Yeah so, Krooked. Always a good party. No stress, just yeah. This show was a bit short notice. We only got the visual components sent two hours before we needed to be there and we really had no idea what was going on. Result? Classic show. Lots of old electronic ads and texture layers. No photos apart from these two snapped on the iphone. But I swear to god, it went off!
OMG OMG. Everyone was really freaking out for this one, not least the venue. Fake Blood's set at Pony, will go down the stuff of legend. People queueing from 9pm, sold out, and then some. Six thirty finish.... and I hear it was the third biggest taking for the bar, ever!
For us though, it was a bit lame. Only because, the new lighting control has to be operated from the back of the venue, meaning we couldn't chill on stage. But hey, fresh perspectives and that, literally.
This was the first set of the new year, and we really wanted to change it up a bit. Less reliance on old ad-clips from youtube, was the objective. The whole theme started with the simple question: How Nathan Barley is too Nathan Barley? I asked this question to the promoters, they answered: Club Pony is a nine eleven of the mind. (If you have no idea what I am talking about right now, please don't worry, instead watch.)
The execution of the NB principle, was to make as many crude and brash flash animations as possible, drawing heavily from the classic nu-rave aesthetic. Can I say classic nu-rave? maybe first wave nu-rave... Anyway, what this translated into was jumpy pictures of dancing lions, tigers, astronauts and bright neon. And also, the creation of the Big Gay Kanye Bear.
This was all augmented with some new textures, like rainbow lines, maps, and stuff, and a new set of ad-clips (yeah, we didn't loose them completely!) all containing early computer graphics. My favourite was the neon golf ball.
At the end we were told Fake Blood thought the visuals were bomb! So thats nice.
As if I need to say, Japan can seem a little weird sometimes. But this marketing campaign i just awesome! It is so un-sexy, non-chic, pro-weird uncle. I can't but help think there is a sort of unexpected man-machine vibe coming off here. Is this what Kraftwerk wanted? I dunno. Just wonder if we had some of these cameras what we could do to our live shows? Part of me doesn't even want the camera, but just a thirty our forty mini-projectors that I could hide around the venue and then sync in weird ways. But, hey two dancing 'Helicopter Boys' with projector suits would also be pretty cool. Perhaps me and Alasdair should both get some of these and steal the show from Fake Blood on Friday?
Rough Disko is one of the first nights we ever did. And it's a really fun night to do because everyones is so focused. They are there for the music, and that is it. No one is bothered about dressing up or looking cool... or, hiking boots and rain-wear are the latest in Future Garage and Techno garb. Love it. This night was cool too because one of the projectors was playing a dvd we made a month before on loop, next to another projector on which we did live visuals. And, the only place to project was the ceiling, which had the double effect of making skewed images, and lighting up the room like an eighties disco in Vegas, er sumthin'.
Alasdair does the visuals, while I weep in the corner.
Mugshots take the stage, in front of some very sexy Mugshots.
November's Krooked saw Hostage take the stage with a HUGE set. His name, and a lack of seasonal topical relevance, meant we were a bit challenged coming up with tasteful graphic references to this. Some mug shots of chic seventies terrorist group, the Baader-Meinhoff Red Army Faction sort of did the trick. 
