not seen a single jot of real trouble at any of them.
4You’re right about the positives - music was great, crowd was great, atmosphere was great, even despite the nokia spa holes. Bluetooth my face off, bluetooth my face off, aaaghhh!
5I can’t beLIEVE that smarmite wouldn’t give you back your laptop.
What.
a.
(yes I’m going to type it)
cunt.
And the bouncers were rough.
Great vids nialler.
the bouncers in there are complete cunts. two young lads got up on stage for a fleeting dance, and though the go! team were taken aback, they knew as well as everyone else that these were just 2 harmless dudes having the craic - they legged it after 10 seconds! unfortunately the bouncers didnt see it that way, and while one of the lads managed to hop back into the crowd, the other was dragged in a headlock out the door, to be further manhandled no doubt. It’s a pain in the arse if people get on stage of course, but its to be expected and never warrants this kind of tratment of a customer. The concept of normal social interaction seems completely lost on these fuckin oafs.
6and as for the nokia element, yeah the fuckin rule alright. they rock so hard. jesus christ, when will assholes like these stop trying to co-opt the live music scene to flog their shitty wares?
Go! Team were the real heroes for me. Brilliant.
Not really sure why you were surprised at this type of behaviour from corporate sponsors. Surely you know to expect it from any gig these days which comes plastered in ads. Welcome to the suck. Its been this way for years.
7Great Go! Team performance and some super scratching b4, didn;t bother me the whole Nokia thing, but I guess in a way it made it feel less like a Go Team gig…
8i was about to send you an e-mail about some fucked up “corporate bloggers”, but i’m way too pissed to be honest
hope the gig was fun - might be back soon…
- leigh
9That really sucks, Niall. Them interfering with what you were trying to do for your band is shitty.
That said, this kind of brand marketing at gigs, soul-sapping as may be, has been going on for yonks and is sadly just the way it is now, but I’ve never heard you complain about it before.
First they came for the communists…..
10I couldn’t believe how rough security were with that guy who jumped on stage. That was my second time at Tripod… the first was Feist, a pretty low-key, happy affair but with security who seemed to be gunning for the opportunity to clock someone one anyway (and when they saw a couple of us taking flash photographs, they went MENTAL). Anyway, Go! Team were frigging brilliant, and I loved their visuals. Sorry to hear the Nokia crew were such a pain in the arse though.
11Niall Im glad you’ve come out and said all this. I’ve gone to a few gigs there this year, and at every single one, either me, Lo or a mate has had at least one sort of unfortunate incident with the gorrilas on the door/the guestlist people/the gorrilas inside. They are discourteous reactionary pricks. The worst sort of old school bouncer. Laughing in people’s faces if things screw up with the tickets, shoving people along, getting physical with gig-goers and calling people the most abusive names. Add to that the ridiculous curfews, the lack of airconditioning and cynical money hoovering stunts like having people who paid to see LCD soundsystem pay an extra 14 euro to see James Murphy play the same venue. Its a deeply unpleasant venue because of all these things and its testamount to the quality of the bands who they are getting to play there that people are actually coming back after all this nonsense. Never happens in Whelans or Village. Its Bollox. Bollox, Bollox, Bollox!!!
12yeah the Go! Team were fucking awesome! I was totally blown away, wasn’t expecting it at all. GREAT gig. and Bob Jaroc’s visuals were amazing — origami, wtf
Sorry I missed SEBP though. what can I say, the opening time was really early and by the time I arrived, Cadence Weapon was on. pity, I wanted to check out yr visuals.
regarding Nokia: at least the Nokia stuff has cute girls in boiler suits giving out jelly beans in tubes, instead of forcing us to drink human urine like Bud Rising gigs do. also I have to agree — the onstage phone camera setup was really quite cool too.
13x,Sean - Of course I’m not surprised at the corporate sponsorship, but that hardly excuses it does it? Better to criticise it than be passive about it right?
Anyway it seems the real story here is the security issues which are a lot more damaging to the Pod if it is happening on a regular basis.
14Nice piece Niall, and well done on highlighting what most people involved in throwing money at these showcases seem to ignore: they’re not beneficial for the punters, the bands OR the sponsors.
15Corporate sponsorship for indie gigs hit me in the face last week. Went to see Archie Bronson Outfit, didn’t realize I had to watch an ad sponsored by CAT shoes. Annoying banners behind all the bands playing on the night, and punters were encouraged to take a CAT keyring as you left the venue.
Indie gigs featuring artists on the Domino label rarely bomb, so I don’t understand why this had to happen. Surely promoters can do without this in a city that has probably the healthiest live music scene in the world?
