rate the last gig you went to

Nadine Shah at 100 Club last night with popular forum member mahoney, popular forum member Kevin Burgess and Rod.

Sinead O'Brien supported. Was good but not as good as her Latitude set. Nadine was great. Good to finally hear the Kitchen Sink tracks live and the sound was nice and loud.

Strange crowd as it was a Fred Perry gig so it felt like most people there were freeloaders. Lennon Gallagher was stood behind us for a while and grinded Rod. I'd not had enough beers to fanboy at Andy Bell when he was in front of us in the queue to get in then couldn't find him by the time the beers had kicked in. Did have a chat with Faris Badwan on the way out who I think might be shagging Sinead. You don't get these kind of big names in the crowd at Norwich Waterfront.

 

Nadine Shah was great the other night. Probably put it on par with her roundhouse gig for bbc6 the other year.

Noticed that Deliluh were in town last night & was surprised to see there was still tickets as The Waiting Room only holds 120 people. Support came from Butch Kassidy, loud 5 piece that did a sort of post-rock thing like a more intense black country new road. Really impressed by them, drummer was pretty great. Deliluh did the same set they had done at Green Man, but I enjoyed this so much more. 1, I wasn't in for the initial shock of them being a two-piece. 2, the sound in the small room was huge, you could really feel the vibrations of the electronics & 3, it's just better watching someone perform up close and personal instead of in a massive empty tent where nobody cares you're on.

Must be hell for them carting all that gear around Europe with just the two of them now but fair play.

saw Goat girl with popular forum member Krburg at the Ivy House in nunhead. Was a fundraiser for a community pub in Lewisham. Black Bordello opened, real mixed bag. Some of it was kinda by-numbers modern soulful pop, like you'd expect from someone trying to do a Amy Winehouse type thing, others had this sort of 70s Italian prog keyboard & sounded quite fresh. Definitely had their moments, not bad. What was bad was the next act, some 2 piece called Lol K, just the worst type of electronic music I've ever heard. Their tunes never really got going, you could tell they thought what they was doing was really interesting, it wasn't. One of the worst act I've seen in my gig going time.
Goat Girl I've seen a couple of times before, this was probably the best of the bunch. They were on late so probably only did 40 minutes tops, but did the more energetic part of their set which worked well for me. Not sure I'd pay to see them again, their records I wish I liked more than I do, but a solid gig in a cool venue I'd never been to.

Saturday I went to The George Tavern with popular forum member Krburg where we finally saw England's answer to Australia's finest indie-pop band Terry, Barry. Been excited to see them from the second I heard one of their tunes & they were everything I could have wished for. Just stupid amounts of fun, every song being about 2 minutes verse/chorus/verse/chorus/finish. Got through a bunch of tunes in about half an hour, great stuff. Forrest Flowers supported, kinda all over the shop in their sound to the point where you'd imagine various members wished they were in totally different bands but it worked. Few songs were actually pretty impressive.

Went to The Birds Nest in Deptford after as we heard Tina were playing, they wasn't. Place was mental, every type of person imaginable there completely off their tits. Was drugs being snorted, tents flying about, Merlin, pickled eggs, a dog, vomit & a banging drum & bass blasting out inbetween bands to which there were some old school ravers doing violent dances. Saw a band called Sleaze, hilarious stuff. Singer had one of those faces that just amuse me. Highly energetic stuff, especially with the insanity of those in attendance. Also caught a bit of "Uh", electronic 2 piece I enjoyed supporting Pozi. Watched a bit, but the sound guy had disappeared so it sounded like shit so we decided to leave only to find said sound guy outside, off his tits doing a flute solo in the street. Weird night.

wide awake festival in brockwell park yesterday.

had a lovely sociable pint with rod in brixton first that definitley was worthwhile and wasn't at all rushed.

arrived on site in time to find karl, kev and helen for squid. really enjoyed their set again. played a new number that had an almost shoegazey vibe to it that i likeda lot.

went to see los bitchos next who are an act i've heard lots about but never really listened to. had a big crowd and i liked their set. don't think it is something i'd put on and listen to at home much but as a festival act it worked well.

dry cleaning were up next. they're still the best band in the world. wasn't quite as good as their seminal latitude set the other week and was cut short so not allowed to play scratchcard lanyard but still, incredible.

was going to go and see lynks again who was stupidly good fun at latitude but was playing on a tiny stage that was heaving so i ended upp going to watch kikagaku moyo who i'm a big fan of but i just had a feeling this wouldn't be the ideal place to see them. i was proven right and their music just didn't suit my mood for several beers in at a festival. sound wasn't great either on the stage they were playing so i ended up sat towards the back eating some korean chicken and chips while they kinda washed over me a bit.

black country new road were next so back over to the mainstage. i was pleasantly surprised with how good they were live but again could tell this wasn't the ideal place to see them. i'm really looking forward to their norwich gig later in the year now where i can tell it will go down a storm.

few beers with kevin while getting ready for black midi. they had an incredible wrestling style introduction and absolutely smashed it tbh. was loving their set but decided to leave a bit early as i wanted to get a good spot for...

