Live gigs - Who you've seen were they good, bad etc.

[archiegow]

Royel Otis at Newcastle City Hall Wednesday night, got a last minute ticket from a friend. Really entertaining show from the guys, very slick performances, fun energy and one of the most lively crowds I’ve been in this year. Their shout out to the “Clunys” was very humorous too!

 

Also thoroughly enjoyed Still Blank as the support act, excellent voice on their singer. Will definitely be keeping an eye on them!

[efcfanwirral]

Wow Wolf Alice tonight was incredibly special. The best I've seen them by far and they seemed to happy to be in arenas. They fully deserve those headline slots next year.

 

The Giant Peach to Smile transition was incredible 

[Kalopsia]

Wolf Alice were just wicked.

[Chapple12345]

 

 

A very busy week and a half for me with excellent gigs from Wet Leg, The Last Dinner Party and CMAT all at the LCR Norwich

Thats all my 2025 gigs wrapped up now, Fontaines DC at Finsbury being the highlight 

2026 is already looking very busy with Florence and the Machine, Suede, Ash, The Charlatans, Madness and Latitude Festival all booked in 

[BlackFoxx]

More praise for Wolf Alice, brilliant show in Birmingham tonight. Really feel like future headliners.

[thatTFBguy]

Just out of Mumford & Sons in Leeds and I know this form bashes them all the time, but I'm sorry I just have to say...

 

you should all insult them more. Fudging hell, they were dog wash. Bland setlist. Bland stage presence, bland all the way through till the lukewarm end. Partner wanted to leave early and I nearly teared up. 

[Ben7amin_]

Saw English Teacher last week-   Sad to admit the performance felt a little bit tired not the same as the high energy Glastonbury performance earlier in the year,  perhaps signs of a band have toured absolutely loads as they stepped 2 or 3 venue sizes celebrating an excellent first album -    That being said the band (playing on the night of Mani's passing). Gave us a little taster of waterfall.   They did handle an issue in the crowd that kind of ruined the end of Albert Road well. leaving the stage and restarting the whole tune -   Hopefully the band can get a rest now - and come back with a second album as good as the first.

[Ben7amin_]

Double dip from me today -   Saw Everything Everything at Factory International - first visit to a very impressive venue.  Get To Heaven being played in full including all its extra tracks from the deluxe addition.   Firstly very impressive that they sold out a 5000 capacity venue - perhaps a sign of how well this album celebrating its 10th anniversary has aged.  

 

Having been to a lot full album shows now -  the potentially divisive choice of not playing it order - which actually I think made a lot of sense meaning that heavy hitters No Reptiles & Distant Past could come at the end as part of the encore as opposed to the latter (probably there biggest hitter) being played 2nd.   

 

the atmosphere was electric very upbeat crowd. after the main set finished a couple came on stage for a proposal followed by a second encore with the only 2 non get to heaven tracks MY CUZ YR BF & Cold Reactor - something only Manchester on the tour got.   10/10 gig  Great crowd, great performance, great venue.

 

On my first propper visit to factory International/Aviva studios very impressed.   Great space,  Post gig the Hall downstairs remains open - so access to merch is not abruptly cut of and people can still get what they want, The bars remain open - and pies and sausage rolls as well as Nachos are available -  They even have a DJ on -   

 

Bonus mention Lime Garden - who seem to be a perpetual support act - were pretty  good too

[chloe_91]

Saw Royel Otis on Saturday,  for their 2nd night at Victoria warehouse.

 

Firstly i can't stand the venue, mainly from access POV it's 1. difficult to get too and from and then the entrance in and out of the hall is awful, it bottlenecks at the back so whilst this time i got lucy and got properly into the venue, trying to get out to the toilet and re-entering is nigh on impossible. I'm not blessed with a strong bladder and attempted to exit my spot half wy through, saw the blockade where it was impossible to gt out yet alone back in and tested myself successfully 😄 They really need to sort this out though as they have lots of side doors which dont exit the boundaries of the venue which could be used and improve the gig experience for everyone as the sheer amount of people watching with partial views outside of the main room with tv screens is embarrassing and even if you get in at the back your spending most of the gig in a huge squeeze.

 

Royel Otis were really polished, audience wise it felt very tame, maybe it was that this was the 2nd night that was released after the first date sold out so it was more of a casual goers concert but the atmosphere was very tame, with the only big responses coming from the covers and the encore.

 

another recomendation for the support  still blank who i'm going to give a deeper listen

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ben7amin_]

1 hour ago, chloe_91 said:

 Victoria warehouse.

 

Firstly i can't stand the venue, mainly from access POV it's 1. difficult to get too and from and then the entrance in and out of the hall is awful, it bottlenecks at the back

 

 

 

100% agree - Apart from the getting too and from as I live walking distance.  Though they have come up with some mad traffic cone formations across the roads near the venue which seem to confuse the f*ck out of drivers- which extends the chaos out into the lives of people not even attending the gigs.

 

Without a doubt every time i got to a gig there the crust at the back forms while there is much more space at the front    all it takes is one of the venue to send some on stage and ask everyone past a certain point to take a few steps forward.

 

Really think the entrance between the bar area and the venue where the bottleneck forms needs to designated as area people are not allowed to stand in as its chaos.

 

hopefully given its close proximity and similar capacity more acts choose to play Factory International in the future. As its become a massive downer for me every time I se Vic Warehouse listed as the venue

 

 

 

[superhans]

Babyshambles was a lot rowdier than I expected last night in Manchester.

