Going to a gig in a new city is always fun – different crowds, different venue policies. In a different country is even more fun.

Tonight I went to see José González at Aladdin’s theatre, Portland, a former burlesque theatre in a shady part of town. Full of character, the venue was one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of visiting in recent years. Clean, tidy, simple and yet still having that air of mystery that all former theatres of ill repute have, it has great acoustics and friendly staff.

Soon after taking my seat, Tiny Vipers came on. The Seattle rising star slowly worked her way through a reasonable back catalogue, sounding like a poor man’s Trespasser’s William. Backed up by an electric guitar, Jesy Fortino’s strumming becomes easy to get lost in. Many people have tipped her for big things, but whilst she was very good and skilled, I personally found the lack of other instrumentation rather boring.

A short break before the houselights goes down again and José ambles on stage. Warming up, he worked his way through some of the stuff from his new second album, In Our Nature. Slowly building the crowd up, the quiet Swede got a tad flustered when a guy yelled out “I love you José!” to which José replies “I love you too… actually, not really, I’m not into that sort of thing!”. Banter was distinctly thin on the ground, but to be honest this was to be expected: José is the sort of guy who lets his music do the work, his mesmerizingly beautiful songs.

Slowly things build, and before we know it we’re at the closing three numbers: The infamous “Heartbeats” – the song that perhaps launched him to the big time, thanks to the Sony Bravia advert featuring the thousands of bouncy balls hurtling through San Francisco. “Crosses” followed, sounding even better live than on record, before finishing off with a duo of stunningly beautiful covers, of Kylie’s “Hand On Your Heart” and Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”. Both of these were every bit as good as the original, though remarkably different.

Coming back for an encore, we were treated to another re-working of a modern classic, a formidable cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” that would have had Ian Curtis jumping for joy no doubt at the simplicity yet inherent quality of it.

And with that José quietly leaves the stage, ready to continue his way around the US before jetting over to the UK on 17th October for a full UK Tour. Make sure you catch him – it’s sure to be a good evening.

Photos are after the jump. Enjoy. Sorry they’re a bit rubbish - e weren’t supposed to take pictures so I didn’t experiment much.
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“We’re proud to be able to play in one of Tony Blair’s legacies to the UK” David Kay of Tiny Dancers said of their chance to be one of the first bands to play the indigo2 at the former Millenium Dome.

One of the most state of the art venues in the UK Indigo2 is the smaller of two venues at the new O2 complex which comprises shops, bars and cinema as well as the 20,000 arena and the 2,500 capacity indigo2. A contender to the likes of Koko and Shepherds Bush, its small enough for it to be used as “club gigs” for big bands, and large enough for small bands to aim for.

Up in the balcony the venue looked distinctly like a cinema, with plush seats (complete with stewards to tell you to get them off the seat in front) and speakers throughout. However, it lacks the quirks of some older venues: Whilst the sound is simply superb, the place lacks some of the atmosphere that darker, dingier places like the Astoria have and makes them so loved.

For the first nights entertainment, AOL took it over for their “sessions”, which last night saw Tiny Dancers, The Thrills, Magic Numbers and Crowded House take to the stage. Tiny Dancers were first up, playing to a half empty venue, however soon got into the spirit of things, playing five songs. Highlight was “Hannah, We Know” which saw dancing lego people on the giant screens behind the stage.

The Thrills were next up, debuting new material from their forthcoming album “Teenagers” alongside old favourites “Santa Cruz”, “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?” and “One Horse Town”. Conor Deasy went into showman mode pretty quickly, getting everyone clapping along. Their new material is a natural progression from previous two albums, summery and Irish-American tinged.

In between sets AOL showed some of their previous sessions, with Paul Weller, Paolo Nutini and Ghosts all making appearances. In between The Thrills and Magic Numbers the crowd were treated to a backstage set from Siobhán Donaghy, which showed off her beautiful voice perfectly. However, being shown on video screens just made the entire audience feel detached from the experience.

Magic Numbers provided more summery tunes, with Michelle and Romeo seemingly a bit more used to the stage compared to when this Londonista saw them back in early 2005. Songs like “Forever Lost” and “Love Me Like You” sounded not at all faded, and performed with as much gusto as if they were written yesterday.

Finally, the guys most of the crowd had been waiting for, Crowded House. Hurtling through their set at a decent speed, they were chatty and genial to the crowd, with the Ozzies commenting that “It feels like I’m playing the Bowling Club Social” in regards to the number of summer hats floating around the crowd that were given out free by AOL. On their slower tracks, Neil Finn was clearly peeved with the amount of talking the balcony was doing, commenting “Listen you bastards! You can talk tomorrow!” which was a very fair point.

Four sets in four hours is a decent speed for any venue, however it’s just a shame it hasn’t got any of the soul some of London’s better venues have. The bands meanwhile overcame any issues they may have had with the venue by putting in a thoroughly entertaining show for all.

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Those lovely people at iTunes have set up their own “festival” in the centre of London to take place at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) throughout July, with a raft of the best in current bands playing each night.

iTunes will be recording each of the shows and are planning to make songs from the shows available via their music shop. The ICA holds about 350 people, making the shows exceptionally intimate.

The bands include, in date order:

Mika supported by Leon Jean-Marie (1)
Crowded House supported by Justin Nozuka (2)
Travis supported by The Hoosiers (3)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club supported by Nine Black Alps (4)
Groove Armada supported by Mutya Buena and Beardyman (7)
Ash supported by Ben’s Brother (8)
The View (9)
Imogen Heap supported by James Wolff (10)
Editors supported by GoodBooks (11)
Scott Matthews (12)
Athlete supported by Tiny Dancers (13)
Paolo Nutini (14)
Gianna Nannini (15)
Ludovico Einaudi supported by Dhafer Youssef (16)
The Bad Plus supported by Rebekka Bakken (17)
The Pigeon Detectives supported by The Rakes (18)
Beverley Knight supported by Raul Midón (19)
Stereophonics supported by Little Man Tate (20)
Jamie Scott & The Town (21)
Wir Sind Helden (23)
Amy Winehouse supported by The Rumble Strips and Remi Nicole (25)
Just Jack supported by Mr Hudson & The Library (26)
Jack Penate (27)
The Maccabees supported by Goldspot (28)
Duke Special supported by Tom McRae (29)
The Coral supported by Candie Payne (30)

Tickets will be given away free via radio, TV stations and band and fan websites. The specific details of which will be announced soon. Some tickets are already available from the itunes festival website.

Photo taken from Mteson’s flickr stream.