You are bombared with ads everywhere you go. You can’t even look down on the ground - ads are appearing on the ground you walk on. The last place I want to have to see an ad is at a gig for a band I am interested in - it should be kept for music, and for music only.
Honestly, fuck off.
16x, Niall - Yeah, better to say something. It’s been out of hand for a long time now.
I don’t think Nokia are just trying to sell phones, they’re also trying to push, leech and see how people are using them, so they can be ahead with the next new gadget or feature to sell on to the ‘yoof’.
I always liked their phones but shit like this pisses me off.
Nice to see a bit of righteous anger, Niall. Good for the soul (and the blog).
And crap bouncers can ruin a good venue.
–Sean
17if i had a euro for every time ive been pushed or shoved out of the way whilst trying to take photos in the pit in tripod…. grrrrr! Gorillas!!!!
18dude-
the question of you ‘not being able to take your laptop’ was, you can’t let someone use a piece of equipment in a show and then pull it when its being used in front of an audience. shit, i’ve been in situations where i’ve had other peoples equipment plugged into my plugboards and had to wait around till the end of the show to get them back. there was no question of saying ‘its my plugboard and i’m taking it’, causing the whole show to stop. if you set up in a professional environment, you gotta behave like a professional.
about the video connection- you didnt have any way of connecting into the setup without using our cables, of which we didnt have any spares. you turned up at the last minute saying ‘i use vga’. if eoghan hadn’t wanted to use your laptop it wouldnt have worked out at all in fact.., you turned up way too late to sort out any problems like that.
anyway I liked your visuals as it happens- for what its worth. and thanks for lended kidney your equipment,
19dude-
You really have a ponytail?
20yeah what do you have? a haircut you pay for or does your mum do it?
21I wasn’t going to plug out and leave you in the lurch. And comparing a plugboard to a laptop is not really relevant.
Maybe you should practice what you preach. I was there with enough time to simply plug in to your setup but you were not willing to listen which was why Eoghan had to do it. He behaved like a professional, courteous and helpful. Not my fault no-one told you I was going to be doing visuals too.
22Niall what difference does it make if its a plugboard or a laptop, it was being used in front of the whole audience.
I don’t call it professional to show up like, shall we say actually 30 minutes before the doors opened, and to put your laptop down in the middle of the setup we’d been preparing all day on top of eoghan’s sketchbook, saying “I’m going right here”. You didn’t have cables, you didn’t bother to find out what cables you would need, you were way too late to arrange a space to work at. If Eoghan hadn’t wanted to use your equipment we wouldn’t have spared the time to sort you out.
In any case, you may sneer at the marketing aspects of the show but you don’t seem to realise who was paying you. Ever heard of biting the hand that feeds you?
Tim (the smarmite)
oh- and as regards the pony tail, do you want me to get personal too?
23Cost of equipment, my friend.
It was 2 hours dude.
I did the show for free as part of the band. I don’t see any financial gain. I do it because I like to do it. So I shouldn’t have an opinion because they might have been paying me? Oh, OK then.
That’s your choice.
Bye
24that doesnt make a difference. you can’t pull out a part of the show just because its worth 800 euro.how much do you think professional equipment costs anyway?
No it wasn’t man
Maybe you should take that up with them, they clearly value your work a lot?
I choose to retain my dignity.
Keep up the good journalism!
Tim [the smarmite]
25Yes it is very diginified of you to send me private emails calling me ‘a loudmouth little prick who covers up his inferiority by making personal insults about people he doesn’t know, in public’.
Seriously, I’m done.
26I arrived at the venue at 5.30 to help the band set up, and Nialler was already there trying to sort out visuals. So yea, it was
27I arrived at the venue at 5.30, and Nialler was already there trying to sort out visuals. So yea, it was
28I thoroughly enjoyed what you had to show about the band and will link the post to my anarchic_universe del.icio.us network. This blog has been an amazing source for me to get updated with music that matters. Thank you.
29Do you want me to post your personal emails? Dictionary definitions and all?
30Talk about petty..I’ve nothing to hide.
In retrospect my definition of smarmy doesn’t quite fit. I should have just called you an ass and left it at that.
I’ve said all I have to say to you. Thanks for the compliments about my visuals and your apologies.
31“Till Homer’s ghost came whispering to my mind. He said: I made the Iliad from such a local row. Gods make their own importance.”
Bravo gentlemen! It was ponytails-at-dawn stuff for sure!
32Just to clear things up,
33my Ma does cut my hair but she’s a trained hairdresser and does a lovely job.
pictures???
