This week saw Londonist Get Scientific when we previewed We Are Scientists playing Soho Revue Bar this Tuesday, get excited about Eurovision and get cosy with Portico Quartet. A busy week all in all!
Looking ahead to this week however, we have Eels playing Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. They've invited the Queen too, so it could be an amusing evening. Austin, Tx stars Spoon play a sold out show at Scala and rising stars Metronomy play the ICA. Mika starts the first of three nights around the capital - Monday night he plays Hammersmith Apollo, Tuesday and Wednesday he plays Brixton Academy. All nights are sold out (as you might expect) however.
Tuesday is quite quiet outside of the three NME shows taking place tonight, with your best bet probably being Fanfarlo who play their pop-folk tunes at the Luminaire. Tickets are £7 from Ticketweb.
I Was A Cub Scout play their indie emo game at the Underworld on Wednesday night - tickets are £8 from See Tickets. Alterenatively catch Menomena at Kings College - tickets are £9.50 each.
Thursday's highlight sees indie royalty play the O2, with Manic Street Preachers, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Klaxons and the Cribs all playing the NME Big show. Seated tickets are available still at £30 (though you may get a bit of vertigo in a few of them!). Alternatively, Underworld play the first of two nights at the Roundhouse, with tickets still availble at £23.50 each from See Tickets. Gorgeous Swedish pop sensation Robyn plays a sold out Koko show as well.
To round out the week, and to give a chance for all you females to ask the guys to marry you for the first time in four years, Hot Chip play their electro-geek at Brixton Academy on Friday night or Alicia Keys plays the O2 once it's got the sweat stains out form the NME show. Alternatively, the Maximum Black Festival takes place at the Forum, which sees Final Fantasy Six Organs of Admittance and Frog Eyes, all play along with a raft of other folky singer-songwriter sorts. Tickets are £16 each.
Throughout the week we also have the last of the NME awards shows around London. Monday sees The Kooks and One Night Only play the Astoria and The Wombats and Glasvegas play Shepherds Bush Empire. Tuesday has Young Knives and Lightspeed Champion play the Astoria, Band of Horses and Sons and Daughters play Koko, and Reverend and the Makers play the Roundhouse. The Hold Steady plays Koko on Wednesday night, and Kate Nash plays the Astoria. To round out the week, Gallows play the Astoria on 29th for what is sure to be a completely f*cked up show (who are also joining them). Most shows are sold out or selling out rapidly, so be sure to get tickets soon!
We always recommend ethical gig trading site Scarlet Mist as your first port of call for tickets particularly when they're sold out, so check them out and beat the touts. Failing that Gumtree is always a friend.
Photos of Spoon and Frog Eyes come from their respective myspace pages.
