rate the last gig you went to

Can't believe they aren't opening these shows with in it for the money. That'd be perfect.

Saw SUPERGRASS play Oslo in Hackney tonight. Popular forum members Forever & Krburg were also in attendance. They did a similar set to the Pilton Party thing the other day, but with a few extra songs thrown in. We moaned collectively beforehand about how much of a rip off it would be for them to do such a short set, but fuck me they were brilliant. Hands down the best performance I've seen them do, and a strong contender for my gig of the year. I was sweating from even my knees by the end of it. 10/10.

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Went 100 club thursday. Caught half of Lazarus Kane, was bloody awful poser rubbish with New Order style synths thrown in which sounded out of place with what the rest of the band performed.
Pozi I really enjoyed, quite like their album from this year, 3 piece post-punk thing with just bass, drums and violin that works pretty well. The main attraction here being the drummer used to be in DUSTINS BAR MITZVAH.
Squid topped the bill, probably my least favourite time seeing them and again they didn't perform the Dial (FFS) but still good stuff. 100 club doesn't lend itself well to rock bands with its long stage. They did a nice little tribute to Daniel Johnston dropping a few lines during the back end of the Cleaner which was a nice touch. Seemed to be a lot of posh twats at the gig for some reason

Went to Royal Festival Hall last night for an event billed as "Afrika Shine Alive". Was a fantastic evening with an electric atmosphere throughout the night. Akala was on first, he's Ms Dynamites brother apparently. I know of him, pretty sure I've seen him pop up on various things talking on the BBC in the past, nice set, great flow & lyrically seemed on point. Talib Kweli was on next, did a short but sweet 20-25 minute set including Black Star's Definition which was banging. Crowd were really into it, most people stood up though I had an elderly couple sat behind me so I didn't want to obscure their view so stood on the platform for a bit of it. Femi Kuti topped the bill, I saw him at Glastonbury many years ago & from what I remember I enjoyed it, but man, this was fantastic. Thankfully the whole crowd was out their seats & dancing from the second he hit the stage. He's getting on 60 now but his energy on stage is insane, he was like a man possessed & marched up and down the stage in a manor that Axl Rose would have been proud of circa 1990. Had his son on bass and towards the end the pair of them had a huge sax-off, was a great moment. The set was heavy on his record from last year, though that material for the most part went down a treat, only slight complaint being a slightly muddy sound at times, but the energy & atmosphere on stage in the audience outweighed any negatives. Then during the end of the set out of nowhere Mos Def came out which was an awesome moment... seemed strange that he & Talib didn't do anything together earlier in the night but either way, a real treat.

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Aphex Twin @ Printworks, last neet

We saw him at Ceremonia festival in Mexico in April and it was easily the best show we'd ever seen. Painfully, we arrived about 45 mins into his set last night (his first TCOTU date in 10 years), as we figured he'd be on last since the finish time was 2am. Anyway, after that initial gutting moment and the narrowness of the venue and the annoyingness of people chatting away, it really became something utterly remarkable. He's bang into 90s techno right now and produced a set that was like a fucking convoy of assault vehicles mowing down the crowd. Completely mindblowing, had a grin on my face throughout and was just lost beautifullly in the onslaught of noise, perfect visuals and the strands of stunning melody that unspooled from the wreckage. I really don't think it gets any better than that tbh. We couldn't stay for the DJ afterwards as we needed a quiet chill place to process what had just happened. If any of you ever get a chance to see him, please do everything you can to go. It's from another galaxy entirely.

10/10, despite everything.

I was gutted i missed this, Prntworks is 5 minutes away from where I live, but I missed the tickets going on sale and it was sold out by the time i tried.

ahh, that's a shame man. i missed the initial run, didn't get tickets in the first resale on 1st august, but then scored them a bit later on when a handful became available.

it's absolutely understandable how his shows sell out so quickly. there's just nothing else like it.

Massive Attack on their Mezzanine XXI tour on the weekend. I was never a *huge* fan of mezzanine (much preferred blue lines), but this is probably the only chance i'll ever get to see them, so whatever. Had people building this show up like it was going to be the greatest thing ever, so expectations were pretty high going in, and....meh. It was pretty good, but....I dunno, I didn't really love it. The visuals were pretty good, but also a bit on the nose? The show was initially supposed to take place at a fancy theatre/concert hall, but after the tour was postponed, it was moved into the hockey arena with a curtain blocking half of it to keep the "intimate atmosphere", which didn't work. It was neat to see them do covers of the songs they sampled for mezzanine (and they were frankly more enjoyable than some of the songs themselves). I don't know, just wasn't my thing. 6/10

Saw Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage at Oslo last night. Saw him with JP at latitude a few years ago and loved it, this didn't quite reach those heights. the drums were stupidly loud throughout & I think he performed what I'd consider are too many straight-forward songs that don't really play to his lyrical strengths. Still, when it was good it was excellent. The opening 2 new love songs he performed on his own were lyrically outstanding, did a cover of Daniel Johnston's Sad Sac + Tarzan plus performed a hilarious song that David Berman had given him ideas for. Did 3 of those story-songs where he uses his cartoons up on the screen which were all entertaining & had his brother Jack join him for half the set too. For whatever reason he didn't perform his new single LPs which is ace. Good gig, but not a classic.

