rate the last gig you went to

The Music - The Barrowlands, Glasgow

I couldn’t have given less of a fuck about the support band, couldn’t tell you who they were or if they were any good. I was too busy getting leathered at the bar.

For me The Music were my band when I first got into music in a big way. Sure I loved Oasis more but they were already massive when I got into them, and everyone loved them so they didn’t feel like mine.

The Music (and BRMC) though, they were different. From I first heard ‘The People’ I was into them, they’d released ‘Take The Long Road’ on Fierce Panda first but it was ‘The People’ that got me hooked.

I caught them loads of times around the debut and ‘Welcome To The North’. ‘Strength In Numbers’ didn’t really click with me though.

Their gig at The Limelight in Belfast in 2002 is in my Top 5 of all time. Last night might just have topped it.

For an hour and a half I was 18 again. I wasn’t a husband and a dad, I was just that kid who loved this band. I actually feel quite emotional just writing this and I want to say a million and one things about it but I wouldn’t do it justice.

In the build up to the gigs I’ve been listening to Adam Nutter’s podcast and listening to how hard it’s been since the band broke up. How he suffers from anxiety and how he didn’t know how he’d be able to do the shows.

He posted a video on Twitter yesterday saying how terrified he was, you could hear his voice crack as it ended, it meant so much to him yet he was shitting himself.

The next thing he posted was a video taken after and he was so happy looking. He was always my favourite member and to see him so made up genuinely got to me.

Part of me would love a full blown return but I think these two gigs are the perfect end.

10/10

So, sat in a cafe waiting to head back to the airport, so have time for a proper Primavera Review.

It got off the worst possible start when popular forum member KrBurg messaged me to say his flight was cancelled 5 minutes from boarding. In retrospect, the gods were probably smiling on him a bit.

Still, I soldiered on without him. A pal and his mates from Manc were going and I spent a good chunk of the weekend with them.

Day 1 was a nightmare. Worst organsied festival day I've ever been to.

I've gone into detail on the upcoming gigs thread so won't waste space here.

The few highlights were Faye Webster- her single release from this year caught my ear a few weeks ago so wanted to check her out. She's an American singer songwriter. Veering close to, but just the right side of country tinged Americana. A nice listen in the early evening sun. 6.5/10

Next was Les Savy Fav- one of my festie must sees. I'd heard so much about their live shows and it lived up to all expectations. Tim Harrington started the show in an immaculate white 3 piece suit and ended it crowd surfing on a folding table that he persuaded punters to lift over the barrier and carry him through the crowd on, in his y-fronts and a liberal showering of red wine. But it's not all antics- they have great songs and a tight band (if anyone doesn't know them, check out the album Inches and make sure you see them when they pass through your town). 8/10

Then moved to another stage for Dinosaur Jr. My first time seeing them and another must see. I've not really followed them from the 90s onwards but was always aware of a few songs and have done quite a bit of listening in the last few weeks. They had a big crowd and were bloody great. Really wish I'd seen them back in the day. 8/10

From that point on day 1 was a bit of a mare. Queues, overcrowding, bad crowd control and no water anywhere. I'm too long in the tooth and have been to too many festivals to know the rest of the night was gonna be hard work, so regrettably fucked Pavement, Black Midi and DJ Shadow off and left early. I've seen Pavement before but will regret not catching the other two. But from stories I've heard the Black Midi Stage was a nightmare.



Day 2 was my birthday. Started off with a late lunch with the Manc boys. A few refreshing Campari spritz's and loads of top quality tap-arse.


Weyes Blood was on first and it's no secret that I adore her. Her voice is phenomenal and although on the surface her songs can seem like MOR 70s torch songs. While they do have that epic quality there's a lot more to her. Her lyrics are worth paying attention to and she has great charisma. And that voice. There were a few people around me talking a lot and I shot one guy in particular a couple of dirty glances, and on the third I opened my mouth to speak but before I could he said, "sorry, i know, I'll shut up" 😅

An added bonus was her cover of Air That I Breathe by The Hollies. Which was one of my old man's favourites. 9/10

Then it was over to one of the main stages for Fontaines DC. A huge crowd for them. I think their records are a mixed bag, but had a feeling the songs would make more sense in a big drunken crowd and credit where it's due, they nailed it. Great atmosphere and tidy performance. 8/10

Then Little Simz was probably the highlight of the whole thing. Big crowd again and she seemed almost as in awe of the crowd and how engaged they were as the crowd did of her. She had a massive smile on her face for the whole thing. Offence, Women, Venom all went down huge from what I remember but really there wasn't a dull moment. She'll be headlining big festivals soon. 10/10

Although the organisers seemed to get something right over night and it was a much more pleasant place to be on Day 2, I wasn't feeling the rest of the line up that night so took another early bath.

Day 3 was my latest night and a fine way to round it all off. It did seem a lot busier again and the bar queues were back, but I smuggled in 3 bottles of water and took it easy on the booze. I am getting old.

First I caught half an hour of Les Amazones D'Afrique. An band and DJ fronted by three women singing about equality for women in their home country (I think Mali). Big African beats, a bit of scratching, and some great vocals. Wouldn't pay to see them again and have seen much better African acts on that stage before, but I nice way to spend half an hour in the sun 5/10.


Next up was Low. They were on a stage with an enormous grassy hill to sit on, which was perfect in the sun. They're hardly music to dance to, but they made a marvellous noise. I have to be in the right mood to enjoy them on record, but somehow their gloomy but spectacular noise made sense in the sun and fresh air and they're clearly masters of their craft. I enjoyed more than I thought I would 7/10

After Low, it was a toss up between King Krule, who was on a nearby stage or Nick Cave over the far side on one of the main stages.

I stuck around for a few King Krule tracks, but wasn't really feeling it so wandered over to Nick Cave who was just getting started. Good move cos the crowds had already moved over. The two main stages are next to eachother at Prima. Which makes sense in one respect as you get huge crowds. There are massive screens either side and a one separating the two stages in the middle. It also allows bands to come on much more quickly following whoever plays the other stage cos they can prep the stage in advance.

What that meant though was that half way through Nick Cave's set massive amounts of Gorillaz fans has gathered and it was a bit chaotic. Nick Cave was as excellent as ever..his set lulled a bit when he played a few tracks off the last two albums, but the usual suspects were huge (Get Ready for Love, There She Goes My Beautiful world, From Her to Eternity, Jubilee Street, Mercy Seat, Red Right Hand, Tupelo, Into My Arms, The Ship Song, Higgs Boson Blues) 9/10


My last band of the whole thing was Gorillaz. The crowding at that point had gone difficult again. I had a prime spot on a rail at one of the speaker towers, but about three songs in was getting pushed into the rail, so thought fuck this and fought my way to the back. There's another huge screen further back along with the three by the stages and the sound back there was much better, so it was a good move. The band were brilliant. Impossible not to have a party atmosphere when they play. Again I can take or leave a lot of their stuff on record, but will never miss a chance to catch them live. It was a bit special guest light compared to other times I've seen them, but we got Mos Def, De La Soul, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Slowthai and a couple of others I didn't recognise. A fine end 9/10


Overall I think it's partly me getting too old for this shit- proper backache by the end of last night and partly poor organisation, but this will be my last Primavera. I got to see some acts that I've always wanted to and some old faves, so it wasn't a waste of time and it's always a pleasure spending time in Barcelona. But overall a 6.5/10

Paul McCartney in syracuse on saturday night. My first real BIG show since the pandemic, 50,000 people in a football stadium and americans at that. The last time I saw Macca, I found myself almost bored during the 'hits' at the end, and thought that would be it for me and him. But I got a good seat on the floor for cheap, and honestly, I was blown away. The pandemic break seems to have done his voice good, and he sounded about as good as someone who is almost 80 could. Still plays for almost 3 hours, and still brings the hits. Powerful. And I didn't get caught in a mass shooting while in the USA! 10/10

So I went to see DIIV on my own on a fucking Monday night after a terribly rough day. Think they're quite boring in record but tbh couldn't have picked a better show at that moment. I had a ticket already so yeah, some beers to help the numbing and fortunately they put a quite nice melted blurry sound. I just needed to switch off my brain and provide some noise shocks to it, it worked.

Wicked Barns.

DIIV is a band I would love to see live. Did the play the debut through?

No, just a few numbers. Although tbh it could be all just a long song innit. Well, two: the grungey shoegaze one and the mantra arpeggiated one. Blissful but I might not hear them again in months tbh

The National @ Botanic Gardens, Belfast

This was meant to happen back in 2020 but then the world closed down and it got rescheduled, then cancelled again and then finally took place 2 years after it was meant to.

I’ve not listened to their latest record and going by what they played from it tonight I’m in no rush to hear it. They kept the new tunes to a minimum though.

Was disappointed they didn’t play ‘England’ or ‘Abel’ or ‘Slipping Husband’ for that matter but apart from that it was pretty much their “big” hits.

Highlights were probably ‘Slow Show’ which was the song my wife and I danced to at our wedding, ‘Fake Empire’ and ‘Mr November’.

Last time we seen them play was a couple of days before we found out my wife was pregnant with our first born. So they’re kind of special to us.

Tonight was probably the least I’ve enjoyed them live but it was still enjoyable.

7/10

Graceless is a fucking tune.

I love The National but you really gotta be in the mood to listen to them I find.

Not posted for a bit. WIDE AWAKE FESTIVAL was a great time. Columbia Rocks Man dropped me so I kicked him in the mother fucking face. He apologised & said he deserved it so we are cool again now.

Went to see Insecure Men at a pub in Tulse Hill over the bank holiday weekend. Got there early and realised nobody was checking tickets. The pub was really busy outside, by the time they came on this tiny room which probably could hold 150 people had about 400 in it. Their album kinda passed me by but I enjoyed the set a bit. Would have loved to have stayed for Bo Ningen who were headlining but a combination of the time, it being in the arse end of nowhere & the overcrowding meant I'd had enough. This event was attended by popular forum member Krburg.

Saturday I saw a workmates band play in the Birds Nest. It was an alldayer of punk bands & free. A good time was had, one band did a cover of The Vaselines Molly's Lips. Would have loved to have stayed for "YR MUM" but in true punk rock fashion I was there for about 3 hours, got a uber home, ate a pizza and was asleep by about 8pm. This event was attended by popular forum member Krburg

Then last night at Brixton Academy. Anika opened up, quite enjoyed her record from last year but live with Brixton's boomy sound I found her a bit tiresome. Next was a 4 piece post-punk outfit called Dry Cleaning, you guys should check them out! Really cool to see them up on the big stage. Sound was shit for their first few numbers but it was fixed in time for the second half of the set which was banging, think they went down pretty well.
Yeah Yeah Yeah's headlined. Not seen them for fucking years so was excited. The times I'd seen them had all been fucking brilliant & if I was the type of person that would post ratings out of 10 in this thread they'd all be 9/10s. This was a notch or two down. My problems were: the 4 new songs mostly all sounded naff. Nick's guitar was WAY too low in the mix the entire night, really frustrating. Then another thing which annoyed me is the amount of downtime in their set, it seems every hit would have a extended intro/outro followed by a long pause to go into the next tune. When I think back to the Show Your Bones tour they had that kinda chaotic fast & frantic energy about them but now all that's gone. Now, having moaned a lot it was still really good. Karen O is still a fucking superstar & they brought pretty much all the big guns you'd wanna hear out. It just wasn't on the same level of how good they used to be (or how my selective ageing memory remembers). This event was attended by popular forum members Rod & Kev.

Bloc Party at Norwich Waterfront last night

Surprisingly good this. My first time seeing them since 2008 and as it was billed as a special HMV album launch show I was a little concerned it would end up being the new album in full and just a couple of hits.

Ended up only doing 4 from the new LP (which is actually good despite some shocking lyrics) and the set was mostly old bangers including 6 from Silent Alarm.

Was good seeing them in such a small venue (700 capacity) but it was hot and sweaty as fuck.

I'm beginning to think that popular forum member KrBurg never had a fucking flight to Barcelona in the first place and it was all a well planned and executed ruse to get me to go to Primavera on my tod.

I hope all your future flights are cancelled as you're sat on the tarmac waiting to take off and that one of cabin crew give you bad aids. Prick.

M8, you should have seen the state Kevin was in, he was crying...


tears of joy when he found out the Strokes had cancelled!

😅😅

The long con, mate!

Started it back in 2019 and it paid off like a beauty. And there was me in a pub in Deptford watching a band of sexagenarian punks play songs called 'Back to the 70's'.

lol we got him Kev! He fell for my fake Green Man review last year too. Hopefully he'll be up in the welsh mountains crying with the sheep whilst we watch some old blokes do old punk rock shit this summer!

For the record I took it on the chin and barely wobbled! Need to up your game if you want a UFC career m8

Wide Awake festival

Great to be back in TCOTU for a gig for the first time since a very underwhelming LG show at Finsbury Park in 2018. Also a real pleasure seeing some top forum faces for the first time in too long.
Yard Act for me are a much more enjoyable prospect live than they are on record. I find the album a bit lifeless. On stage the singer has more presence and can command an audience in a way that most sad and afraid indie stars of 2022 could only dream of. 7.
Fat White Family I’ve seen them a few times and always really enjoy them. They still have that slightly sinister energy about them. When they hit top gear they are a force of nature. First proper mosh pit I’ve got involved in for a long time. Did my legs hurt the next day? Yes! A lot of soft lads are intimidated by FWF but this kind of music isn’t for everyone! 9.
The Horrors I loved the first three Horrors albums and saw them way back in 2007 when they still did the poseur garage rock shtick. Their current incarnation is sadly their worst yet. I left half way through to go for a piss and I don’t regret it. 5.
Primal Scream Yes, they’re playing Screamadelica live for the 1348th time. I’ve seen a lot of Scream shows over the years - some great, some awful - and this was in the top 10%. Bobby G seemed motivated and the band - still lacking a second guitar player - were on form. It was a big drunken singalong and I enjoyed every minute. When I say big drunken singalong, I mean me, JP, Karl and jamesdcody. The rest of the TCOTU crowd stood in silence, of course. 8.