So last night, after a lovely dinner of Thai and Malaysian food at restaurant called Penang! (my husband exclaiming: 'Man! This is good!' while eating a lemon grass flavoured Crème brûlée), I took my husband to a gig at Shepherds Bush Empire for his birthday. It was a complete surprise for him because he had no idea which band he was going to see and I had only seen the band play on YouTube and so had no idea what to expect.
So no expectations. No idea. And what a surprise it was! What a great performance, what a great band and what a great night! Walk Off The Earth became famous because of one little YouTube video, a bit like Justin Bieber, but a lot nicer and more talented. The video that launched them into stardom was a recording of all the members of the band playing the same guitar and singing a cover of Gotye's Somebody I Used To Know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M
Since then they have done lots of covers and rearrangements of popular songs, but have also recorded their own album with their original songs (which a great and very lively). They play all sorts of musical instruments and constantly swap instruments during a performance, using all sorts of strange items to create percussion and it quickly became clear during the first song that they were very talented musicians.
Walk Off The Earth and their many instruments
There were lots of great fun touches, such as covering the drums (that they beat with abandon) with powdered glitter, so that with each vibration of the instrument, the air shimmered and danced around them. When they finished playing a guitar or trumpet they threw their instruments high into the air and their technical crew rushed on stage to catch them and carry them off stage. As the evening went on, the band threw their instruments higher and higher into the air so that every time a ukulele flew across the stage, the whole audience held their breath and then gasped when someone rushed forward to catch it. Cleverly they had canons either side of the stage that shot glittered paper at the singing and bouncing audience and what a reaction the huge balloons falling from the ceiling caused. The crowd bounced about pushing the balloons higher and higher into the air. And all of this was happening in Shepherds Bush Empire, which is actually quite a small theatre and so the effect was quite magical. It was very exciting and the crowd all singing together and dancing really gave my husband and I are huge buzz. Humans are naturally social animals and that much excitement and joy all experienced simultaneously by a crowd is quite contagious.
Balloons, dry ice, sparkled paper and a fierce drum beat - time to party!
Half way through the gig, the band brought on a young man who was a competition winner. They explained that he had apparently won a prize. He came on stage looking a bit shocked and accompanied by his bewildered girlfriend. 'Wow!' He exclaimed nervously, 'There are a lot of people here tonight!' The crowd roared and cheered in response. 'Sing!' someone in the crowd yelled. Then he turned towards his girlfriend and said 'There is something I want to ask you.' The crowd all gasped. 'I asked your father last week,' the young man continued, 'And he gave his permission and blessing. Jenny, would you marry me?' He took out a ring and the whole crowd went wild. 'Yes!' she cried and nodded emphatically and began to cry and they embraced for a passionate kiss. The whole band jumped up and down on stage and Shepherds Bush Empire was filled with so much sound (laughing, shouting, clapping and cheering) that it felt like we were flying off the earth inside a jumbo jet engine.
After the last song, which was titled: Summer Vibe, during which the whole crowd sang along and wished for summer (something us British desperately need - especially clear skies after all the pollution from Europe and the sand from the Sahara choking up the city this week), the band asked for a photo to be taken with the audience and below was the result:
We are way up on the back level somewhere with our hands up
We all spilled out into the street afterwards and people were so excited that they danced and sang across Shepherds Bush Green towards the Tube station. Right in the middle of the Green are two weird sculptures probably put up by the council called Gaoloid sculptures (whatever that means).
The adult playground that is actually just pretentious public art
On the other side of the sculptures, across the park, is an actual playground for kids, so I think people just assumed that this might be a playground for adults. Plus the sculptures revolve when pushed by a human. They sort spin slowly. Except there are big signs everywhere telling people not to climb on them. So what happens when you mix two big revolving sculptures and a group of excited-semi-drunk-high-on-live-music adults? It was insane! One woman ran around the sculptures pushing them so they revolved faster and faster, while lots of young men (a social group that always seem to be willing to do something physically foolish), hung on for dear life and spun high into the air with their legs flailing outwards. More and more people climbed the supposedly non-climbable sculptures and it looked as if my husband was considering it, until I told him that if he did so and broke a bone, I was not going to take him to A&E. The last time my husband got drunk and did something physically foolish (bowling over enthusiastically while pissed on beer), he managed to damage his back and needed to stay home from work for almost 3 weeks. Quite reasonably, I had assumed he had learned his lesson. Guess not....
Anyway this lead my husband to the idea of creating adult playgrounds. Hey why not? Why should kids have all the fun? It is sort of true that as we grow up, we seem to forget how to play and become all serious. But we still love to climb, to spin and show me a person who does not love to sit on swing? Perhaps I should patent this idea?
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