Feeder 02/11/2008

Well, Apologies for the intermission in gigs, and lack of any review for 7 Seconds Of Love (I screwed up and missed that ) and Beautiful Days (A festival review was a bit much all in one go... Go check out 12 Stone Toddler though as they were AWESOME!). There will be a few more gigs over the next month or two as there is a glut of unmissable gigs coming up...

Well, let's begin with a quick word on the venue, as it's a new one to me, the gig was in The Newport Centre, which is the city/town (not sure which(!)) council leisure centre I think. The main hall where the gig was held was a good size, big enough to get the 'big gig' atmosphere, but small enough that even if you were right at the back of the seating area you could probably still see really well.

As for the support act, I have a small confession to make... For the first time ever I actually purposefully missed the support act (having been forewarned who it was, and needing time to cook dinner after work!) - FightStar... I arrived pretty perfectly time wise, in time for their final song so I could take advantage of their fans leaving for the toilet to get to a good spot! While watching the roadies setup for Feeder I was reminded how cool the new bass drum skin looks with the crow picture (like the cover of their latest album 'Silent Cry') - I'd learn to drum again so I could get one!

The crowd were in good cheer from the word go. In fact, as there were 'Feeder, Feeder' chants going from 5-10 minutes before the gig kicked off, that's not strictly true! There were a few stalwart 'I'm not going to jump around' types, but a few of them gave up by the encore... The general atmosphere from the crowd was really great, as it usually seems to be for Feeder - everyone was joining in and having fun.

The gig started with the mini song that is snuck in between the first two tracks on 'Silent Cry', I personally don't like it as it's well cheesy and unnecessary. (The lyrics are something like 'we are one, we are free' etc, makes me think of Bono at his preachiest...) And as it ended the band came on stage and got the gig started with the first song on the new album 'We Are The People'. After that (or maybe another as well) they uncovered and switched on three big screens at the back of the stage which then showed of some really great film clips and general lighting additions for the rest of the show - highlights were the big flying crow (I expect, no idea really, but a crow fits their current theme ) that reached across all three screens for 'Shatter' (along with lots of bright red rockin' out lights) and indeed all the big red rockin' out songs, there's something about red flashing lights that make me wanna jump around like a fool...

Set list wise I was disappointed on a couple of fronts, they didn't play ANYTHING but 'High' from their first two albums, last major tour they had 'Descend' in there in a massive extended shreddy old school feeder stylee and everyone I've talked to who saw that loved it. Also, on their mini tour in May Grant mentioned the possibility of adding 'Tangerine' to the set list for the Autumn tour, but when people shouted for it this time around he said 'There's always someone at every gig who requests that..' then played the main riff a little (to roars of approval) before admitting that's all he can remember of it! There were boos at that comment, possibly from me too... Personally I'd prefer Sweet-16, but anything from 'Polythene' or 'Swim' would be great, as there's same real belters on them both... At least they got most of the important songs from the rest of the back catalogue in - 'Insomnia', 'Buck Rodgers', and 'We Can't Rewind' was a nice surprise. I was slightly put out they didn't play 'Miss You' off the new album, but with 'Shatter in there I couldn't complain too much...

It was nice to see the new live version of 'Lost and Found' again, but with more thought put in than last time. While last time Grant Started us off on the 'new' lyrics in the middle of it, this time around he just asked everyone to sing along and made the riff gradually more like 'One by One' until everyone had clicked and we all sang the first verse and chorus of it before tearing back into 'Lost and Found'.

Sadly there weren't enough people in the crowd who'd seen them before, as during the wait for an encore the attempt to get every one singing the 'Just A Day' riff didn't really take off, which was probably good really as last time it took off I ended up singing it for about 10minutes before the song began! However there was plenty of noise made and we got a three song encore (if I remember right!) First song featured just Grant and Dean (their live second guitarist) for an almost acoustic stripped down song which I can't name as I'm not too good with the names on the new album yet! This was followed by the brilliant live '7 Days in the Sun', complete with a chilled intro with crowd only vocals... Then came the moment we were all looking forward to most, with a little prompting from Grant the crowd began to sing the 'Just a Day' riff and then the band joined in and that is where I last saw (heard?!) my voice last night! after 'singing' (closer to yelling really) my way through that little lot I'm impressed my voice was still present this morning!

Overall it was, as expected, yet another great live set from Feeder. Even after seeing them live for the fourth time I can't wait for the next tour I have spare cash to spend on! Hopefully by then they will have re-learnt Tangerine and/or Sweet-16, as I think once I've seen Feeder play them live I could die pretty happy!

Look out for the next installment, I'm hoping to get back to somewhat regular gigs, as I've really missed live music... Now go find some live music near you and support the acts you like in the most direct way you can!

Photos are HERE!

