rate the last gig you went to

Laura Marling at Norwich UEA last night.

Good shit, just her and an acoustic but real captivating stuff. Venue was probably a bit too large for this kind of gig though and I much preferred the last time she played Norwich when did a venue half the size.

Saw The Mystery Lights last Thursday, it felt nearly pre-pandemic: stand-up and masks off while drinking (which meant they were never actually put back on). On record they're a bit standard for me but live it was a very enjoyable rock'n'roll show.

My first experience of Black Country New Road last night. They'd had to postpone twice due to COVID.

And it was sensational.

The setlist leaned slightly towards new stuff and I'm pretty sure we got Instrumental, Athens France, Science Fair and Track X from the album.

The new stuff was a surprise but a very very good one. Still experimental but around more classic song structures. A couple of tracks felt like peak-Pulp. But to my ears there were influences from Nick Cave, Scott Walker and even Bonnie Prince Billy. There was one song early in the set that blew me away- "concorde" was mentioned in the lyrics a lot and "sharing the same sky". No idea what it's called though and can't find a setlist.

I know I'm preaching to the converted here, but the 'front' man is one of the best vocalists I've ever heard/seen. And the Drummer is fucking amazing. Actually, they're all bloody great.

It's a long time since (even pre-covid) I saw a band as good as this.

No encore and even after they turned the lights back on 75% of the Crowd stood their ground chanting "we want more". I'm not sure I've ever seen that- especially in Luxembourg.

My GF was reluctant about going last night as she was knackered from a super intense work week, but afterwards thanked me for persuading her.

If I wasn't going to a friends for dinner tonight I'd be on the road to Cologne right now.

No hesitation in giving it 10/10.

Axolotes Mexicanos past Thursday. It was more pop punk than pc music-ish, but still fun enough and glad to see young people going to a guitar show.

Am piecing the setlist together using YouTube vids from other performances.

Deffo had the new single, Chaos Space Marine. Also Bread Song and Concorde. There were a couple more too.

Concorde is my favourite of the new songs I’ve heard, it’s bloody brilliant

Sea Power supported by Pale Blue Eyes at Norwich Arts Centre tonight.

Support were ok. Wanted to like them but lacked memorable tunes. Very polished sounding with a lite shoegazey thing going on but ultimately forgettable.

Sea Power took a while to warm up. Really lacked energy for the first half of the set but got there by the end. Two Fingers sounded great live. Probably one of the worst times I've seen them but still glad they're around.

L0ndon Grammar - Cardiff Arena

Music wise 10/10

What a fucking boring crowd though, I suppose the type of music doesn't help

So overall, 6/10

Alice Phoebe Lou - played mostly songs from the last record plus singles, which is fine to me as I prefer this band thing to her previous folky work. Still she can serenade a full crowd just with her presence and voice, lovely.

Opening act was a German band called Rikas, dancey and fun, a bit on the 1990s side.

two amazing gigs recently

gruff rhys at norwich arts centre on wednesday was marvellous. so much better than last time i saw SFA. 2 hour set with the new album in full sandwiched between a load of solo hits.

tonight i saw paul weller's mates stone foundation at norwich waterfront. it got moved to the small room due to poor ticket sales but i really like it up there and any gig ive seen there ends up with a crazy atmosphere and this was just the same. loads of pissed up old mods in the crowd and stone foundation properly brought the party. huge tunes and big vibes. had a proper smile on my face throughout this.

I DON’T SEE ANY RATINGS JP.

RESPECT THE THREAD PLZ.

Rick Astley featuring The Smiths 10/10

The missus and I took a trip up to my hometown of Kingston Ontario on the weekend for my first indoor arena concert in over 2 years. Canadian icons Blue Rodeo, who I've seen at least 10 times, mostly within walking distance of my house, and who she'd never seen. Only reason we went was, while the arena was mostly sold out, there was one section on the side that had 4-5 rows entirely empty, so we could go sit there and not worry about people around us, which at times made it feel like it was our own private concert. Support act elliotBROOD were entirely fine as an opening act overjoyed to be out playing and being in a "big" arena for the first time, nice country/folk/rock stuff. Then Blue Rodeo. They opened with two of my all-time faves "trust yourself" and "diamond mine". Aside, I was on my 4th beer at this point, and when they broke into a song called "What am I doing here?" which I've probably seen them do at every show, I'm not ashamed to admit I got a bit choked up singing along. I truly have missed the live show experience over the last two years. My wife said I had an absolutely blissed out grin on my face for the whole two hours.

Anyway, it was probably the same blue rodeo show I've seen every other time, but it was still the best. Emotional night. 9/10

Glad you had a good time but Blue Rodeo is shite. I think it's because they come here like multiple times a year and it's an on-going joke when a concert announcement is made that it's going to be them.

Glad to see you back on the saddle SRK.... you big softy!

Shame supported by The Goa Express at Norwich Waterfront.

The Goa Express weren't as good as Latitude but I still enjoyed them. Nice to see young kids playing some jangly 90s sounding indie.

Shame were good. Sound was loud, crowd were lairy and the singer has a good stage presence. Tunes do sound the same after a while though and the hour long set was probably enough.

Saw Steven Page (ex of the Barenaked Ladies) the other night. BNL's first album ('gordon') was the first album I ever bought with my own money in 1991 or 1992, so they have a special place in my heart, despite having been mostly useless for the last 20 years. He played a few songs from the first few albums, played a few decent new solo songs, Craig Northey from the Odds (another beloved canadian band) who is his guitar player, played an Odds song, and best of all, the venue was a five-minute drive from my house, so i was able to catch the last 30 minutes of the Canada-Mexico game. 6.5/10


(Aside: it's always fun to tell non-Canadians that BNL was HUGE in Canada for almost a decade before 'one week' came out in 1998. They were almost passé here before then, seemingly on the downside of their career, and then BOOM! Worldwide hit. What a weird career they had.)

BNL have some good songs with Page but everything done when he left has been utter shit.