The Gig Thread

They were half-brilliant but not wihtout problem so we'll get that out of the way first.

-- They have a lead guitarist with an ego problem and he tends to over-embellish at times and manages to screw up the groove. Typically the band will be rocking along, the indie kids (and one balding, slightly overwieght Indie adult) will be moshing and said guitarist will get carried away and lay down a lick of Malmsteen proportions that ends with a *BIG* sustained bend somewhere around the 27th fret.

-- Their lead guitarist has a shit 80s haircut. Specifically a curly top perm a la Robert Smith c. 1984.

-- They have lots of people in the band and they all take turns writing songs. You can gernerally tell who wrote which songs by who plays lead guitar/sings and who gets demoted to bass. It turns out that the couple of crap songs on their album were written by the be-permed guitarist.

-- As they are Canadian they are duty bound to dispel the myth that Canadian bands are all by the numbers, pub/country rockers (see Blue Rodeo). Inevitably this involves doing some Godspeed style noodling. This didn't work at all and they are much better doing the anthemic indie rockers. To be fair the mix was awful (and way too loud) so the delicate washes of sonic colour designed to evoke the bleakness of the windswept shores of Lake Eirie (or somesuch) were rather drown out by the loudest kick drum you've every heard in your life.

On the upside they do, surprisingly for a slightly nerdish band, rock. They also have a part time female singer and occasional guitarist who is like a cross between Chrissie Hynde and Bez from Happy Mondays. She's great and more than makes up for teh dodgy guitarists lapses. And they do have some great songs. THey even did a country rock song (not on the album) and that was pretty good as well.

All in all though if you like the album you'll like the gig.

Matthew

Half Man Half Biscuit are of course the greatest band in the world ever. If you are not aware of this self-evident fact its not even worth coninuing the discussion.

If you are a convert then seeing them live is a treat worth travelling for. There is more joy at a sing-a-along HMHB gig than in stadium full of Hari Krishnas and its only slightly more cultish and weird. You really have not lived until you have joined in with 1000 other people to sing "Fuckin' Hell it's Fred Titmus" at the top of your voice.

Matthew

I'm off to see Mogwai tonight. I'll probably end up in the bar sulking as usual

I'll be doing Bowie in about a month and cannot wait.

I'll post the prognosis after

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I'll post the prognosis after

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This kind of thing gets doctors sued.

Can those of us now trapped in live-music sinkholes post our reminiscences of past gigs, or is that for the other, old-fart-rock threads?

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Originally posted by garyi:
I'll be doing Bowie in about a month and cannot wait.

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Does this mean you've come out of the closet?

I might see TV On The Radio or The Rapture in coming weeks, I might not.

Common, if you gonna go gay Bowie would be a nice start

Hey, did that Bowie/Jagger/Clapton threesome actually happen or is it just an urban legend?

Dancing in the streets?

Mogwai never showed. BUT we had a treat.
Concorde2 last night was one of the Radio1 Brighton week events, and we must have been among the very few to have not been on the A list. John Peel in the bar, all the late night Radio1 DJ's, and loads of "faces". Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) with corkscrew hair and a black beret?! What is he on? Lots of old record producers that I recognised from my past life too.
I have been to the best gig of the year so far..
Cat On Form....manic thrash band and totally brilliant. Great stuff. I would buy a CD.
The best thing I have seen this year though was a Japanese band, two girls, two blokes. Melt Banana. Totally awesome!! Imagine Mad Capsule Markets meets Lawnmower Death. Toatally fabulous, and I'm still grinning. You MUST check them out.
Week isn't finished yet....God I Love this city!

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Originally posted by garyi:
I'll be doing Bowie in about a month and cannot wait.

I'll post the prognosis after

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Gary
Went to the Stockholm gig a couple of weeks ago.
Sorry, but it was not good.
"Bowie the entertainer"
On par with the "glass spider tour".
This was Bowie at his worst.

Just as excellent as he was the last time here with the "outside tour" , this time the other way around.

I´ve not missed him touring here since I was 17 in -86 and he´s been a rare bird around here.
(Had to buy bootlegs with other tours he´d made through the years)
This was a major disappointment.

Hope he get his act together when he reaches your date. And hopefully would kick Slick and the drummer(wich was a disaster).

The versions of "Heroes" and "Rebel rebel" were so bad that I almost left the concert before it was over.
Not even a quite good version of fantastic voyage could save my overall impression that he´s totaly lost right now. If this goes further he might even take out his saxophone again...


Gunnar

ejl said "Can those of us now trapped in live-music sinkholes post our reminiscences of past gigs, or is that for the other, old-fart-rock threads?"

For sure. Although each reminiscence about the Isle of Wight Festival from aging Hippies like Nick Lees will be marked down in your debit colum.

Matthew

Sonic Youth, July 7, 1999, Liberty Lunch (Austin TX)


Two things made this show exceptional:

i. The venue, the venerable Liberty Lunch, was about to be torn down and replaced by an Intel Corp. office tower, and everyone knew it. I think SY put extra effort into the show as a result.

ii. The truck with all of SY's equipment had been stolen a week earlier. This made the planned playlist -- the wank-fest constituting the (then) just-released "Goodbye Twentieth Century" -- impossible because, as Thurston Moore said, he could never re-create the electronics needed to get those sounds again.

So the result was a terrific return to form, on borrowed instruments, with 2.5 hours of tunes from Evol, Sister, Goo, Daydream Nation, Washing Machine, etc.

One of the best shows I saw in Austin.

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Originally posted by Rasher:
Mogwai never showed. _BUT_ we had a treat.
Concorde2 last night was one of the Radio1 Brighton week events. You MUST check them out.
Week isn't finished yet....God I Love this city!

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You mean you blew out the Loca Records night at the Sanctuary? I believe the Upper Lewes Road massive were in full effect!

Brighton is awful. I can't imagine why anyone would move here. At least that's my story until I can afford a proper house.