Upcoming gigs:
16/11/2008 - The Zutons (money and ticket availability providing
30/11/2008 - Flipron and Misty's Big Adventure dual headline
04/12/2008 - Streetlight Manifesto
05/12/2008 - Dodgy

The Raconteurs 29/06/2008

OK, this gig was immense. Largely helped by the venue, which was the Eden Project in Deepest Darkest Cornwall (actually, it's not too far from Devon, but you're already pretty deep 'n' dark there ). This place, for those that don't know, is a big old quarry which has been turned into a huge garden, with two massive 'bio-domes', the bigger of the two being full of 'properly' foreign plants, from the tropics and the like, that would never usually grow in Cornwall, and the smaller being a Mediterranean based one. When you buy a ticket to an Eden Session you get entry for a day to the whole project, so me and my friend turned up early to chill out and check the place out for a while. Well worth doing. [If you want more description of the Eden project then leave me a comment and I'll add to it, I just feel it's somewhat out of place in a gig review to describe a giant garden - there are plenty of pics ]


The stage is placed in front of a 'natural' amphitheater - seeing as the whole thing has been majorly landscaped in the last 10-15 years it's natural in the 'it's a banked area covered in grass with no seats' way. It's surprisingly small (5,000) considering the size of the Eden Project, but it's quite nice because you get both the small and slightly more intimate feeling of (most) indoor gigs, but with the scale of the surroundings and outdoor factor making it feel like a huge festival! Another good side of gigs at Eden is that you get to buy the very hard to find outside of Cornwall 'Rattler Cyder' and the Eden Projects own beer to enjoy with the delicious food... It was hard not to buy more than one of the roast pork and Eden Project apple chutney in a bun!

The support act was Vampire Weekend - fresh from Glastonbury (as were the Raconteurs) - who had a nice intro from someone from the Eden Project (top bloke maybe? Or possibly the sessions organiser?) about how Eden don't book headliners with support acts, they book a headliner and then another headliner to go with them! This seemed to be proven as they had a good amount of crowd support, everyone (except me) seemed to know and like them! After a couple of songs I found myself really starting to enjoy them too, I couldn't work out if the quality of song was getting better, or if it was just me 'clicking' into their groove, but I've certainly added them to my 'listen to later, and maybe buy a CD' list.


After a 30 minute interval (which was needed just to find the toilets, especially after getting a little lost chasing my mate through the willow maze thingy...) The Raconteurs made their way on stage. I've no idea what they started with, but I think it was off the first album, and was cool, but I'm fairly certain they then played one (of a majority) from the new album. This new album was recorded and released quite secretively, and I only found out by accident, when I went to buy the first album, and there were two on the shelf! Because of this I was quite apprehensive of how well the new stuff would go down - I think the new album is the better of the two, but how many people would a) know about it and b) agree?! Happily for me, either they were happy to hear new material live (it sounded awesome) or they knew it as everything went down a storm.

The lights were pretty special, as not only was there a cool silhouette background piece of trees, and funky on stage lighting, but once it got a bit dark they turned on the Eden only special lighting: Yup, the bio-domes look AWESOME with some pretty lighting on! It makes it feel like your at a gig on Mars really very cool... When the lighting is combined with such great music as The Raconteurs were ripping out, you can't really go wrong - from the older classics like 'Steady As She Goes' and 'Level' To the new and more rocky songs like 'Salute Your Solution' and 'Attention' (that song has a really great bass riff for an intro... Great fun to play!) it was incredibly happy making. In fact apparently every time my mate looked at me I had a huge ear to ear grin apparently! The first part of their show was brought to an end with a nice extended version of 'Blue Veins', which we all loved, and somewhat left me wondering how they were gonna top that for a show ender.

For the encore (which the crowd were most deserving of, once again, I'm beginning to believe undeserving crowds are dying out finally! ) they brought out yet more new stuff, as well as a couple more oldies (I think it was a 5 song encore). They did also manage to top 'Blue Veins' as an awesome finale - the final song on the new album 'Carolina Drama' is an awesome piece of, well, storytelling (living up to their name), and they extended it in all the right ways, and left us (or at least me) with a really enthused and inspired feeling at the end of the night, especially as we walked back up out of the quarry, and looked back to see both bio-domes (right down at the front of the stage you can only see the small dome, but that's plenty good enough really) glowing, some spotlights playing on the sky, and the thousands of people who had been enjoying it all with us.


I would strongly advise going to a Raconteurs gig, and a gig at the Eden project, if the two are combined again, I'll see you there!


Photos are now online! There are a number ones from the pre-gig wandering, because I am pleased with them, and it all added the the general atmosphere...

Feeder 28/05/2008


It was nice to return to The Point after all these gigs in the Carling Academy. It's a much nicer feeling venue, even if there isn't a nice cooling breeze... Sadly The Point's neighbours have been complaining about the noise (and apparently they are the new residents, moved in since it's been a gig venue) and so it was threatened with closure, luckily it seems they will just have to sound proof the building properly by a certain time (possibly August...). It would be a real shame if it closes, as it's the best gig venue I've been to in Cardiff, The CIA feels too big and corporate, and the Barfly is possibly too small and skanky!


The support act were the winners of a competition to support Feeder for this tour, there was a different (I believe local) act at each date of this special 'album preview' mini tour, and we got Malpas, although Grant (of Feeder) later updated us that the band have decided to change their name to 'Butterflys With Beards', much better in my opinion! Certainly more memorable... They seemed pretty cool, but didn't quite catch the crowd, and I think I might have been spoilt by support acts recently, cause they just didn't seem up to caliber... Far better than last time I saw Feeder at their own gig - they had Goldie Looking chain for that :S That said they did keep me entertained for their half hour set, and actually had a better light show that Feeder!


Feeder made it on stage at nine, to roars from the crowd (I always forget just how much Feeder fans like Feeder, you just don't seem to get 'meh' fans for them at gigs!), and kicked of their set with 'Feeling a Moment'. It was a little odd to begin with as there were several people (like me) that really wanted to jump around loads, but you can't quite mosh to that song, so we all looked somewhat awkward... That state of affairs was vastly improved by the next song 'Shatter' which got a good number of people pogoing like mad.

