What's the last gig you went to see?

[StuAff]

Third gig of the year on Friday night. first two being Therapy? in Southampton in February, and Front Line Assembly at the Garage in Highbury a fortnight back (exchanged greetings with Bill Leeb when the band went for a walk, which was nice). Both splendid, with great supports. Underworld had support from Unknown DJ with a Laptop- actually played some good stuff- but more than made up for it with their performance. The best of the new album & an excellent selection from most of its predecessors. 2 hours 10 minutes of excellence that made sure I didn't feel knackered despite doing the FNRttC to Southend the previous night, then riding back into town (fittingly, through Romford and Barking)..

[citoyen]

Richard Herring's 'Happy Now' in Canterbury last night.

I laughed a lot. My wife didn't laugh so much. My son clearly found it funny but also rather uncomfortable at times. Herring doesn't have a filter when he's performing. I like this about him, others not so much. He's undeniably a very polished performer though - there was no warm-up or support act, he just came out and launched straight into the show, but the first laugh came after no more than a few seconds. A lot of the material is familiar to me from his podcasts but it's all packaged nicely together in a well structured show that deals intelligently with whether or not we can be truly happy, framed by the context of his recently having become a parent for the first time at 48. Really good, highly recommended.

[Legs]

Thanks for that, citoyen; Mrs Legs and I were going to get tickets to see that when he's in Stafford next weekend.    My parents are coming up to stay with us and babysitting - it'll be our first date night for 9 months!

[citoyen]

My parents are coming up to stay with us and babysitting - it'll be our first date night for 9 months!

Ha! You couldn't have picked a more appropriate gig... or is that inappropriate? Well, you'll see what I mean soon enough. 

[essexian]

The Primitives at Coventry Empire.

Not been to the Empire before, perhaps due to the fact that its newly opened (doh) and previously it was the student union bar, but I was impressed by the high quality of the sound and the sticky carpets....ah that took me back to the good old days of the Hummingbird. 

I was also impressed by the band as once again (this is the fifth or sixth time we have seen them), they put on an enjoyable show. And extremely impressed by the ticket price for this home town gig...a fiver! Try getting four live bands and a Saturday night out for a fiver.... the last time I paid that amount for a gig was Billy Bragg back in 1992!

What did not impress me however was the start time of the main band.... now I am approaching "old" so I don't really want to stand up for hours waiting for Tracy Tracy and the lads to roll up at 10.35pm. Come on at 9.30pm, do an hour and a quarter set and let me get home to bed by midnight please.... nope, not home until well after 1am..... I can't cope with late nights anymore and CBH has been complaining all night that her back hurts.

That aside, we are thinking about seeing them again at the Hare and Hounds Birmingham next month. However, we already have a gig that week and wonder whether we will be up to two nights out in the same week......yes, it has come to that!      I remember the days when................

   

[andrewc]

Just back from seeing Yundi at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (warning, link contains David Mellor content)

An all Chopin program, played with dazzling virtuosity to a packed hall.   I knew he was a good pianist,  I didn't know that he seems to have rock star status with a lot of young Chinese people, who must have made up half the audience.  He finally left the stage carrying a dozen bouquets presented by adoring young ladies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo82ipPkTRY

[fuzzy]

Muse and the O₂ last night. A visually stunning show and a great set.

[PaulF]

The Sixteen at Christchurch in Oxford.

Got my moneys worth as there were actually 18 of them

[Mr Larrington]

Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson, whom (grammer) I have mentioned before, at the Half Moon in Putney.

Hat Fitz is an impressively-bearded Australian with a couple of beat-up guitars and, obv, a hat.  Cara Robinson is a non-bearded Irishwoman who pkays drums, washboard, fife, cowbells and penny whistle, frequently at the same time.  They both sing.  If I said Seasick Steve meets The White Stripes I'd be wrong, but not totally (only Cara is a much better drummer than Meg White).  In the words of Theresa, who borrowed my lighter at the interval, "Awesome!  Like, totally awesome!".  She is USAnian.

[PaulF]

Seth Lakeman at the Arlington centre. Solo and acoustic, great set and he works really well in a small audience

[Mr Larrington]

Two very different exponents of the electric-type guitar at the Town & Country Club Forum in Kentish Town.  First up Joanne Shaw Taylor, who can play more than just a bit and sings real purty¹ too, accompanied by a Thin on bass and a Beard on drums.  The Beard could almost have been Hat Fitz (qv.) in hatless disguise.  She's dead good and, to my jaundiced eye, a lot better looking than...

