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| Info | Setlist | ||||||||||
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01. Intro - Brennið Þið Vitar 02. Earth Intruders 03. Hunter 04. Immature 05. Hope 06. The Pleasure Is All Mine 07. Dull Flame Of Desire 08. Pagan Poetry 09. Vertebrae By Vertebrae 10. Desired Constellation 11. Army Of Me 12. I Miss You 13. Who Is It 14. Cover Me 15. Wanderlust 16. Hyperballad 17. Pluto encore 18. Jóga 19. Declare Independence |
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| Pictures (email) Observe that there usually is a NO camera policy at these concerts. | |||||||||||
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| Reviews |
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| http://www.last.fm/event/418616/reviews Taking the seats out downstairs at Hammersmith Apollo is a great idea, improved the atmosphere no end. I think I was one of the people who didn’t know what to make of Leila (the support act). I didn't hear any booing (see other posts), which would have been over the top, but I just felt she fell between two stools - either a straight DJ set or a full on glitchy assault would have been fine, but she stuck somewhere in between. One of Bjork’s biggest strengths has always been her good sense in picking brilliant collaborators and so as well as Toumani Diabaté and Antony coming on for their guest spots, there has to be a shout out for a backing band that comprises Mark Bell, Chris Corsano, Damien Taylor and Jonas Sen all of whom have serious previous form (and lived up to it tonight). It was great that Bjork played stuff from her entire solo career – and with equal enthusiasm for all. It probably helps that Volta has been out long enough to feel well established too. Too many acts trot out the oldies as if it’s a chore (or do a Dylan and rearrange them beyond recognition). The special effects and costumes were brilliant (and totally in character with the music). I particularly liked the streamers shooting out of Bjork’s sleeve in Hunter and the amazing sparkly confetti shower during Declare Independence. The dress for the evening was a puffy rainbow number. Overall, a really uplifting gig (I didn't witness any of the heavy-handed security reported elsewhere). /Thelonious9 - 3864 |
| Bjork, Hammersmith Apollo, 17/04/08 Another show, another photo of a bridge; this time the impressive spine of the Hammersmith flyover. I bought Monkeyman a pair of tickets to see Bjork in the Apollo for Christmas. I’d have been a bit gutted if I wasn’t invited along, especially in hindsight: imagine if I had to put up with Monkeyman going on and on about how brilliant it all was, and how beautiful she looked and how there were these people with these funny clothes and blah blah blah. I would have had no option but to run outside screaming, and to try to set fire to myself; although I would have failed due being sodden through with tears. Leila Arab had the unenviable support slot, but she started – in my view, and only in my view it seemed – pretty promisingly. She dug some scratchy old records out of her bag, and commenced a neat Philip Jeck-like set, all crackle and ghostly voices, building to a pleasingly abrasive mix of frequencies. As I said, others didn’t agree; they booed, she gave them the finger, they threw stuff, and she gave in and played some records they knew – Bowie, Snoop Dogg, The Stooges. What a waste, not least as we didn’t get to hear very much from her forthcoming album Blood Looms and Blooms. She fell flat on her face too as she tried to exit, and then they put on what sounded like a Sublime Frequencies compilation, which seemed to calm the situation amazingly quickly. Have they tried this in Darfur? Bjork bounded on stage wearing a rainbow and a spectacular hairpiece amongst an entourage of Icelandic flag-waving musicians, and with flames shooting up from the corners of stage they began the show with a raucous “Earth Intruders”. Much of the set that followed was to be drawn from Volta and, more surprisingly, Homogenic. Maybe the Medulla and Vespertine songs were felt to be too “small” for this big show, and Post and Debut (from which she played nothing, no “Human Behaviour”, no “Anchor Song”, no “Venus As A Boy”, no “Play Dead”, gaaaah!) perhaps belong to another world by now. I’ll post the set list in the comments below to avoid spoiling it too much for anyone going on Sunday. Or maybe it was the presence of Mark Bell on the Powerbook which tilted it in favour of these works. He was the one after all who fashioned the skittery undercarriage of “Joga”, and the crunchy matrices of “Pluto”, the latter of which had the brass section slam dancing stage front. Power Brass Wonder Brass, as I think now know they were called, did a fine job, particularly when refitting the ravishing “Bachelorette” to run without strings. I did feel a little sorry for Chris Corsano on drums (that will be the great Chris Corsano, the same Chris Corsano who we remember facing athletically off against the likes of Noah Howard, Keiji Haino and Thurston Moore), who did his best to wriggle some space for himself amongst the hullabaloo, trying to play some rhythms that didn’t need to be played on the likes of “Pagan Poetry”. However, for most of the show, having him up back was like using a Ferrari to drive to the shops for a pint of milk and some batteries. And as if the stage wasn’t packed