The next two or three songs were all new ones, 'Miss You' (which was excellent live) and 'We Are The People' everyone knew as they have been the last two singles, and Grant introduced the next new one by saying 'If any of you are singing along and know all the words to this I'll know you've downloaded it illegally! Not that it matters!' From tonights gig, the new album sounds like it's gonna be a stormer, the rocking songs are getting more rocking, back to their pre 'Comfort in Sound', erm, sound! I'll have to say, much as I like, indeed love, both 'Comfort in Sound' and 'Pushing the Senses' they both felt somewhat lacking in Oomph, and I was glad when I heard 'Shatter' because that was the first new song in a few years from them that sounded 'proper' rocking. While it was only to be expected, there were a lot of new songs, to the point they cut out some classics, which everyone there missed quite a lot, but they said they'd be back for another tour in October, and they'll either put them back in or disappoint a LOT of fans!

That said, they did play a few old classics, such as 'My Perfect Day' (off their first album) and 'Yesterday Went Too Soon' (off their second), although the was noticeably nothing from their first big hit 'Echo Park', not that I missed 'Buck Rodgers' THAT much (it's good live, but they do have MUCH better songs), but 'Seven Days In The Sun' is almost as much of a Feeder institution as 'Just a Day'! Happily though, apparently at every gig there's always at least one person that screams for 'Tangerine', and Grant mentioned they might add that to the set list for the next tour, which would make me a very happy boy, although not quite as happy as if they put 'Sweet 16' in - that would blow my mind!

The band them selves seemed to be enjoying themselves, as usual, and they were even five men strong, which I don't think I've seen before (unless the keyboard player always hides at the back and I've never noticed, because the other gigs I've been to have been at least 3 times the size of tonight!), that's plus two to the official number of band members. They finished the first part of their set with another of their newer rockers, 'Lost and Found', complete with and interlude where Grant, having evidently noticed the similarity in riffs between the tow songs started singing the lyrics to 'All My Life' By the Foo Fighters, to which the crowd responded well, and joined in! Sadly, in some ways, they didn't kick off into a mini cover in the middle of the song, which would have be uber cool, but the audience still loved it, and were jumping around and screaming for more as the band left the stage...

I was slightly disappointed the crowd didn't pick up on the best encore chant for Feeder you can do, which is to sing the (super catchy) guitar riff for 'Just a Day', at the NEC in 2006 we all kept it going for about 5 minutes solid, until the band returned and then 'made' us sing a long to the actual song for another 4 minutes! Still, we were a noisy bunch, and it wasn't too long before the lads were back, for a 2 song encore (the down side of it being a small gig, I guess, previous encores have been 4-5 songs) of 'High' and, of course, 'Just a Day' - there would have been a lynching if they hadn't! By the end of the gig I was knackered, and in desperate need of water, so I was both pleased, and impressed with myself, when I managed to effortlessly catch one of the bottles of water Taka was throwing into the crowd - saved me queuing up at the tiny little bar!


I can't say enough how much fun Feeder are live, This is the third time for me, and I'm already regretting having not bought a ticket to see them at the Thekla in Bristol on Friday as well - apparently that venue is a boat as well! I've heard several people who weren't impressed with them judging by their records who have seen them live and said they were surprised at how good they were - so go see them!! For those in that part of the world, they are playing at Fuji rock in the summer, as well as in Seoul (my big sis is gonna kick herself about hat, two years living there, she moves back and where do Feeder go?!).


(far too few, from too much jumping around and the like) Pictures HERE.

And now there will be a short interlude in glogging, as I wait for NASS - Less than Jake and The Subways (again) to come after 15/06! Although I can;t promise not to find another cool gig to go to in the mean time - two weeks is starting to be a very long time without a gig for me!

Terrorvision 23/05/2008



Right, this was at the Carling Academy in Bristol again (the last there for the foreseeable future) and because of the venues silly curfews (I think I might rant about that soon, maybe even at the end of this glog...) it opened at 18:30 to finish for 21:45(!). The support slot started at 19:00 and was taken care of by The Sound Explosion. These guys were great! You know all those 'how to make your band successful' advice things? They had it all down to a T! From a high energy performance, with some banter with the crowd, right down to giving away free album samplers and selling their merch cheap (£8 T-shirt, which I didn't buy, and a £5 album, which I bought).

Not only did they have the whole PR thing sorted, but their music fully rocks! They have a kind of old school metal/hard rock sound, but a bit more modern, or something - I'm a bit rubbish at pigeon holing... Basically they have fat riffs and big solos, and pretty kickass drum parts (I kept catching myself focusing on the drum beat, and missing awesome guitar parts!). They had loads of energy, and deserved a more energetic response from the crowd, as they were going all out - one guitarist climbed over the crowd barrier and soloed in amongst the audience, and then climbed back on stage and on top of one of the speaker stacks at the side of the stage! The other guitarist wasn't gonna let him have all the lime light though and 'joined' him on a different stack before they both jumped down again... They played for about half an hour, and managed to get quite a (well deserved) good cheer when they left (in a good way! ).


Quick disclaimer - I'm gonna assume no-one actually at the gig is gonna find this and take an educated guess at the play order - there's a few I know for certain, and I know the songs they played for certain (except for one), the order is just a little fuzzy... Also these guys are an old favourite, that I've been wanting to see live for YEARS. I was very excited before hand, and will be buzzing about it for ages afterwards!


