Coot: Warpath

Back blip (by 30 minutes...): The Avett Brothers held me up! (See below)

This is a coot charging into battle: it joined three other coots which were already posturing by raising their wings and clacking their beaks at each other. Gawd - chill out... This is both a back blip and backup blip: I took it early in my day (hence the slightly golden light) as I was hoping to blip a photo from the concert I attended in the evening...


I went to see The Avett Brothers at The Forum in Kentish Town: it was an absolutely fantastic concert! They were brilliant: lively, musical, charming, and engaging... It all felt so spontaneous and effortless: they are not slick (slick isn't the right word for their music), but their performance was amazing and the atmosphere was warm and buzzing. If ever you get the chance to see them live, don't hesitate for a second! I'm hard to please when it comes to quality of performance (as a musician myself), but was astounded by the musicality that they displayed so effortlessly, and the relationship between the performers was close and endearing (especially between the brothers Scott and Seth). This was highlighted by their brotherly banter:
Seth: "Scott Avett everybody: give him a hand... Renowned worldwide for his dancing skill, but not his banjo playing."
Scott: "Thanks, I was just dancing lying down...?!"
Seth: "That's right everybody: he was "dancing" lying down..."
They sang so beautifully together: there were many intimate acoustic moments.

Scott plays banjo (or guitar or piano) whilst singing, and often plays the kick drum too: he has a kick drum next to his mic stand, and plays it with extraordinary gusto! In fact, it seems an irresistible thing (almost like a tic): he seems to play it even when he's not next to it. He broke it at one point (a minion whizzed on, pre-prepared, and replaced the kick pedal); the friendly chap sitting next to me remarked that he managed to break it 3 times at the previous gig that he saw...

The Avett Brothers' dancing was also epic: Seth does a sort of wiggle almost constantly (which makes it seem like he needs the loo a bit), but then did his laces up at one point and broke into some seriously impressive barn dance leg action. Scott seems to suffer from a well-harnessed version of ADHD and stamps and kicks around almost constantly in a very rhythmic and appropriate way: he'd whizz back to stamp on his kick drum at key moments but even that could hardly tether him to the spot.

So, no photos?! Honestly, I didn't dare: I had to lie to get my camera in unconfiscated (having been told by staff in the queue outside that they'd confiscate any camera with a detachable lens), and being such a small venue, I was never more than about 5 metres from a member of security staff, so I just enjoyed the concert in the knowledge that this coot (which almost looks like it is moonwalking perhaps?) would cover me photo-wise. The friend who took me (THANK YOU C.!) took lots of photos with her superzoom Canon which looked to capture the atmosphere well, so I felt relieved of photoduty for the evening.