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

[efcfanwirral]

Baby Queen in Manchester - she was really good. Very good live considering how new she is. New songs sounded great too.

Support act Kayla Grace sounded good too - Holly Humberstone sort of style. 

Edited April 20, 2022 by efcfanwirral

[BFisherr]

First gig of 2022 for Foals last night in Edinburgh. They're performing as a 6-piece since Edwin left, I think (may be wrong) they've always been 5 when I've seen them before. The main difference this time was definitely the lighting/visuals show they put on, really great, including a moving screen, the newer songs had the better visuals with lyrics etc. It'll be interesting to see if they bring that to the festival. 

Music wise- A good setlist, nice mix of the albums and one new song (2001), only 3 songs from the new album but maybe we'll get more once it's actually out. Despite what seemed to be a few issues with the mix or monitors they were sounding really tight, Jack Bevan is a beast of a drummer. Great gig and I'm sure they'll smash it. 

 

[Padjeq]

Sam Fender at the NIA, Birmingham 27.03.22

What with supporting Sam here, and Foals currently (not to mention Liam at Knebworth) I'd be surprised if anyone plays more arenas than Goat Girl in 2022. The crowd were mostly polite in listening to them, but they were never going to take any of the energy people were saving for the headliner.

Sam Fender on the other hand blew everyone away. It's such a thrill when people scream for the hot song of the moment, by the one of the hottest stars. My third time seeing him, and incredible to think back at the pub venue he struggled to sell out back in 2018. His voice and songs were evident then, but the arena ramps everything up into rock catharsis.

 

The Mysterines at Castle and Falcon, Birmingham 31.03.22

Wicked sound in this constantly evolving pub gigspace. If they could just move the soundboard to the upstairs bit, you'd be looking at the best venue in the city. Coach Party were great, both in performance and between-song tales of being caught on the toilet.

I saw The Mysterines in this exact venue a few years back. Can't have been more than 30 people there, mostly older blokes hanging around the middle of the venue, going cock-a-hoop for a blistering headline set that seemed to take no more than 35 minutes. They were younger then and more nervous, with singer Lia stomping back and forth across the stage. This time they'd abandoned all their older material, instead doing the whole of the new album plus a cover of Be My Baby (the Ronettes, not Vanessa Paradis - although could you imagine??? someone needs to get on that).

I was sad to see those dirty-shoe rockier songs that made the Mysterines one of my favourite modern guitar bands eschewed in favour of the new bluesier sound, performed stock still and very cool - and for one song, with all the venue's lights off at Lia's request. They're still good, but I was happy to watch from the back, joined by some people I met there who had come from Worcester. Must be difficult having to make a real trip of things when you want to watch a band.

[elgatonegrofabricwardrobe]

Watched Bambara at Gorilla tonight. Really enjoyed it. Sound was cloudy and muffled for the first few but improved after that. Frontman is brilliant and 2 years away from replicating Nick Cave's hair and the drummer is like spaghetti arms stuck on a perfect taut lightweight boxer's torso. I'm not jealous.

[TheWaters]

Mitski at Marble Factory bristol last night. On top form, nice long 23 song set playing most songs you could hope for 

[zeppelin]

Not posted here for ages so gonna do some quick one line reviews for gigs so far this year...

February

Yard Act, Leeds - Tiny venue as part of independent venue week, Steve Lamacq introducing them - great fun!

Was meant to see both Dry Cleaning and Sons of Kemet but caught Covid 😭.

March

Wolf Alice, Sheffield - Left this gig thinking how they'd nail a sub spot on the Pyramid ala The XX a few years back.
White Lies, Leeds - Genuinely think they've released some underappreciated stuff in the last decade and still a great live act!
Future Islands, Manchester - A lot of fun but I will admit I don't know their newer stuff as much as I'd like. It's very much his show these daya.
The Mysterines, Leeds - One of my favourite "new" bands. The singer needs a bit more confidence & stage presence but that'll come and her voice is absolutely amazing!

April

Groove Armada, Leeds - An absolute party all night long on a Thursday! Whole place was bouncing.
Groove Armada, Manchester - As above but on a Saturday night with "supplements" - GA are one of my favourite acts ever and they nailed these shows!
The War on Drugs, Leeds - Seventh, and best, time I've seen them! The setlist, sound quality and light show were all amazing!
Wet Leg, Leeds - Very underwhelmed by this gig unfortunately. Should have been amazing in the Brude but didn't happen. I imagine their festival sets will go down a storm though.
Lucy Dacus, Leeds - Wow! Lucy was on top form and I left that gig an even bigger fan than I started. Was at a new venue for me as well and all in all a top night!

