rate the last gig you went to

had a blast at all points east
Started off with The Nude Party, I'd imagine they're nothing special on record but I'm a sucker for anyone that's obsessed with nuggets/early 70s Stones so it was a lot of fun. Then went to the North Stage to see Egyptian Blue, stood there for 15 minutes moaning that they were behind schedule already then realised I'd got the stages wrong . Finally found the bloody place they were playing and only saw the last 2 songs, the sound on that X stage was awesome, they sounded like my kinda band too. Bit annoyed at myself about missing the majority of their set.

Saw most of Viagra Boys on the main stage, didn't realise they were Swedish, I assumed they were from somewhere like Reading or Oxford. Didn't hate it, but that overly aggressive approach just feels a bit forced to me.
Fat White Family were good, better than the gig at the Lexington I saw a few months ago, though the set was way too short. Love the mulleted Sax/keyboard/flute player.
Parquet Courts delivered on the main stage. I'm surprised at a couple of the slower numbers they did from the last record, just feels when you're on limited time at a festival you should perhaps skip the slow burners.

Courtney Barnett (another mullet) was great, though annoyingly her guitar wasn't turned up loud enough throughout.
Had a great spot for Interpol, the sound was just about passable where I was but I feel for anyone who was more than about 7 people back. Never been much of a fan TBH but I enjoyed it. Kev saw the guitarist stack it, I missed it & am desperate to see some footage of it.

Left a bit early to get a spot for the Strokes, got about half way down, they came on and the sound was diabolical. Watched the first 3/4 songs then went back and stood nearer a speaker to where the sound was shit but I guess OK. Either way by then we'd had a good drink so it basically was a big Strokes karaoke singalong. I forget how much I love those first two albums, the soundtrack to when I first started spending my weekends at shit indie clubs having the time of my life. Sung our hearts out & the Strokes won the day, even though the sound was poo & half the band had mullets.

It's such a shame about the sound levels at the festival, if it wasn't for that issue All Points East would have it nailed completely down. The bar queues are quick, toilets only get busy during last few hours. I've got to think something went wrong during Strokes set for the sound to be that bad, Nick Cave was blisteringly loud last year.

noel gallagher in norwich last night

got there about 4.30 as chrissie's faves neon waltz took the stage. wasn't awful but completely forgettable. soundtracked some beers and catch up with a few mates ok. 5/10

the coral then did an hour of hits which was really good. still think they're a top band and would actually have liked to have heard more from the newest album which i really liked. 8/10

razorlight were up next. i never saw them back in the day but to be fair they got the place going. a few lulls in their set but they have just about enough big singles to work at an event like this. no white jeans on borrell though which loses them half a point. 6/10

noel's set absolutely flew by. his band are a lot better now than when i last saw him a few years ago, probably due to the scissor player. obviously the setlist is pretty safe but it was good to hear stop crying your heart out again (dedicate to norwich fans as you'll be singing it next year when you're relegated ). bizarrely little by little got one of the biggest reactions from the night from the crowd. i forget what a popular song it is amongst the masses. glad i got to hear dead in the water live but of course loads of cunts talked through it. not a fasionable thing to say on here but i really enjoyed his set. obviously not as good as liam last year though. 9/10

Jp, you are cancelled

thought i recognised the compere from noel last night. turns out it was dave benson phillips

Like Karl, I also had an amazing day at APE. Gutted i didn't know Karl and Kev were going though.

Queue to get in at 3 was mental, but queues for the rest of the day were decent.

Fat White's were great, but yeah, way too short.

Parquet Courts looked good, but the sound where we were was terrible- totally spoilt it.

Caught some of Johnny Marr from way back under the trees. Only really tuned in for the Smiths songs, which prompted mass sing-alongs, which was great.

Yak were the highlight of a very good day. They played the stage under the big X sculpture thing and absolutely killed it. So so good.

Caught quite a bit of the Raconteurs set and they were loads better than the only other time I saw them. I really like Brendan Benson as a singer and will never tire of seeing Jack White play guitar and the dynamic between them is great. And the whole band was tight as fuck.

We stood back for the Strokes and the sound was spot on. As was the atmosphere. One big party.

Five Points had a bar this year, so the beer was excellent. Also had the best festival food i've ever had.

Top top day.

Bands:

FWF 8/10
Parquet Courts 6/10
Johnny Marr 7/10
Yak 9/10
Raconteurs 8/10
Strokes 8/10

Night before APE I went to the Nick Cave in Conversation thing at the Philarmonie in Luxembourg.

Basically him, a microphone and a piano, taking questions from the audience and playing songs for 3 hours.

It would've been excellent anyway, but as we were getting ready to take our seats a geezer asked us if we wanted to sit at a table on the stage next to the piano. So obvs we did. Like about 7 feet from the piano looking out at the crowd!

10/10 needless to say.

