Despite being under the weather this week, I still managed to drag myself out of the house and see The Delays perform at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Tuesday night. The best thing about seeing them at Shepherd’s Bush Empire is that it’s a smoke-free zone, and frankly I didn’t need any additional help coughing on my own.

I have always enjoyed listening to The Delays after hearing their first album, Faded Seaside Glamour, a great example of the hauntingly different indie-pop-rock tunes they can produce. They apparently had a fair amount of airplay in the UK, but they also got some airplay back home on Triple J. This particular concert promoted the release of their new album, You See Colours, on Monday. They played a number of songs off their new album, and even though there are definitely heavier rock undertones in contrast to their first album, the poignant vocals and lyrics that are distinctly ‘The Delays’-only is still there. It’s one of those ones that I am going to have to listen to fully sometime very soon.

They mixed playing their new songs with a number of the crowd’s favourites from their first album including Long Time Coming, Bedroom Scene, Nearer Than Heaven and Wanderlust (and so many more). The light show, obviously themed to be consistent with their newest album was amazing and the band did not disappoint on Tuesday.

Despite being severely tired from the weekend’s activity and the week just gone, I still managed to attend yet another gig last night to see Fatboy Slim do what he does best at the Brixton Academy. This has been the third time I’ve been to the Academy, and not having bought the tickets, was surprised to be at the gallery level which is the unreserved seating section. Although this was one of the gigs where most people would not be seated for the majority of the gig, I was in away pleased to be away from the heaving body to body mass that was the entire ground level because I knew I just didn’t have the energy reserves for the entire night to make the most of it. There are other downsides to being upstairs (i.e. smoke heads towards the ceiling) but it did not damper any ability to enjoy the show of brilliantly mixed songs and the spectacular screen shows.

Fatboy Slim came on just after half past twelve and played a set that lasted until just after 3am. His decks were elevated to float in the middle of the stage, and were surrounded by panels on all sides including behind him. It was an extremely effective way for him to be a central focal point for the night even whilst giant smiley-faced yellow balloons bounced around the crowd and a small chorus of showgirls pranced around on stage for a while. It was yet another great evening out with a great bunch of people to watch yet another great artist.

I just got back home after heading out tonight to witness Coldplay deliver another warmly received performance at Earl’s Court tonight and just had to write up my review. Earl’s Court is an interesting place to hold any concert, with the massive exhibition hall being turned into an area with standing and seating room, by our estimate, to hold about ten or fifteen thousand people. Our seat was up there but not quite in the nosebleed section and although we had to sit at an angle, still had a decent view of the band and screens.

Coldplay’s support act was Richard Ashcroft, from The Verve, and who I had just seen as a guest performer at Monday’s gig. I remember the band The Verve only by two songs, The Drugs Don’t Work, and Bitter Sweet Symphony, both of which were played in addition to a number of his own ones. His fifty minute act was pretty good, but was definitely shadowed by the stunning performance of Coldplay.

It only took about a half hour for them to reset the stage, which Coldplay quickly stormed with a string of their biggest songs including Square One (the opener from their new album), Yellow, Politik and the Speed of Sound. Each song had obviously been well choreographed with amazing visuals that complemented the mood for each song, with pulsating coloured squares, giant yellow balls bouncing around the crowd, and the lights that projected what looked like a star system around the hall into the entire crowd.

The set was a great mix of a lot of their new songs, a lot of their old songs and a number of tribute songs all of which the crowd evidently enjoyed as they sang along. The entire set, including encore was a decent length with a total of almost two hours of solid quality music.

By the end of the show, everyone was standing up in their seats demanding more. Though starting off on a slight mistake, Coldplay soon satiated this hunger by playing three mores songs including Shiver, In My Place and the hauntingly skin-crawling lyrics and melodies of Fix You from their latest album. It is a concert that will be memorable for some time to come and I can now thoroughly recommend you see Coldplay if you ever get the chance.

Last night I attended the XFM Winter Wonderland concert at Brixton Academy, a charity gig for the Shelter organisation. I had bought the tickets off eBay a while back and hadn’t realised that it was the same day that I arrived back from Vienna, and despite being exhausted I still went to enjoy the awesome performances of The Go! Team, Athlete, Richard Ashcroft (from The Verve) and Supergrass. The event was actually spread over two days, with Sunday’s headliners including The Kaiser Chiefs, The Editors, Hard-Fi, and Maximo Park. All of the bands I saw were quite impressive, but still couldn’t quite top the one-hour set from Supergrass making the two tickets completely worth the £35 I paid for them. XFM writes up a better and more in-depth review here.

Last night I went along with Ben to see Porcupine Tree a band that Gerrod had put me on to a while back. It was my first concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, yet another Carling sponsored music venue in London. The venue itself is the smallest I’ve been to so far, but with a just a bit more capacity than The Arena back home. This venue has three floors with pretty much every seat or position having an easy view of the main stage.

I’m terrible at trying to describe bands, so I won’t try, but I think that if you like any of Porcupine Tree’s albums, I definitely can recommend you to see them live. Somehow their songs are delivered with much more vibrancy than what a recording seems to give them, allowing them to drive home their songs, if not sometimes perhaps a little bit too loudly. The front man last night held a much better conversation with the audience, all who seemed to be fairly big fans and predominantly older (think late thirties, almost early forties). It’s also one of the first times, I’ve ever seen someone perform in their bare feet.

After watching them last night, I realised that I liked a lot more of their songs from the In Absentia album over those from Deadwing, perhaps because I think the former tends to be more melodic with less of the heavier rock undertones I tend not to favour in the latter. It was a great night for a Wednesday and a big thanks to Ben for getting those tickets ages back.