Crystal Castles weekend: Exoskeleton

The Crystal Castles weekend was a bit short-changing, so here's a bonus weekend day, in mid-week. First up, Exoskeleton on-stage at the Melkweg:



[Part of Crystal Castles weekend]

Argos breaks back for art

Ouch. Eddie Argos is on the strong painkillers and (probably) sleeping on a bit of board after throwing his back out in Amsterdam:

"We were in Amsterdam and I completely collapsed in a restaurant. I was carried out crying," Argos said.

Actually, something similar to that once happened to me in Amsterdam, although I wound up going down a metal spiral staircase backwards. But for Eddie, this was the after-effects of dancing, not spendingtoolongdrinkinghotchocolate:

"The doctor said anything can bring it on--stress or unusual movements. And I said, 'Like skipping with a microphone lead on stage? Would that have done it? Is that an unusual movement?' I was just showing off a bit on stage."

I like the idea of the doctor going to pull out a medical journal and checking before confirming that, yes, skipping with a lead on stage is an unusual movement.

Get well soon, Eddie.

Gang Gang gone: Dance cancel tour

Gang Gang Dance have had to axe their entire European tour after fire destroyed all their kit:

hello all......very sad news from GGD camp today. We are in Amsterdam after having played the first of what was meant to be 14 shows in Europe and the UK. Last nights show was really great and a big thank you to everyone that came out for it....we had a blast, but unfortunately our morning was a bit tragic. We stored our gear in the club last night and when we arrived there today to pick it up and head off to Brussels for tonights show, we were informed that an electrical fire had occurred in the very room where our stuff was stashed. We didnt really know the scope of how bad the fire was until we arrived on the scene to find every piece of equipment we own scattered out in the parking lot...melted, charred, and still smoldering. Most of our gear is way beyond repair and the small amount of stuff that looks as if it wasnt physically destroyed by the fire itself has all been doused by the firehoses. So we have been left with synths that are melted, a charred guitar, cases full of wet pedals and cables, drums that are nothing but the metal rims, amps that look as if they've been doused in tar...the list goes on. It is really devastating for us as our equipment is very specific and without it we cant do much of anything. Most of our memory cards for our samplers melted so we've lost a bunch of jams that we were really looking forward to playing for you all. While we did entertain the thought of just renting or borrowing a bunch of random gear and somehow continuing the tour and just improvising every night, it just doesn't seem like its going to work out. While it would be fun and we'd love to stick this out for everyone that was excited to see us, we feel like we came to perform a certain set of songs and if we cant do that then its probably best to just come back again when we have the necessary gear to do so. On top of that we are stuck here in Amsterdam until we are able to meet with the insurance company that is dealing with the fire, if we were to leave then we would risk losing out on the compensation that will be necessary for us to build our equipment back up.

As i said its all really devastating and we wish nothing more then to be in Brussels tonight (we were super excited about that show!) and to be able to continue on with our tour, but there is really no way for that to happen given the circumstances.
We are hoping to come back asap and make up for all this and we really want to thank everyone who bought tickets and everyone who was planning on coming out to the shows on this tour. It looked as if it was going to be one of our best yet thanks to y'all.......

See you when the smoke clears. peace and respect

Terrible news for the band, and their fans, although some might say that if you've got to be stuck somewhere, better Amsterdam than some other places.

1988 Festive Fifty Weekend: Number six

And this, of course, is why all right thinking people were giddy with over-excitement when they returned. My Bloody Valentine's You Made Me Realise. This, live, from Amsterdam in 1988:



Buy: Remastered vinyl version of Isn't Anything

[Part of the 1988 Festive Fifty Weekend]

Dogg and Willie Nelson

Snoop was joined on stage at the Melkweg by Willie Nelson:



First they did My Medicine...



... and then they did Super Man.

Robbie Williams is not reliably represented by RSS

Our eyebrows shot off our face when we got this through our RSS feeds this morning:

Robbie Williams gets hairy
from 3AM Girls
Grungey singer takes a trip to Amsterdam with mystery brunette - and new beard.

The story confirms that they're just talking about 'a grim facial growth'.

The pair - Williams and brunette, not Williams and beard - were enjoying the Dutch capital, home of the Rembrandthuis, site of Anne Frank's House and the wonderful collection of art in the Rijksmuseum. Or, as the 3AM Girls would have it:

the notorious sex and drugs capital of Europe.

Someone save Matt Willis from David Gest

You'd have thought that Matt Willis, who we had to go and remind ourselves from our notes, was once in Busted, would be delighted with the chance to appear on television. After all, he was so desperate for people to like him he went on that programme where people put scorpions down their trousers and eat kangaroo testicles and chat to Ant and Dec.

However, it seems even fame-monkey Matt has his limits, and he's upset that ITV is using him as Benny The Ball to David Gest's Top Cat in This Is David Gest:

“I’m dreading seeing David’s show, because he’d ring me up and go, ‘Matt, I never see you, come over, I’m so lonely. Come and see me goddammit’.
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“I turn up at his hotel and there’s a camera crew on me! He just doesn’t want to be on his own on camera, so he has me as his little sidekick to bully.

“It annoyed me a few times, bless him.”

Don't worry, Matt. Nobody's watching the programme anyway. And, if it bothers you that much, you could just refuse permission for them to use the footage.

Now, I hear David yanking on your chain. Go, dance for the cameras, reality TV monkey.

But not before we've considered Matt's world view. He's thinking about a trip abroad, but:

"There’s no point [me] going to Amsterdam as I don’t smoke weed anymore!”

Yes. Because it's not like there's anything to Amsterdam than coffee shops selling dope, is there? There's not the place where Rembrandt worked, or the Anne Frank House, or a gallery offering a chance to see the astonishing The Milkmaid; or a place offering the largest collection of VanGoghs in one place. Or the Melkweg, or the canals, or...