What's the last gig you went to see?

[Feanor]

Went to a 'comedy' show at the Edinburgh Fringe yesterday.
An ozzie by the name of Alex Williamson.

What a heap of nasty misogynist shit.
It was like Bernard Manning with swear words.

I'd expected something sweary like Billy Connoly or Kevin Bloody Wilson, but it just wasn't.

If you strip out the swear words to listen to what he was actually saying, it was just not funny.
He seemed to take the view that the more offensive, the better.
Now, sometimes funny things can be offensive, and you can make play on that.
But being offensive is not funny by itself; there needs to be some cleverness behind it.
There was not. It was just like listening to a drunk at the bar.

I sat through an hour of it.
I wasn't offended; I just thought 'meh, what a pile of crap'.

Well, it only lasted an hour.

But hey, that's the fringe for you.

[Quisling]

Went to a 'comedy'
What a heap of nasty misogynist shit.

I saw Paddy McGuinness a few years ago and had similar feelings.  It was shouty witless tosh.  The best he could manage was a game of Family Fortunes with the audience where you had to guess what were the most popular types of shit their survey had named.
Someone behind me shouted "goldfish" which received a bigger laugh than the rest of the show put together.  Says it all.

Off to see Sigur Ros in a few weeks, then Public Service Broadcasting in October, then Wolf Alice in November.  It looks like a good autumn coming up!

[StuAff]

Last night, Revolting Cocks in Islington. Richard 23 of Front 242, Chris Connelly (ex Finitribe, ex Ministry) and Paul Barker (ex Ministry) exploring their shared musical past in glorious fashion. Missed the one and only London show in 1991 (a bit of a mess by all accounts, Chris apologised for it!) Whole show was a highlight but the closer, one of the greatest cover versions ever (IMHO) was the cherry on top...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk0_NXSPfs4

[Torslanda]

<Thora Hird> Well you're easily pleased!</Thora Hird>

[Jaded]

Niall Kelly at The ALe House.

Although I hadn't gone to see him, he happened to be on whilst I was drinking beers.

[StuAff]

<Thora Hird> Well you're easily pleased!</Thora Hird>

Songs of Praise was more her thing

[fuzzy]

Had weekend passes for Rewind South so got thoroughly entertained by various artists.

Go West, The Christians, Kim Wilde (reminiscant moment time), Kim Appleby, Jilted John (a several of thousand folk singing 'Gordon is a moron!' was fun), Saint Midge of Ure, Big Country (a few tears from Mrs F who adored Stuart Adamson), being taught the CORRECT shapes for YMCA by The Village People  , Glen Matlock (the same several thousad of souls wanting to be Anarchy....) amongst others.

The hihlight for me was probably Status Quo. I know Rick is no longer with us but Francis Rossi was accompanied by artists who have been with him for a while. I'm not a fan of Quo but happily listen to their stuff. Being in a big crowd, singing along to all the favourite was a good way to finish the event. All the other acts used the fixed sound system (varios racks and chains of Martin Audio speakers. Quo however had a fuck off big wall of silver Marshall amps. Serious noise

I suspect I shall attend next year.

[perpetual dan]

Saw Therapy? and the Sisters of Mercy at the Roundhouse last night. It was originally intended as a night out for Mrs Dan and I, but childcare for a late return eluded us. So Miss Dan the Elder got to go to her first gig. She's not the biggest fan, but enjoyed them. Was nearer the front for Therapy? than I'd planned, who were more rowdy than I expected (from limited knowledge). Sisters were doing a fairly ROCK interpretation of their stuff, but enjoyable from further back than I expected although we missed some in order to get home before breakfast.


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[PaulF]

Saw these two last night, great show.

Martin and Eliza Carthy at Arlington Arts Centr

To my shame I'm not familiar with their work except via The Imagined Village so it was almost all new to me.

Just the pair of them on guitar and fiddle. Great rapport between the two of them and a real passion for the music with the stories behind the songs told to place in context.

They're touring for a while so worth a visit if they come near you.

[Pingu]

Mrs P & I went to see Public Service Broadcasting at His Majesty's Theatre last night. They've expanded somewhat since we last saw them to include a three-piece brass section and a bod who seems to be able to play just about anything (bass, guitar, percussion, brass). Oh, and a dancer in a spacesuit  They played a mixture of stuff from the latest album, some familiar older tracks and some songs from The Race for Space which we hadn't heard live before. Good stuff as usual 

[Redlight]

Anyone else going to On Blackheath tomorrow?  Performers include  KT Tunstall, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Seasick Steve and The Libertines, about whom I admit to knowing nothing except that their singer used to shag Kate Moss and seems to be a bit of a pratt.

[Veloman]

Proms

50 yr of Stax at RAH week last Friday and still available on iPlayer.

Absolutely brilliant night with legends in a performance that will go down in history.

Good old Proms!

[Quisling]

Sigur Ros at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith last night.  No support act, but played two sets with an intermission featuring old and new stuff. No encores though. I have a fair few of their albums but I didn't recognise about half of what they played.  Blooming awesome noise for three blokes though.  On paper, there shouldn't be anything good about a band led by a chap singing in Icelandic and a made up language in falsetto whilst frantically sawing at a guitar with a bow.  In practice - totally amazing wall of sound.  Some obvious omissions in the set list - no Von, Ara Batur, Hafsol or Hoppipolla; any of which would have been crowd pleasers, but they did do some corking well known tunes like Glosoli.

