Tindersticks@Royal Festival Hall London May 2008

Tom hired some new CDs out from the Openbare bibliotheek at centraal station from Tinderstick's frontman Stuart A Staples. It made me look back at the pictures I took at the gig in London last year. What's actually bugging me more is the fact that I can't seem to find any photos from the gig anywhere on the web. I still wonder if the gig was really as amazing as I have brought myself to believe, and I feel like maybe I'm looking for evidence. On the other hand, maybe it's just better to stick to my memories, and the poor resolution photos I took on my phone.

To date this is the best gig I've ever seen, for the performance as much as the experience. I'd heard of them and heard tracks unknowingly, but from the minute the first spotlight shone and the first key was played, I was in a trance. Beautiful, spooky, delicately building the first track on the new album up instrument by instrument highlighted in a pale blue light. It started with the keys of a piano echoing into the silence and space of the hall.

Highlights: 'Intro'; enough said, the randomly syncopated guitar parts on 'Mother dear' that takes over with aggressive strumming with then gives way to melodic piano and vocals again, self-indulgence of The Turns we Took clearly telling us 'we're back it's been a journey but this is where we are now, and we've arrived!' It really felt like a crucial time for the band on this journey of theirs. Life clearly isn't one linear path. Let's also not forget the extra musicians playing an extended intro to 'The Hungry Saw' on percussion instruments, an having so much fun doing it.

There's absolutely nothing I could fault, and it seems neither can the critics, which is rare. I usually love what they hate and vice versa.