The Subways 27/03/08

This gig was something of a surprise extra for me, as I didn't find out about it until a couple of weeks prior to it, and didn't know I could make it until 4 days before it. I ended up being late (again ) but it didn't matter as the support act didn't start until about 9, so turning up at 8:45 was actually a good thing! The gig was in The Point again, and hopefully when I upload the pics you'll be able to seem some of the churchy goodness.

The support act were pretty good, though not very danceable, so the crowd reaction was not amazing. They were called 'Cage The Elephant' and are from Kentucky apparently, though they didn't do a very good job of advertising themselves as I had to do a quick google to find out their name! Anyway, they played a half hour set of good tunes that kept me amused, but like I said, couldn't really dance too... The band really went for it which was nice, at one point one of the guitarists was stood on top of his amp, and at another he was down almost in the crowd. It's always nice to see the band enjoy themselves as much (if not more) than the crowd!

Then there was a silly long setup/sound check - half an hour, for most of which no-one was doing anything... While I understand that the band wants everything to sound good I always get annoyed when sound checking takes 'too long'...

Finally, at ten o'clock (!), The Subways took the stage. And despite the fact that the singers vocals weren't switched on for the first 20-30 seconds of the first song they still took the stage in a way that I don't think I've seen ANYONE else do, and (as you've probably noticed already) I've seen a lot of real class acts... The closest to the instant kick of energy and fun was the crowds reaction to Feeder taking the stage when I saw them in the NEC - and that was more the crowd than the band... The Subways were just full of infectious energy, I couldn't have kept still if I tried (the blurryness of some of the pics are testament to that!). From the first song they just kept belting out a collection of new songs of their forth coming album (which sounds like it'll be another stormer) and old classics, which went down a storm... During the third (or so) song the singers energy/inebriation went a little far when he threw a mic stand across the stage, which landed in the crowd at the side, a good 15 metres away! Impressive arm, but you've gotta feel sorry for the poor person who got it in the head!

After a good number of songs, and a lot of 'You lot in Cardiff are a bunch of really sexy f*ckers!' they ran off stage (the singer jumping over the bass amp enroute) before returning for an encore. During the encore of two (maybe three, my memory is hazy) the singer made the audience very happy by crowd surfing, not just once, but twice, and generally still going for it 101% to the very end. Overall a great gig, with vast amounts of energy to spare, even though it was short (about 45 minutes) they managed to cram in all of my favourite songs, and more, and generally give everyone a great time! Thoroughly recommended.

Review of Dodgy to follow later today, as I learnt just now it's worth reviewing before seeing another gig, and I have another two in the next 3 days (though one of them is a comedy gig, so I don't think I'll bother reviewing it here...).

UPDATE: Pictures available here!

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