Around London: Incubus at Ally Pally

When Incubus came to London a few months ago I couldn’t fit a gig ticket into my budget, so when my friend reported back that it was ‘amaaaaaaazing, and they did all the old awesome songs’ I felt like I’d missed out on a chance I wouldn’t get for a long time. Incubus has been one of my favourite bands since I was about 16, and their Make Yourself and Morning View albums hold special memories of my teenage years here in the UK. When I heard that the Californian band was coming back to London, I booked tickets as soon as I could and waited for months before the day finally came around.

Ally Pally. source: Wikipedia

North London venue Alexandra Palace, known to locals as Ally Pally, was the location for Incubus’ November 4 gig; although it’s further than I’d usually venture outside of central London it was easy to get to on the Piccadilly Line (and then a short bus journey or 20 minute walk). The view over London from Ally Pally was incredible; we could see all across the capital, and as it was the evening before Guy Fawkes Day we had uninterrupted views of about twenty different firework displays. Quite a spectacular way to begin the evening. The venue itself was impressive; we walked into a palm-filled atrium, and further into the building there was a hall lined with food and drink vendors, which gave the impression of being at a festival more than a concert. Holding a maximum of 10,000 people, the Alexander Palace facilities were much better than I expected: the cloakroom was efficient and the line for the ladies’ bathrooms was fast-moving. I won’t bore you with more venue details, but suffice to say I was impressed!

Incubus

We missed the support band and arrived just before Incubus started. I was expecting them to open with one of the songs off their new album (which I barely know), If Not Now, When?, but to my surprise and delight, they began with Privilege, the opening song from their Make Yourself album. They followed this with Wish You Were Here and throughout the night played some of my favourite songs, including Drive (of course), Pardon Me, The Warmth and Megalomaniac. Many of their songs were accompanied by multimedia displays; the most memorable being emotive pictures and videos of Hitler throughout Megalomaniac. Their encore began with A Certain Shade of Green which got the entire audience jumping, and they finished on one of their new, more mellow songs which I didn’t know. The only three songs I really wish they’d played were Stellar, Southern Girl and Just a Phase…but I guess you can’t have it all. It was an incredible gig – if they come back to London I’ll be the first in line for tickets!!

I can’t seem to be able to embed the video I took of a snippet of Pardon Me, but if you’re interested you can check it out here on Vimeo.