...the main attraction, a Mr John Wilkinson of Canvey Island, accompanied as usual by the superlative Norman Watt-Roy and the slightly less superlative but still pretty handy Dylan Howe.  Wlko manages to look even more sinister than in his pre-illness days but on the other hand has treated himself to a new guitar since the last time I saw him, with which he was soon machine-gunning the grinning public.  He's still dead good, but then you knew that.

My feet hurt.  Note to self: while your age may contain both a five and a two you are not 25 any more and really ought to steer clear of mosh pits.  Actually Imthink I'd just turned nineteen when I first saw Wilko

1: If your definition of the word encompasses bluesy growling at Men Who Have Done Her Wrong, that is.

[Mr Larrington]

Explosions In The Sky   Hurrah except for the arsehole mentioned in the RANT thread.

[clarion]

Messrs Wilkinson & Watt-Roy (of the Canvey Island Watt-Roys) are jolly good.  They may make it big one day.

[rogerzilla]

I'm off to see ELO (sorry - "Jeff Lynne's ELO") tonight.

[Mr Larrington]

Messrs Wilkinson & Watt-Roy (of the Canvey Island Watt-Roys) are jolly good.  They may make it big one day.

They're playing Cornbury this year.  I hope Wilko has some choice words for any members of The Lizard Alliance who might happen to turn up.

[Mrs Pingu]

Explosions In The Sky   Hurrah except for the arsehole mentioned in the RANT thread.

+1, except it's hurrah except for the crowd all talking through the quiet bits.

[PeterM]

Explosions In The Sky

Caught them in Hoxton-on-Sea on Sunday, for the first time since the ICA in 2004-ish, with Part Chimp supporting then (and causing my trousers to waft about in the hurricane from the speaker stacks). Still excellent, but fundamentally slightly polite, hence the soundtracks, maybe. See also Mogwai...

[Jaded]

Messrs Wilkinson & Watt-Roy (of the Canvey Island Watt-Roys) are jolly good.  They may make it big one day.

They're playing Cornbury this year.  I hope Wilko has some choice words for any members of The Lizard Alliance who might happen to turn up.

Oooh, might be there.

[sg37409]

Folk talking and arseing around with phones at gigs is sadly common.
At the barrowlands gig they seemed to have some kind of techy fault with bass (guy on the left). I thought this might have been cause for no encore but it didn't seem to be as they didn't do one at brighton.  I had been really looking forward to it, but I felt their music didn't come over well at a concert. It was dead loud - good and bad, as during the loud bits I found it hard to make out the tunes. And I didn't feel the quieter tuneful bits came over well.  Maybe I'd been looking forward to it too much. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10. 

Barrowlands took me right back. First time there in maybe 20 years of more sanitised venues. I enjoyed it a lot.

(corrected autocorrect of barrow lands....)

[Mrs Pingu]

I only remember the tremendously sticky floor at the Barrowlands.

[Mr Larrington]

That's the fourth time I've seen EITS and I can't recall them ever having done an encore.  This time they ended with a massive chord, stage lights out, house lights up, thank you and goodnight.

[rogerzilla]

ELO were very good but, to be fair, The Feeling, supporting, were tighter.  It was ELO's last night at the O₂ so Jeff Lynne's voice may have been a bit strained.  Very expensive-looking light show.  Best songs were probably Livin' Thing and Mr. Blue Sky (managed fairly well without a choir* and with Richard Tandy, who looks like a retired music shop proprietor, doing his usual stint with the vocoder).  Shine A Little Love was a bit ragged.

*look up the Chldren In Need performance from a few years ago where Gareth Malone and friends help out with the choral bits...it's note-perfect, sublime, and the main reason ELO are touring again

[andrewc]

I saw the very excellent Phronesis http://www.phronesismusic.com/  on Friday,   and bought their live double LP afterwards.

One of the tracks is called "Herne Hill"   


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWCz0KvdDPU

[menthel]

Explosions In The Sky   Hurrah except for the arsehole mentioned in the RANT thread.

Saw them too in Brizzle. Good but not great. They haven't really moved on...

[Wascally Weasel]

A New International, last night at St Lukes in Glasgow . Absolutely fantastic.