Tonight we, Claire and I, went to Cargo, the same place on Friday night that had a long static queue coiling back from its entrance. No such problem today, but then it wasn't a freebie and we did have tickets. And the main act had already started. They were called The Fiery Furnaces. I love The Fiery Furnaces - this was probably a gig I'd have gone to anyway. I came across them in the fragile and random way that one does sometimes with music, that makes me wonder how much fabulous music I've missed over the years by not stumbling across it. I was at my friend Anne's house, admiring her cd collection when I should had been writing. One of the cds was called The Gallowbird's Bark. It had a mystical looking cover depicting a mellow-coloured drawing of a dog and a goat looking at each other. I'm a bit of a sucker for cd covers that feature dogs AND goats, so I stuck it on. How to describe The Fiery Furnaces...bluesy, poppy, experimental, joyful, strange, swirly, soulful, breathless...I asked Anne what she knew about them. She told me she didn't know much, she'd just bought the cd because she liked the cover. She loved the music too. I checked the band out on the net and discovered that they were fronted by a brother and sister from New York called Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, the former the main songwriter, the latter the breathless singer. And, as luck would have it, they were playing in London in three weeks. So a few of us went. The band (who usually perform as a four-piece) were fabulous and now four years later here they are in London again and here I am again.
Cargo opened in 2000 and is set within three disused railway arches. There is no train track represented on the A-Z near this part of Shoreditch (Rivington Street), so it appears to have been in disuse for some time. Inside it did feel as if one was in an oversized tube tunnel, and it was just as packed as a Northern Line tube at morning rush hour (so I am told), though vastly more enjoyable. Anyway, I've written enough already and I've got some catching up to do. The Fiery Furnaces were joyous, obviously. Claire was impressed. And it was the drummer's birthday.
Dodgy photo coming soon...here it is...
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