The Pills Won't Help You Now

Was the name of The Chemical Brothers' set last night.

And oh what a night!!

We drove up to London yesterday afternoon and got to Mum's at about 16:00. Me and Kelly had loads of Arabic food (Dolma, which I hate but Kelly likes, and some other thingies) and then we headed off to Brixton at about 18:30.

See, I had looked at the Brixton Academy's webpage and it said that the Chemical Brothers will be on stage from 21:30 to 23:30, and the gig starts at 20:00 (DJ and Special Guests first).

We got to Brixton on the underground, and a few minutes away from the station was The Brixton Academy. This place was a posh cinema a long time ago, but has now became an internationally acclaimed venue for all things live. What makes it very unique is that the standing floor is sloped, meaning that the people in front of you don't obstruct your view, hence giving everyone a great view!

Anyhow, we got to the doors and found the place closed! On the door was a notice with the schedule on it: Doors Open 20:00, DJ till 21:30, Simian Mobile Disco (guests) till 22:15, DJ again till 23:00, then finally The Chemical Brothers set from 23:00 till 01:00!!!

So we were there at about 18:45, more than four hours before The Chems were live! We sat in a bar called Backstage and had a drink, until it was 20:00 and the doors opened.

After a boring DJ and a semi-OK SMD set, The Chemical Brothers finally came live! There were loads of people standing and also in the seats upstairs, but it wasn't too cramped or hot, and we we were in a good central location seeing the whole stage.

The set was AMAZING! Other than the fact that there were tons of electronic devices and keyboards and things that flashed in the dark and HUGE speakers, the brothers played some of their all-time favourites, all with a bit of remixing, and all very very loud! There were times when they were transitioning between songs with some weird noises and sounds which were a bit uncomfortable, but that's a small niggle.

They kick started it all with Galvanise, and went on from there to things like Do It Again, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Under The Influence, Star Guitar, and the excellent Block Rockin' Beats!

Best of all though, they played a favourite favourite track of mine, Surface to Air (see here), and also 2 great tracks from their latest album (We Are The Night), the brilliant Saturate and the even better Das Spiegel. I was jumping up and down with delight when that last one came on!

There were loads more songs, all of which were blended in amazingly and were great to watch live. They ended it all with The Sunshine Underground, their epic (and one of their best) long track from Surrender. It is a great song, with complex layers and very anthemic, but live it wasn't as good as I had hoped, mainly because the loud bass masked the subtle and intricate details of the rest of the track. Still, it was a treat to end with.

Being a fan for so long and seeing them live was a great experience, they really can put up a great show!

Finally, the best thing about the whole set was the screen. Behind all the instruments was a kind of see through screen. When it wasn't displaying anything it looked like horizontal bars, behind which you can see lights and things. But it also was a screen, capable of at least 256 colour images, including full sized movies! It was used to awesome effect, and the fact that you could see through it made some scenes look beautifully deep and layered. They used the screen for every single song, and it added to an already electric atmosphere!

We left when the set was done at about 01:00. There was an official merchandise stall from which I bought the above T-shirt. We took a cab back to my mum's flat where the car was parked, and drove back all the way to Ipswich, getting back to a very welcoming bed at 03:30.

A great show. One side effect though is that I can't hear stereo any more, my left ear has gone on strike. Brilliant!