 

The venue (Victoria Warehouse) was already too big for them and being on a Sunday didn’t help, however, they put on a good show and the crowd responded well. 8 Dead Boys and Pipedown are bangers. 
 

Did remind me that I can’t take Trampolene seriously. Uncle Brian’s Abattoir is hilarious. 

[OddRon]

Was mostly seeing Wolf Alice out of nostalgia for that 2014-2018 era but they were fantastic tonight. Amazing stage set up and atmosphere.

[The Nal]

The Belair Lip Bombs last night. Really good band live. Big things to come methinks.

[Brownie30]

Just left Scala absolutely blown away by Home Counties. Seen a lot of bands come and go, but that's one of the best new live bands I've seen. Huge sound and amazing energy.

 

They're supporting Franz Ferdinand in 2026 where I suspect they'll tear the house down. Catch them while you can.

Edited December 2, 2025 by Brownie30

[sheffinghell]

1 hour ago, Brownie30 said:

Just left Scala absolutely blown away by Home Counties. Seen a lot of bands come and go, but that's one of the best new live bands I've seen. Huge sound and amazing energy.

 

They're supporting Franz Ferdinand in 2026 where I suspect they'll tear the house down. Catch them while you can.

Saw them at Y Not this summer, absolutely brilliant! And Alex Kapranos gave them a mention during the FF set, so he must've been watching them.

[sheffinghell]

Something a bit mellower for me tonight. Bill Ryder-Jones at Upper Chapel (a small-ish Unitarian church) in Sheffield. Really gorgeous sound, with added texture and depth from Evelyn Hall's cello. Loved how their voices blended too. The setting was surreal though, felt a bit like stepping back in time to your Nan's 1970s Xmas clad front room.

 

Brooke Bentham was in the support slot. Fabulous voice, and songs putting me in mind of Martha Wainwright. Working on a second album with Bill as producer. Apparently she's in Sam Fender's band too.

Edited December 3, 2025 by sheffinghell

[CantWaitForGlasto22]

Wolf Alice at The 02 absolutely brilliant last night. So many fantastic songs, and huge variety in them. Seen them a few times but this was their best. I can definitely see them headlining Glastonbury soon, and they easily have enough material. Ellie’s voice sounding so good. 

[efcfanwirral]

2 hours ago, CantWaitForGlasto22 said:

Wolf Alice at The 02 absolutely brilliant last night. So many fantastic songs, and huge variety in them. Seen them a few times but this was their best. I can definitely see them headlining Glastonbury soon, and they easily have enough material. Ellie’s voice sounding so good. 

Yes I thought the same after Manchester, they've stepped up hugely in every single way. They were already great and already one of my favourites but it's just elevated so much this tour. 

 

I also realised that, of the 8 times I've seen them, 6 have been festivals, with 5 of those in the daylight. And I've noticed they don't hit as hard in daylight. They've been at their best when I've seen them indoors or in darkness so getting them up the festival bills like they are doing next year will expose more people to the full show with the lights

[stuie]

4 hours ago, CantWaitForGlasto22 said:

Wolf Alice at The 02 absolutely brilliant last night. So many fantastic songs, and huge variety in them. Seen them a few times but this was their best. I can definitely see them headlining Glastonbury soon, and they easily have enough material. Ellie’s voice sounding so good. 

 

seeing them there tonight... can't wait!  especially after your post 🙂 

[CantWaitForGlasto22]

3 hours ago, stuie said:

 

seeing them there tonight... can't wait!  especially after your post 🙂 

Enjoy!!! Would go again tonight but have school parents’ evening. It was such a good set from start to finish 

[charlierc]

Popped along to see Wolf Alice at London O2 and am currently on the train home. They were rather delightful. It's a nice surprise tbf as I felt The Clearing didn't grab me as much as the other 3 albums, but the material is great live, the performances were good and it was just an all round nice time. 

 

Glad I was happy to pick this up as a last minute Plan B after a planned trip to see them in Leeds on Friday fell through. And glad it wasn't blown off course by a storm like an intended trip to see the last tour in London 3 years ago was. 

[charlierc]

On 30/11/2025 at 22:54, thatTFBguy said:

Just out of Mumford & Sons in Leeds and I know this form bashes them all the time, but I'm sorry I just have to say...

 

you should all insult them more. Fudging hell, they were dog wash. Bland setlist. Bland stage presence, bland all the way through till the lukewarm end. Partner wanted to leave early and I nearly teared up. 

A successful evening indeed then. 

 

I've only seen them once and that was not by choice - they were special guests on a TV show recording I attended (Last Leg in late 2018). Marcus was actually funny and was good when he was just chatting but the actual song was pretty boring. 

[Porcelina]

Yep another one for Wolf Alice at the O2, they looked like they've been playing arenas for years. New album sounded huge in there - weirdly it was the Blue Weekend tracks I didn't think worked as well on the big stage.

 

Felt like a proud parent thinking back to their amazing Glasto 2015 sets on William's Green and the Park on the release week for MLIC.

 

Took them longer than expected to get there after the 2014/15 hype but glad they did.

Edited December 4, 2025 by Porcelina

[craigcharles420]

Wolf Alice tonight!

[Ozymandias]

November Gigs were Richard Ashcroft at the Co-Op in Manchester and Kneecap at the Manchester Academy.

Both Great, Ashcroft was everything you'd expect, I'm a sucker for anything Urban Hymns and Kneecap were much better than expected, energy was fantastic throughout, much more excited by their booking at Boomtown next year now.