London Gigs Diary: 28 October-3 November 2013

This Week

When it comes to five star reviews, we’re not exactly generous, but one of the few bands we felt deserved our love was Daughter‘s If You Leave. “The emotional honesty that informs every second of Daughter’s first album is so raw and so damaged that it actually becomes quite frightening,” we said. See what we mean when they play at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Tuesday.

We felt similarly about Efterklang‘s Piramida, which we called “a record of rare beauty, like catching a glimpse of an uncommonly beautiful sunset or a finely crafted ice sculpture.” They play at Heaven, also on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Iceland’s Hafdis Huld plays her first UK gig in a while at Camden’s Surya on Wednesday, while Portico Quartet bring their stunning live show to the Village Underground on Friday night.

Monday 28 October

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Hammersmith Apollo
Kristin Hersh – Rough Trade East
Parquet Courts + Mazes – Village Underground
Colin Stetson – Cafe OTO
Lissie – KOKO

Tuesday 29 October

Bobby Womack – Royal Albert Hall
Daughter – Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Efterklang – Heaven
Franz Ferdinand – Garage
Teleman – Servant’s Jazz Quarters

Wednesday 30 October

Hafdis Huld + Tim Ten Yen – Surya
Warpaint – Brixton Academy
Willy Moon – Electric Ballroom
Wolf Alice – Dingwalls
Lulu James – St Pancras Old Church

Thursday 31 October

Allo Darlin’ – Islington Assembly Hall
The Cult – Roundhouse
Steve Mason – Electric Ballroom
Birdy – Forum
The Wave Pictures – Servant Jazz Quarters
School Of Night – Shacklewell Arms

Friday 1 November

The Wedding Present – Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Goldfrapp – Hammersmith Apollo
Portico Quartet – Village Underground
Euros Childs – Boston Arms Music Rooms
Youth Lagoon – Islington Assembly Hall
Dingus Khan – Lexington

Saturday 2 November

Ace Bushy Striptease – Power Lunches
Busta Rhymes – Hammersmith Apollo
Martin Rossier – The Islington

Sunday 3 November

Marc Almond – Union Chapel
Duke Special – St Catherine’s Church

Just Announced

The London Electronic Arts Festival – or LEAF to its friends – lands on 7-10 November. Curated by Radio 1 DJ and Bestival founder Rob da Bank and International Music Summit creator Ben Turner, it boasts an eye-watering line-up of all sorts of elecctronic goodies, including sets from Omar Souleyman, William Orbit and Trentemøller, New Order in coversation with Arthur Baker and an installation and talk by Dinos Chapman, plus Giorgio Moroder (Giorgio Moroder!) speaking and DJing. (His name is Giovanni Giorgio, but everybody calls him Giorgio…) It takes place at venues across East London, and festival passes and individual tickets are both on sale now.

Robbie Williams is set to play the London Palladium on 8 November, with a little help from Rufus Wainwright, Lily Allen… and Miss Piggy and Kermit.

Pulled Apart By Horses are set to premiere new material at a show at Electrowerkz on 12 November. They’ll be debuting their third album, and all proceeds from the show will go to homeless charity Shelter.

Following the release of her mini-album earlier this year, Marika Hackman is set to release a new EP on 9 December. The gloomy folkster has given us a sneak peak in the form of lead single Cinnamon, here. She’ll be playing at the Lexington on 11 December.