Psicle: Crystal Castles

As this blog is entitled Music Footie Cycling anything else a bonus you get all that and the bonus this time! In reverse order for the literary minded of you I'm half way through James Joyce's Ulysses in a record breaking attempt to read it on a mobile phone. Although the stream of conciousness beat writer style is said to be taken from Joyce it seems to me that Dr Seuss has a lot more to thank Joyce for. Seuss if he wrote for adults that is. Go read it. But not on a phone.

For those who may be interested, which probably means just Simon, who knows about it already, I've changed my bike's drive train recently (back and front gears and chain) and you'll all be pleased to know that after a hard slog installing the new sets (different sizes to the old) my trimming (aka tweaking) has come to fruition and my gear changes are as smooth as an Olympic luge run. Except in the wet so a bit more fiddling required. Also replaced my bike computer as some arsehole nicked the whole set whilst parked outside Balham tube. I hope whoever did it spends too much time looking at their speedometer and... well you can guess the rest. So my 20 odd mile round trip to and from work is done in more than one gear now (I was forced to just use one before the work and that kept slipping) which makes up for the fact that I've missed my weekly 5 a side fix for 3 weeks in a row. Speaking of which...

For those interested (probably just myself this time) last 5 a side missed as at the Home of Football aka Emirates Stadium aka Ashburton Grove aka The Arsenal Ground to see us beat Montpellier two nil. Me and son Jack were right behind the goal for some brilliant views of The Arsenal nearly scoring in the 1st half. And the wrong end of the ground to see our 2 goals. Ah well, even from a pitch distance away you could tell how brilliant Podolski's volley was. The French fans, pretty close to where we were, gave their all joining in the pantomime effects. Throwing back chants to the Gooners songs of Who Are Ya? and Whoooo? whenever they made a sub. 2-0 down and 10 minutes to go the French all suddenly jumped around shouting like lunatics as if they'd scored. Very weird as play was passing in mid field. First thought amongst us Gooners was they've heard a result on the radio but no, it was just them making the most of their visit to a class club as already out of the competition. We took the michael for the first couple of times they did this then for the 3rd thought what the hell and all joined in. The rest of the ground and the players must've been puzzled as suddenly the whole of the French block and the Clock End jumped about screaming in unison. Appreciating the opposing fans and their players the Clock End clapped them when they came to clap their fans in their corner. Well, it's easy to appreciate the opposition when you've beaten them. And another year in the knock out stage of the Champs League. I feel it's our year without having to worry about the one lone big name striker. And our goalie has had his share of poor performances already at the Euros in the summer. That was my view until our nil nil draw with Villa yesterday...

Speaking of large buildings after missing an all dayer gig in Leeds 2 weeks ago due to a serious case of Spanish (Man) Flu I was really looking forward to Crystal Castles. Going along with Debbie, Simon and Jules and after moaning at the latter two to get there in time for the support was very disappointed to find out that Bo Ningen (hard core Japanese band) had dropped out and replaced with DJ Crimes. Swift visit to bar for a drink each and 2 for the cold water swimmer we along with everyone else get warmed up by Crimes (2 of them) with a heady mix of dance both hard and anthemic bringing the temperature up nicely before the main act. In retrospect probably went down better with most of the crowd than Bo N would've. Jules' first time at the Brixton Academy and it's always nice to see the big smile of someone seeing it for the first time. Such a great place. After a drinks ordering mix up between me and Simon we all have 2 each so greet Deb's friend Zayn and her bloke Alan with a cider in one hand and bitter in another. Must think I'm a very indecisive heavy drinker. Then Crystal Castles come on. First couple of numbers are pretty full on white noise and screeching vocals. To be honest the sound is not good which for the Academy is very unusual. I'm worried it'll be like the last time I saw them at the Park at Pilton when the vocals kept on cutting out. Thankfully the sound righted itself and we were treated to a storming set ranging from hard electronic verging on thrash through dance rave jump up hands in the air with some decidedly funk inspired rhythms thrown into the mix. That's what my feet were telling me anyway and they never lie on the dancefloor (in any sense). The singer was either crouching in the shadows or wading out into and over the audience and gave a pretty full on performance. You know I wouldn't bore you with set lists even if I could recognise or remember them - some of the tunes were Ah, so Crystals do that one and others I knew well. If you know them or not they're highly recommended and hoping they'll grace Glasto again next year. We say our farewells to lovely Zayn and Alan the former having bent my ear about the wonders of Twin Shadow and given both Ramsay and Olly also like him I promise to give him another chance. Lucky him! Debs and I mount our respective steel and aluminium steeds and peddle off to the Queens Head where Simon and Jules have wandered off to. Reviewing the gig whilst Simon and Debs enjoyed they missed guitars (CC's are keyboards drum and vocals) whilst Jules and I concur it was a great set. Luckily for the 2 indie kids the band at the QH is 3 guitarists although playing standard rock seeping at times into lates 70s new wave but not quite reaching indie times. A lot dancing in the small pub but after the Castles it's like watching a game at Ashburton Grove then going on to Loftus Road (as well as a grubby club who inhabit the bottom of the table they've just appointed, appropriately, grubby Harry as manager - a far cry from England hey). Sorry, ranting. So I decline to dance further and after a brief chat to mate Carl who we bump into and clapping the band off stage Debs and I cycle off home in a refreshing light rain shower to see how the place looks after a night of kids only. Surprisingly tidy really.

Sunday morning feel a little delicate but blow cobwebs away lumping firewood through the flat into the garden. Thanks Simon. A great night out and must do it all again soon. And you lucky reader(s) got the full monty from bonus cycle football music and all the way back again. As you've been so good reading this far some pics - but need to sort my phone camera out as even less focussed than I am: