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Post by mahoney on Apr 17, 2022 8:39:48 GMT
Kurt Vile at Rough Trade East with no popular forum members. This was on the release day for his new record, just him with an acoustic and some pedals/drum machine (which he barely used). I'd seen him play solo in a church years ago & found it a little dull. This was really fucking great though. Got there early so was right at the front so could see all his funny faces he pulls  Did like a 70 minute set which is great for an instore. Performed plenty of his older material plus a few off the new record & a cover of Primal Scream's Damaged which was a nice surprise. Much better than I thought it would be tbh. Had a good few listens to the new record now & whilst it's the same old Kurt vile I think it's a especially strong batch of songs. Not sure about the opening tune mind you, sounds like self parody. Last night I went to Islington Assembly Hall with popular forum member Krburg. The fuckers have the nerve to charge £7.20 for a pint of Red Stripe. That ruined my mood straight away. 2 piece RATTLE opened, basically 2 drummers playing rudimental drums with some vocals on top. Feels like listening to The Stooges We Will Fall, but for an entire set. Very tiresome. Traams were on next, heard the name before but never heard them. To me they sounded like something I would have absolutely loved in 2007. A couple of songs they did towards the end of the set which I assume were older ones were solid but their set just passed me by. Protomartyr topped the bill, I'd only seen them the once and a mixture of the venue/sound/over crowding ruined it so I was quite excited to see them, though it was disappointing again. Joe Casey's fucking great, his voice is perfection for what they do, but musically the band despite making a lot of noise come across as plodding. I kinda only really love Relatives in Descent by them, I prefer the more upbeat faster tunes & they didn't deliver them enough. Kelley Deal plays in the band now, but most the set she was just playing keyboards that you could barely hear. Unless they release another record I really love I'll probably not bother seeing them again. |
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Post by jp on Apr 17, 2022 13:34:24 GMT
monophonics at norwich arts centre last night
support was a norwich band ive not heard of before called the high points. white boys from norwich doing funk could have potentially been awful but i kinda liked them. they were good at what they did and kinda reminded me of stone foundation another white boy funk band i love. suffered a bit from the tunes sounding quite samey though.
monophonics were great. i reckon they must be the first american act i've seen since the pandemic, it was nice to hear norwich pronounced norr-wich again for the first time in ages. singer has a powerful voice and the band were tight. enjoyable stuff.
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Post by mahoney on Apr 18, 2022 7:14:26 GMT
Sparks at the roundhouse last night. I'm no expert on Sparks, I know 3 of their records pretty well & have only dipped into a few others. That Edger Wright doc that came out last year really made me want to catch them live & I'm glad I went. They did 2 hour + set which spanned their entire career. A shame they only performed 1 song each from Kimono My House & No. 1 in Heaven but TBH almost every song they performed seemed like it could have been (& probably was) a single. A fight broke out during one of the cheeriest upbeat pop songs which I found amusing Sound in the Roundhouse was spot on for once & despite looking like a camp nan Russell was full of energy throughout & then Ron was... well Ron. They seemed really taken back by the reception they got. A complete one-off band, really glad to have caught them. Now to dig deeper into their back catalogue. |
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Post by barny on Apr 22, 2022 6:26:05 GMT
Saw Clap Your Hands Say Yeah yesterday, we got a bit too hammered prior to it plus it was one of the first post-masks events for a friend so it felt like we were a bit on a different vibe than the rest of the old grandpas that attended. Still love that first record but dunno, he decides to take too many "on his own" moments which didn't work that well imo. Anyway, hangover at work/10
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Post by mahoney on Apr 23, 2022 12:56:39 GMT
Paul Weller last night at the Forum. The Stroppies supported, a band who I have really enjoyed their debut & the EP they had out, but when me and popular forum member Krburg saw them about 3 years ago they were really shit. Well, they were much better here! Still nothing special, but as they only had half hour they delivered a pretty tidy set. I forgive them. The main bloke singer though, he just looks like he needs a good hiding. I can just imagine him being beaten and crying on the floor for people to stop stamping on him.
