Helsinki, Brighton Pressure Point Part 2, 15.03.08

Helsinki, Brighton Pressure Point, 15 March 08 part 2 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Drew McConnell and Matt Park
Delivery, Je t'emmene au vent (Louise Attaque cover), Cologne Hotel, I Saw Red (Sublime cover), Ampersand

My camerawork went extremely strange a few minutes in - I'm not sure exactly why - but hang in there as it gets a lot saner afterwards. I had only been using it for a couple of weeks, so I'm very much learning as I go.

And any chance you get to see Helsinki live in any form, you should take it.

Helsinki, Brighton Pressure Point Part 1, 15.03.08

Helsinki Brighton Pressure Point 15.03.08 Part 1 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Drew McConnell and Matt Park, Pressure Point Brighton. A stripped-down but very beautiful set.
1) Lagrimas de Oro (Manu Chao cover)
2) Bit Part
3) This Love (Joe Fox cover)

It was raining several species of domestic mammals down there - powermonkey and I got repeatedly saturated, but luckily my camera and his audio equipment survived. And the Helsinki set really was lovely.

Helsinki, batterieswerentdead + Ampersand, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - batterieswerentdead and Ampersand, Dingwalls 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Helsinki's set was beautiful, batterieswerentdead was epic, my film doesn't really do it justice.

I did temporarily know the full name of Matt's wah pedal, but I forgot to do the writing things down thing. It's the one he's using on Ampersand.

If you're reading this before Sunday 27 April, get yourself down to Victoria Park, Hackney, for the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival that day - Helsinki are playing, there's tons of other great music too, it's going to be a very special day. And also a very important day - find out more here: LMHR Carnival 2008.

Helsinki, Je t'emmene au vent + Ribtickling, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - Je t'emmene au vent and Ribtickling, Dingwalls 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Drew McConnell and friends - see note on post below. Je t'emmene au vent is a Louise Attaque song. Sorry again for background noise, but it's the tradeoff with standing further back to avoid the reverb off the PA - although I seem to have picked some of that up too.

Helsinki played an excellent show - part of which I missed due to travel vagaries. Yes I did kick myself.

Helsinki, Delivery + Cologne Hotel, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - Delivery and Cologne Hotel, Dingwalls, 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Helsinki have a pretty fluid line-up - Drew McConnell has a large revolving cast of wandering troubadours, and the shows are very special, whoever is up there with him. This particular night he was supporting Kid Harpoon, and had borrowed his drummer, and had Lord Large on keys. And Matt Park on guitar, who's a regular fixture.

Apologies for uber-chatty neighbours. No, I don't understand either. I tend to go to gigs to see the bands, rather than to conduct loud soirees during people's sets.