Terrorvision finally made it on stage sometime past 20:00 (maybe quarter past) with a little intro of lights out and four fire engine style revolving blue lights going (cue excited crowd, obviously) and then the band came on and launched straight into Celebrity Hitlist, a personal favourite of mine, which got everyone down the front jumping up and down - a trend that happily continued for the rest of the gig pretty much! One of the great things about Terrorvision (TV from here on to save my keyboard!) is that they have innately sing-a-long-able songs - like Offspring - everyone knows the words when they're at a gig! The crowd was in full throat from the very start, and with a well chosen set list they only encouraged it. I'll say here there was one slightly dud choice in the set, 'Fists of Fury', which I think would have been better replaced by 'Stop the Bus' (there was a chant started before the encore of "Stop the Bus, Stop the Bus" in place of the more usual 'we want more'). Other than that I don't think I would disagree with their choices, I would have liked other song to be played, but then I would have liked them to do a 2.5 hour set...

The band had (have?) a great look live (everyday?!) - full on 'arena rockers', made me think of U2, but more sleazy! The guitarist had red trousers and red/white striped shirt with slicked back hair, and the bassist was decked out in a pair of Bono style sunglasses, with equally oily looking slick hair. The singers trousers were a little on the tight side as he managed to tear them down the 'butt-seam' about half way through the set! (The people right at the front were loving it, and coaxed him into waving it their direction a few times...). There was general good humour among the band, and they seemed to be really enjoying themselves, and after getting the crowd to do most of the chorus for 'Fists of Fury' (I think - regardless it was a good sing-a-long "Party over here F**k you over there!") Tony was bowing down to our vocal roar.

When they left the stage after 'Oblivio-uun bop, ba, ba, doo wop' (or 'Oblivion' as it's more usually known, but impossible to say with out the rest) the crowd were roaring for more before they'd even half left the stage, and there was only one very short quiet moment before they returned, everyone was dieing for more. On their return they had seats(!) and sat down to down an acoustic section! One of the last things I had expected, but it was really good. I think it;s a shame they didn't play 'Desolation town' cause it's an great song that I love, but their choice was good - especially the acoustic versions of 'Tequila' and 'Discotheque Wreck'. Apparently Tequila was originally intended to be acoustic, which having seen it done so I can fully believe, in fact I intend to either see them peform it in a small, dingy, pub, or I will cover it in one myself, cause I think it would work great! After 'Discotheque Wreck' they grabbed the electric guitar again and launched into 'Pretend Best Friend' (which I had been worried they'd left out) followed by the classic, and excellent fun live, 'Perseverance'.

To sum it all up: AWESOME! I think I'm gonna hurt tomorrow, but SO worth it. I just hope that they weren't entirely joking when they mentioned possible new material in a little while - Terrorvision needs to make a proper big come back, nuff said!



Pictures here. Sorry about the quality, but I was too busy killing my calves jumping around to get many good shots...


And for those that care here's a rough hash of the set list (if anyone who was there reads this and disagrees, please let me know!):

Celebrity Hitlist
New Policy One - one of the pleasant surprises.
My House
Discotheque Wreck
Friends and Family
Hide the Dead Girl
Fists of Fury
Sometimes I'd Like To Kill Her
Josephine
Middleman
Enteralterego
What Makes You Tick
Dog Chewed the Handle
If I was You
D'ya Wanna Go Faster - I was worried they wouldn't play it, it was great!
Alice, What's the Matter?
Oblivion - I really wanted them to do like the album and kick straight into Stop the Bus here .

Encore:
Killing Time, Acoustic - I'm not 100% this ones right, but meh.
Some People Say, Acoustic
Tequila, Acoustic - worked surprisingly well!
Discotheque Wreck, Acoustic - Also very good acoustic!
Pretend Best Friend
Perseverance

The Bluetones 18/05/2008

On arrival at the (by now incredibly familiar) Carling Academy I was somewhat surprised to see the the main floor where I'm usually stood down at the front, was closed off, and everyone was being directed upstairs. So off we all went to find that the 'Star Bar' was open and that it was going to be the venue for the night's gig. The star bar turned out to be a pretty tiny venue, even smaller (although infinitely less skanky) than the Cardiff Barfly, I'm guessing around 100-150 capacity, so it was a really nice small intimate gig.


The first act was a local (Bristol) band called 'The Chemists', who turned out to be pretty cool, sounded something like a mix of Feeder and the current indie band standard, but done to good effect, and was thoroughly enjoyable. I think that the sound tech might be a little too used to the bigger gigs and I felt that the whole night could have be turned down a notch to good effect, but I suppose too loud is better than too quiet in the end. the audience was fairly thin at this point, and although the band were rocking out for all they were worth no-one seemed quite in the mood to jump around. However the band did get a good reception, I think they were pleased with it, although their '2 woops'll do me' comments were somewhat ambiguous!


The next support act were called 'Amsterdam' and I'm gonna struggle to be nice! They were all musically talented enough (except for the vocalist who was a bit too shouty for their Irish-pop-rock sound), and the songs were technically not bad as such, but they didn't have an edge, there was nothing to set them apart from the plethora of other bands that sound exactly the same. Especially after the first act, which defied my immediate expectations of being yet another indie sound alike band to actually be pretty good, they just lacked something. It didn't help that the violinist/backing vocalist was having trouble with her mic for most of it (it sounded ok to me, I think she couldn't her herself), but that alone shouldn't be enough to ruin the whole thing. I did like the gadget that the guitarist used, I don;t have a clue what it was, but I want a go on one! (I'll be investigating this on the guitar/bass forums if you're intrigued!). There seemed to be a few fans in, but other than that I think the rest of the audience seemed a bit unimpressed also, as the cheering was particularly enthusiastic.