Jonsi's voice sounded excellent.  At one point during Festival, he held a note for something like 20-25 seconds, so everyone clapped.  But he carried on.  All the other instruments had stopped and he must have held it for something in the order of 40 seconds.  Big round of applause at that point.  Great lighting and visuals. Recommended.

Looking forward to Public Service Broadcasting next month now.

[madcow]

Our local stately home,Newby Hall , has been hosting a Street Food Festival this weekend.
The food offering is pretty overblown stuff. What was once edgy is now mainstream Waitrose territory.
But the evening entertainment is a bit better.
Last night we had a session from Scott Mills playing some great tunes.
Tonight we had Five who were surprisingly good. A bit cheesy like many boy bands of their time but they did carry the audience with them and entertained everyone. Lots of happy people, which is what entertainment is all about IMHO.

[IanDG]

I have just sold my Nick Cave tickets for Glasgow Wednesday night 

[Jaded]

Just seen Neon Waltz and Sam Fender. We escaped after two tracks from the Ska band 

[Jaded]

Then saw Tide Lines who were pretty good,

The Pigeon Detectives - who were the stand out for me



and finally The View who disappointed spectacularly.

[Mrs Pingu]

Sigur Ros at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith last night.  No support act, but played two sets with an intermission featuring old and new stuff. No encores though. I have a fair few of their albums but I didn't recognise about half of what they played.  Blooming awesome noise for three blokes though.  On paper, there shouldn't be anything good about a band led by a chap singing in Icelandic and a made up language in falsetto whilst frantically sawing at a guitar with a bow.  In practice - totally amazing wall of sound.  Some obvious omissions in the set list - no Von, Ara Batur, Hafsol or Hoppipolla; any of which would have been crowd pleasers, but they did do some corking well known tunes like Glosoli.

Jonsi's voice sounded excellent.  At one point during Festival, he held a note for something like 20-25 seconds, so everyone clapped.  But he carried on.  All the other instruments had stopped and he must have held it for something in the order of 40 seconds.  Big round of applause at that point.  Great lighting and visuals. Recommended.

Looking forward to Public Service Broadcasting next month now.

Good, we've got Sigur Ros in Brussels tomorow night...

[Jaded]

A few more today

Hunter & The Bear.

Good sound rock - one to watch.







The Rezillos

Good old-fashioned punky fun with a hint of ageing.







Turin Brakes.

Honest and hardworking.





Glasvegas

When they played old favourites they were great. They don't seem to be a band that enjoys working a crowd. "Daddy's Gone" and "Geraldine" the standouts.

[StuAff]

DJ Shadow at the Roundhouse last night. Most excellent.

[Tim Hall]

The Festival of the Spoken Nerd and their "You Can't Polish a Nerd" show.  Science! Songs! Really weird stuff!

As it says on their website:

You Can’t Polish A Nerd will see Helen, Matt and Steve putting the “oooh” into zoology, the “fun” into fundamental theorem of calculus and the “recursion” into recursion with a veritable Periodic Table of new science, songs, and spreadsheets.

We learnt about the Droste effect, then did mind bending stuff with spherical cameras and got encouraged to sign a petition about footballs.

[madcow]

Australian Pink Floyd at Leeds Arena last night. Pretty good vocals , great instrument playing and almost ,almost shut your eyes and be transported back to the real thing.
Obviously all PF fans are now decently middle aged and middle class , so it was only on the last few numbers that people got out of their seats and clappped along to the music.
They did spoil it a bit by showing archive footage of the real PF and their gig at Wembley or some other great stadium, which made a weekday night in Leeds feel a bit tame. Still it's great music and worth the money , even though I was only dragged along my Mrs. M , who has been a fan since the 70's.

[CrinklyLion]

Altho the summer was quiet, there have been plenty of excellent gigs I never got round to reviewing in September and October.

I am currently at another KNO gig in Leeds, at Church. The toilets are flooded from an overflowing blocked sink, there's no seating, and it's definitely venue-priced beer. I had to queue for doors, and they've just said that it's a no phones rule for the next song cos it's a new one.

I am _such_ a good mum. And such a rebel, since I haven't put my phone away...

(In fairness all the staff are lovely)

[sg37409]

Oz Ping floyd again. Great show as usual.
Oz Pink floyd again.  Must have seen them about 4 times now by sg310, on Flickr

[essexian]

Marc Almond at the Symphony Hall Birmingham.

This gig caused some disagreement between CBH and I over whether we ever saw Soft Cell live: I am sure we did at the late, much missed Hummingbird back in 2001. However, CBH has no memory of this and thus is certain we didn't go. Memory is such a strange thing.... however, I can say without fear of contradiction that both of us will remember last nights gig for all the right reasons: it was excellent!

To be honest, I am getting old and after having a long busy day at work and the fact that I would need to face the M6 during rush hour, along with the mess that central Birmingham is currently, I wasn't really looking forward to the gig. After a few songs however, I started getting into the event and by the end, both of us were up on our feet singing away.... not a nice sound but hey, when the mood takes you!

A couple of further things, CBH said during the break that it was nice to see a gig where there was no production apart from the 20 people on stage. So, no dancers wearing next to nothing or that type of thing but instead real, actual talent rather than plastic performers who would get bottled off stage at the local social club should they tried it on there.

A final plea.... if you go to a gig, please don't spend most of the time on your phone.... not only is it disrespectful to the artist but its off putting to those of us who want to watch the gig!  That said...here is a photo taken with my phone....doh!

2017-10-18_02-35-58 by essexian, on Flickr