enough already, we got Toumani Diabate on fleetingly to play some joyfully beguiling kora on “Hope” and a shy-looking, shabbily-clad Antony to provide some spine-tingling Simone-like vocals on a superb, slow-burning “Dull Flame Of Desire”- welcome, both, but how I wish they had managed to fit in some solo shows on this tour. Bjork herself was on giddy form, leaping cat-like around the stage. In fact during a thoroughly unexpected “Cover Me” I think she may even have pretended to be an animal, fingers up to her cheeks like whiskers, sniffing and scratching and all a- scamper. She truly is a vocal tardis; I can’t imagine where those huge lungs fit inside that tiny frame – the huge, hollered climax to “Pagan Poetry” in particular nearly blew me to the rafters. The dying screams of the now thoroughly detibetted “Declare Independence” hung in the air long after this sparkling artist had declared the evening over, and probably long after the last piece of sparkling tickertape that littered the stage by the end had been swept away. (Oh and a special word of thanks to the goons down the front who spent the entire show standing on the barricades down the front shining torches into the crowd trying to stop us taking a couple of photos: we spent money to see Bjork, not your repulsive sweat-soaked bellies. Get a job you like, you cretins, or at very least one you are good at). /mapsadaisical - 3863 |
| Wow. Björk. Amazing show. I showed up at the Hammersmith Apollo in time for the opening act, Iranian electronica twiddler Leila (aka Leila Arab). I liked her 35-minute non-stop set. It was equal parts glitchy noise and records, mixing bleeps with Bowie and the Stooges and Snoop Dogg. I think some of the crowd wasn’t sure what to make of it, and there were a few uninteresting bits, but I liked her. Soon main event showed up, though: Björk (aka Björk Guðmundsdóttir). I’ve been a fan since her days in The Sugarcubes, so this was a big night for me. Unsurprisingly for some so renowned in the music biz, she delivered. It’s pretty clichéd to refer to Björk as pixieish, but that’s precisely what she is: tiny, bedecked in strange and colourful costumes, and dancing around like a bouncy sprite. She is quite other-worldly. But that voice. There are a lot of things that make Björk unique, but her voice is the standout for me. From soft whispers to the sort of voicebox-rattling growl that can’t possibly come from a frame so small, she can belt a tune. And her songs seem to have everything in them: dance music, pop, world beats, jazz, industrial sounds. Her band was a drummer, a keyboardist, two guys on electronic gizmos (video of which were sent to stage screen, and most of which I’ve never seen the like - the futuristic disc of glowing light triggered by touch flipped me out), and a 10-piece singing female brass band. They played lots of of recent album Volta, which is a good piece of work. Although some tracks - “Vertebrae By Vertebrae”, for instance - were a little challenging for a live audience most - like opener “Earth Intruders” were exciting and worked well. Even better, she brought along live some of the guests that played on the album. Toumani Diabaté come on and played his kora for “Hope” (which made it much better than it would have been without him). Antony (aka Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons) also come out and duetted with her for a long, slow, gorgeous rendition of “The Dull Flame of Desire”. Björk did some older songs too, of course, including “Cover Me”, a roaring laser-driven “Army of Me”, and one of the most beautiful songs ever written, “Hyper-Ballad” (which morphed into a dance rave at the end) from Post. From Homogenic we got “Hunter”, “Jöga”, a lush “Bachelorette”, and an aggressive headbanging “Pluto”. We even got “Who Is It” from the vocal experiment album Medúlla. Volta’s “Declare Independence” was the big closer. Every song had something going on. Every song had Björk bouncing and dancing and acting like she’s telling us about a magical world we’re too dumb to see, but that we enjoy hearing about. No one else is like her. /tdickin - 3862 |
| Who Is It Desired Constellation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlW4GbbSKtg Earth Intruders - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoGnfTd2BrY Pluto - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rgtOdgTdZM Hunter - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n_wkF13VZg Hyperballad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGgYSuU1gXc Army Of Me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm7JtneV6xc Bachelorette - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTYzPynldyI Declare Independence - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZzN9xLZ70Y Waiting for encore - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awWgXfMXLvM /YouTube - 3853 |
