the kniφe - shaking the habitual

How the hell did people get tickets at the venue tonight since the pre-sale is tomorrow and the general sale is Saturday?

Bummed that they don't look to be planning a stop in Texas on their US tour

I said "it's great to see Lady Sovereign is still getting work" but I can't remember if that was here or Facebook ;_;

― Darth Icky (DJP), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:25 (9 months ago) Permalink

nothing like her

This was one of those albums I found it really hard to get *inside*, because the bulk of my listening at that point was done, on spotify, at work. And this is *so* not a "listen to, at work, in the background, while you program" album, in the way that their other albums were able to be relegated to that space. It's one of those albums that if you don't give it your full attention, it won't reveal anything to you, but if you listen to it closely, it will give up all kinds of secrets and rich rewards. It was an album that I had to find the right atmosphere to listen to it in, to get it (that atmosphere was "in my living room, on a stereo (not headphones) while I was drawing." And then, suddenly, it clicked, and I was just astonished at how layered and abstracted it was, and also, how much it sounded *like The Knife*, but the elements of The Knife that you never think of as being "Knife-like" (bcz think of the artists that usually get compared to them) until you hear them isolated.

The other album that was closest to this experience was Dawn Richard's Goldenheart. They sound nothing alike, but the quality of being almost overwhelming because they are too long, too arty, too intense, too complex and layered and full-on - all the things that become *rewarding* about the album when you give the album the time to encounter it on its *own* terms, instead of imposing work listening conditions upon it.

And now I love both of those albums, in a way I'm really glad I gave the time to, otherwise I would have missed something amazing.

yeah you pretty much described the reason why I never managed to get into this - having a new born baby, I just can't seem to find that dedicated listening space anymore, apart from in my car (and for some reason that album never grabbed me while driving)

BB, yeah. I only listen to records-for-fun when I'm cooking and those are the two 2013 records that made me stop and listen and burn something

Listening to both those records really is like, you have to sit, and listen, and pay attention, like listening to an opera. They don't work as background music.

yeah which is why I have listened through each like twice

I am so buying tickets for this, regardless of whether I can go or not

Seriously FUCK THIS. From the moment it started I clicked and clicked and it said "all tickets in cart" meaning nothing was available and now it says presale is old out.

huh

I got that "all tickets in cart" msg and refreshed my browser, got a purchase link no prob

fly to Boston, I'll give you my extra

may have to visit NYC

BB OTM. I'm starting to think I'm sort of cursed-blessed in that I can't listen to music at work, so nearly all my music listening is done either on the train (I can pretty much block out background noise) or at home on headphones or on nice speakers (so long as it's before midnight). Definitely explains why this is my AOTY followed by several other 'deep listening' choices ('Photographs' by Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescaleet I'm looking at you).

I like this album a ton but if The Knife really wants to pander to me, they'll put out an album full of songs in the vein of "NY Hotel"

I absolutely am going to NYC for this. (assuming i can get a ticket)

Well, that fucking sucked. The link to Terminal 5 from the Knife mailing list and their own tour page went to the wrong event listing, but since the error page read as follows:

"Tickets are currently not available online for one of the following reasons. Please check back for availability.

Tickets may not be on sale yet
Tickets may not be available at this time. More tickets may become available later"

I (and plenty of other people, I would imagine) sat in front of their computer hitting F5 like a jackass until doing a search from the venue's page only to find the show had completely sold out in under an hour.

And another disappointed fan in the comments at Terminal 5 is noting that 264 of those tickets are already being scalped on StubHub. Once again, Ticketmaster can choke on a basket of hot salted dicks.

For anyone else similarly frustrated, a second night at Terminal 5 was just put up for sale!

http://www.terminal5nyc.com/event/475021-knife-new-york

I had the same problem but when I searched from ticketmaster it was fine. It only didn't work when I did it from the terminal 5/knife links.

