Pendulum and Marie Antoinette

So a little update for you. Or myself. I am really just talking to myself on here, but hey - it passes the time. Thursday night was the long awaited return of Pendulum at Fu (albeit without their much heralded live performance from Fabric in October.) Links to that performance can be found here and here. What we did get though was the added bonus of Chase and Status. Well really just one of them as the other was over playing in Europe - kind of makes sense when you can cover two bases at once - or three in Pendulum's case. Still, it would be so much more awesome if we could have had both of Chase and Status and all three of Pendulum. Ticket prices would have been close to $70 but what the hell.

I had tried to con my flatmate into going with me but unfortunately he is still convinced Pendulum has been thrashed to death even though they have released a whole album since he decided that heh. I did get Campbell to come and one of his mates, along with a whole bunch of NZRavers and assorted acquaintances. I got to Fu at just on 11pm to be greeted by a bunch of desperate onlookers who had neglected to get their tickets ontime. Thankfully what I thought was a big fuckoff queue was just the doorsale waiting list so I walked straight in. Headed down there and paid my $2 coat check (Yes, fuck you Studio et al with your $4 charge grr) and grabbed the customary beer and took in the surroundings - had a chat with the regulars and nabbed my spot on the dancefloor.

I tend to go to the left hand side of the dj booth and then slowly work my way towards the front without being too aggresive. You look a bit too eager if you walk right up to the front when the dancefloor is only 1/3 full heh. There is actually quite a bit of strategy involved in timing your approach, wait just 5 minutes too long and if the person infront is a real head then you have no shitshow in hell of getting inthat front row until 4am. Thankfully everyone (everyone sane that is - counting me out) needs water so I tend to get a decent spot after a while even if I have to wait for ages.

Bulletproof was playing when I went onto the dancefloor. Not really my style but he did play a few smashers like TC - Gameover. Considering Fu is normally dead until 12.30am the fact that it was full to the brim by 12 shows how huge Pendulum have gotten since their last tour here - and this was on a Thursday night! Next year with the live show it will have to be somewhere like Studio or St. James - the demand is that huge. Chase + Status were up next at 12am in his debut appearance on NZ shores. Well they certainly made an impression. I was a little surprised at the fact he (don't know which one of them came over) was playing a pretty heavy set with only a few liquid tunes. In Love feat. Jenna G got played of course - and got an insane response. My favourite tune of his set though has to be The Funktastics - Honey, gotta love that vocal and then probably Mutt - Hot Lick Squeeze. That is what liquid is about right there. Mmmmm.

Pendulum stepped up just before 2am and the response was unbelievable - I had screaming voices coming at me left right and centre combined with one of the speakers that was about 2metres away from my eardrum - talk about post-gig ringing in the ears! From memory most of the Hold Your Colour album got played combined with a heap of classics - Another Planet, Vault, Voyager etc even though some of them were just teases - such as Spiral. Dissapointed that Masochist didn't get played but such is life. Blood Sugar was insane, but I was a bit let down that they didn't really have any new material for us. TC - Game Over got played again (not only did Riddle play it just as I walked in, but also Bulletproof, Chase and Pendulum!) It's a heavy tune though.

About halfway through the set there was a pause for a bit of breaks, prog and even some Rage Against The Machine!! Was good for a change from the norm I guess. The only let downs were the lack of new tunage and a few of the doubledrops and mashups ala Andy C's sets didn't quite work. It was Gareth who played and he was originally a producer. El Hornet is the badman dj - pity he didn't come down to. Ah well - who am I to complain? It was an INSANE gig. Up there with the best of the year. Have a look at this YouTube video of 'Number 1' and some pics showing just how rammed it was. It doesn't convey the hotness though but the fact I could actually get water out of my shirt afterwards shows how damn hot it was in there.



It's hands in the air time:





















Spot me:p





















And onto the next thing: Marie Antoinette. I have been waiting for this for a good few months now after seeing that awesome, awesome trailer. The New Order song that plays over the top of the trailer fits it so pefectly - it may even be my favourite trailer this year. Despite the movie getting some badish reviews after its Cannes premier my curiousity wasn't going to go away easily so of course I was going to watch it within the first few days of release - even if I did still have ringing in my ears from Pendulum the night before.

Basically it's a very loose (in terms of historical events anyway) representation of the life of Marie Antoinette, a teenage Queen of 18th century France who was remembered for her excesses. The film begins in Austria just before she gets married off to Louis XVI in a bid to consumate the Franco-Austrian alliance. It then follows her as she settles into life at Versaille and works through the cold reception she initially gets from Louis, ending at the start of the French revolution and their fleeing of Versaille.

If you go in to Marie Antoinette expecting a traditional Merchant-Ivory sort of costume drama then you will be dissapointed, maybe even shocked. It is very much a modern take on Marie Antoinette's experience, something that has a lot more in common with the characters in her previous efforts, Lost In Translation and The Virgin Suicides. Artists that feature on the soundtrack include Aphex Twin, Air, The Strokes, New Order etc so that shows what sort of vibe the movie is aiming to portray. Sofia is much more concerned in conveying the sense of isolation Marie felt living in a strange court far away from her home and the pains and joys of adolescence.

The use of modern music works in its favour and against it - sometimes the song choices work brilliantly like 'I Want Candy' by Bow Wow Wow being played over the 18th century equivalent of a girls night in. God the food on display was gorgeous. Which is very much what the film is about - display, surfaces and apperances. Coppola serves up a visual feast of sumptuous display where everything on screen looks like it took hours to prepare. The costuming and set design warrants a viewing on their own. Kirsten Dunst is good as Marie, especially in shots where she is lying on her bed with just stockings and a fan - talk about sexy! That's more to do with her beautiful body than acting ability though. Which she doesn't really have to work on considering the film is pretty minimal on dialogue - choosing to tell it's story through visuals alone.

Would I reccomend the film? Yeah probably. I admit I was a little dissapointed as the whole modern take on things didn't completely work as some elements were jarring. The visuals on display are amazing though and stopped the movie from being a complete dissapointment. It would be interesting to see what a more traditional take on things would have been like though. So go see it if you have a penchant for stunning costumes, gorgeous palaces and decorative pastries :p Don't see it if you want another traditional costume-drama or can't handle the lack of dialogue and deliberate pacing. I would write more on the film with more coherence but this is just an off the cuff post that I am making on hardly any sleep. The film won't be in my top ten of this year but will get an honourable mention.

Next up is The Queen, Night at The Museum and Happy Feet. Possibly Deja Vu. I am aiming to see them all before the end of the year as I have been awfully slack of late watching movies. Probably because I just stormed through season 1 of Lost in less than 72 hours. Now I know what I have been missing out on!