Edited April 23, 2022 by zeppelin
Bolding for readability

[Jay Pee]

Anyone else at Sea Power last night at the Albert Hall in Manchester? 

Another fantastic performance. Would love to see them late afternoon early evening on The Park.

The lad i was with was saying he first saw them at The Boardwalk in 2001 and Guy Garvey was working the door. 

[dondo]

24 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

Anyone else at Sea Power last night at the Albert Hall in Manchester? 

Another fantastic performance. Would love to see them late afternoon early evening on The Park.

The lad i was with was saying he first saw them at The Boardwalk in 2001 and Guy Garvey was working the door. 

Yes. I was there. Great band who I have seen numerous times. I unfortunately seemed to be stood near to a lot of gig chatterers who because there was a fair bit of new / unrecognisable stuff seemed to be chatting even more including a bloke nearby who kept bellowing "play the early shit".  So that dampened it a bit.  Though when the encore started with Remember Me and Waving Flags place went rightly crazy.

So yes would love to see them at the farm.

First time I saw them was 2004 in the Cockpit in Leeds. Great and sadly missed venue. Best value place was a John Betjemin festival in Cornwall when we were down visiting my wife's family.  £5 to get in and got Sea Power, Ralph McTell amongst other stuff.

[elgatonegrofabricwardrobe]

1 hour ago, Jay Pee said:

Anyone else at Sea Power last night at the Albert Hall in Manchester? 

Another fantastic performance. Would love to see them late afternoon early evening on The Park.

The lad i was with was saying he first saw them at The Boardwalk in 2001 and Guy Garvey was working the door. 

I was there too. Spellbinding performance and I'm not familiar with their most recent stuff at all really. Can't think of many better ways to finish any gig ever than Waving Flags into The Great Skua.

[Radiochicken]

Foals were on form last night in Birmingham. The last 30 mins really is carnage.

Imo some of the new songs sound a bit too polished - especially with the lyrics in the visuals. They need to loosen them up a bit. 

[Jay Pee]

58 minutes ago, dondo said:

Yes. I was there. Great band who I have seen numerous times. I unfortunately seemed to be stood near to a lot of gig chatterers who because there was a fair bit of new / unrecognisable stuff seemed to be chatting even more including a bloke nearby who kept bellowing "play the early shit".  So that dampened it a bit.  Though when the encore started with Remember Me and Waving Flags place went rightly crazy.

So yes would love to see them at the farm.

First time I saw them was 2004 in the Cockpit in Leeds. Great and sadly missed venue. Best value place was a John Betjemin festival in Cornwall when we were down visiting my wife's family.  £5 to get in and got Sea Power, Ralph McTell amongst other stuff.

Same regarding numerous gigs in numerous placed from church halls to festivals.

And yes, the chattering was pretty shit where we were so went upstage for the church choir vibe. Its always a bit more folk looking to enjoy the effing band upstairs in there.

Great night. Apart from motorway being closed on way home nause

[dondo]

4 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

Same regarding numerous gigs in numerous placed from church halls to festivals.

And yes, the chattering was pretty shit where we were so went upstage for the church choir vibe. Its always a bit more folk looking to enjoy the effing band upstairs in there.

Great night. Apart from motorway being closed on way home nause

Thanks for that tip though no other gigs planned as yet for the Albert Hall since Dexys got cancelled. 

And yes I had my usual motorway junction closed on way back to Leeds but thankfully not too bad a diversion

[Baggins7]

Foals in Birmingham yesterday 2 years after it was meant to go ahead. Thought the setlist was potentially the best I’ve seen for them, possibly change a little for glastonbury set but hope they end the same way, Friday night will be a real party. Really liked the lighting and visuals behind them too.

Blondie tonight in Cardiff.

[Losing my hair]

5 hours ago, dondo said:

Yes. I was there. Great band who I have seen numerous times. I unfortunately seemed to be stood near to a lot of gig chatterers who because there was a fair bit of new / unrecognisable stuff seemed to be chatting even more including a bloke nearby who kept bellowing "play the early shit".  So that dampened it a bit.  Though when the encore started with Remember Me and Waving Flags place went rightly crazy.

So yes would love to see them at the farm.

First time I saw them was 2004 in the Cockpit in Leeds. Great and sadly missed venue. Best value place was a John Betjemin festival in Cornwall when we were down visiting my wife's family.  £5 to get in and got Sea Power, Ralph McTell amongst other stuff.

This annoys me more than anything else - the "old stuff" that you love so much was once "new stuff" you'd never heard before.

I have been known to ask people if they'd kindly shut the f*** up - it works surprisingly well.

