Excited about Metallica

I got my tickets for Metallica in the mail yesterday and it dawned on me that it's less than a month until the gig. I'm excited. The last time I went to see Metallica was the release concert for Death Magnetic in London in September. They were amazing at the release concert and I hope they will be awesome at the upcoming gig too.

They played another concert at the O2 Arena in London recently. I found a video from it, a teaser for what you can expect if you're going to see them on their current world tour. The video is of the song One.

I hope you like the video. If you're going to see them soon, I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I do.

Chris Cornell played in London last night

I ended up going to see Chris Cornell last night at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.

A friend and I got some cheap tickets at the last minute and I thought it was too good of an opportunity to miss.

Chris Cornell started the gig with a couple of new songs and there were some troubles with the sound in the beginning. Throughout the gig, he sang songs from Soundgarden, Audioslave, songs from his solo albums and some of his new material.
The crowd was definitely into his earlier material. Songs like Spoonman and Be Yourself got a great response from the audience.

Chris Cornell has got a great stage presence and a great voice. The energy is high, so it's nice when he changes pace and plays some songs on an acoustic guitar. The band he has with him consists of awesome musicians. The drummer especially impressed me. I catch myself paying more attention to him during one song than Chris Cornell, I thought he was that good.

The downside about the concert was that his new songs stands out, and not in a good way. Chris Cornell has recently taken his new music on a new direction and his latest album was produced by Timbaland. Not that trying something new is bad, but the songs don't fit with the older tunes in a live setting.

The audience doesn't seem to enjoy the new music as much either. If it's just because the songs aren't well known to most people yet, or if it's because they don't like it, I have yet to find out.

For more pictures from the gig, check out the slideshow.

A Chris Cornell gig is like when you have an old cardigan you love and then you buy a new one that's exactly the same, but it's just not that comfortable. A Chris Cornell gig for me would be wearing both of those cardigans at the same time.

Thomas Dybdahl will be playing in London

I found out today that one of my favourite Norwegian musicians, Thomas Dybdahl is playing at Borderline in London in May.

Of course, I rushed to the ticket website and typed in my details as fast as I could when I found out. I think my keyboard got a little confused by the sudden change of pace. I definitely didn't want to miss out on this one.

I have seen the band Thomas Dybdahl plays with, The National Bank, before, but never had the opportunity to see him play solo. I guess I had to go to London to experience him live.

Here is a little video featuring a song he most likely will be playing when he enters the stage in London.


I hope you like it. From Grace is one of my favourite Thomas Dybdahl songs.

Rachel Yamagata at Water Rats

I was a millimeter from not going to the Rachael Yamagata gig last night because of a throbbing headache. The great memories from the last time I went to the Monto Water Rats to see Jackson United, persuaded me otherwise. I'm glad I went.

Rachael Yamagata has a unique ability to communicate her music. During the ballads, the only sound filling the room was her voice and the piano or the guitar. An intimate venue like Monto Water Rats makes her music come to its right.

The audience was so into it, that it proved to be comedy gold when a bottle fell to the floor and broke the mood for a split second.

When talking about the male musicians in her band, she said "They play chick music." Maybe her music is chick music, but I saw just as many men as women in the audience last night.

Rachael Yamagata has a beautiful voice that suits both the ballads and the uptempo songs. One of the highlights for me was Be Be Your Love. Some of the songs from her upcoming album were also played. If those songs are anything to judge the new album by, I'd say it sounds promising.

At the end of the night my headache was played away by Rachael Yamagata and replaced by a content feeling that I had attended another good gig.

A Rachael Yamagata gig fits like a comfy hoodie that you would very much like to wear on a relaxing night.

I danced to Alkaline Trio at Koko

Broadway Calls was the first band to enter the stage at Koko last night. They got a good response form the crowd.

The Audition, the next support band, seemed to have a love-hate relationship with the crowd. Some people jumped around while singing all their songs. Others were not pleased, booed the band and made remarks to the band about going to a place well known for being extremely hot.

While standing squeezed in between people, I heard people talking about that the band had actually had been booed off stage the night before. The singer had apparently thrown a hissy fit on stage after that.

Next up was Alkaline Trio, headliner for the night. They went on stage with high energy and played a mixture of new and old songs. Calling all Skeletons, a song off their latest album Agony and Irony was the song chosen to kick the show off.

From the fire of the audience, it's clear that Trio has quite a few hardcore fans in the audience. A lot of people know every word to every song and I spotted at least to men with Alkaline Trio tattoos.

Among my personal favourites, were I Found Away, This Could Be Love and Help Me. They all made me dance, sing and bang my head to the beat.

Turns out a t-shirt soaked with sweat is a good fit for me.

Alkaline Trio: a postboarder's perspective

The Alkaline Trio UK forum is a postboard for old, new Alkaline Trio fans and people who are there just from habit. I had a chat with them to find out what kind of music they're into and what they like about Trio.

"We're all really into mid 90s dance music and Chris de Bugger," one of them jokingly told me.
"Aqua all the way," another poster added.

Most of the people I talked to on the Alkaline Trio postboard listen to rock, metal and indie. Among the bands they mentioned that they like are Tellison, Brand New, Bon Iver, The Mars Volta, Funeral For A Friend and Enter Shaikari.

A few of the posters have seen the band several times, up to 20. Among the favourite Trio gigs they have been to are the Camden Barfly gig and the concert at London Astoria in 2005. I doubt I will ever get to go to 20 Alkaline Trio gigs, but hopefully the one I'm going to will be equally good as the other ones.

"I always have an amazing time at Trio gigs- I get sweaty like you wouldn't believe and I sing my little heart out," a poster explained to me, a newbie to Alkaline.

"I saw them in 05 at the Astoria, I was so soaked in sweat," another poster added.

Some of the posters will probably be at the gig at Koko tonight too, singing their hearts out and being soaked in sweat.

Next up: Alkaline Trio

Alkaline Trio is a punk rock band from Chicago, consisting of Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano and Derek Grant.

The band released their first album in 1998. After that further four albums were released before their album debut for a major label in the summer of 2008, Agony and Irony.

Agony and Irony has a heavy theme of duality, such as light and dark. The song, Help Me was chosen as their first single off the album. Check out Help me in the video.

Since the beginning of February, Alkaline Trio has been touring the UK and they will end their tour in Britian by playing two shows at Koko in London on the 16th and 17th of February. I will be at the second gig at Koko. After leaving Britain, they have a couple of shows planned in Australia.

First artist out

The first artist I'm going to see is Ida Maria. She is a Norwegian musician from a small town called Nesna.

Nesna is as different from London as you possibly can imagine. It's town hidden by a fjord in the northern parts of Norway, close to the place where I use to spend my summer holidays. Her birthplace is part of the appeal of the gig for me, as it is seeing music from home in another country.

Ida Maria became well known in Norway when she won two national music competitions for unknown artists in 2007. After winning those competitions, she got airtime on Norwegian radio stations. Since then, her popularity has been expanded to other countries, such as the UK where she has played various festivals and concerts.

One of her most well know songs is "Oh My God".

It will be interesting to see how she is welcomed when she enters the stage at Koko.

Music project. Get on it!

Welcome to the Try On New Music Blog.

I have a project. I want to see and experience music from as many bands and artists, from as many genres and countries as I possibly can. Local or well known bands. Jazz, electro, goth, pop, metal, indie, classical, hip hop. You name it, I want to see it. In seeing the artists, I will hopefully meet a lot of people interested in music and discover the culture surrounding different bands and genres.

To experience as varied music as possible, I need YOUR help. Suggest bands or genres I can check out and I'll "try on" as many of them as I can.