The Mercury Prize winning Klaxons brought their winning formula of medieval chanting, catchy choruses
buzz saw guitars and fuzzed out bass to the Bottleneck on Friday October 5th.
I had a chance to talk to Jamie Reynolds and James Righton before the show while they played a little pool
and had a couple of snacks.
Me: Congratulations on winning the Mercury Prize this year.
Jamie: Oh, thank you, we really wanted to win it.
Me: I was pulling for you but I thought they might give it to Amy Winehouse.
Jamie: She is extremely talented.
Me: How is the leg doing? (Jamie broke his leg on July 21st attempting to stage dive over 12 feet of grass in France)
Jamie: It's about 90% right now, thanks for asking.
Me: What do you make of this Nu-Rave genre?
Jamie: I think it's hilarious-I made it up all by myself. Now people all over the world are talking about it and the
press are writing about it.
Me: Is it true that Simon (Simon Tayor Davis of Klaxons) and Lovefoxx (of the band CSS) are getting married?
Jamie: No, that's completely made up.
Me: Aren't they engaged?
Jamie: No, It's something we made up for the press.
Me: Ok, who knows what to believe then...
Jamie: Smiles...
Me: You have been touring all over and playing the same songs for over a year. Are you sick of playing them?
Jamie: Well...not sick of them. I mean we still love playing them but I would like to play some new ones. We won't be able to record any until the new year we have to go to Australia, Europe and Japan this year.
Me: I heard your cover of the Blackstreet song "No Diggity" on the BBC Radio One Est 1967 album. I really like it. It doesn't sound like you at all though. Did they ask you to cover that song?
Jamie: Thank you, I think the production is a bit off though. They said we could cover any song from 1996, so we chose that one.
(This may be the direction of the next cd, they have been lobbying Dr Dre to produce.)
Me: On the way over here I stopped at the book store and picked up my usual assortment of British music mags and
Klaxons are on the cover of NME again.
Jamie: Oh do you have it with you? We haven't seen that one yet.
Me: I can get it. (I bring it back it and they look at it on the pool table)
Jamie: (opening it up to the main article on them) Pointing to the highlighted captions. I didn't say that! Or that! They take everything out of context.
Me: Don't you think there were alot sophomore slumps this year from British bands?
Jamie: Yeah, quite a few. Bloc Party, Editors, The Rakes...The only one who pulled it off was The Arctic Monkeys.
They are a very polished band and great guys, they are our mates.
As we look through the magazine we come across an article on the Sex Pistols reuniting for some concerts and possibly new songs.
Me: What do you think of old bands reuniting?
Jamie: I think some should know when to call it a day.
Me: I agree, and don't overstay your welcome. I think six albums should be the limit.
James: I think we have 5 more in us.
Me: Do you own your own publishing rights?
Jamie: No, we sold our souls. We get our rights back in 25 years.
Me: That will come in handy for your retirement. Is that when all the hidden demos, reissues and box sets come out?
James: Well we don't have any hidden demos. I guess we will have to put something aside for later.
Me: You have told the press and its even written on your tour t shirts that the world will end on 12.12.12--so I guess there is really no need for that retirement money.
Jamie: Well anything is possible I suppose.
CONCERT REVIEW
I went to my customary front row center spot as about four rows deep quickly joined filing in close to the stage.
Lawrence band Ghosty went on at about 9pm and played a handful of mellow songs. More people filtered in and it started getting hot and sticky. The wait was long for the Klaxons to hit the stage and two girls to my right began yelling for the band and pushing their way to the front row, threatening anyone who were in their way. More on them later. Klaxons came out to applause and roars from and energetic crowd opening with " Bouncer". They sound much less polished live, sounding more like an early 80's west coast punk band. A few songs in and the place was madhouse, every ones arms up jumping up and down. Then the same two obnoxious girls from before ran onto the stage, jumping around uncontested...I say jumping not dancing. Remember the late Chris Farley? One could have been his twin sister , gyrating in some sort of non-rhythmic drunken stupor. Yes mean I know...but if you were there you know I'm right. The Klaxons seemed to feed off of it and played harder and faster. Drunk and drunker finally jumped off the stage but not before knocking poor Jamie down. He told me after the show about the girls..."You have to be nice--I was worried about my leg though when I went down" The band continued their set at a frenetic pace playing hits "Atlantis to Interzone" "Golden Skans" "Magick" among others. As they played their last regular set song "Four Horseman" the same two girls jumped back up on stage...all of a sudden everyone jumped on stage as Jamie gave in and waved everyone up as they continued playing. It became a big sweaty musical mess and I loved it all as did everyone on stage and around me. Klaxons came back after everything settled down to play one more song and told us, it had been the wildest concert since they played in Germany and that they would definitely be coming back to Kansas. A great live band and very nice fellows...they deserve all the accolades and success they are getting this year.
Golden Skans --acoustic at 89.3 The Current
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