It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

In honour of their absolutely amazing performance on Wednesday night today we feature The xx.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting on Wednesday but the gig way surpassed those expectations. Firstly, the Usher Hall is a great venue, a bit too posh for the likes of me but the view from the Grand Circle even off to the right hand side as we were was great looking down on the stage. I could get used to this sitting down in comfy seats at a gig, not being as young as I once was. The acoustics in the hall are also as good as I have ever heard, the sound being very loud but not distorted or muffled or anything. My only fear was that in such grand surroundings that the atmosphere would suffer. As soon as The xx took the stage it became apparent that my fears were unfounded.

First up were  2:54 who have been featured a couple of times on the blog, who for touring purposes I suppose are now a four piece and not just the two Thurlow sisters. I'm not sure if I could listen to there mix of shoegaze, goth with a hint of Garbage thrown in all night but the half hour set that they did was rather good and persuaded me to go and see them at the end of next month at Glasgow School of Art.

The xx took to the stage with Angels, the beautiful opener on the Coexist album,  from behind a semi-transparent curtain which then fell away at the start of Heart Skipped A Beat. It was obvious from then on that the gig was not going to be the hushed affair I thought it would be, as Jamie xx had ramped up the bpms on most of the tracks from the first album that were performed and there were plenty of the steel drums which seem to becoming his signature in evidence. The hour and a quarter performance went by in a flash and my highlights if I had to pick them would have to be VCR which was quite moving and also when the trio returned to the stage for the encores, Intro from the first album just seemed perfect as an opener and I think has now cleansed me of my association of that song with David Dimbleby's mug and the General Election of 2010.

The gig was also a bit of a happening, as the light show was quite spectacular what with the strobes, the dry ice, glitter and huge clear plastic X at the back of the stage.

This post was not meant to be a review of the gig but it appears to have turned into one. Unfortunately that was the last night of this UK tour but I would seriously consider going to see them live next time, if you get the chance as for me this was easily gig of the year.

Have a good weekend people.

The xx - Crystalised (Slyde remix)