The good about The Good The Bad & The Queen and the queen who saw it.

The Good the Bad and the Queen were so fucking highbrow, I was tickled and scratching my head and yawning the entire time.
In twenty years Damon Albarn will be called a genius but for now his pretty boy former image is still haunting him. It's a shame, because TGTB&TQ is such a sophisticated project. Forget the stellar line-up this is no vanity act, and Albarn is definitely the deus-ex-machina here. Theoretically they are sonically so NOT my thing but the lines they trace between genres are so damn intriguing. Especially live, the vaudevillian (is that a word) roots are fully exposed, and the journey to the beginning of Britpop filtered through a showtune sensibility and back to your basic drinking song inches so dangerously close to, say, Jacques Brel.
Who knew? This is quirky-quirky not for the sake of it but truly resulting from fearless and passionate experimentation.
As a bonus, Paul Simonon offers all his Clash-era stage charisma, porkpie hat, bass thrusting and all, charmingly at ease against such gloomy musical backdrop.
In short, nice. Then, we had to kill some time till 3.30 am when Cassius were starting the Elettrowave festival next door. And what a surprise that was. The rave children are alive and well..and still spreading the gospel. Thousands of happy, possibly pill-popping kids were secretly assemblying in the two GIGANTIC rooms cut in an abandoned factory. One for the concerts, and one for the djs taking turns for the next 12 hours. Florence had never seen such flawless organization and proof of success of viral marketing.
I'll dig for pics, if I can find some.