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