After the disappointing middle section we were all eager for The Bluetones to get on stage, so the set-up and wait for them to begin dragged a fair bit. by the time they took the stage the venue had filled up a fair bit, to the point I struggled to find elbow room to get my camera phone out to take pics, so there's not as many as I might've liked, but on the upside I didn't spend the night elbowing girls in the head! They kicked of their set with two or three songs of their new (apparently award winning, as part of their in band awards, at which their drummer won best drummer, but controversially the bassist didn't win best bassist) album which in only vaguely knew, as I haven't got around to buying it yet. They then progressed into their older material and the crowd started to really get into it.

One of the great things about The Bluetones live is that you can see they are still really enjoying themselves, which is always infectious, and the singer's somewhat self deprecating humour between the songs is a bonus ('this is the song that made our millions, not that it lasted'), especially when he managed to insult the male section of the audience by claiming he could see a few 'wife beater' types in before launching into their song 'Keep The Home Fires Burning' (all about domestic abuse) only to save himself their hatred by commenting afterwards that 'Actually, I tell a lie, you lot are alright, all the wife beaters are off seeing Paul Weller tonight!'

Happily for me they always play a good number of songs of the album that got me into them, and know best, 'Science & Nature' - although they are yet to play 'Blood bubble' or Mudslide, which would make me incredibly happy to see live... Along with most of that album they played all the favourites, including one which had been retired from live performances for a few years ('Putting Out Fires' if I remember right). When they finally left the stage the crowd managed to keep a pretty solid level of noise until their return, which was impressive considering the size of audience, I've heard bigger quiet moments at all the bigger gigs I've been to! They returned for a fun 4 song encore, finishing on 'If...' with the crowd singing along all the way.


If you don't already know them, go take a listen to The Bluetones as I reckon they are really under-rated - the more you listen the more you like them, so give them a chance, and once you like them you'll LOVE them live!


Pictures are available HERE

*Jumps around excitedly at the though of Terrorvision on Friday! * review on Saturday I would imagine...

The Charlatans 13/05/2008

Yet another gig at the Carling Academy (they really do seem to get all the great acts in the south west area, don't they?!), which is a VAST improvement on last time I attempted to see them live. Last time was at the National Adventure Sports Show (NASS) last summer, and they played in a huge barn, which didn't really fill up at all, so that the sound was god awful, I gave up about halfway through the set.

Filling the support slot was a band called Hatcham Social. As a live act these guys could do with some thing more... They didn't have any stage presence, at all, I think there were maybe two very muted 'thank-yous', but other than that they just played songs in a fairly dispirited fashion, and didn't even tell us their name! I can understand why they would feel somewhat down, as the venue only really filled out after their set, but I think the people who were there would have got into them more (at all, in fact) if they hadn't looked and acted so bored and despondent.

Before I leave you thinking I don't like them, I could tell last night (even though the sound wasn't too good for them - a surprise at the Academy!) that they had an interesting sound. As I write this I am listening to their myspace page, and quite enjoying it, especially 'The Jabberwocky' which I recognise the bass line of from the gig, and now I know the lyrics I love it!


After what was for me (as it always is) far too long between the bands The Charlatans took to the stage; by this time the crowd had filled out a lot more, and they gave the band a decent welcome. The gig was great fun, although slightly odd because of the style of music, you can't quite jump to it, and you definitely can't sit down to it, so the was a lot of not very certain dancing going on for most of the gig. The band themselves seemed to still be almost surprised by the love of the fans (either that or the singer was definitely on E!), which considering they've been going since around since 1989 is somewhat surprising!

What impressed me most about their live show (possibly affected by me only knowing four albums, and only one of them well) was the lighting. There were several times when I couldn't help being thankful that I'm not epileptic, and wondering if you can get an equivalent of tinnitus in the eye! It was a really good light show, the only one better (or even close to it) was Daft Punks awesome light up Pyramid at O2 Wireless last summer, and in some respects the Charlatans lighting worked better because it was a smaller venue (by about 79,000 people), I left with some of the lights seared onto my retina like you get from staring at the sun or light bulbs for too long... But the lights weren't just cool because of the brightness and flashing, they had some cool drapes at the back (you can see this in the photos), which had lights on them, as well as some lights on the wall of amps at the back of the stage, and they made use of this to create some cool contrasting light effects.

They played about an hour and fifteen minute set, with a good smattering of songs from their new album (which is now available to buy on CD after being a free download from March). They then returned for a 20-25 minute encore of four or five songs, one of which was a really cool rocking out cover of Lucifer Sam by Pink Floyd which caught me by (a very pleasant) surprise. They finished with an extended rocking song (the name of which I have not a clue I'm afraid!) which had everyone jumping around and left us all wishing the curfew was another half hour longer.

A large number (thanks to the lack of jumping around everywhere) of photos available here.

Upcoming gigs:
18/05: The Bluetones
25/05: Terrorvision
28/05: Feeder
13-15/06: NASS - Highlight bands are The Subways and Less Than Jake
29/06: The Raconteurs
02/07: Spock's Beard
15-17/08: Beautiful Days festival - Highlight bands are The Levellers, Supergrass and Squeeze

Spunge (and May Contain Nuts) 05/05/2008

First off, I must apologise - I forgot my camera! So no pictures this time... My excuse is that I was too hungover to think straight... (I still feel hungover now, an hour after the gig, and nearly 24 hours since I finished drinking last night... )

This is my fourth or fifth gig at Cardiff's Barfly, but the first since I stated my Glog, so I guess I'll give a bit of a description, it's an, erm, special venue! It's a small (200 capacity) basement venue, so it makes for nice intimate gigs, but then as it's a basement it has three big square pillars down the middle, which have drawn blood in the middle of a couple of mosh pits... And the poor performers are on stage with a low ceiling at the front, so every now and then they go to stand on their monitors or similar and smack their heads...