I used to go see Weller in the early to mid 2000s everytime he did TCOTU and then I stopped. I had seen him a few times at various things in the past 10 years but I had a crazy Weller phase last year & had been dying to see him again ever since. The setlist right now is dynamite, he's brought back a ton of the MODERN CLASSICS from the 90s, hearing shit like Peacock Suit & Into Tomorrow was huge. Then also FOUR style council numbers, so powerful. Could do without the Jam numbers now tbh, they are such obvious choices in That's Entertainment, A Town Called Malice & Start - though I guess they were the songs they got the biggest response all night. I'd rather he change those up a bit tho, also could do without hearing You do something to me live ever again but minor complaints. Did over 2 hours, sound was great, was stood right in front of STEVE MOTHER FUCKING CRADOCK, he's so technically sound, not a bum not the entire night. Great gig, Weller forever!!
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Post by jp on Apr 23, 2022 19:55:23 GMT
ride at norwich waterfront last night.
did nowhere in full with a 6 song encore of other "hits".
they're one of my favourite live bands to see. just have that perfect combination of noise and melody for me. don't get much better.
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Post by mahoney on Apr 24, 2022 18:50:22 GMT
Cool night at Cafe OTO last night. Unfortunately popular forum member Krburg could not be in attendance due to contracting the HIV virus. Please send your prayers and thoughts
experimental shouty post punkers SHAKE CHAIN, opened. I think I fucking love them. First time I saw them it was all about the lead singers theatrical performance, but this time around I was really feeling how loud and shambolic they are, fucking great. Plus the singer put herself into a fold up chair and did her usual screaming and sobbing, what a band
The night was headlined by 80s New York no-wave cult heroes UT. Unfortunately the drummer couldn’t make it over but regardless it was a fucking cool set. Only gotten into them recently, imagine Patti Smith singing on late 80s Sonic Youth. Badass
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Post by titchjuicy on Apr 24, 2022 19:11:05 GMT
Cool night at Cafe OTO last night. Unfortunately popular forum member Krburg could not be in attendance due to contracting the HIV virus. Please send your prayers and thoughts experimental shouty post punkers SHAKE CHAIN, opened. I think I fucking love them. First time I saw them it was all about the lead singers theatrical performance, but this time around I was really feeling how loud and shambolic they are, fucking great. Plus the singer put herself into a fold up chair and did her usual screaming and sobbing, what a band The night was headlined by 80s New York no-wave cult heroes UT. Unfortunately the drummer couldn’t make it over but regardless it was a fucking cool set. Only gotten into them recently, imagine Patti Smith singing on late 80s Sonic Youth. Badass I don't think i've ever seen anything at OTO I didn't enjoy. And I didn't know half of them before going. The geezer that runs it curates superbly and it's the best venue in the world. And Thurston Moore is in there nearly all the time. |
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Post by mahoney on Apr 24, 2022 19:55:54 GMT
I was shocked to not see the lanky streak of piss in there last night.
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Post by Belligerent Hype Man on Apr 25, 2022 14:22:14 GMT
Plus the singer put herself into a fold up chair and did her usual screaming and sobbing, what a band Sounds fucking horrendous. |
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Post by mahoney on Apr 25, 2022 14:23:25 GMT
It's high art SuperJohnny, you wouldn't understand mate!
Though if you carry on you'll be wearing a fold-up chair if you know what I mean (yeah yeah!)
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Post by Belligerent Hype Man on Apr 25, 2022 14:31:41 GMT
It's high art SuperJohnny, you wouldn't understand mate! Though if you carry on you'll be wearing a fold-up chair if you know what I mean (yeah yeah!) I don't want to understand it. You entertain yourself with these nonces while I bring hot new bands like Pastel (added as support to Liam at Knebworth I'll have you know) to the forum. I've just looked up this hip new band with the singer who cries and they average 81 yes EIGHTY ONE listens a month on Spotify. Kev even pretended he has aids so he didn't have to go and watch them. |
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Post by mahoney on Apr 25, 2022 14:39:43 GMT
He wasn't pretending, he really has AIDS, it's really sad  |
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Post by Bigred3 on Apr 25, 2022 16:53:12 GMT
Plus the singer put herself into a fold up chair and did her usual screaming and sobbing, what a band Sounds fucking horrendous.  |
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Post by mahoney on Apr 27, 2022 15:31:48 GMT
Last night at the Shacklewell Arms with popular forum member Krburg
Free gig with GAG SALON & SALOON DION. Gag Salon were enjoyable, sort of angular post punk guitars, few good tunes, will keep an eye on them. SALOON DION are one of those bands that have a mate singing that probably shouldn't be in the band. They did half the set where he didn't do sod all and they was the better moments. Nothing great, but they kinda won me over by the end. Decent night considering it was free
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Post by Columbia_rocks_man on Apr 27, 2022 18:11:30 GMT
Hi I’m Columbia_rocks_man and I’m here to rate the last gig I went to.