Just saw them tonight in Pomona and thought the show was great. From what I had read before about "separating the audience from performer," and even knowing that they toned it down, I was afraid that it would be a troupe of dancers going out into the audience and embarrassing random people. Not at all! It was all put together very well, the choreography and lighting were amazing, and the sound in the venue made it all sound so great. I'd go so far as to say that the show gave me a new appreciation for the album. (Somebody in either this or the C/D thread said that StH requires one's full attention, maybe that was it?) Like they did on the Silent Shout tour, they re-worked their older songs to fit in with their current sound (minus "One Hit" which was left intact) and I think hearing those versions could benefit anybody who is still cold on the direction they took with Shaking the Habitual. Like the way-detuned steel drums in the re-made "Pass This On," or the more clangorous elements of "We Share Our Mother's Health," they've been doing it all along, just not to such a degree. It sounds dumb, but I totally get it now. Can't wait for the live release!

a live album would be interesting, i must say.

especially if they kept in the crowd noises with lots of displeased people leaving in disgust.

They obviously wouldn't choose the London show, but I'm kind of interested to see it!

I don't care what kind of radical semiotics or whatever the group is invoking or aiming for, the show last night was one of the dumbest, most embarrassing things I've ever seen, up/down there with the time I saw Billy Corgan recite poetry while wearing an army helmet with lights shining out of it. The Knife being lame was noteworthy mostly because the Fever Ray show a few years back was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. What a missed opportunity. This kind of dumb non-spectacle could have been done smarter.

I wasn't into it either. Love the duelling vocals from Shannon and Karin though

bummed to have missed this show

there was too much non-dancing to pre-recorded stuff for me. that was at least 1/4 of the show. the tracks they actually performed live were pretty good, I thought.

What was with the doofus cheerleader who started the show?

I felt it was more than 1/4 pre-recorded, and frankly, I don't see the point of playing it live (was it even?) for part of the show, and then just relying on pre-recorded for the remainder. They could have billed it as a dance performance and it still would have been lame but maybe at least lame on its own terms. How much were tickets? $35? I guess on that front it could have been worse.

The worst thing about the show is that I was with a friend who kept saying "no, give it another song, maybe it's going to change/get better," and I kept responding, no, it really isn't. Like, I know that for a fact. And she kept going "just one more song ..." And it was so stupid. I would have rather gone out for dinner, come home, found my copy of "Shaking the Habitual" and not listened to it.

so how many of you picked up the let's talk about gender baby hoodie?

Perhaps I'm a rube who enjoys light shows set to pre-recorded music (and vocals much of the time), but if you know that going in it's not so bad. If you'd read anything about The Knife since they started performing this album nearly a year ago, you would have known that.

All I remember about the Fever Ray show was that Karin had a full band and it sounded heavy and there were a bunch of old lamps on stage.

But yeah, the "doofus cheerleader" reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyqUj3PGHv4

is this basically a redux of the same argument we had a year ago?

I just read upthread again and yes. Busted. However, while I'm on it I'll just say that watching StH stuff performed live, with a full band of musicians concentrating on playing instruments would have been THE MOST BORING OPTION AND NOT A KNIFE SHOW.

is this basically a redux of the same argument we had a year ago?

― lex pretend, Friday, April 25, 2014 8:02 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

Holy shit, I forgot to brush up on what the thread had to say a year ago about a show I saw the other night, my bad. Maybe the Knife could have changed its show for the sake of ILX?

The Fever Ray show I saw had lamps and costumes and stuff, but the entire club was filled with a fog so thick you couldn't see clearly for more than a few feet, so all you could make out were these crazy Where the Wild Things Are shapes and glowing lights. And lasers. Like I said, there were a lot of ways the Knife could have done this show the way they did, but better/more interesting imo. I've seen plenty of theatrical exercises (many in the theater) that were pretty neat spectacles. As someone I know described this, it was like "Xanadu" crossed with Blue Man Group. Clearly some dig that. At least the group was having fun.

This is from when I saw them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vocFZNeIXCE

urgh this hurts - still so gutted for not having the chance to see Fever Ray.
Don't care much about The Knife

is this basically a redux of the same argument we had a year ago?

