rate the last gig you went to

Friday
Strange day, nothing really I wanted to see so hard but a few things I was curious about.
Started with Beach Bunny, fine for a while but it gets tiring soon.
Rina Sawayama brings a strange combination with heavy guitars and the poppiest vibes but I can understand why the kids love her, it was a good festival show tbh.
Slowdive was fine because I.. had distractions. I find them a tad overrated so Im not sure what Id think otherwise.
Saw Amaia who is a young Spanish sensation from a talent show and talent she has even if Im not into her.
Beck was a weird one, fantastic for a festival with lots of one minute pieces through the hits and recent singles plus a couple of acoustic delights in just one tight hour. But is there lot of prerecorded shit? It lost me a bit that shit a couple times but had a lot of fun.
Meandering around ended catching up a bit of 100 gecs. Again like Rina a weird mix but totally can get why they attract the young ones, a sugar rush.
Last one for me was Pavament who I enjoyed far more than expected, for a known as slacker band they were punkier and jammier and really into it. Really cool, sorry kev

Saturday
Opening the last day at 5pm were a band called Dry Cleaning, don't think you've heard of them. Unfortunately everyone was trying to enter at the same time, so that meant I only caught half of their performance. Sounded good enough for 20 minutes but I can't imagine how the 27th show of that shit would feel like.
Then saw Helado Negro just chilling seated on the grass.
Khruangbin in the background as I wrote the Thursday rev.
Dinosaur jr started sloppy as they had lots gear and guitars but it picked up. They're fit madafakas and Mascis might be the druggiest straight edge in the world tbh
Little Simz in the background as I wrote the Friday rev.
Interpol had some great moments but Im not the biggest fan. Still glad I got to see them quite close, you can get nice spots here arriving 5 minutes before start.
Grimes Dj set was a blast, seriously.
Gorillaz attracted more people than anyone else, it was fun and cool and Damon brought Beck, Little Simz, the Desolé lady and De La Soul.

All and all, first fully fledged post pandemic festival for me. Couldn't ask for more, I think this is becoming my favourite one, as it has a great combination of everything that matters, including a nice city. Lots of both way younger and way older people which is strange.

BURN

Barny has made an absolute mug of you here, Karl

I’m on the train to go see dry cleaning right now!!

You can't complain!

DRY CLEANING at Queen Elizabeth Hall. First time seeing them in a seated venue, sound was spot on. debuted the new single. Great gig, probably a top 5 time seeing them. WHAT A BAND!

Wednesday I saw Genesis Owusu at the Underworld in Camden with popular forum member krburg. Monjola opened & warmed the crowd up well getting everyone involved. Only my 2nd time ever seeing a gig at the Underworld, they usually book metal & goth shit so it was kinda surprising to see Genesis Owusu booked to play there. Had seen some live footage of him playing with a full band that looked really great so was initially a little bummed to see that he hadn't brought the band with him. Though in hindsight it was probably a blessing. The gig was fucking phenomenal. A high energy hour long set with no downtime, just him & 3 other guys dancing about on stage. He's an an absolute star, the crowd lapped up every minute of it. Probably the best gig I've been to since Black Midi at Green Man last year. 10 outta 10 all night! Loved Smiling with No Teeth when it was released, but listening back to it after the gig I've realised that it's one of my favourite records of recent years. Can't wait to see what he does next.

Saturday me & popular forum member Krburg got last minute tickets for BECK at the forum. I had seen him 3 times about 4-5 years ago & despite his last few albums being total shit his band were incredible & he was playing 90% old hits. This was a strange show that I've real conflicted thoughts about. So he came on stage & the entire band were on a little riser all at the back of the stage where the drummer usually would just be. The lights were never put on the band, just Beck. It became apparent very quickly that HUGE amounts of this set was just Beck singing to a backing track I get it, not every song can be performed totally live, but I'm talking about songs like GIRL where none of the band appeared to be doing a fucking thing. Beck was singing, but had a loud backing track aiding him too on many parts. Rather bizarre. Now I guess it was a new band, whether he didn't have time to rehearse properly with them I don't know. Having said this, the way he had structured the set was pretty banging, 36 songs in 90 minutes often cutting songs short to go straight into the next. He did do half a dozen or so new songs which was a bummer as they're all shit, seeing the crowd get really excited to hear Colors was a real low. But when it was good, it was great. Felt like a big celebration of Beck just bashing out all the hits, did pretty much all you'd want to hear (minus Sex Laws) + a cover of True Love Will find You in The End & that song he had with Gorillaz the other year.
So yeah, a good time was had. Great to hear 4 tunes from Midnite Vultures. But at the same time, man, I've never seen someone take the piss that much with a backing track