[Gilgamesh69]

Anyone else going to catch Ride on this Nowhere anniversary tour? Seeing them tonight in Bristol

[dondo]

1 hour ago, Gilgamesh69 said:

Anyone else going to catch Ride on this Nowhere anniversary tour? Seeing them tonight in Bristol

Yes seeing them in Manchester next week 

[dondo]

1 hour ago, Losing my hair said:

This annoys me more than anything else - the "old stuff" that you love so much was once "new stuff" you'd never heard before.

I have been known to ask people if they'd kindly shut the f*** up - it works surprisingly well.

I was tempted to say something but he was a big bloke!

Maybe I should opt for a t-shirt like these

 

[gigpusher]

1 minute ago, dondo said:

I was tempted to say something but he was a big bloke!

Maybe I should opt for a t-shirt like these

 

I absolutely need these I get really irritated by chatterers as I really struggle to zone them out. 

[Dark Star]

On 4/21/2022 at 11:59 AM, Padjeq said:

The Mysterines at Castle and Falcon, Birmingham 31.03.22

Wicked sound in this constantly evolving pub gigspace. If they could just move the soundboard to the upstairs bit, you'd be looking at the best venue in the city. Coach Party were great, both in performance and between-song tales of being caught on the toilet.

I saw The Mysterines in this exact venue a few years back. Can't have been more than 30 people there, mostly older blokes hanging around the middle of the venue, going cock-a-hoop for a blistering headline set that seemed to take no more than 35 minutes. They were younger then and more nervous, with singer Lia stomping back and forth across the stage. This time they'd abandoned all their older material, instead doing the whole of the new album plus a cover of Be My Baby (the Ronettes, not Vanessa Paradis - although could you imagine??? someone needs to get on that).

I was sad to see those dirty-shoe rockier songs that made the Mysterines one of my favourite modern guitar bands eschewed in favour of the new bluesier sound, performed stock still and very cool - and for one song, with all the venue's lights off at Lia's request. They're still good, but I was happy to watch from the back, joined by some people I met there who had come from Worcester. Must be difficult having to make a real trip of things when you want to watch a band.

I was at this one too. Thought both the support bands were excellent, and clearly all having a lot of fun touring together. Mysterines have definitely grown much more confident as a band, will be interesting to see how they follow up this record. Off to America next month, imagine they should do quite well with the more recent sound. Agree though, be nice to see some of the older songs, but I guess as they gig more they may play slightly longer sets which enable them to mix things up more. 
Really liked the venue, and will definitely be looking out for gigs there in future. 

[ilovelanegan]

La Femme at Kentish Town Forum on Thursday. Superb!

[spg]

On 4/22/2022 at 12:52 PM, TheWaters said:

Mitski at Marble Factory bristol last night. On top form, nice long 23 song set playing most songs you could hope for 

People were queuing outside at 7am for the gig, glad it was good for them. 

Hooky was great at there too a couple of nights before. £7 a can for some of the beers is too much though. 

The Mission at O2 Bristol was a fantastic gig too. 

[TheWaters]

55 minutes ago, spg said:

People were queuing outside at 7am for the gig, glad it was good for them. 

Hooky was great at there too a couple of nights before. £7 a can for some of the beers is too much though. 

Yeah it’s mad. Hooky was great too agreed. I work at the venue behind the bar and managed to get someone to swap bars with me as i wasnt supposed to be in the music room. Glad i swapped haha. Agreed on the prices, i actively apologise to a lot of people when they mention it haha
 

Speaking of, worked Ride and bdrmm there tonight. Ride absolutely quality, lovely little surprise they still played my fave future love in a set i thought was just the debut in full.

[Billy Corgan's Ego]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:47 AM, Radiochicken said:

Foals were on form last night in Birmingham. The last 30 mins really is carnage.

Imo some of the new songs sound a bit too polished - especially with the lyrics in the visuals. They need to loosen them up a bit. 

I wholeheartedly agree with both of these points and said as much coming out the gig in Edinburgh on Thursday. 

There really was nothing in the first 45 mins to get me too excited at all and it all felt a bit flat - I was very underwhelmed with Wake Me Up and The Runner, for example. They have far to many nice/clean/safe songs now, IMO.

The last 30 mins - from Spanish Sahara - was like a completely different gig. 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Billy Corgan's Ego

[The Nal]

Saw Irma Thomas in New Orleans at the weekend. Loved it. She'd go down great in the Mavis Staples slot. If that's a thing.

[dondo]

On 4/24/2022 at 10:44 PM, spg said:

The Mission at O2 Bristol was a fantastic gig too. 

Was due to see them in Leeds a couple of weeks ago after it being rescheduled twice but couldn't make it as we were away but managed to get rid of tickets via ticketmaster's reselling thing.

Got tickets to see them in York in August which should be good.