The weekend that was

Monday, June 30, 2008 ~ 2 Comments

Friday was damp. Friday was wet. Friday was a pretty fucking good day mainly because a band called Radiohead was playing at Glasgow Green and, whilst it there was a light drizzle for most of the evening I really didn’t care. I was just happy to be there and listen to them blast their way through most of my favourites; 2+2=5, There There, Everything In Its Right Place, Paranoid Android, Just(!), Fake Plastic Trees, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, and more.

As usual there were several knobs who did their best to spoil it but it didn’t work. Why do these people go to gigs? Regardless a good time was had by all, even if by the end of the second encore we were all kind of huddled together and beginning to feel a little sorry for ourselves.

Still, that was only part one of the evening, part two was a joint leaving night for my boss and our receptionist, both of which will be missed. Having joined the throngs of people leaving Glasgow Green, we all managed to cram onto the Underground for a quick spin round to The Loft in the west end of Glasgow. The first beer was a good one, and was soon followed by another and a couple of G&Ts. Then it was onto Boho for a wee boogie and then my lovely wife picked me up at 2.30 in the morning…

… which was mainly because on Saturday we were back out to spend the day socialising with friends and family in a late birthday celebration for Louise. We kicked off at 2pm, cocktails were involved and it was only the addition of a rather nice steak that stopped me being completely dead on Sunday. As it was we got home around 3am, quite glad we had no plans for the next day.

I won’t mention that my mother phoned and woke us up… it was 11am after all.

Sunday was spent dozing and munching, sofa-bound for the day, watching crap movies (hello Enemy Within and Jumper) and enjoying Spain’s win over Germany.

And this morning? This morning I ache, with all that standing around on Friday finally kicking in. I feel like I’ve been set on a rack and stretched by some infernal torture device or something, twisted and contorted in ways for which my body was not built. All that from standing about in the rain.. time marches on, eh…

Elbow

Monday, April 14, 2008 ~ 4 Comments

I really don’t know why I didn’t do this last week, and since a few other bloggers have since been to see them, and they share my view that this is very much a band to see live, I feel chagrined into writing up my thoughts about the Elbow gig I attended a couple of weeks ago at the ABC in Glasgow.

Elbow are one of those bands that kind of snuck up on me, I remember hearing some of their second album, including Fugitive Motel, nicked from someone at work and thinking they were OK. Next time I saw them was on TV when they were at Glastonbury a couple of years back, around the time their third album came out… and it was this appearance that prompted me to buy that album.

I’ll happily admit that after the first few lessons I put it to one side but quality refuses to be lost and it was soon back in rotation. The more I listened to it to the more I got from it, and the more I realised that this was a band that could soar along on some glorious melodies and that lyrically they were tantalisingly brilliant. A few choice lines here and there (”and coming home I feel like I, designed these buildings I walked by”) seemed to spark off my surroundings as I used them to buffer my daily commute.

I revisited their second album and found it deeper than I thought, and then ‘discovered’ their first album (I’d been under the presumption that Cast of Thousands was their first album!) and shortly after that they released their current album (which is number 4, do keep up). Then I heard they were touring.

I’ve made public statements that I will not be revisiting the SECC so, frankly, it doesn’t take much to tempt me to a gig elsewhere (which essentially means King Tuts, ABC, Carling Academy or the Barrowlands), so Elbow ticked the list when I heard they were playing at the ABC (a converted cinema).

Not entirely sure what to expect what I witnessed was a stunning gig, which switched easily from rocking tracks, to gloriously heartfelt lump-in-the-throat ballads, interspersed with some witty banter to keep the crowd going and even singing the bass guitarist happy birthday (which I fear is part of the ’show’!). A few stand out moments include being able to hear the lead singer over the amplified voice from where I was near the back of the hall (might’ve been The Stops? not sure which track), and the confession that the track Mirrorball (on the new album) was actually named “The ABC Glasgow Mirrorball” after the “biggest fuckin Mirrorball I’ve ever seen” which is about 20ft in diameter and hangs from the ceiling in the ABC… “but don’t worry, that’s just between us, everyone else will think it’s just called Mirrorball… but we’ll know the truth!”.

So, a great gig from an excellent band, with a talented yet self-effacing frontman, delivering some well-honed tracks. Can’t ask for much more than that really, can you.

Portishead

Sunday, April 13, 2008 ~ 7 Comments

After a fairly epic night out on Friday (why do I drink vodka shots when I don’t really like vodka…?), I was a little fuzzy round the edges on Saturday. I was also completely knackered having spent most of my week facilitating meetings, which is far more tiring than both it sounds and that I expected.