Slags off Neon Waltz and praises Dwayne in the same post. Hateful troll.

When are you posting your Feeder review, m8?

Vibrations festival @ Falkirk

Old journalist pal of mine has reinvented herself as gig promoter. Her first big outdoor event was a family-friendly one-day effort at a country house estate. I think anyone can guess how much work is involved in putting on one of these shows but some of the stories she told about how much certain acts demand to be paid were incredible. The logistics alone sound a nightmare. I find it hard enough booking a DJ for my wedding.

Alabama 3 were in the news last week as one of their frontmen dropped dead. Apparently they marked his passing with a four day bender so I can’t be too hard on them, as they didn’t sound great. Everyone knows the Sopranos theme tune but that kind of Americana-meets-electronica sounds so fucking dated now. 4.

The Coral were every bit as dull as they usually are. I’ve seen them maybe six times now and I think I’ve seen one decent show. They really don’t suit playing on outdoor stages. They just drift away into nothing. 5.

FEEDER were the headliners - they couldn’t afford Amy MacDonald. I’ll be honest, the last time Feeder were relevant I was still in high school, a long time ago now etc, so I couldn’t tell you much about their set other than it was very polished and they did play Buck Rogers, which we can all agree is still a big tune. But they did put a lot more effort into their set than the Coral 🤷‍♀️

Forgot to post from last week, Cate Le Bon @ Rough Trade. First time seeing her & she was fantastic. The new record is ace, material from it sounded splendid plus she did a few from Crab Day. One of the best instore gigs I've seen tbh.

nice, new record has really grown on me

wooden shjips at norwich arts centre last night

russian band called gnoomes supported - pretty good. wooden shjips i've admired from afar for several years but can't class myself as a massive fan. really good live though, proper loud and the guitarist was great. got slightly samey by the end but overall a top night. 7.5

Guided by Voices at Village Underground last night. They did 53 songs, which on paper is ludicrous, but the set flew by and only really tailed off during the encore. Not the most familiar with their back catalogue but I was impressed with how die hard the crowd was, loads of folk had flown over from the States especially for it. 8.

Village Underground can lick is for claiming to run out of beer midway through the set, though.

Saw Dry Cleaning @ Rough Trade. the usual GREATEST HITS set, great as always. Saw Paddy Considine outside Rough Trade which was a powerful moment.

Then last neet GUIDED BY MOTHER FUCKING VOICES. Fuck it was just so good. I've been buzzing all day. Was worried about the shitty venue with its shit sound but it was absolutely spot on. As soon as they went into motor away I was gone jumping around like a cunt for the next few hours. If I was going to nitpick perhaps I wish they hadn't done quite so much from the two new albums (22 songs from them) but the other 32 tunes were pretty much all killer. Did all the monster hits I'd want, Robot Boy, Picks, Jill Hives, Scientist, FBI, Glad Girls, Hunting Knife.
Someone's turtleed some of them on youtube, Cut Out Witch was fucking awesome



Can die happy now. What a band.

Julia Holter last night at Rotondes.

This is the first time she's played Luxembourg and in a smaller room than she's used to on this tour. Which she said she was delighted about. The crowd was excellent, which isn't always the case here.

She had an excellent band behind her. Violin/viola, upright bass, synth (at one point the synth player became a bagpipe player!) And trumpet. And she played keys and sang. She's every bit as good live as on record (her voice is amazing) and we got the works- her take on sweet but slightly twisted pop songs and then the full 10 minute weird psych work outs, at times with almost improv jazz playing from the band. It all felt completely natural and unforced and absolutely compelling.

I'm not sure i'd want to see her on a festival stage, but in a club venue like this with brilliant sound, it was excellent. 9/10.

Saw Cate Le Bon last neet at Village Underground.

Tim Koh supported, he is (or was, not sure) bass player for Ariel Pink. Anyway, his music sounded EXACTLY like Ariel Pink It was just him with a guitar and a load of backing tracks/drum-loops/samples. The songs sounded good but it was a bit of a mess to pull off on his own. Then half way through Ariel Pink came out and did a few songs with him. Will definitely check out anything he releases, though I'd imagine he'd be a lot better with a full band.

Cate Le Bon was great again, I'd highly recommend catching her as her band are fantastic & the new record is superb. Though having said that, the set was short (44 songs shorter than Pollard managed last week!), I'd seen her do an instore gig a few weeks back and the set was barely any longer. Definitely could have used 2 or 3 more songs.

Home to You from her new record is simply fantastic, the problem I have is the gipsy live band playing on the start of the video sounds SO great, making the entrance of the regular song feel so cold (I remember something similar with PJ Harvey on her last record). Which I guess is the style she's looking for (a bit like Deerhunter's new one) but I'm quite curious about the result if it was produced the other way. And also I long for the full version of that video recording...

I wasn’t there, obvs, but weller’s stlist last night was precious, brushed and mermaids? Oh yes,