🗣 Gigs

Even more gigs booked up for me:

5/9/15 - Foo Fighters at National Bowl, Milton Keynes

18/10/15 - Fightstar at Southampton University

25/10/15 - Young Guns at Engine Rooms, Southampton

6/11/15 - Every Time I Die at The Talking Heads, Southampton

This side of Christmas so far I have

foo fighters - murrayfield Edinburgh

reel big fish - Newcastle

Ash - Newcastle

Managed to get a v last minute ticket to go to Reading for the Sunday. Was a fun day out.

Saw Spring King, who I really enjoyed. The Maccabees & Jamie T were predictably fun.

In line with a recent comment made by Super Michael, about us being a pretty white forum (probably fair) I tried to diversify a bit and got on down for Kendrick Lamar. I’ve been enjoying his album recently, and have to say he absolutely knocked it out the park. Really great performance and really good fun. Enjoyed that so much more than Kanye at Glastonbury.

I did find it interesting that the crowd for Kendrick was both noticably more swollen and rowdy than it was for headliners, The Libertines. It’s a strange situation with The Libs. They are probably in the best condition they’ve ever been in (at least as a band), tighter and visually happier. My mind does go back to seeing them at Leeds when they first reformed in 2010, it was pretty apparent it was a cash grab, the tensions between Pete & Carl were clear to all to see.

Fast forward 5 years and there seems to be a cooling in tensions, the boys have grown up, accepted each others flaws and are best friends. I wonder if therein lies the problem? The hits are still great, they sound good, the band look in good shape (well, Pete may have put on a little bulk, but he still looks much better than when he was at his worst) - but there is something missing. There’s no spark. There’s no edge. A big part of their appeal was the myth that surrounded them. The intrigue. The feeling that this could either be the most exciting night of your life or a complete and utter shambles. Everything could fall apart in 2 seconds time.

There’s none of that now. It’s 4 middle-age(ish) dudes playing through their hits relatively comfortably, with the odd new tune.

Originally posted by @KRG

I did find it interesting that the crowd for Kendrick was both noticably more swollen and rowdy than it was for headliners, The Libertines. It’s a strange situation with The Libs. They are probably in the best condition they’ve ever been in (at least as a band), tighter and visually happier. My mind does go back to seeing them at Leeds when they first reformed in 2010, it was pretty apparent it was a cash grab, the tensions between Pete & Carl were clear to all to see.

Fast forward 5 years and there seems to be a cooling in tensions, the boys have grown up, accepted each others flaws and are best friends. I wonder if therein lies the problem? The hits are still great, they sound good, the band look in good shape (well, Pete may have put on a little bulk, but he still looks much better than when he was at his worst) - but there is something missing. There’s no spark. There’s no edge. A big part of their appeal was the myth that surrounded them. The intrigue. The feeling that this could either be the most exciting night of your life or a complete and utter shambles. Everything could fall apart in 2 seconds time.

There’s none of that now. It’s 4 middle-age(ish) dudes playing through their hits relatively comfortably, with the odd new tune.

I got that vibe with The Libs at Glasto as well - they don’t seem the same band that they were, which is understandable given that they’ve been around for almost 20 years in one form or another. I also saw them at Reading in 2010 and it was a vastly different set to the one we saw a few months ago at Glasto, they did seem to have that edge of danger and unpredictability in what was clearly a cash grab set like you said. Now that they’re back writing music and happy playing together, they’ve lost that. Still good to watch but they’ll not be the same band that they once were.

As for myself, being an Edinburgh resident, i’ve been doing a lot of Fringe shows of late. I decided to bookmark the Fringe with shows by Stewart Lee on August 8th and David O’Doherty last night, both comedians that i’ve been meaning to see for ages and ages but never got round to. Lee was trying out new material across his run for the new series of Comedy Vehicle, so it’ll be interesting to see how the stuff we saw transforms across the run and then when it’s filtered through the process of a TV show. Really funny though, he’s honed his character perfectly and deserves all the praise he gets.

I was a bit surprised that David O’Doherty wasn’t sold out considering that he’s probably one of the most well-known comedians at the Fringe this year. He really delivered, clearly very jaded and tired at the end of a long run of shows but he still put in a lot of energy to his performance and is still one of the most irreverent and hilarious comedians out there in my view. Seen plenty of free shows, nothing major to report there though! I wanted to try and catch Trevor Noah before he takes over the reigns of the Daily Show later this year but his run sold out weeks in advance, shame that.

Will be getting Maccabees tickets for Newcastle on Wednesday. The gigs are building up again!

1 Like

Did Victorious festival in Southsea this weekend.

Highlight was Primal Scream. I once saw them at the Guidlhall but i felt like my ears were bleeding from the sound so could to actually hear them this time. Finally saw Cast.

Booked to see Foo Fighters on Saturday. Florence and the Machine at the end of the month.

Looking forward to finally seeing Ride in October. Followed by Frank Turner in November and then Charlatans in December. Sure there will be additions.