Except that now some of us have actually seen the show :)

The problem I had was with the choreographed sections, they felt clumsy and endless and not at all subversive, reproductions of superior queer bands/performance pieces

Show is very reliant on pre-recordings; even the vocals on about a third of the songs, where the singers cede the stage to the dancers. Almost all the songs are different mixes. I loved the instrument design, especially the Log which is a six foot long piano wire strung along an odd sculpture which can be thwacked or bowed, and has percussion pads along the top. That thing sounded unbelievable. A few of the other onstage props turned out to be stealth percussion sets with microtonal tunings, and I liked the bits where the dancers would just start attacking those things; the mix would just explode.

I am not entirely sure the dancing worked either, but at the end of the Oakland show, instead of doing an encore, 'Silent Shout' crossfaded into an hour long set by local DJ Rapid Fire, and the 3000-person rock / concert venue turned into a dance party. Which was something I have rarely seen working on that scale; about half of the crowd trickled out, everyone else swarmed. I was with a friend who knows the band fairly well and wanted to say hi, so after they left the stage we went back to the reception area which was deserted; after about a minute a guard stopped by and said 'if you're looking for the band, they're all out there dancing' and sure enough. However it was executed, I took the message as 'you're supposed to be dancing yourselves, not watching' -- it's a tricky thing to use stage spectacle to say that, but I got it

Apart from Karin's unforgettable poetry interlude, what I liked most about the show was how the band was this joyous frantic bunch of loonies. Rather than projecting power at you, it seemed like they were just vibrating along with the music while playing choreographed air marimba. "Why are you impersonating a dead stereotype, look, we're alive."

Mind you I think the band was having way more fun than I was.

they felt clumsy and endless and not at all subversive, reproductions of superior queer bands/performance pieces

Yeah, along with Blue Man Group I flashed back to a Fischerspooner show I once saw, too.

Hey Josh. Have you ever thought about not being wrong?

I mean, I wasnt a huge fan of StH when I finally heard it and some ill advised dismissive stuff on this forum but the live show premise was discussed to death a year ago so your disapproval kind of merits being roundly mocked

Well they are touring north american just now. Can't we write our reactions to the show?

Basically, I really liked the concept and thought the execution was poor. I like the idea of anti-show, I really do. It's just that I feel it could have been so much more than cheap contemporary dancing. The fake instruments were great and they were left aside quite early. The poetry bit was a lot of fun and I liked the cheerleading intro, it's just that with all those costumes and light and and universe the Knife have created over the years (not even mentioning the politics) I felt they could have shown us the cosmos instead of silly dancing. I'm not asking them to play the hits and or even play the instrument, but surely they can do more than that. Perhaps they should associate with a contemporary circus troupe. Funnily, my mother was really into it, so that was a huge plus to the experience.

Also, some people on the ground level were really disappointed they couldn't see big parts of the stage.

Bf was there in MTL last night and he loved it way more as a stand-alone show. Funny: the musicians he went with incorporate a significant amount of playback into their own sets, and they were all "there's no musical performance going on!" and he was like "uhhh nobody can tell when you're playing anything either" lol

Mock away, strangers, but I have more cause to post on a thread about a show I just saw from an act only now touring where I live than you do posting just to tell me not to.

Actually I was way out of line Josh and I'm sorry. I regret being so disrespectful. I have no business saying stuff like that.

You are right in that it makes no impact in my life whether or not you go see this show, whether or not you know what it is going in, whether or nit you post your opinions itt

I don't know if you're being serious or not, but I'll take it. I'm easy.

Tbh I knew exactly what to expect from this show and warned my friend accordingly, but reading about it and seeing it are different things.

Also, some people on the ground level were really disappointed they couldn't see big parts of the stage.

I was there last night and I have to say I loved it a lot more once I went up on the mezzanine and had a view of the whole stage. Since there is no focus on a lead singer, I think it is meant to be seen as a whole thing. And there was more room for dancing!