Lights Action at O2 Islington Academy
I first heard of Lights Action by accident when I went to watch Saosin back in June ‘07 at the now demolished Mean Fiddler (later known as Astoria 2). First impression of them was pretty good and looking back at the entry just shows how surprised I was back then.
They didn’t have an EP or album back then but I remember listening to their songs on Myspace quite a bit.
Forward to 2009. As I was stumbling across Last.fm looking for recommended events, I noticed one for Lights Action. Purchased tickets and researched about the band to check what they have been up to. Apparently, they already have an EP released, All Eyes To The Morning Sun, and a full studio album, Welcome To The New Cold World (which was released just 2 weeks ago).
As they weren’t available on the torrents, I downloaded both from Amazon which is a rarity in itself. Aside from Bloc Party’s Intimacy, these are the only albums I have purchased and downloaded.
Enough history and on to the gig.
The gig was last Friday, March 13 at O2 Islington Academy. This was formerly known as Carling Academy Islington until all the Carling venues changed to O2. Not real sure and a bit lazy a the moment to get into the specifics.
I’ve been to Carling Academy Islington in the past to watch The Used (with Mute Math) and Coheed and Cambria. It was a venue I fell in love with right away because of it’s adequate size and reasonable sound.
So when I arrived, I expected the place to be the same one I fell in love with. Apparently, a lot more than the name changed. The venue has been drastically scaled down in size. The entrance used to be at the ground floor with the box office and the cloakroom and a large venue on the 1st floor with more seats in a small mezzanine area.
Now the entrance is on the 1st floor with no cloak room (or I didn’t see one) with a small stage which was slightly bigger than Mayric’s and a much smaller floor area than before. At the least, there were a few places to sits and one long bar.
As it was smaller, I immediately felt awkward being the only person by himself with everyone else in a group, chatting up. It was time for a pint of Strongbow.
The gig started quite early with the first support band, Young Guns, on stage before 19:30. They sounded ok and quite lively, but didn’t really reel me in. I am pretty sure I’d give them a second try sometime.
Up next was SaidMike which was surprisingly good and I even enjoyed a few songs such as Perfect Mistakes and Antics. It was also nice of them to hand out CD samplers after the gig. Most probably another new band I’ll be seeing in the future.
Of course, this night was not really about them but about Lights Action. The band started before 21:00 which is unheard of in my book.
 |
| From random |
They started out with Moscow, as I predicted since it was the kind of song which simply build things up. Most songs were obviously from their new album. The songs I can remember they played are Battle of Lovers, Signals To Radar, Passions Of The Lonely, Young Scarlett Young, Travellin’ Man, and The Bottom Of The Sea. They may have sung two more songs but I can’t remember which exactly.
 |
| From random |
A slow version of Satellites from their EP was also played although I would have preferred the original version instead. Hearing Signals To Radar back to back with Passions Of The Lonely was quite lovely as they are my favourite tracks from the new album.
 |
| From random |
Sadly, the gig ended before 22:00 which was really disappointing as I’ve never been to a gig in London which finished before 22:00. I was expecting to hear a few more songs hoping for something from the EP. There was some sort of club night after so they wanted us out early. Boo!
Overall, it was a pretty good albeit short gig of good music from bands which are just starting out. I’ve mostly watched the bigger and more popular ones so this is sort of getting my right foot into seeing smaller more indie acts in and around London. Camden Crawl anyone?
There is a whole other aspect to this evening which is worthy of a separate post.
Leave a Reply