Two days in Cambridge and London

Hi!

How are you? Last Monday and Tuesday I went in Cambridge to visit the lab’s team where I’ll do my internship in the following months and see some possible accommodation and the Maccabees’s concert.

How to combine business with pleasure…

I visited Cambridge the first time ten years ago, so I didn’t remember a lot. This time I arrived in Parker’s Piece and the sight of the green surrounded by historic buildings left me astonished. I visited the city center, that isn’t so big, but certainly very quaint and charming. 

 

And in the sunset I arrived on the river Cam. In the evening I went to the Maccabees’s concert, then a beer in a pub. The second day I did a tour with a punt on the river from where you can see all the gardens and the 

historic buildings of colleges, and pass under some beautiful bridges.

 

After a funny Japanese lunch in Yo! Sushi where dishes passed on a conveyor belt, I took a train for London, and in only 50 minutes I arrived in King’s Cross. Then I took a walk in Camden and passed the night in Soho in club Escape until the time to go to airport.

Two amazing days. 

The Maccabees live in Cambridge (19th March 2012)

Hello,

I’d like to talk about this concert that took place in Corn Exchange in Cambridge last Monday.

Yes, I came from Italy to see it, but I had some others important reasons to go to Cambridge… but now talk about the concert.

I had a seat on the balcony so I saw them from far away...but the music had great acoustics.

They started with Child, the song that opens also their last album Given To The Wild, it was absolutely a great choice that involved immediately the public. They continued with songs from all their three albums with a perfect continuity between the songs: the more animated rhythm of songs like X-Ray and Pelican alternating to a more introspective sound of songs like Forever I've Known. But I think the most interesting aspect was the great instrumental performance alternated to the vocals parts. They don’t play at all like a quiet and shy band, rather in the instrumental parts comes out their most unexpected wild soul. I think a live is absolutely the best way to appreciate their duplicity of introvert and in the same time wild band. Absolutely a very great concert! Obviously this is just my humble and partial opinion.

The Maccabees

Hi guys! It’s a lot of time that I don’t post, but I haven’t done any travel, and I was quite insecure about the topics of my blog and how to organize it. In this days I have thought to divide my blog in different topics for example: travel, shopping, music-books-cinema-television, my science, and anything else. 

So I decide to start to write about The Maccabees. They are a young indie-rock band from Brighton and I discovered them by accident just about a month ago, but they’re on the scene from the 2005 when their first single X-ray (I like it a lot) came out, but I will not talk about their biography because you can find it on their site or Wikipedia. 

I have seen a lot of times the spot of new tv series Gettysburg of Scott brothers, and every time I thought: -But who sings this song? I like it! -. And When I discovered The Maccabees I discovered also that the song of the spot was theirs, and it’s No kind words from the album Wall of arms (2009). But the most interesting thing I think it’s their new video Pelican from their last album Given to the Wild (2012). I think the song is a sixties-contemporary masterpiece. The video is a work of art directed by David Wilson, an English artist and movie director, where many objects of our common life are cut in two halves.

I also like a lot their new album Given to the Wild, it’s my new obsession. I like all the instrumental parts and their equilibrium with the voice. I like all songs, the maximum level for me is reached in Pelican that has all the features of a perfect single and Forever I’ve Known that is more introspective.  

The only flaw for me is Feel to Follow because I don’t like the voice in the initial part, but this is only my taste.

So I think they are a very interesting and promising band, and also their two previous albums Colour it in (2007) and Wall of Arms (2009) deserve to be heard!

And Maccabees see you in London on June 6^th!

Here some interesting link about The Maccabees: 

The Maccabees web site

Pelican video