Sunday went to paper dress vintage to see Horsegirl's debut TCOTU gig with popular forum member Krburg. First time at paper dress, cool little room, pretty much same size as the camden barfly, perfect. Horsegirl were exactly how you'd imagine, barely spoke, just knocked out 50 minutes of 90s sounding alt-rock. Definitely more exciting live than they are on record. Gig was a matinee show as well so was out of there by about half 3, perfect. Horsegirl look about 12 years old from the set of Stranger Things

Public Image Ltd supported by Brix Smith at Norwich UEA Monday night

Really enjoyed Brix set. She has a couple of my bloody valentine members in her band so they make a decent racket. Dropped a cover of Totally Wired which was fun.

I'm not massively familiar with PIL so some of the set passed me by a bit but that was my fault more than theirs. Lydon is obviously a star and great to watch.

A good evening given it was a half price bargain from twickets.

Gorillaz at Rockhal in Luxembourg, last night.

This is the fourth or fifth time I've seen them over the years and every show has been very different.

Luxembourgers like a drink on Sunday afternoons and the crowd was well oiled and well up for it. In fact this might be the loudest Lux crowd I've seen.

We got in for the tail end of the support which was Mr Jukes & Barney Artist, a Hip Hop act from TCOTU I've never heard of but the crowd gave then a massive reception, which boded well for Gorillaz (it's always a fear that the crowd will be a bit disengaged here).

This tour seems much shorter on special guests (but De La Soul must live at Damon's house as they are ALWAYS on hand for Feel Good Inc), but if anything it focuses the attention more on the touring band, which has been the same now for a few years. Where they used to have Paul Simonon and Mick Jones on Bass and Guitar they now have permanent band members who are both great. In all there are 7 band members (Damon, Guitar, Bass, Two Drummers, 2 Keys) and 5 backing singers and they are as tight as anything.

The sound at this venue is spot on too. It's essentially a cavernous, warehouse space with a really high ceiling and a capacity of 6500, so it should by rights be awful, but they get it spot on.

As for the gig itself, there was absolutely no filler. Every track hit the mark, every track was well received, loads of dancing, singing along etc. The crowd was a totally mixed age group and I was surprised to see so many teenagers (I think the last two albums really resonate with the youngsters) so any newer stuff played got a big reception and everyone went mad for the older stuff.

I'm not sure it's possible to not enjoy a Gorillaz gig, but this exceeded high expectations. A genuine 10/10

Setlist

The Static Channel
M1 A1
Strange Timez
Last Living Souls
Tranz
Aries
Tomorrow Comes Today
Rhinestone Eyes
19-2000
Cracker Island
O Green World (Damon piano intro)
Pirate Jet
On Melancholy Hill
El Mañana
Rockit
5/4 (First time live since 2017)
Kids With Guns
Interlude: Elevator Going Up
Andromeda (D.R.A.M. Special vocal outro)
Dirty Harry (with Bootie Brown)
Momentary Bliss
Plastic Beach

Encore:
The Pink Phantom
Stylo (with Bootie Brown)
Feel Good Inc. (with De La Soul)
Clint Eastwood (with Sweetie Irie

Last Wednesday saw a band called Giant Rooks, apparently quite big in Germany or something? Kinda The 1975 sounding, I guess, never heard them before and don't think I'll listen to them again but it was fine.