Any way, on with the gig... First off were May Contain Nuts, who are an excellent local punk rock band, with a quirky sense of humour. They managed to get the crowd moving a little, and played a fun set of great songs, the highlight for me being 'The Game O' Legs', for which they ask people who know them to get down the front and play said game. As there were only about 5 people who had heard them before, and two of them weren't up for it, I ended up sat on the (sticky and wet) floor with two other lads playing the game along with the song... I'll let the song explain:

"I'll put my legs out first
You put your legs on mine
Now you put yours on his
I'll take mine away and
I'll put my legs on top
You put your legs on mine
Now you put yours on his
The Game O' Legs!"

Great fun, though we didn't listen to the bit before that, that says 'If you don't wanna bruise, then first take off your shoes'... This song was preceded by another favourite of mine 'Mr. Caveman' which is a fairly offensive song about Osama Bin Laden, which has a great, catchy, sing a long chorus. Once the game of legs was over the people who were up for dancing finally all managed to convene in one spot and we all danced like crazy people for the rest of the set.

The next act was called Hypo-Pshyco. These guys are a ska-punk band, in much the same vein as Spunge, and (in my opinion) far too many other ska-punk bands... They were good, but nothing special in my opinion, as as I was still feeling pretty hungover I took advantage of their set to have a drink and save some energy for Spunge. (last time I saw Spunge [also in Cardiff Barfly] I wasn't far from collapsing from sheer overheating and exhaustion by the end of their set!). They did have quite a lot of energy, and the people who had been dancing by the end of MCN kept it up for their set, and more people started joining in, especially when the band set up a (scarily named) Wall Of Death. Luckily, as the Barfly is small and ska heads tend to be quite nice, it didn't meet in the middle with fists in faces...

I might have to say here that I was very impressed with the speed with which all the bands swapped stage, especially considering the tiny space they have to work in, I don't think the breaks between were even close to half and hour, which is always nice... I still blame the 45 minutes + the Offspring too kto take the stage for me nearly collapsing in the middle of their mosh pit, so I guess you could say it's a pet hate for me...

I like Spunge's style, they are a pretty big band, but in an underground way, so they have zero ego (well, zero noticeable ego) on stage, and give off a really nice vibe. They just kinda wandered on stage at the start, and there was a slight pause before everyone realised they were on stage! They played a great set, got everyone jumping around to all the songs (even the new ones a lot of people evidentally didn't know). They had a good rapport with the audience, and kept up entertaining on stage banter throughout. They even played one of their biggest hits ('Jump On Demand') about half an hour early for a group of people that had to catch a train before the end of the gig, and followed that by a super-fast, 30 second version of another big hit 'Kicking Pigeons'. ("Kicking Pigeons in the park, we had to stop 'cause it got dark") they seemed to get quite confused after this, as I think they forgot what song they had deviated from the set list at, but this just meant we got a bit more say in what songs they played, so no-one was complaining! There were certainly no complaints when they gave away a box of free goodies, although the cardboard box it all came in got a bigger cheer than the contents!

Another downside of the Barfly is that it gets very hot (worse than most venues) and has curved ceilings that collect all the evaporated sweat you normally get rid off and drip it back on your head. The band have played a few time at the Barfly, and this time around they were trying to convince the management to install some air conditioning before they next return, with the guitarist making the point by literally ripping his t-shirt off, after a lot of 'take it off' chanting from the crowd, and a little extra muscle to tear through the hem! He then threw it into the group of (largely) girls at the front, which started a fight over who got the souvenir! By the time they got to the end of their set everyone was tiring, but with the full version of 'Kicking Pigeons' everyone found that little extra energy, and then they got everyone to sing the guitar riff to 'Centerfold' and ripped into that for the finale. As last time I saw them they didn't do an encore, but seeing as they had played every song I wanted, and I was shattered, I'm not complaining!

Go see Spunge (and May contain Nuts ), cause they are great fun, full of energy and good humour. Although I would advise listening to their classics before hand so you can join in with the sing a long choruses, which is half the fun really...


My next gig will be The Charlatans in the Carling Academy in Bristol on next Tuesday (13/05/2008).

Presidents of the United states of America 18/04/2008

The evening started pretty early for this gig, doors opened at 18:30, and the first act was on by about 7, which I quite like myself, I hate standing around waiting for everything to kick off. The first act was Kid Carpet who I had NEVER heard of before, although there was a few people in (mostly girls) that seemed like fans. Though the biggest (in every sense of the term) fan was right in front of me, and he was BIG with BIG hair and beard, and was going crazy from the word go! OK, it wasn't 'go', but more 'My god it's about 4 in the afternoon! As it's so early I'll start with something quiet on my folk guitar', and picked up what looked like a plastic guitar head and first fret, he then proceeded to play it by swinging his arm past it, so I'm guessing at some form of motion sensor was involved, and it produced a very 'midi' sound. Looked great, sounded less great, but was fun for novelty value. The rest of the set was less good, as he makes music in a style that I'm not a fan of. But it wasn't painful like some people I've been forced to sit through! His set was also quite short, which helped, it was about 10 minutes long!

