My weekend

Wow. Two blog posts in two days. And not only that, but two original posts that aren't printed elsewhere first. This must be me setting some kind of record.

Anyway, this weekend I've been mainly trying to stave off the boredom that having a wife currently living 500 or so miles away causes. Thankfully, I have two very caring and entertaining friends in Johanna and Debbie who helped me keep a smile on my coupon with a walk up the Water of Leith and lashings of rum and ginger beer.

Today, I attempted to fight off my hangover by going for a trek up Corstorphine Hill. It certainly seemed to work - instead of fighting the gnarling effects of a pulsing headache, I was more concerned about my general lack of fitness when pitifully trying to conquer the hill's not insubstantial slopes.

Now I'm back on the couch, having booked some adhoc flights to Colchester for next weekend, contemplating raiding the freezer for that tub of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream. I swear, there was a time when I used to have an interesting life. Isn't' it odd how it's now, when I'm at my most boring, that I've decided to blog more frequently and more personally? I guess that says something.

LIVE REVIEW: Noah &The Whale, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 10 Mar

In five years time it's safe to assume Noah & The Whale won't be singing THAT song. You see, the Twickenham quartet fancy themselves as more than chart-breaching pixie-poppers and tonight they make their intentions clear with a pre-show appetiser of short films embracing both monochromatic drama and Pingu-inspired animation. An interesting concept, for sure, but sub-par art-school productions do not a serious band make.

What actually tips it N&TW’s way is the shoals of sombre, infectious melodies exuding from stage. Denser in sound than their brittle-boned debut LP suggests, Charlie Fink's tremulous blow swathes through the orchestral blizzard of Jocasta and Mary with the expertise of someone much longer in tooth. New numbers slot in like quarters to a Vegas fruit machine and although THAT closing totem is wearily treadmilled, N&TW manage to chisel into an enthralling creative avenue. Lord knows where they’ll be in half a decade.

First published here
Photae by David Anderson