- leigh
34Ponytails-at-dawn indeed! Cyberspat of the year goes to The Smarmite Vs The Loudmouth Little Prick! Hats off ladies and gentlemen!!
http://www.thenewsoundoftrash......ullet1.jpg
there ya go leigh!
35hot stuff indeed
36Wasn’t Tupac shot after “sonning” someone in a visuals beef?
37[...] story is that Nialler gives out about a concert and someone bites back(comment 19 onwards), when maybe they shouldn’t. Nialler’s in our [...]
38Just for the record, if any of you get assaulted by security at Tripod then stop whining about it and go and speak to a solicitor and make sure you have a couple of witnesses before you go to the Gardai. You’d be amazed how hard a judge will come down on a violent bouncer (no jokes please). I knew some of the door staff in The Pod about 11 or 12 years ago and they were some of the biggest arseholes I’ve ever met… sounds like things haven’t changed.
Also for the record - I think you’d look pretty good with a ponytail, Niall. I’m not asking you to grow one. Just think about it, eh, ‘dude’? Okay?
39I wasn’t there but I heard is was a great gig, visuals included.
Joe Ponytail sounds like a real prat.
I love internet fights.
40I’m sorry that what you wrote as an honest review of the night has been completed overshadowed by an individual’s injured pride. Perhaps Smarmite will think a little more about how he treats people in future.
Tim, your comment about payment from the band really got my goat. Where do you get off with your insinuations? Ever heard of working for love of music? It means creativity compromise isn’t compromised for the sake of a flash-git mobile.
I’m currently awaiting a responce from POD after a meaty-mitt manhandled me from the pit at Dizzee Rascal/GrooveArmada. He threw me into a group of people while I was packing up my gear and my hearing aid was smashed. POD need to pull their finger out: the complex is steadily losing its appeal to me.
Anyway, glad to hear that Cadence Weapon and Go! Team rocked your socks off. I knew it would be a fabulous show, look forward to seeing some SEBP footage from the night soon!
41I thought Rollie P was fucking awesome.
The new songs sounded class. I am trying to remember the lyric to that one he had us all singing, it went something like:
“I made a deal today…
Who’s selling real estate?!“
Agree with you Nialler about Dj Weasel! Fucking dude was awesome!
42What really irks me about “Gobshites” comment is this idea that there is a band and a visual artist works for them. Has he never come across the idea that visual is part of the band as a whole and is not just a musical experience, but more of a multimedia one??
Urghh….
- Leigh
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45holy smoke…that was like watching eastenders for a minute there! whoosh! i have to say i know a bit about Mr Redfern, he is very knowledable about visuals, and Eoghans also great at em. Bottom line is, Niall got to make his visuals, Tim and Eoghan got to make theirs– and im sure all visuals were top-end. nuff said.
46[...] has a great post up about a recent gig doing visuals for Super Extra Bonus Party, in their recent Go Team support [...]
47haha It’s all about the ponytail.
Fuck em Byrno.
Great job, end of story.
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49from what i hear,supposedly nokia have a blog up about some bands ruining their promotional night..
50i hope they can’t use whatever bollocks they got out of us to sell their wares.we weren’t asked by nokia themselves to do that gig,but of course when you are a band in our position you can rarely turn down a gig like that in terms of exposure.
backfired of course but sure thats what you get for trying to be optimistic.
still though,nice jellybeans.
Very very amusing banter!!!
51[...] http://www.nialler9.com/blog/2.....ng-sharks/ [...]
52i love internet beef.
53corporate jerkfaces, don’t know why promoters or bands would want to cosy up with them anyway.
hey Nialler, watch out for armageddon…
http://www.disobey.com/horror/.....rlock2.jpg
Personally, I have left my laptop stage from time to time at gigs myself, but then again, it’s been on a stand, plugged into DI boxes, and surrounded by other equipment/keyboards and stuff. Dismantling all that gear would totally get in the way of whoever’s up next, unless there’s space to drag the whole setup off-stage first, so I’d generally leave it up there till the end of the night. Different for visual artists though, just unplug, fold up and you’re gone. No big deal. There’s other people using your plugboard during the gig? Ok, they’re dependent on it for their performance, fair enough. Eh, you can’t take away your own laptop that no one else is actually going to be using at all? G’way and shite…
54any award ceremonies for internet fights???
55http://thedubliner.typepad.com.....inish.html
They’re taking over blogs too, now, Nialler.
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60My 2c 2 months after the fact: professional my arse. Being nice is one zillion times more important than being professional
61heurgh. i went to a Heineken green energy gig once and the disgusting free heinekin gave me a huge bout of the shits.
62i absolutely fuckin hate sponsors.
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64Snx for you job!
65It has very much helped me!