| This was my first Volta concert since I saw the opening gig in Iceland almost exactly one year ago, and how this act has evolved! They were just a skeleton back then, but now they are a full-blooded beast with gorgeous suits, lazers, confetti cannons, flags, and a whole lot of new confidence and courage! Björk came onstage wearing the big rainbowcoloured "peruvian folksuit" as it has been called, and on top of her head was a huge owl/bat-like creation made of hair! I wasn't up front because I was quite exhausted and had a pretty good view from a few meters back due to the leaning floor that brought you higher up the further back you were, but I would have loved to have a closer look at that creation. She looked 20 years younger, as she sometimes magically does. What really made the night was that she seemed to be in great spirits - she was laughing, dancing and making faces and gesturing to the audience. During Cover Me she put her hands to her face like claws and growled at the front row. During one song she spun and spun and spun around and let her dress flow out like a big parasol. In Hyperballad, she put her hand to her ear and urged everone to sing the song for her. When she introduced Toumani, she exclaimed "We have a guest tonight!!!" and then added in a mischievous tone as she turned to put her mic back on the stand, "...you lucky bastards!". How impressive are Toumani's fingers on the Kora!!! It felt like he was being fast-forwarded at times. Lucky bastards indeed. Shortly, Antony was also introduced, and it was of course also beyond glorious - I'm so so so fond of him, and so blessed to have had the fortune to have him appear at both the Volta gigs I have seen - last time in Iceland I even got some time backstage with him when he wandered into the dressingroom where I was, even offering me some sweet words. I couldn't blush more. So many songs made me just cry from how beautiful and overwhelming it was. Others took me from a state of exhaustion and achey feet to a stomping, jumping frenzy when we collectively threw our fists in the air and shouted. I just wish the venue hadn't been so unfit for this concert, mainly that the stage was so low that even if I stood at an elevated spot, I only saw her waist up, and didn't see the screen that showed the Reactable at all but also because it got unbearably HOT real soon and the audio wasn't super either (I would actually choose to attend a gig at any other venue than the Apollo if I had the choice in the future), and that the guards hadn't been so aggressive - they disturbed the experience also for those who didn't use cameras. I was "off duty" and didn't bring my gear, it was great to just immerse into the music, but the flashlights were a hundred times more disturbing than any camera LCD would have ever been (in fact the two girls infront of me took pics during several songs but they didn't really get in anyone's way nor use flash so I didn't mind at all). My only regret is not being able to stay to see it again on sunday (despite the terrible venue) - it breaks my heart to know that I missed out on seeing Einar on stage, and also hearing TOAH which is one of my favourites. I hope I will be able to catch this tour at least once more before it's over & out. A honorable mention goes to the lazer-patterns - they mesmerized more than a few people in the area where I stood: /lina - 3852 |
| fantastic gig. thank you!! (and also) the venue have nothing to do with the way security staff carry out their jobs and it is the artist's policy to have no photography, not the venue's. the security staff are a seperate company. if anything, it is the request of the artist and the promoters of the event as to how security staff do their work for the evening. also, Hammersmith is a good venue acoustically, however there are a few pockets of the place that will be a little crap for sound. Hammersmith has been a great venue for years and continues to be. ta x /JOHNNYHYPER - 3851 |
| I’m an enormous Bjork fan, I count the months between her concerts and it breaks my heart to say this, but last night’s concert was a huge, bitter disappointment. I’ve seen her twice before, and this wasn’t even close to par. Not that Bjork and her fellow performers didn’t deliver – they were sensational in every way, as usual. The affection that the crowd had for her was amply evident, and deservedly so. But we were all let down in a big way by the venue. For much of the concert, the sound levels were way off, so that either we couldn’t hear Bjork’s voice, or it was distorted. As for Antony Hegarty’s appearance, he may as well not have bothered – he was completely inaudible – an absolute crime when you consider how fantastic his voice is. And then there were the flashlights… The venue doesn’t allow photography, which is something I don’t have a problem with. But their idiotic solution is to employ gorillas at the front of the crowd who shine powerful flashlights into the lens of any camera that gets raised. Genius. Trouble is, that these flashlights are indiscriminate, so if anyone within ten metres of you is attempting to take a snap, you get blinded by these lights along with them. So last night, every two minutes, I was shielding my eyes. And so were the people around me. There were a LOT of complaints. Great pity. I’d buy tickets for Bjork again tomorrow if I could. But never again at Hammersmith. /BarryS - 3847 |
| Absolutely fab gig as ever. Loved the hairdo! Yep, 'I Miss You' wasn't there, instead of it she sang 'Bachelorette' which came after 'Who Is It'. Shocked by the absence of 'Innocence'. Did anyone hear what the crowd was shouting when she was singing 'Cover Me'?? /mikkok - 3845 |
| It was great, I loved the concert. But she didn't sing I Miss You, this setlist is wrong. /habibi - 3844 |
| i will caming for this live from greece.i am love with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /ntaarruu - 3688 |
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