Gigs

Alt-J tonight and The Smile tomorrow!

I think I'm still recovering from seeing Alice Cooper in Glasgow at the weekend there. What a show. Not only did we get a proper version of Steven but he also did Roses on White Lace which just blew me away. It was worth for those two songs alone. Hopefully this means we'll see more of his obscure/80s stuff as it just fits into the setlist perfectly.

The Cult were the support band but not one I'm familiar with (I thought they were The Cure for some reason) outside their more well known songs but the crowd seemed to enjoy them.

Venue note: I've been to the Hydro a few times and this is another issue with seating. The floored seats were off left of stage, which meant there was a speaker in the way, but once everyone stood up the people behind us were fucked.

Off to see The Music play a homecoming, one of show (though they also seem to be playing Glasgow too I think) in Leeds on Thursday. Going up with a old school friend. I don’t listen to them much these days but they’re were the first band we both ever saw live way back in 2002 or something, so it should be a pretty good day. We been gig buddies since, so it should be a nice, ‘hey look at our friendship sort of thing’.

Listened to both of their albums over the last couple of days and I forgotten how much energy they have a band. The coral and cribs are supporting too. Absolutely love the first two coral albums so pretty stoked to see them. Something I never got round too. Hopefully Johnny Marr turns up with the Cribs.

Also my first gig in a few years with covid an all that. Was meant to see Bossk in December, but then lockdown three happened. So yeah pretty excited!

Currently at the smile gig in the academy manchester (Radiohead guys). It’s pretentious shite....

I really liked “Welcome to the North” album back in the day, need to give it a listen again

Watched Liam Gallagher at Knebworth on Saturday.

Michael Kiwanuka was great although I don't think much appreciated by that crowd. Very Curtis Mayfield/Marvin Gaye with a bit of psychedelic rock sprinkled on, I was vaguely aware of him but will now be fully investigating his stuff.

Kasabian were an embarrassment IMO but were eaten up by that audience. I will never understand that band.

Liam was great. For somebody that does naff all onstage he does have this unexplainable presence and hearing THAT voice took me back to being a kid playing the Morning Glory album on repeat. He did about half/half solo and Oasis stuff. The crowd was noticeably muted for the solo stuff.

I would say my age and above was only about 20% of the crowd. It was full of identikit 20 somethings, which really surprised me. I've never seen so much of an audience facing away from a stage, trying to show off and make Instagram videos instead of enjoying the show. I've never seen a show be so much about alcohol and so little about enjoying the music and actually taking it in. A really narcissistic louty crowd. One punter we actually heard asking 'Who the fuck is that supposed to be' when he brought John Squire on. Flares and smoke bombs everywhere. Kasabian actually brought out more hooliganism than Gallagher too.

The organisation was an absolute shambles. This story sums it up:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-61691097?at_medium=custom7&at_custom1=link&at_custom3=Regional+BBC+North+West&at_custom4=64055C40-E4C2-11EC-941D-A6DE923C408C&at_campaign=64&at_custom2=twitter

Didn't get back to the hotel twenty miles away for over three hours and genuinely thought I was going to end up street sleeping for the night, which wouldn't have been fun given my shirt and shorts combo. We had the option to see him at the Etihad down the road and I was railroaded into this, never again.

Cracking show but a very very mixed experience.

I was driving south on the A1 past the turnoff for Knebworth about 3pm and the queue backed up was bloody huge, some seemed to be driving down the hard shoulder, and others trying to jump it via the middle lane causing the flowing traffic to be relegated to the outside lane. 

Glad you enjoyed it, but not surprised to hear about the crowd. With Kasabian on the bill I guess it was a given. 

Had a good chuckle reading reactions on Twitter to the Fat White Family's set. Assume they did a similar one to the one they played at Wide Awake weekend before last. They were well received there, but can imagine the bucket hat brigade were more than a little confused, just wanting more of their lager fulled lad rock.

But then I'm a fan, and hoping to see them tomorrow if I can shake a bad cold that's wiped me out.

Completely missed FWF, have never heard of them until the Twitter outrage. Not my bag and liking some of the metal/punk side of things I'm not averse to abrasiveness. That said am always somewhat supportive of button pushing even if I want to listen to it less and less as I get older.

They look to be an extremely niche act by the looks of it and would brook a similar reaction anywhere more mainstream I suspect...like you say though, it still couldn't happen to a nicer audience 😂.

I can't even communicate how much I disliked Kasabian, in particular the front man. Awful. I thought people from Leicester sounded like Gary Lineker, not Tim Westwood.

I was at Knebworth on Friday. Didn't get to the site until about 6 pm so luckily missed the traffic and was home before midnight. I think arriving late helped us make a quick getaway but it was all very disorganised with cars and (drunk) pedestrians forced to share a narrow and dark country lane to exit the site.

Totally agree about the weird aggressive atmosphere. We saw quite a lot of people openly doing lines of coke in the crowd so that probably didn't help. The view was also pretty poor IMO, especially compared to other festivals. The stage needed to be much higher.

Liam was good though. I actually quite liked some of the solo stuff.

Can Brandon sing in tune now or do the crowd still do most of the singing that it doesn't matter?

LOL, I hadn't heard that before.

Seemed fine to me but then I'm tone deaf. 

Anyone off to Download this weekend?

Was meant to be seeing Run the Jewels tonight but it's been cancelled at the 11th hour. No statement released yet. Gutted.

Excellent! Shame about The Cribs, they put on a great show. I saw the Coral twice on the first album and once on the second, they were amazing. They opened with Spanish Main, natch and the place went absolutely ballistic every time.

I'll have to try Leeds sometime, everyone seems to love it for gigs. A friend keeps trying to get me to go to Damnation up there