YARD ACT who were headlining that tiny stage lynks were on earlier. quick piss and a trip to the bar and i was able to waltz to the front and find karl and helen pulling shapes to a beck song being played by a dj. yard act had a short set but it was brilliant. frontman has a great presence about him.

i won't go into details about what happened after but it involved an uber journey across TCOTU that became incresingly tense as karl became more desperate for a piss and ended up with a pint of lemonade in the shacklewell arms before going home to bed.

great day

Sexx Laws was probably the highlight of my day (as heard on sexual distancing)

Saw Dry Cleaning at Pryzm in Kingston Thursday night. Not seen them since pre covid. It was OK... took a while to really get going, but they loaded the back end of the set with bangers. I was only disappointed because of my own expectations. Good gig, but I did wonder, as paul Weller once said, has my fire (for dry cleaning) really gone out?

Friday I went to brockwell park with popular forum members, Forever, Krburg & The Good Will Out/Cast No Shadow.

Caught a bit of the Mauskovic Dance band. Seen them before at Glastonbury before, good vibes. Had to hear a bit of Idles from a far distance whilst eating an incredibly disappointing haloumi wrap, the low part of the day. I seem to remember being ASSASINATED on the soapbox for telling everyone that they were the worst band to ever exist. I'm glad the tastemakers have identified that this is an actual fact. When they finished the Idles crowd were coming towards me, I did windmills like Hacksaw Jim Duggen executing at least 745 of them. I feel bad for their family's, but they deserved to die.
Saw Squid on the main stage. Was good, none one of my favourite times, though probably should have gone further down the front. Old Man Mahoney can't deal with huge crowds anymore. Sacked off the main stage for the rest of the day despite their being plenty of bands I'd liked to have seen.
LOS BITCHOS drew a huge crowd, really becoming a festival gem of a band. Enjoyed the set, though like usual after 20 minutes I've heard enough.
Managed to get penalty spot for Dry Cleaning. Unlike the Kingston gig, this was just how I remembered Dry Cleaning. Probably helped I had a few drinks inside me, but the sound of the drums & energy on stage just felt right tonight. They smashed it & now I don't have to regret buying 200 tickets to see them next year anymore.
Saw Snapped Ankles afterwards as they were fucking ace at Green Man the other week. Have tried them on record since & needless to say, they work a lot better as a live act. This was good again, not as good as Green Man, though I had a bit of a dip in energy during the set. Still, good stuff.
Crack Cloud, another band who were good at Green Man played a blinder on one of the smaller stages. Their set at Green Man was too short as they came on late, this was pretty banging. Kinda gutted to have missed black Midi after they gave one of the performances of a lifetime at Green Man but I'm happy with my choice.
Headed over for YARD ACT, who were playing a tiny little gazebo style tent. First time seeing them & despite only having about a half hour set they fucking killed it. The frontman is a fucking star. Great sound in the tent, crowd into it, they've got the fucking tunes & the character. I predict Brixton Academy for them by next Christmas.

Should have gone home after but was buzzing so headed to the Shackewell Arms to see Crack Cloud do a late gig but it proved too much for Old Man Mahoney.

Fucking good day though. Was worried with the size of the crowds but managed to have penalty spot for Dry Cleaning & Yard act plus saw plenty of other cool shit. Well worth the £30'odd quid the tickets were.


Trying to motivate myself for tonight's Nick Cave gig, thank fuck its seated.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis turned out to be bloody brilliant. The set was made up mostly of Ghosteen & Carnage material which worked really well in the stripped down setting. Nick & Warren were joined by 3 backing singers & someone who did a bit of bass/keys & drums on a track. Also threw some classics into the set such as Into My arms, Higgs Boson Blues, Darker With the Day, a cover of T. Rex's Cosmic Dancer & the highlight for me was a great arrangement of the Grinderman number Palaces of Montezuma. Glad I got to see them in Croydon rather than TCOTU, the venue is half the size, the tickets were about £10 cheaper & it was a Saturday night.

nathan fake at norwich arts centre last night.

so good to be back in my spiritual home. they used lockdown to do up the venue and it is loads better for it. really fucking lovely toilets now. nathan fake is norwich's answer to aphex twin. properly banging set. really enjoyed this.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis at the Regent Theatre Ipswich.

