Live report: The Embassy + Billie the Vision @ Tack! Tack! Tack!, London UK 03/13/06
T!T!T! MKVI - half a year old - a tape player and some god awful singing and wonderful outfits. Again, one of those nights. One of those shows. One of those performances. One of those unforgettable artist's impressions.
BILLIE THE VISION & the Dancers
If you are reading this and know what follows, then cool, please excuse this writer - for the rest of you...look closely at the bottom left hand corner of this picture and what do you see?
Yes, Billie the Vision and the Dancers are a visiual band with visual lyrics of personal hardship in love, life and lacking luck - good stuff. I missed the entire set, bar catching some of "Nobel square" and checked in to see what was what - showmanship aside BTV&tD went down a treat.... Frankie Poullain, the old Darkness bassist, came along to drive the band to their second show at Notting Hill Arts Club - A record breaking three gigs in one night had been hoped for, but bookings landed on two - note: If reading in Sweden: We are talking about a MONDAY Night - St. Etienne's Bob Stanley took notes.
It's A Trap! DJs sewed things together between acts.
THE EMBASSY
The Embassy were royally shambolic, award winningly poor, sublime at their worst/best - they have definitely played worse which would make this one of their lesser shows.... you following? Anyhow, proving themselves, they wore New Balance running shoes curbed with what they do 'live', it took T!T!T! back to the future.
"Some indulgence", of course, was popular. Then when they buggered off stage half way through a song to the toilets "backstage" worked wonders too... treating the crowd with disdain made them even more popular. But to quote Popsicle Luke: "The Embassy sucked but the throng of people down the front didn't seen to notice. I mean come on, if you're going to sing over a tape recorder, at least sing in tune! And the other guy whose sole function was to press 'play' and 'stop'. Purleeze!" Luke: the throng of people down the front were also thronged at the back, enjoying and reveling in this performance like genius whose diaboical shape needs to be hosted at the ICA or Royal Theatre. Henry VIII would have loved this shit.
So bad/good it was that the sound man left the mixing desk incandescent to what he was witnessing, the barman shouts "better than The Fall", some hard rocker asks why they are doing "fucking playback," while in all honesty, no one could have given a hoot - they were watching this like it were a cup final gone into sudden death. One word: Classic.
If at anytime in your future, you contemplate catching The Embassy - take with, and heed the warning that: live they are an "act", what you will witness is cosmic, out of this world ridiculous brilliance. Be dazzled, not dumfounded.
TACK!TACK!TACK!
T!T!T! say Tack! to Herr Ostlund Skiva promotion for his assistance in drinking beer with The Embassy often enough to birth the notion that they should play the club. Tacks! also to Ruth Moog for our new myspace design and main thanks to BTV&tD - who flew in from Sweden and worked hard to make their show happen.
- Jason Christie
Pictures:
Billie the Vision: [click here]
The Embassy: [click here]