Wilco on Friday, with Nels Cline out due to covid it was pretty different from the other times I've seen them. Probably that enhanced the new songs and if you could just block out the songs we weren't going to hear then it was a marvelous experience.

Caught a double bill of Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams at our local jazz festival (don't ask) on tuesday night. I've now seen Lucinda at our Bluesfest, Folkfest and Jazzfest, so I've completed the set. She was...fine, I guess. She apparently had a stroke 2 years ago and still can't play guitar, but she can still sing fine. I've never been a big fan, but she was fine for 90 minutes. Emmylou was...wonderful. Her voice still sounds as great as ever, and she played all sorts of fun stuff, bluegrass, Buck Owens, George Jones, Steve Earle's guitar town (?!) and even a couple of Gram Parsons songs. Really glad I got to see her play a whole show. 8/10

Caught Kamasi Washington the other night at jazzfest. Phil Spector eat your heart out. THAT was a wall of sound. Massive as always. Also caught 'ghost-note', who I gather are an offshoot of snarky puppy. They were fine as an after-hours, Prince tribute act kind of dance party. Overall 8/10

Saw Horsegirl again at Bermondsey social club. They’ve just got that old indie rock sound locked down. Same set as the other gig… or so I thought. They finished their set and the house music came on so I fucked off, but they came back on and did a GBV cover
Icelandic band Francis of Delirium supported, they were pretty shit

SQUID at a half empty Somerset house. Enjoyed it, a lot of new stuff, tho a short set considering it was a high profile gig for them. Not a classic but still good stuff. They were joined by Emma Jean Thackrey for a few numbers too.
Bar Italia supported, they were utter shit. Not sure how that wrangled that support slot, they felt like some shit student band that was playing their second gig

Then Saturday the LOVE band featuring Johnny fucking Echols. They was doing forever changes in full so was excited to hear those songs performed live but man, it was just bloody perfect. Real emotional shit. Also did maybe a dozen over love numbers. A wonderful night!

Mad Cool - not arsed to write a full review but I really enjoyed The War on Drugs, Yves Tumor, HAIM, La Femme, St Vincent, Parcels, KOL (yeah) and Peggy Gou. Also saw Leon Bridges, Yawners, Wolf Alice, Amyl & the Sniffers, Foals, Pixies and little bits of The Killers, Placebo, Muse and Metallica.

The Smile at Abbaye de Neumunster a couple of weeks ago.

Thom Yorke and Tom Skinner came out and did a DJ set beforehand, which was a nice surprise.

The set was predictably excellent. Perhaps not as mind blowing as the Magazine gigs looked, but they had surprise on their side. Still a solid 9/10



Suzanne Vega at Trifolion Theatre in Echternach.

This was a last minute thing as a friend's wife didn't fancy it. I know the same three songs (Marlene on the Wall, Luka and Tom's Diner) that all non Suzanne Vega fans know, but her set was good. She has a fantastic voice at 62 years old and it was just her with an acoustic guitar and a feller with electric who played rhythym, lead and used loop pedals sparingly. A really well honed set, full of charm. Not all songs hit for me but there was more good than bad. 7/10.

black midi @ somerset house with popular forum member krburg. Caroline supported, these guys have been getting a ton of hype in recent months.. they were boring as fuck. Their songs were tedious & rarely went anywhere. The guitarist was proper hamming it up as if he was doing anything but playing the same boring minimal shit.

black midi were great. unofortunately Kaidi was missing and you could really feel his absence during the quieter numbers. still, black midi gigs are always complete one-offs, they were in great spirits, got what you'd call the hits out plus did a bunch of covers from kate bush, to frank ocean to acdc. not top tier black midi, but they're still the best live band on earth

incredible scenes at the Dartford festival this year. WANNABE providing an impeccable Spice Girls tribute. The Soundcasters providing WHITE FUNK, a Tom Jones tribute providing the HITS, the REAL LIFE Tony Christie providing a 20 minute song that included the only two tunes anybody knows of him. Then headlined by THE STONES, an hour of the Stones, cannot be beat, plus saved me £100 paying to see the real thing the other week.