Concert: Cranes + Epic 45

On Wednesday 29th, my brother Chris and I went up to Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on Hoxton Square (nearest tube: Old Street) to see my favourite band Cranes in concert. It was in October 1993 that I discovered Cranes, one rainy summer afternoon in Caryl's bedroom. I was captivated by their ethereal, melancholy music and so began a love affair that would span 15 years, 9 albums and now two concerts. Never one to move goalposts, it was my life's desire to see Cranes in concert and when I did, I decided that I just wanted to see them again. Well, at least that's one item I get to mark off my list over at 43 Things.

Alison is as tiny and graceful as I remember and the concert was really good. Over the years, Cranes' albums have ranged from a heavy gothic-industrial sound through their dream pop / shoe-gazing years to the horrible sickly sweet pop sound of 'Population 4' in 1997. I hated 'Population 4' so much that I only transferred one song from that album onto my iPod! I believe Cranes were forced into a more commercial sound by their old record label Dedicated and after that they went onto their own label, Dadaphonic. In any event, this little bit of background is just my way of explaining a major difference I noticed between this concert and the one I attended in 2004. They played several songs from their new album (self-titled 'Cranes') at this concert - I noticed four or five - but I am sure they played more older songs in 2004. I get the feeling that they have finally found their sound again and that this is an album they can truly be proud of. This is definitely in my top four favourite Cranes albums of all times and I think it is stunning.

They played for 90 minutes and the only thing I was disappointed about the whole evening was that with two cameras and one phone between us, my brother and I managed to take not one decent photograph. Unfortunately this was a theme that carried over to Friday evening too but there you go - you win some, you lose some and then you start wishing bands would stop using projectors and shining lasers straight into your camera's lens.

Cranes at last.fm ¦ MySpace

My review of Cranes' new self-titled album 'Cranes' as well as a playlist of my 5 favourite Cranes songs is up at Emm Media.

A special mention must go to the support act, Epic 45. They were really quite good and I was quite impressed by their sound and their performance. They had a distinct post-rock / experimental sound and I would compare them to Mogwai. They were a really worthy introduction to Cranes and I am definitely going to get some of their music by the next time I have a post-rock week on my iPod. Epic 45 are at MySpace too.