Not many people would make me go to Ipswich but Nick Cave is one. Small theatre that usually hosts the likes of Joe Pasquale and the Chuckle Brothers. Sublime gig and great to hear some of the tunes from the past two albums live. The full 15mins of Hollywood to open the first encore was marvelous.

I see he performed God Is In The House, nice, I love that tune.

Black Country New Road @ the Lexington last week. Amazing to be back at the Lexington & to see me and Kevin's names up on the wall for being such heroes. BCNR were the best I've ever seen them. It really feels like them, Black Midi & Squid were bands that I've seen evolve & grow over the past two years & now they've all reached this point where they are fully formed & knocking it out of the park. Some of the new material is just glorious. Convinced the follow up will be as good as the debut as long as they don't fuck the production up.

Saw Delaporte yesterday, electro pop duo which wouldn't normally fall under my taste but for some reason I find them enjoyable enough. She was very nice and quite into it, the songs were extended into nice electronic pieces which was great but the fact we were sat down was quite shit.

Went to a real live outdoor full-on show on friday for the first time in I don't even know how long. Our two big local festivals were cancelled last spring, but when things got a bit better over the summer and restrictions were loosened a bit, they decided to each take a weekend and run some mini-festival shows, using only Canadian acts, since our borders are still pretty much shut. I went on friday to see Moist and Our lady peace, two of the big acts of my teenage years. They capped the festival capacity at 5000 and you had to be fully vaccinated to attend, so it felt almost normal once you were in. The shows...Moist was fine, they played their hits and seemed to be having a ball playing live for the first time in 2 years. Our lady peace sucked ass. Still, live music is sort of back. 6/10

saw them back in 1999.

Tom Clarke in Cardiff a while back

Pete Doherty in Swansea last week

Both were fucking immense gigs to be honest, you can tell people are loving being back watching live gigs

Went to The New Cross Inn to see popular forum member Krburg perform with Vanity Tapes. Excellent set, Krburg was dreamy on bass.

Saw a workmates band The Tonks play at St Moritz. They do a pub rock/garage-rock type thing, good night was had.

Saw Black Midi at the Windmill. Probably the most conventional set I've seen them do. Was just as a 3-piece, no real surprises minus an aborted ACDC cover. Maria Uzor supported, really impressive. Synth/dance type stuff, really banging
Saw Tina at the Moth Club. Really love this band & had a great time seeing them in the past, but this was just fucking outstanding. One of the best things I've seen all year. For a band with one record they've got so many songs that for me are just proper anthems now. Perfect gig. Butch Kassidy supported, a band I was really impressed with last time I saw them. This was solid, but the vocals were non existent & it just didn't land in the same way. Still good though, definitely got my eye on them. Patypus Complex were an all female slightly prog outfit, like los bitchos meets goat. Not bad

Last night went to TCOTU's new music venue The Printworks. It's big & its awful. Watched bits of Martha Skye Murphy & Bad Sad Happy Bad. Squid had an OK spot for but the sound wasn't great and it was too crowded. Watched it at the very back from behind the mixing desk (about 200 miles away from the band) & it sounded spot on. Turned into a good night. Weird seeing them pull in a huge crowd. Felt more like an arena gig.

The Tina gig was fucking wonderful

Hi, I'm Columbia_rocks_man and I like to go to gigs.

I went to see Glasgow noise merchants Kaputt the day after my birthday last month. It was the first ticketed gig I've been to since seeing Supergrass play the Barrowland way back in February 2020. It was a free show, so it was only a 30 min set, but it was enjoyable enough. You had to show proof of a negative lateral flow test before being allowed in, and a lot of the crowd were wearing masks, so there was a distinct lack of energy in the room. But hey, a gig is a gig. 7.

Fake edit: big shout out to popular forum member Karl 'mahoney' Mahoney for tipping me off about this show.

My first big gig post-lockdown was Arab Strap at the Barrowland. Thankfully, the crowd at this was more relaxed and there was no expectation to wear masks (unlike in England, they are still a requirement in Scotland, in theory at least). I was expecting to hate large parts of this show as I've always been sceptical of the band. To me, a lot of their material has not aged at all well. There's only so much I want one middle aged man to tell me about his sex life in the 1990s. But, to their credit, the live arrangements of their material worked really well - and Aidan Moffat has become a pretty decent frontman. His vocals were pretty strong, considering he has an even worse singing voice than Nick Cave. 8.

They are categorically not the same band without Gerry. His vocals made those songs. Sorry guys, you fucked it. You'll never see a proper Fanclub show.