The next act was Electric Eel Shock, who are an old school metal act hailing from Japan. They started in an impressive 'we rock! Hear us roar!' style, complete with little riffs of famous songs (such as Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man') to get the crowd roaring. They had a lot of fans in too, but again I'd never heard of them, and so felt I was missing out a bit, as there were a few songs which sounded like they would be awesome live if I knew them already... (I find some bands are better if you know the stuff before hand, not sure what it is that makes that happen, but there you go). The guys certainly put on a good show, loads of energy, running around 'rock start' jumps, the works. In fact, I'd say they were everything I would expect from a Japanese band - they all seem to be pretty crazy and energetic live in my experience (the Ploysics are a good example of that too). I was slightly confused towards the end when people started shouting 'YOU B*STARD!' but then it became a chant, and I figured it must be one of their songs, which they promptly played, with much pointing at random people and shouting 'YOU b*stard! No, YOU b*stard*. They also found time to pull off a full cover of Iron Man, although I think they played it super fast, either that or it's been too long since I last listened to the original! Good fun, a great warm up to the Presidents, as many people were jumping around to them, which always bodes well for the headliners.

Sadly, in a way, Kid Carpet made a return after Electric Eel Shock. this time around he had some more weird instrumentation, and a surprise guest! This time around he said something along the lines of 'Wow, Electric Eel Shock are pretty hardcore aren't they? Well I'll try and punk it up a bit now!' and so saying pulled out a plastic kids fake guitar and played yet more of the same style music. After that he said 'Come on Jeff, it's nearly time!', which puzzled everyone a bit, until who should appear but the big bloke who'd been in front of meat the start of the gig, and from the huge crowd response I guessed everyone else had seen him going crazy too (he was hard to miss really). He continued with his crazy dancing for a couple of songs, with much owing to Kid Carpet when the crowd started chanting 'Jeff, Jeff, Jeff'. Sadly I think that the 'folk guitar' and Jeff's dancing were the highlights of both of Kid Carpet's sets for me, but there you go.

Finally, after the obligatory set up time (and about ten years of wanting to see them!), the Presidents of the United States of America took to the stage. They kicked it off with something that rocked - can't remember what (possibly 'Tiki God'), but seeing as there's only about three songs of theirs that DON'T rock, then it's not surprising! Everyone went crazy, all the usual shoving and jumping and big grins were evident everywhere I looked! The Presidents (complete with their 3-string, 2-string and no-string guitars) looked as happy as the crowd, and were evidentially having a great time too (which is always nice!). They played all the favourites, and lots of material from their new album ,which meant that the set was 90% 1st and newest albums, with maybe 4 songs off the other 4 albums! They get no complaints from me on choice of songs though, the essentials were played ('Kitty', 'Lump', 'Peaches', 'Back Porch', 'Some Postman' - which came complete with a minute long insult for the postman in question!) and they played several that I wasn't expecting, such as 'Candy', 'Froggie' and 'Zero Friction'.

I was impressed at the speed with which Chris Ballew (lead signer/Bassitar) can talk, as in the middle of several songs he did little story fillers at super high speed, although it was hard to make out what he was actually saying for some of them, it was clear for 'Froggie' which has a little section of a list of all the drugs that froggie does backstage during a gig, before squirting toilet cleaner in his eye and dying! The main section of the set ended with 'Lump' followed by Chris yelling 'you know, I think it's about time to...' and letting the crowd scream back 'KICK OUT THE JAMS!', before launching into their cover/parody which had everyone rocking out. Like for The Hives, I was impressed again with the crowd screaming for the encore, no losers going 'they'll come back on anyway, why bother?'. When they did return they brought with them a local band called 'Bucky' (complete with one handed drummer) to do a song that they liked, followed by a little 'goodbye bucky' song. And then they got on with another few songs, including their cover of 'Video Killed The Radio Star', 'Froggie' and 'We Are Not gonna Make It', which has a new ending ,now that they have in fact made it (6 albums and over 15 years is doing pretty well I'd say!) complete with a high speed shortened version of the bands history, ending with '..and then we released a new album called 'These are the good times people, so it looks like we're gonna make it after all!'.

If it were possible I would have booked tickets for the next gig in Blighty last night... Great fun, and I can;t wait to see them again!

As usual Photos HERE.

The Hives 17/04/2008

I had been looking forward to this for a little while, having seen The Hives at the V Festival in 2005 (only doing 30 minutes there though ) I knew they would be good.

First off, as usual, was a support act, Henry Fiat's Open Sore. They have something of an interesting image (especially as they list themselves on myspace as ' Christian Rap / Christian / Thrash') comprising of suits and what appear to be homemade gimp masks?! The effect was somewhat diminished by the large hole in the crotch of the singers trousers (I wasn't looking, honest! ), but helped create some wacky effects, such as the singer opening his eyes wide so all you could really make out of his face were these to bright white globes... Or the bassist sticking his tongue out and waggling for all he was worth - without a mouth to give them context tongues are very strange beasts! Musically they were a bit hardcore for me, and from what I could tell, most of the audience would have agreed... Still, got everyone nodding their heads and tapping their feet, and eager for the main show...

As The Hives' instruments were being set up it became clear they have taken the title of their latest album ('The Black And White Album') to heart - Everything except for the neon sign at the back was black and white, amps, drums, guitars, duck tape holding the microphones in place..! (once the drummer was on stage I also noted he had lots of pimpin' white drum sticks!) Also the amps had a nice touch - they had their owners names on them as opposed to the usual branding, and with names like Nicholaus Arson, Vigilante Carlstroem and Dr. Matt Destruction it looked good!