Frankly the thought of driving through to Edinburgh to stand in a crowd for a few hours wouldn’t have been my choice except for one reason. It was to hear Portishead, remember them? Two albums (three if you count the live one) and then.. nothing. Those two albums are part of my staple choice, my backup when I get bored and want something comfortable to listen to, music that I tend to have on in the background when I’m at home.

So when I heard (via a Twitter from Paul) that they were touring again I snapped up a ticket within the hour. The anticipation of seeing Portishead live, hearing THAT voice live started and I remember thinking that I needed not to let myself get too carried away, that it might not live up to the expectation I was setting in my head.

I was wrong. They were amazing.

It was one of those gigs that will forever change the way I listen to their music, it was one of those gigs that had moments when the entire place was silenced and in genuine awe of what they were hearing and watching, it was one of those gigs that you talk about with reverence in years to come.

It’s also one of those gigs that I’m struggling to capture with words. The way it veered from a ferocious assault to a genuinely heartfelt, lump in the throat moment, outlined their ability to deliver something much more than their album tracks. The way the atmosphere shifted through the gig, and how such a slight woman can hold a room of thousands in her hand and she rips emotions from within, delivering them with a snarl or a smile.

I’m wary that every gig is a good one, and that I take few risks when choosing which concerts I go to see, but I really wasn’t sure what to expect last night. I’ve held off writing this post to try and distant myself a little but I think I’ll stand by the Twitter message I frantically typed out, with slightly shaking hands, as I tumbled out of the venue. It may not be eloquent but it encapsulates my emotions at the time, and my feelings about the gig that still linger.

Pretty fuckin awesome.

Arcade Fire

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 ~ 2 Comments

“Leave your jacket in the car” they said. And so, that is how you find the author, standing underneath the flashing neon facade which slowly cycles through the word Barrowland, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. He is cold.

When his friends finally turn up, replete with jumpers and jackets, the buggers, they troop in and head upstairs. Before they reach the main ‘ballroom’ music starts pulsing through the building. The support act, Patrick Wolf, is on stage. As we head out into the gathered crowd we catch glimpses of the man himself, and after a brief discussion we agree that, whilst the gold sequinned leggings are NOT a good look they do at least match his eye makeup.

The author pauses at this point and decides, fuck it, and returns to his normal writing style.

So yes, Patrick Wolf was pretty good and went down well. Not a huge surprise really, his stuff is pretty catchy and most of the audience probably have his albums as he sits alongside (underneath?) Arcade Fire in the musical genre tree.

Now, at this point I’ll pause and confess that I’ve only listened to the new Arcade Fire album a couple of times and have yet to be fully won over. This seems to be the pattern though as it took me some months to fully appreciate their first album. However, as their new album was only released a matter of days before the gig last night, well it didn’t leave me much time to ‘fall in love’ with Neon Bible.

That said, the band are a fairly awesome site on stage. With most of the 10 members chopping and changing instruments in a, frankly, insulting manner. How dare they be so talented!

And it was on stage that the new album was really sold to me. It may be a production issue, but to me the album sounds awfully flat, not so live. Pounding drums set most songs to a frantic pace, and provided the heartbeat of the gig. However, it was when they headed to their first album that things really got going, with some rousing performances of Power Out, and Tunnels soon transforming the audience into one huge singing, yelling, clapping and bouncing mass. My friends and I weren’t even that near the front but still got swept along as the songs crashed over us.

Arcade Fire are a very accomplished band but unfortunately were let down a little last night. The PA wasn’t that well balanced which reduced some songs to little more than a noise and a beat, and whilst the energy the band expel is palpable, they lack a true frontman or anyone who will grab the crowd, involve them, and haul them along for the ride. At times it did seem a bit like it was ‘another performance’, which I guess is understandable.

That makes it sound like it was a bad gig, it most certainly wasn’t.

The music lends itself mass participation, and the closing song (Wake Up) includes a crowd friendly chant during which the lead singer gave up trying to wrestle with his microphone and dove headlong into the audience. It’s possible that it was simply an act of frustration, or perhaps, just maybe, he thought it would help cement the gig in the hearts of the fans.

He needn’t have bothered, we were already lost in the moment with him.

Eagles of Death Metal

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 ~ 7 Comments

First time I’ve been in the ABC in Glasgow and as first impressions are, supposedly, important then I think my relationship with the venue is off to a flying start. Small without being dingy, large enough to hold a big crowd without feeling crammed in, it’s an ideal venue for all but the largest acts.

