Au Revoir Simone, Plaster of Paris and The Train ChroniclesWell well well, so many potential ways to introduce these boys and their artistic evenings...
'Whatever the weather, It's time for Pat and Trevor'
'Music and art forever with a night of Pat and Trevor'
'It doesn't get better...'
'Pat, Trevor and Me. What a happy memory.'
ooh that's a cheesy one.
O.k so all cheese but I just had to illustrate how easy it is to introduce these P & T nights with kind words.. And who doesn't enjoy a good headline-rhyme-around anyway..
So what happened at this month's P & T entertainment extraordinare? I will admit now a week has passed since this French flavored event so this blog is one running on memory and impressions... My lack of words is in no way a reflection of a poor evening, more a reflection of a pretty horrendous week for your dutiful resident blogger. No more detail needed, but I will say the road to a career in photojournalism; life; death and men are all things that do not come without hiccups, any one of which can be enough to feed a serious stress disorder..But enough of my moaning. Back to Pat and Trevor and please do as I am and imagine the computer screen merging into a big pyschadelic wave breezing left and right; move your head from side to side, shut your eyes...and Ping! Now you have opened them again I am walking you around last Saturday's night at the ICA. Hmm What can we see? A rather wonderful mixture of music, art, musicians, artists, interesting people,
and all sorts else..I see the usual art installation happiness providing a feast for my photographic eyes.. Piano keyboards leaning against walls,
mountain views seen projected onto blue glazed walls 
and video installations provided by Funici (sorry terrible spelling I'm sure) appearing to spring out and reflect passers by...
Funici used to study at Camberwell Art College where he learnt how to put together such effective video projections. He can now be found studying for a Masters in Product Design at the Royal College of Art. Oh yes, this is creativity you are seeing, at a level not to be sniffed at.What else is there to catch your eye? Colored light boxes reflect over pieces of cerment with lenses and tiny plasticine figures placed on top;
paintings lie sideways next to empty flower pots;
Hallways and it's punters are flooded with blue light;
plasticine moulds 
looking like something completely depending on the angle
..It'ss all going on. There is much play with perspective and one can't escape the fascination with how things look against how things actually are. This is unsurprising of course seeing as the boys have just finished their animation and interactive design degrees from LCC. Their lecturers will, if anything at all like my Theatre practitioners, have harped on, in a good way, about all the deconstructive theories and the importance of removing or at least questioning metaphysical or ethnocentric assumptions in what we read, hear and see.
This was also illustrated in a little piece de la resistance from Jimmy.. One of his final year animations. It projected out to the audience as they filed into the theatre for Au Revoir Simone. This was a brilliantly executed piece of film edited out of hand sketched material. Jimmy's 3 minute short was far removed from the usual 3D 'T4 esque' schmoozy programmes that saturate the TV/film scene at the moment; what a pleasant change. I didn't catch this film on my camera but what I did catch was a picture of David Lynch projected up on the walls from earlier in the evening.
Hmmm, surreal... Something to do with Au Revoir Simone's future visit to play at Mr Lynch's party in Paris I wonder??Anyway, I wonder, I wander. Ultimately, excellent art installations as usual and the combination of sounds and visuals did not disappoint..
So what was the line up?
First up was Plaster of Paris, with singer Molly and her faithful accompanist Lewis.
This was a simple guitar and vocals double act, 'opera meets folk with a kazoomaphone'. I was impressed with Molly's energy and her ability to engage the audience with her punchy lyrics and animated performance style. This was live performance at its most raw with the audience positioned at the same level and mere inches away from Molly. You really need some chutzpa to be able to do that kind of act, but there were no worries on that front, this girl definately has that. I was loving the red frock and shoes, and five stars for the unusual and brilliant instrument.
The camera couldn't fail to capture her animated expressions and energetic flair.
Check out the myspace, http://www.myspace.com/weareplasterofparis
Next up was Martin, the sole member of The Train Chronicles providing good old fashioned strumming; interesting chords and lyrics with some meaning, see http://www.myspace.com/thetrainchronicles. 
Just as 'chronicles' the word suggests some kind of travel, journey or time passed, Martin has a knack of drifting you off into another time and place. His tightly buttoned lumber jack shirt and lace up shoes were also helping me to abandon for one short blissful moment the sight of tight jeans and pointy sneakers smothering my vision at the moment.. Perhaps this camera man was revelling in the moment too,
.. There were tinges of old school vaudeville and war time entertainment throughout the evening.. but Au Revoir Simone added an interesting contradiction to that with their electronic keyboard based set. The Brooklyn trio played from a boxing ring style stage in the middle of the theatre's floor, a modern twist on the usual 'fourth wall' idea we are accustomed to.
Now this didn't come without its short fallings, and I wouldn't suggest all ICA gigs are suddenly put on this way. You couldn't see all of the girls at the same time, they had a tricky time communicating with each other 
and perhaps there wasn't enough reason behind the staging other than to change things around. However, everyone needs to try out new performance arrangements once in a while, if only to remind us why sometimes a typical staging for bands just makes more sense... I say bravo for inventiveness and the crowds enjoyed the suspense as they shuffled into the space. As for Au Revoir Simone, they all looked very smiley,
and seemed to enjoy themselves as they played out a repertoire of interesting tracks illustrating their need to verse 'comfort, assurance and salvation'. I'm not sure I had to see it live, its really 'Sunday evening with a glass of wine and some dark chocolate music' for me, but thats just me. I could see everyone was enjoying themselves and I managed to sneak a picture of the girls in the empty cafe area before they left. 
Heather was also kind enough to talk to me about the tour, recent tours with fellow Brooklyn boys We Are Scientists and the trio's explorations of the US, and the UK for the first time. I discovered that this is their first headlining tour in the UK, and from here they fleetingly step down in Paris for some glamorous parties before heading back to start a second US tour with Foxtrot. Busy ladies! Only in September do these girls get to abandon the stage for a little studio time, but as Heather explained to me, there is some time for creative growth while on tour..All three girls constantly collect little 'seeds' of songs as they travel around the world..These seeds will then get fed, watered and developed in the studio at a later date. Good work and good luck to the Brooklyn beauties.. For all info check out www.myspace.com/aurevoirsimoneAnd as if that wasn't enough, when you were not listening to one of the wonderful live acts on offer, you were played a wonderfully eclectic set of records from Alex
and Seb of Tapedeck. I don't know too much about them but check out their myspace http://www.myspace.com/tapedeckdjs for all the details. I do know this is a wicked picture though.
They have a lot of gigs going on so get down and listen to one of them!That's it. I think I covered most corners, but you never know with this lot; I might have missed a secret passage, or a weird and wonderful hidden something or other.. It's the element of surprise at the Pat and Trevor nights that should really get you down there.
For more pics visit www.speyerdesign. Look, I made myself a groovy logo..
See what I've done there? Looks like a camera, S & D all in it?! oh me. Well it needs some tweaking; any friendly graphics people you know where I am.. But as soon as that's done it'll be printed all over London Town's billboards, on nasty white polo shirts and mugs... ha ha haAu revoir x