3 Likes

Thank you… Charlatans booked! :wink:

1 Like

Originally posted by @Sfcsim

The gigs are building up again!

They sure are!

Going Bestival next week. Then Wolf Alice later this month (though tbh, I’m more excited for Drenge who are supporting). Richard Hawley, Kurt Vile, Alabama Shakes & Django Django coming up before xmas.

I’m really bad at not spending all my money on gigs.

1 Like

Oh & Bohicas.

& Hot Chip.

Going to the Moseley folk festival this weekend. The last hurrah of summer, I’d say.

Actually going to see Gaz Coombes (ex-Supergrass) and Idlewild (neither of whom are very folky) but I think the highlight is supposed to be the Monkees, who are touring at the moment.

Hey hey, we’re the Saints…

Was off to bed last night, I saw that Bullet for my Valentine are playing at the Sands Centre Carlisle… Booked.

If you like Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold, then this is the band for you. Brilliant live and a UK band!

Get in!

Foo’s in Edinburgh tonight… Cannot wait!

Foos were immense at Milton Keynes (I was at the first of their two dates there - Saturday).

Avert your eyes if you know nothing about their current stage show!

They put up a giant, all-consuming ‘FF’ curtain while the crew set up. After the band started playing and it finally dropped, Dave Grohl - still pretty broken in the leg area - emerged on a FF-themed throne… A throne complete with no less than its own lightshow, with guitar necks attached at the base (presumably those of his vanquished foes) and the ability to move along the stage into the centre of the crowd. Epic!

I reckon the set lasted about 2h 15m, which (bearing in mind Royal Blood and Iggy Pop played full sets too) made the horrendous cost worth it. We were also fortunate enough that they brought out Roger Taylor and John Paul Jones to play a cover of ‘Under Pressure’.

Foo Fighters don’t really ‘do’ adequate or bog-standard, do they? :laughing:

3 Likes

I was also at the Foo Fighters on Saturday night. My partner managed to get into the pen at the front to be nearer the stage whilst I stood on the hill at the back. Great view if my eyesight was better. I sort of saw them at Reading a few years ago (I have a tendancy to wander off at festivals unless it’s something I absolutely love). I don’t know any names of their songs but enjoyed it a lot. To the point that I would have considred going the Sunday and trying to get in the pen to experience it a bit more close up.

But hate Milton Keynes bowl.

Originally posted by @Intiniki

But hate Milton Keynes bowl.

For a custom-built venue in a custom-built town, it’s terrible in several ways.

I mean I like that the ground’s sloped down towards the stage; you get a better view that way. Plus their sound system was solid enough. However the infrastructure isn’t there for that many attendees. Between Royal Blood and Iggy Pop we attempted to do a loo break/food run. With the toilets right opposite the food stands and only a narrow walkway between, absolute everywhere around the main bowl got completely jammed.

Pathetic really. They either need to widen that area or use barriers to divide it into three - a loo queueing area, a food queueing area and a general walkway between.

Thankfully we parked a way away and walked in, because I’ve heard horror stories of the main car park being such a bottleneck that people got stuck for 1-2 hours afterwards!

Also my group got there for dead-on 4pm so luckily we were able to get down the front and secure wristbands for the inner circle. Much better views and atmosphere, plus it was actually less crammed then the area behind the second barrier. Would’ve been nice if this was advertised properly as we only happened upon there being wristbands to get down the front by chance.

Utterly fantastic performance but yeah - shame about the venue.

Yeah my partner got into the inner circle by chance wristband free just before Foos came on. He’s jammy like that. He then told me how it wasn’t crowded. I just cannot do sardine like in crowds anymore. But it would have been good to know about the wrist bands beforehand. We may check more now.

I cannot believe it was purpose built, it’s so badly designed. It wasan old clay pit so maybe they just thought it was a grand idea to use it that way. I saw one woman in front of me trying to call her partner who had gone for a wee / drink / food as he had been for ages. He eventually came back. Other people around me were also bemoaning the queues and crush. I didn’t have a single drink or loo break so thankfully avoided it. It took ages for everyone to leave via one (?) exit. We were lucky on the carpark front as they suddenly opened another exit we were near. We were home before we had expected.

But I don’t really want to repeat it. It’s going to have to be a pretty unmissable band for me to go back.

I was at the Foo Fighters Saturday as well. £5 for a beer, not even a pint, just a bottle of beer, what a rip off. Seen the Foos before and not a ‘massive’ fan, but they’re alright so went with some mates as one of them had a spare ticket. You know what you’re getting with them, they are always good. Thought Royal Blood were good, not heard them before, sat on the bank at the back & enjoyed them. Missed Iggy Pop as went for a mooch about.

Yep, they did the same last night. It was all worth it to see my 7 year old’s (Olivia) face. I love these moments. It was priceless. For me the 7th time, but they still blow me away!

Yes MK Bowl is terrible. I have only been there twice for Bon Jovi and Green Day, but the sound was also terrible.