I’ll skip over the support act as they were largely ANOTHER punk/rock type band (was supposed to be The Spores but they pulled out). All thin trousers, raspy guitars and more energy than craft. They were called “The Mothers of… ” something or other but their lead singer needs some elocution lessons. I want to say “.. Invention” but I seriously hope it wasn’t.

Waiting for the band to come on stage, AC/DC played ‘gently’ in the background before, with little warning, the PA suddenly kicked up a notch or ten and my chest started thumping intime with the hip-hop beat of… well I can’t recall the name but it certainly set the tone for the evening.

A few seconds later the leader singer Jesse Hughes strutted on stage, with the rest of the band following in his wake. Whilst they are a very tight act, there is no doubt who the frontman is… and what a frontman, definitely a rock star, with the slicked back hair, sunglasses, tight jeans and shirt open to the waist, the hint of cowboy reminded me of Brad Pitt in Kalifornia.. southern rock hick.

Musically, the name of the band is off putting. They are not a death metal band, and there are accounts that suggest the name came about because they wanted to mix the sound of The Eagles with some death metal influences. Whether or not that’s true, it’s grimy, dirty rock and roll and they kept the placing jumping and dancing for the entire set. A few cover versions —Stuck in the Middle with You, Brown Sugar, and Beat on the Brat— kept you guessing, and almost everyone joined in the obligatory “Wooo yeahh” crowd singing moments.

With Hughes dancing and preening and cajoling and teasing the crowd, it’s almost tempting to think that we WERE witnessing the best gig of the tour. Certainly their claim that they were going to, for the first time, play “Solid Gold” live seems to be true, and Hughes in particularly seemed genuinely overwhelmed at the response. As was I. It may be in part due to the size of the venue but it’s been a long time since I felt so involved, so part of a gig and a lot of credit has to go to Jesse Hughes.

Of course the music lended itself to the good atmosphere, with hip-hop inspired beats backing some fairly heavy guitar, the band sit on the edge of being “metal” with just enough “americana” thrown in to keep things from destructing. Every gig is the “best gig since the last one” but this one might just push it’s way into my top three. I’d certainly love to see some of my favourite bands play somewhere as small as the ABC, in particular the Foo Fighters (their gig at the SECC - AKA the “big red shed” - now seems even less personal and involving than I realised).

So, to summarise: Eagles of Death Metal, Glasgow ABC, 5th March 2007. Kicked. Fucking. Ass.

P.S. Can anyone tell me why my last.fm accounted has been switched to French?

Not from Sveeden

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 ~ No Comments

Last night, which kinda snuck up on me, saw me and a few thousand others bopping along to all those wonderful old Abba hits. Yes that’s right. Abba. Or, more accurately, the tribute band Björn Again were in town.

I’ve seen them once before, almost 15 years ago now, when they played a gig at the Barrowlands. Last night we were in the ‘Armadillo’ which, whilst very nice, is entirely seated and kinda gets in the way of the dancing. Not that that stopped us mind you, it didn’t take long for us to be up out of our seats and clapping along with the best of them… ohh and I should pause at this point to apologise to the ladies sitting next to us, I’m sorry we didn’t know all the actions to EVERY SINGLE DANCE, and I’m also sorry that I was stone cold sober and not that fussed about learning them, despite your repeated attempts to coerce.

Of course it’s the music that’s the focus, and what bloody great pop songs they are too, whether the better know disco classics, the slower less familiar ballads and the, frankly, rocking Does Your Mother Know. Not that I want to remove any credit from the band who are pretty slick, well rehearsed and play the parts well. A couple of nice touches included some neat segues from Gimme Gimme Gimme! into Hung Up (the Madonna track that recently used it as a sample), S.O.S into the “sending out an S.O.S.” part of Message In A Bottle by The Police, and “Benny” even lapsed into a rap during Take A Chance On Me (as covered by Erasure.. I think…). A crowd pleasing Rockin’ All Over The World allowed the ladies to change into an even skimpier set of outfits and this is a band that knows it’s audience and how to play to it. And yes, the bulk of the audience was a fair bit “wiser” than us.

Quick Straw Poll: Blonde or Brunette? On the night it was definitely the brunette by a long way (which was good because I always preferred Anni-Frid to Agnetha).

What I still struggle to understand is why Abba’s songs appeal so much. Granted a few remind me of yesteryear, but there is a certain melancholy running through some of the tracks that seems to be at odds with both the music and the image of the band. The closing track, Thank You For The Music, being a good example; starting in a minor key with the lines:

“I’m nothing special,
In fact, I’m a bit of a bore.
If I tell a joke,
you’ve probably heard it before…

A quick change to a major key and we’re in lovely pop land for the chorus. Clever indeed.