They are a group known as ‘Ride’ who I understand were popular a long long time ago judging by the average age of the punters at this gig. But srsly this was a very good performance of Nowhere played in full.
Seagull sounded massive, as you would expect, but it’s not a faultless album and there were moments the enthusiasm drained away. I also feel album gigs lack any real spontaneity - the crowd always knows what’s coming next. But that’s a minor criticism. The encore rendition of Leave Them All Behind was next level. Marks out of 10? 7!
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Post by srk on Apr 27, 2022 18:22:13 GMT
Canadian folk-rock legend Bruce Cockburn the other night. I used my 'check what seats are unsold on ticketmaster 30 seconds before the show starts' trick and noticed one of the loge boxes in the National Arts Centre was empty, so I snuck in and spent 2 hours feeling like the emperor of austria watching Mozart. Except Mozart didn't write 'lovers in a dangerous time'. It was a fine show, glad I saw him once. 6/10
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Post by mahoney on Apr 27, 2022 18:24:34 GMT
Nice trick!
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Post by mahoney on May 2, 2022 21:19:43 GMT
Friday I went to a Ukraine fundraiser at Dulwich Hamlet FC's bar with P.F.M Krburg. Terrible turnout no stage, just a carpet where the band could stand. Megaflora opened, OK jangly pop thing. Some awful 2 piece RAWK band called Regal cheer were on next, useless. Fair play to the DJ who was banging out the tunes on old crackly 7"s. Hotel Lux headlined, only the second time I've seen them, loved the set, plenty of new material. They need to get a record out. Cool night, shame a few more didn't turn up, but that's always the risk when you do gigs away from the tube line Saturday there was a Bowie tribute in Sidcup called The Thin White Duke. Was free to get in so popped along. Did over 2 hours which I wasn't expecting. First as the glam-era, which was fine. Then came back and did mostly Berlin era/Lets Dance which was surprisingly excellent. great version of Stay. Would see them again locally. Sunday there was a free gig at the strong rooms in Shoreditch. The event was put on as an end to a mod rally The Liquorice Experiment opened, great fun. They are a Spanish/UK band that sound like the Stones in 64. The sort of thing which I'm sure is probably a bit naff on record, but live they were great fun. The Shadracks headlined. I've seen them a few times & they've always been good. Features Billy Childish's son on vocals/lead. This is the first time I've seen them since rhys from the Horrors has been in the band. I didn't care for the record they put out last year & even though the set was enjoyable, it was my least favourite time seeing them. Still, great little day considering it was free. DJ beforehand was pumping out the tunes too. |
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Post by mahoney on May 5, 2022 16:45:17 GMT
Black Midi at The Lexington with PFMKRBRG. Was a pay on the door job, didn't think it would sell out tbh but we only managed to just about get in despite getting there half hour before doors. Great set, opened with a bit of Enter Sandman into the opener then did a bit of the Kinks in the breakdown for John L. Best live band on earth right now. Excited for the 3rd record, must be coming soon.
Last night went to the Palladium to see The Divine Comedy. Always been a kinda casual when it comes to them despite them having a few records I really enjoy. Weirdly my favourite Neil Hannon project is the 1st The Duckworth Lewis Method record. This was a greatest hits deal which was ideal for me. Neil is a great entertainer, the Palladium was perfect for them. The audience was OLD, I mean, you go see any 90s band and it'll be an older crowd but I'm not sure if its their fanbase or the type of crowd the Palladium attracts but I'd say the majority of the audience was about 55-60 which was surprising. Anyway, excellent gig. Not sure I'd pay to see them in a hurry again as £50 is a bit steep for me, though I'll probably delve deeper into the back catalogue now to see if everything clicks.
Support was Ren Harvieu, forgettable piano ballad stuff, was OK, but worst of all ROMEO from magic numbers was on piano/guitar. Though thankfully he didn't smile much, his smile used to make me angry.
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Did like a 70 minute set which is great for an instore. Performed plenty of his older material plus a few off the new record & a cover of Primal Scream's Damaged which was a nice surprise. Much better than I thought it would be tbh. Had a good few listens to the new record now & whilst it's the same old Kurt vile I think it's a especially strong batch of songs. Not sure about the opening tune mind you, sounds like self parody. 
