zero 7 w/ jose gonzalez and sia (psapp opens) @ brixton academy

holy shit. brixton academy is r-a-d. i'd heard so many great things about it but hadn't seen a show yet. every opportunity was shot down by sold out tickets to shows i knew were kinda safe. so i read today that jose gonzalez wasn't opening for zero 7 but playing with them and i had no idea what that was going to sound like. i dragged don and helen along and the show was awesome.

again, the venue is phenomenal. it's massive. the building is kinda grand but not nearly what you'd expect. imagine walking through the doors, going through hallways, entering into a parlour where there are stairs to the upstairs (think opera house) and then stumbling into someone's backyard. except that they've turned their backyard into an indoor arena. seats upstairs, standing downstairs (but on an incline) and pretty awesome decor. anyway, yes i'm obsessing but it was really cool. oh and don't even get me started on the lighting...

psapp were quirky but fun. they dweebed it up on stage by playing as many instruments as possible to get everyone's attention but after song 2, i realised it was a decent show. they were definitely stoked to be playing at the brixton academy and their energy was contagious - good stuff. bonus: the obsession with cats materialised in the throwing of little toys to the audience. a few condoms were distributed as well. yay for safe sex.

zero 7 came out with very little time between and, i thought, divided the stage time quite nicely between sia, jose gonzalez and their own stuff. sia looks quite small on stage and when talking sounds even smaller but as soon as she starts singing, it's like her lungs are twice the size and her sound fills the room. she is amazing. jose gonzalez, or the gonz (thanks pitchfork) was equally amazing but in his own, quiet swedish way. it was all just a nice welcome to live music in london.

so there it is. good night out in brixton. pictures from other adventures to come soon.