What really struck me was how many of the songs I knew… all of them in fact. I think this surprised Louise as some of the songs aren’t heard often and don’t feature on the ubiquitous Abba Gold (although I’d suggest you skip that and get the Definitive Collection instead). Ring Ring, Honey Honey and Super Trouper being the notable “non-Gold” tracks. I credit my knowledge of Abba to both an ex-girlfriend, who played them constantly in her car, and to my Gran who had a copy of an Abba album that was always my choice when I was allowed to put on some music (wish I could remember which one, I’m tempted to say a Greatest Hits compilation but not sure which one, that was probably back in the late 70s early 80s…).

And in a nice piece of timing, you can tune in to ITV tonight at 9pm and hear some of Abba’s greatest hits and learn how they influenced others including Bono and Lulu (hmmm not the greatest selling point…).

Abba are one of those bands that everyone knows at least one or two songs of, in fact, I bet if you took a little time you’d be surprised at how many you knew. Go on, how many Abba songs can you name off the top of your head. Bet it’s more than one.

What it does mean is that you spend the entire evening singing along and wake up the next morning with a decidely delicate throat. Worth it though.

Everlong

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 ~ No Comments

Hello? HELLO!!

Sorry, my ears are still ringing. Fuck me, that band are loud. They are also quiet when needed, funny, engaging, and very energetic. And that’s just the front man. More to come, but first….

Ranty bit
Rock Steady security. What a jumped up bunch of oiks they are. In the queue at the cloakroom on the way out they admonished one guy for coming into the queue to join his mates. No-one else minded but they hauled two of them aside, talked at them for about ten minutes and then let them rejoin the queue where they’d come from… what the feck was the point of that?

P.S. You don’t need three people to tell us to ‘keep moving’ along the queue. The British public is very adept at queuing, it’s in-bred I think, but hey maybe without you guys there to keep us right we’d all just have stood there, wondering how on earth we were going to get our coats back… sheesh..

Disappointing bit
Dear large rock band (or dear S.E.C.C.) I’d much rather fork out an extra £10-15 and hear you in a stadium than put up with the dodgy sound in the big red shed. Suffice to say that R.E.M. sounded better at Loch Lomond, and I was about 500 metres away from them, last night I was no more than 60 or 70 metres yet still some of the songs sounded bad.

The good bits
Overall though this was an excellent set by a tight band that just kept cranking out the tunes. The opening four of five ripped past before the venerable Mr. Grohl paused to tell us that Glasgow was the place they always enjoyed coming to and was probably the best place to play a gig in the world. Every gig I’ve been to in Glasgow has the act saying the same thing, something I don’t recall hearing when I’ve been to see other acts in other places…

They plundered their back catalogue for some old favourites, including the not often played This Is A Call from their first album, and we got a lesson in showmanship with a nicely deconstructed version of Everlong which Dave held on his own for most of the song. What a feeling that must be, to have 10,000 people singing along to you and your guitar.

We even got to see Taylor (the drummer) singing one of the tracks from the ’soft/acoustic’ disc of the new album, with Dave (the… umm… other drummer) taking a seat behind the skins and going at it in his usual quiet and restrained fashion (there was a certain sense of embarassment as, on the big video screens they had above the stage, the cameraman was focussing more on Dave playing the drums than Taylor who was singing the song! No doubt about who’s band we were seeing).

It’s been said before that Dave Grohl is the nicest guy in rock, and this comes across during the interaction between some of the songs when you genuinely get the feeling that he’s just dead chuffed you’ve turned up and that he’s having a good a time as you. He’s got that whole ’self-effacing’ charm thing down pat, and you felt like he was talking to you rather than just obligingly filling the gaps between songs.

Highlight of the evening was both Learn to Fly (for personal reasons) and inevitably both Monkey Wrench and the closing All My Life. Not a bad gig for my first experience of the Foo Fighters live, it certainly won’t be the last.

As the lights came up and we all started the exodus, I experienced something new; the sound of the assembled crowd singing along to the background music. Maybe the fact that it was ACDC’s Highway to Hell had something to do with it, but I’d warrant that it wasn’t by accident. A great show, by a great showman, with a great band. What more can you ask?

Setlist (tbc)

In Your Honour
No Way Back
My Hero
Best of You
Up in Arms
Learn to Fly
Times Like These
The One
Stacked Actors
Big Me
Generator
Have it All
Breakout
Everlong
Monkey Wrench
———-
This is a Call
Cold Day
All My Life

Addendum
Foo Forum is already full of people bitching at the shortness of the set, but equally Dave Grohl is ill so I’m just glad they played. That might also explain the dodgy vocal mix on some of the tracks as he was obviously struggling.