Finally, at about 9pm, the background music switched to 'A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors' - an instrumental for the new album which is quite odd and joins other songs on the new album that sound quite new and different from The Hive's usual sound. Crowd go wild, of course, possibly forgetting that the song is pretty long, as they give up after a minute or two! When the band do take the stage (all dressed to the nines in their special Black and white Album suits, of course) the crowd went crazy, and much pushing and shoving went on (one reason I don't like be RIGHT at the front at gigs - you get squashed to death!).

I always find it funny just how well those suits suit the music of The Hives, and there's something about their live show which fits too... It kind of makes you forget just how arrogant ol' Howling Pelle Almqvist is being! He often mentioned we weren't making enough noise for the Almighty Hives, and at one point threatened to destroy the crowd if we didn't make enough noise after 'the next song'! Another good example of the arrogance is in the song 'You Dress Up For Armageddon' (The song's chorus goes 'You dress up for Armageddon, and I'll dress up for the summer'), which was introduced by Pelle saying how The Hives will be around to play for 'the children of your children's children', and that 'the next song is about how there will only be 5 men from Sweden left alive after Armageddon'.

They kept everyone happy with all the classics from the latest three albums (I'm very disappointed they ignored their first album completely, just one song would have been awesome, especially had it been 'Blackjack', or 'A.K.A.I.D.I.O.T'...): 'Main Offender', 'Hate To Say I Told You So', 'Walk, Idiot, Walk', 'Tick, Tick, BOOM!' etc... The performance was full of energy from both the crowd and the band (who had ditched all their ties and jackets by half way through, unsurprisingly!), and kept up a fast pace, complete with Pelle climbing up on the speaker stacks at either side of the stage, for an hour or so, before they left the stage. The crowd were the most vociferous I've heard for a little while (Spunge were the last band to get that kind of volume, and they were playing to about 1/6 of the number of people), and there was barely a let up in the 'We want more' chants until the band returned one by one to the stage for a two song encore. I'll have to confess that I was quite pleased it was only two songs as by this tie I was completely knackered and in desperate need of a drink and a sit down!

All I can say is: I can't wait for the next album (as The Black And White Album bodes very well for their future, a real step forward into new territory), and accompanying tour!

Pictures are HERE. Sorry about the quality, but there wasn't much time for pictures, so be thankful there are ANY at all...

Gogol Bordello 01/04/2008

The sentence "Epic Gypsy-Punk" could be used to fully describe the gig. However, I get the feeling you'd like a bit more than that...

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the Carling Academy was how happy and energetic the crowd was, there were 'pratice' pits going on before the bands got going! The support act was called 'Skindred', and are a 'ragga-rock' group from Newport. If you're as clueless to that genre as me, I guess I could bets describe the sound as reggae-metal (as opposed to rock, oddly). They had a good stage presence, with the vocalist getting the crowd singing along and following his every order pretty quick, and the crowd were well into it, with big crazy mosh pits going on throughout the set. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea however, and I wanted to save energy for Gogol, so I steered clear!

Gogol came on stage some time between eight-thirty and nine, I think it was nearer eighty-thirty. They had a cool backdrop with 'Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks' on, and two smaller ones either side with the title of one of their songs on 'Think Locally - F*ck Globally'. The crowd were completely crazy, and for the first three or four songs there was so much forwards and backwards (and sometime side to side pressure) that not much actual dancing or jumping could happen - everyone was too bust staying on their feet! Once the crowd had sorted itself out (the less hardcore people moved out of the front basically) then everyone started pushing and shoving and jumping around like loons, and kept it up right to the end of the set, between two and two and a half hours later!

The band were on form, and barely stopped for breath between songs, in fact most of the time they seemed to have started the next one before I'd properly realised the previous song had finished! They were all dressed up in cool gypsy/punk kinda togs, as were the crowd, one guy even came in a great purple cloak, with a pink fluffy 'boob-tube' type thing... Very, erm, appropriate. I think it was in the middle of 'Think Locally' that the singer pulled out a red bucket, stuck it over the mike on the mike stand and beat out a pretty funky little bucket solo. Once the bucket had been used once it made several reappearances, especially during the drawn out endings of songs, most impressively when there was a bottle of wine, a drum stick and the microphone all inside it being shaken around crazily, with wine going everywhere! The first part of the set was about an hour and a half long, ending on 'Start Wearing Purple' which really sent the crowd into a frenzy of jumping and singing, and had us all screaming for more before the band had left the stage.

The encore was impressive... They made three songs last at least 45 minutes, quite possibly more, and kept (the pretty knackered by now) crowd dancing and singing away for it all, even though it was mostly brand new, only played live before, stuff! There's something about watching a scrawny, mustached, long haired, topless bloke going 'Ohh-ah, ooh-ah, ooh-ah-ah' for about ten minutes that really surprisingly fun! By the time they finished, at about ten to eleven, the crowd had had almost as much Gogol as they could handle (I think they would have stayed for another song or two, but that would break the golden rule of always leaving the audience wanting more!) and the band (complete with dancers) were heartily cheered off the stage.

Go see Gogol Bordello the next opportunity you get, I can't imagine anyone could be disappointed (unless you either dislike the music [in which case I'll need to give you a good talking too ] or get too inebriated to enjoy it properly [like I did for their set at Beautiful Days last year...])

Stay tuned for a review of Misty's Big Adventure and Plastic Hassle (a local band from Barnstaple) some time after Saturday, not sure when exactly as I may be away from my computer for a lot of next week, but I'll do my best

Oh, and before I forget, pictures can be found HERE