Recently - White Lies etc

5 concerts in eight days.
Start with Soft Pack/White Lies/ Friendly Fires
The Soft Pack pka The Muslims, better than when we saw them at CMJ, decent guitar driven rhythms well received. still not my thing but WAY better than most support bands.
White Lies, wow, record label look after your band will you? Harry looked just wiped. I swear when he closed his eyes and clung to the mike stand he was praying for strength to get through the performance. The rest of the band were not as exhausted and there was an underlying feeling that the band were pulling together to do their best to hold together a lead singer exhausted and unable to hit the higher notes. The hype is starting and the silly little girls are starting to scream and harrass the band. Still the band put on a brave show and tried their hearts out winning over new fans in the hardest of circumstances.
Wearing my Mumm-Ra t-shirt, Tommy B got a kick out of seeing my support, coming over as the show finished to make contact.
Friendly Fires, such a wait, 5 months late, the four guys, including Rob lee who only plays with them live, provided a stunning show. The crowd danced like crazy starting with a momentum which caused sweat to pour off both crowd and band. Though the energy slacked slightly as the gig went on during the encore the band went into the audience causing a rapturous response.
We managed to talk to White Lies afterwards, Jack relishing the attention of the female fans but happy to turn more serious when he recognized us showing the fact that everyone is still firmly grounded. Charles was friendly and showed humor laughing about the fact they were probably not 'Indie' enough for us to go see at SXSW. We did spend a long time talking to Tommy just chatting about music and how life has been for the guys recently.
Sweet Gig, lovely chance to catch up with White Lies who prove themselves to be human, grounded and getting better as time goes on, and amazing to have the chance to catch Friendly Fires and dance like crazy at last.
BTW watch for White Lies playing House of Blues this September.