Ride in Montreal tonight in a tiny club. Holy fuck, it was loud. Notwithstanding the fact it was a late Wednesday night and half the people there only knew leave them all behind and vapour trail, it was fuckin great to see a band as good as them in such a small space. It never ceases to amaze me that a guitar player as good as Andy bell wasted 9 years playing bass behind 2far less talented guys. They played most 8 songs, 9 if you;count wallkimg onstage to the R.I.D.E instrumental) off the new album and the essentials from everything else, but my main takeaway is my ringing ears. 7.5/19

ark at SRK crying because a shoegaze band was too loud!!

yeah definitely one of the joys of seeing Ride is watching Andy play lead. Seeing them do an instore the other month I was taken back by how technically sound he is, like I was watching him close and every single note was spot on. He'd be a god at guitar hero.

Saw that bloke from Pavement at the moth club last night. Was OK. Shortish set with plenty of mistakes throughout. I like the more alt-rock stuff from his new record though watching him play it to a backing track on those just made me wish I was watching a band. It wasn't great, infact it was a bit cringey at times but Kevin gave him a thumbs up at the end so he was happy.

Saw Misty's Big Adventure at the Barfly (I refuse to call it the Assembly) last neet. One of those bands I don't think I'll ever tire of. Even a broken guitar string couldn't stop the power of Misty's. Got a custard cream from Erotic Volvo, highlight of my life.

Canadian indie legends Thrush Hermit at a local club last night. They broke up in 1999, right after their best album (Clayton Park) came out, and here they are reuniting to play the whole album. Great show, loud, rocking and fun. Good times for a Wednesday night. 7.5/10

Kano @ The Old Fruitmarket, GLA

Probably the most polished grime artist I’ve seen. He played with a spot-on live band - couple of synths, bass, drums - and brought out a four-piece gospel choir for certain tracks. His flow was absolutely flawless throughout.

Some serious cash / rehearsal time had obviously gone into this tour, which isn’t something you can say in all honesty about many hip-hop live acts. I kept thinking back to Wiley’s show in Glasgow last year, which was a complete mess in comparison.

Anyway this was a top show by a real legend. New stuff is Grade A. 8.

Went to a wonderful night put on by Damaged Goods records last saturday at my favourite venue the Lexington. The Shadracks opened (featuring Billy Childish's son) & were great, so much better than the 1st time I saw them. Their bass player had called in sick and they'd done a 1 hour rehearsal with a mate who nailed it, I know that type of music isn't exactly hard.. but it was still impressive. The Dagger Debs, female 3-piece garage with a bit of 50s rock n roll thrown in were good fun. Night was topped by King Salami & The Cumberland 3 who were bloody brilliant, had a smile from start to finish. 3 good bands for 10 quid, can't complain.

Friday was supposed to see Gurr at the lexington but they cancelled when they found out twitter stalkers Kevin & Rod were going. So went Rochester to see Billy Childish. He does about 3 gigs a year these days and 1 in the UK if you're lucky so at this point I gotta catch him whenever I can. The typical ramshackle, unrehearsed & chaotic show that you always get. I loved every minute of it, even better was seeing some prick who was pushing everyone around aggressively get floored by someone that'd had enough The Shadracks (Featuring Billy Childish's son if you didn't already know) supported again Regular bass player was back, not as good as the Lexington though still excellent plus they did a jonestown cover. The Gargons opened up, 2-piece loud n proud garage rock, was alreet.

Saturday I went Rough Trade East to see David Gedge of the Wedding present do a solo set. One of them bands I've just never got around to seeing. Did a short 35 set, a few off George Best plus a few others I recognised, always been a causal fan but hopefully this will be the nudge to get me properly into them. Nice set

Then that night went to see Ty Segall perform his new record plus Goodbye Bread at Oval space. Los Bitchos opened, seen them a few times & am never that arsed by them but this was probably the most enjoyable of the times I've seen them. Ty I really enjoyed for maybe the first 6 numbers then it went rapidly downhill & like the past two times I've seen him I wished I hadn't gone. Crowd was full of absolute cunts again & after seeing some really great garage-rock gigs recently it just further highlighted that Ty's version of the genre is closer to cock-rock & far too showy for my taste. The Goodbye Bread shit was just drenched in reverb like the past couple of times I've seen him to the point where it just sounds like shit. Very odd, I love TY on record & I can't think of another example of a band/artist that I love that I really can't stand to see live. Doubt I'll bother again, his fans are the type that you can tell would enjoy a Muse gig.

Saw DJ Format at Norwich Arts Centre last night. Always a good night in his company and he played a more varied mix than usual with funk, soul, hip hop and more whereas in the past id seen him do specific hip hop sets or funk. All played from vinyl too. 8

Slowthai @ SWG3

Not sure if there are fans on here. I really enjoy half a dozen of his tunes but find his debut album a bit patchy. He’s big on sloganeering and shouty choruses which work really well on tracks like Doorman. But he definitely lacks a bit of introspection. I guess that will come as he matures as an artist.

I expected his live show to be good fun and it was. Solid hour worth of material and good chat in between songs. He can really deliver live - if anything his flow sounds better than on record.

At one point he told the front row ‘Put your phone away and fuck the Gram - let’s just enjoy the party’ - which is a pretty good code to abide by at gigs tbh. 7.

Fake edit: This gig was ridiculous for the amount of people who had their phones out, trying to film entire tracks. It was the same at Kano last week. I mean taking a few pictures is one thing, but filming 40 mins worth of footage? What is the actual point? No cunt is going to watch your shitty vids on YouTube, m8.

Yeah, Mahoney is such a cunt these days.