The Antlers, Annandale, 10th February 2011

The 10th saw my final three of 12 bands to be seen that week. This week, I've seen (in order):

Stornoway
Local Natives
Cloud Control
Blonde Redhead
Yeasayer
Foals
Cut Copy
Ghoul
Yeasayer again
Sherlock's Daughter
The Antlers
Bear In Heaven

Sherlock's Daughter got in there as a really nice surprise. Karla and I got there at a good time, and we sat to wait for the support. I had no idea who was going to be on, not bothering to look it up and happy to see whoever played. A guy walked out and started tuning up. I thought he was familiar, but didn't think much of it. However a couple of minutes later Tanya walked out, and the pleasant surprise was complete.
They played the song with the sandpaper again, (it's so great!) but again I still don't know what it's called or anything. I was really happy to see them again.
At the end of their set I had a chat while the familiar-looking guitarist was packing up, he said they're going to be releasing an album in the next couple of months. Something to really look forward to. They still have the really excellent drummer and guitarist, but they've lost their long-haired bass player and their keyboarder. It means Tanya gets to hit some toms, though, which was enjoyable.

The Antlers were on next.
Peter's such a quiet guy, his voice reminded me of the guy from The Crayon Fields. His voice matches his music though, unlike Bear in Heaven that I'll talk about soon.
They started with Kettering, finished with Two and then Wake. Bear was stuck somewhere in the end of the middle, with Atrophy, Sylvia, and a new song called "Frexit".
My highlight was definitely Bear. It's a good song but not one of my favourites on record, but live they really gave it justice. I would pay to have that live version, along with Wake. Those two songs made the concert. Two's a great song on record, but live it was a little disappointing - they chose not to play what I think is the defining element of that song - the muted guitar riff, and so it lacked a little definition. Also they extended it and absolutely murdered my ears with reverb.
Peter seems really shy and retiring, I guess the years he made music by himself show.
Darby's sorta talkative, but they just let their music do the talking mostly.
Really good to see one of my favourite bands in the flesh, makes them seem much more real. Karla asked for an autograph, and when Karla was really grateful that he hadn't been a dickhead about it, he looked really shocked that she was so thankful, and embarrassed that someone was paying so much attention to him.

Bear In Heaven came on to play. I wasn't that keen, sorta wanted to go home, but I tried to hang around and have a look. The lead has a really deep speaking voice but sings really high so much so that he could be mistaken for a female. We stayed for 2/3rds of the set but I wasn't much into them. Karla wasn't too, saying we could leave with about twenty minutes left.
Their music seems mostly to be about beat - it's all driven by the bass and drums. The drummer had some good patterns but their wasn't much there apart from the beat. The singer was annoying and the beat drowned out any differences in tone and pitch.

The highlight after this was getting the Lemon Lime and Bitters Slurpee from 7-11 on the way home. Man it was good.

- There's two people living in one small room
From your two half-families tearing at you
Two ways to tell the story (no one worries)
Two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry
Two people talking inside your brain
Two people believing that I'm the one to blame
Two different voices coming out of your mouth
While I'm too cold to care and too sick to shout