Giggin' in Glasgow

Well, living in Glasgow has provided me with a number of opportunities to go to local concerts, as well as play in a few as my musical persona, the Laohu! It has been a blast.

Before Spring arrived, I walked all over Glasgow and caught a few shows too. I went to Bloc+, Stereo, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, 13th Note, Nice 'N' Sleazy and a number of other places. I saw a bunch of bands as well and even made some new friends in the King Hats and We Are The Physics. Here's one of my favorite songs by the King Hats. And here are two wonderful music videos by We Are The Physics, Napoleon Loves Josephine and Goran Ivanisevic.

The King Hats @ Stereo

We Came From Wolves @ Stereo

Thomas and Elske @ Nice 'N' Sleazy

Majestic Dandelion @ King Tut's 

Nine Black Alps @ King Tut's 

Cool Prog Band @ 13th Note

We Are the Physics @ 13th Note

The King Hats @ Bloc+

We Are The Physics @ Maggie Mays (I think)

The first opportunity for me to play came in January. There was a fellow in London who was willing to pay for me to take a train down and let me crash on his couch overnight, which was awesome. It was his birthday, so he decided to put on a chipmusic show. I had a great time and met a lot of cool artists like the Fakebit Polytechnics, Galaxy Wolf and gwEm.

Diamonds and Dynamite

The Fakebit Polytechnics (who taught me that South London men like Cheap Meat)

Galaxy Wolf

There was no table for gwEm's double Atari wonder, so he sat on the stage :p

He did eventually get up, though.

 The Fakebit Polytechnics were also kind enough to put one of my songs up on youtube called "I Can Breakdance". Afterwards, we all hung out and played New Super Mario Bros and had delightful chats. Galaxy Wolf, gwEm and I all crashed on the couches and a wad of blankets and headed out early the next morning to get home. It was fun times!

My next opportunity to play came at Glasgow's 8-Bit Nights. We played at a place called Broadcast. The show consisted of Centipede Threat, Theremin Hero, HarleyLikesMusic and Nordlöef. And yours truly of course. A ton of people came, even the Whitneys (the senior couple from our ward). They got in for free because the guy at the door thought they were my parents ;)

Centipede Threat, HarleyLikesMusic and Nordlöef. Gettin' ready.

The Setup.

Centipede Threat.

Theremin Hero

HarleyLikesMusic

Nordlöef, irrepressible. 

The Laohu

Here are some videos from the evening:
HarleyLikesMusic: http://youtu.be/3FmUQsEhlxs
Theremin Hero: http://youtu.be/kF3ONanvsq8 and http://youtu.be/8t0dctDcnRU
Nordlöef: http://youtu.be/Dk96auEUOdE

My latest gig was in Edinburgh as a part of Ultrachip, a two-day chipmusic festival! There were so many amazing acts and I had such a great time! I probably played my best set yet, too. A special thank you to Michael (Comptroller) for putting on the event and allowing me to play! There are a bunch of shorter videos of the different acts up here. These are also two decent recordings of some of my stuff, I Swear and Secret Song. Beware, I say a lot of stupid stuff, including "Now and a-then", I think a combination of "now and again" and "now and then". I think it might amuse people though, so whatevs.

Arcadecoma

Crazy visuals by Euan McKenzie

100 Handslap

King Keytan

Astral Cat

Matt Nida

The Men of Mega

The Laohu (me)

Everyone was really fantastic. I wasn't able to get a picture of Bit Face, Galaxy Wolf, Comptroller, R10T33R and Ultrasyd. Not only were they all excellent musicians but they were all wonderful people and it was a great pleasure meeting them all. I hope to see them again sometime!

Also, 100 Handslap was kind enough to let me crash on their couch when I stayed overnight. Galaxy Wolf crashed too and it was reminiscent of the time in London. Wonderful people and a wonderful experience.

Oh, and here's a few pictures I snapped while walking around Edinburgh.

May the Fourth be with you.

I do have one more experience to share. Just this past week I was able to go see MC Lars at Ivory Blacks. It was a lot of fun and I got to chat with MC Lars a bit and he was a real cool guy. I also met int eighty of the nerdcore group, Dual Core, who was also a very cool guy.

Ska Beat Jakes

One Good Reason

BeeMickSee and Paul Denver

Dual Core

MC Lars, with Zelda bling

This was my first time at a hip-hop show and I was very much entertained. Check this clip of BeeMickSee and Paul Denver. And here's one of Dual Core. Finally, MC Lars performing Ahab!


In closing, music has been one of the clear highlights of my time here in Scotland. I have met so many delightful people and made many new friends. I love performing and I'm grateful for the opportunities to do so. And I'm not done yet! Stay tuned ;)