rate the last gig you went to

Friday at the roundhouse with popular forum member KRBURG

DRY CLEANING - Great to see them perform a large venue & pull it off. Watched from the balcony which will now be my go-to spot for the Roundhouse, great sound, not overly crowded, so much better than the hell that is downstairs. New stuff sounded great live & they kept a mostly faster paced set for the big audience, great to hear Goodnight back in the set.

support acts DEHD & THUS LOVE were both American & both atrocious. Dry Cleaning have usually had good support acts so all I can imagine is that 4AD now pick them for their tours.

Saturday I popped along to Dash the henge record store & saw PINK EYE CLUB. It's like Art Brut if Art Brut was into early 2000s Ibiza anthems rather than post-punk. Great fun, would go down a storm at a festival.
then met up with popular forum member KRBURG at the 100 club where we saw the powerful double whammy of SHAKE CHAIN & NO AGE. Hadn't seen No Age before, never knew they was a 2-piece, their sound always sounds so much fuller than that to my ears. Enjoyable set, liked it a lot. Shake Chain were an absolute force supporting too, what a band.

It's the only venue where I love the balcony. It's so low and so near the stage.

I have been enjoying live music again recently cos the missus is taking time out and it doesnt feel like work. seen recently BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - anton is back on the sauce and he's decided to take 5 mins between songs to retune guitars his roadie has blatantly just tuned for him, did my head in but sounded great when he actually did play (mate who'd never seen them before loved it) 5/10
HOLY SCUM - loudest thing I've heard in years from members of Gnod and their mates, same intensity as Gnod but more ramshackle, support was a band called Nudist who I assumed would be shit cos someoone from Whyte Horses was in the band but actually dead good 8/10
THE BLACK ANGELS - shame all their recent albums have been boring and whoever mixed the vocals out of the PA at the gig needs killing but the first two albums still sound great 7/10

Just done 3 nights of Black Midi at Village Underground (only two with popular forum member Krburg!). They performed a different one of their records each night. It was fantastic. Despite being the least of my favourite records, I've always thought the Cavalcade material live was so much stronger & it turned out to be the way again. Definitely my favourite of the 3 nights even if the do miss having someone on SAX. Night 1 was kids going fucking mental, night 2 was much more chilled out, night 3 somewhere inbetween, although they did bring out HARRY HILL to do a Cardi B cover.

Support acts:

Monday: INDUSTRY POET: A big Barny MEH. His lyrics were mostly pretty terrible tbh
Tuesday: Tony Njoku: mixed art-pop with electronica with a high pitched soulful voice. Enjoyed this quite a bit in spots, the pick of the 3
Wednesday: Anysia Kym: A one person experimental instrumental hip-hop/glitch-pop type thing, it was too downbeat and tiresome.

The Lathums at Norwich Waterfront tonight.

Ruby J supported. It was ok.

The Lathums are number one in the UK album chart currently and have been hailed as the saviours of ladrock. I started following their progress since the weirdo who runs the mainlyoasis Twitter account posted a song by them about 4 years ago but this was my first time seeing them live. I quite like most of their tunes but have one real problem with them and it's hard to put in words other than to say the singer looks like a bit of a spastic.

Anyway I could tell that danger was in the air as I arrived to the venue and a bunch of barely pubescent "lads" were chanting football songs over the support acts set. Things calmed down until the PA started belting out hits from the likes of Gerry Cinnamon, LG and Sam Fender between acts. Things came to a head during Sweet Caroline where a mass brawl erupted involving a good half a dozen of the lads being escorted off the premises by security before The Lathums even came on.

The Lathums started their set and it was pretty good. The guitarist is great and the singer has a great voice. They just lack a bit of charisma and star quality though. The singer also has the worst dance moves I've seen since columbia rocks man in Joe's Bar after Action Bronson. During the encore break another big fight started and the band came back onstage to get involved and split it up. It gave the singer a bit more kudos with me but I still can't get over his milky bar kid with downs vibe.

An interesting Monday night in Norwich and certainly more entertaining than four nights in a row with Black Midi.

Saturday @ Rough Trade East, a free gig. MIDDLEMAN, A 3 piece post-punk thing, it was alright. Their tunes kinda lacked personality but they had decent energy. Ok for a support. COWBOYY topped the bill, I really love their EP, it's much better than I expected. Live, it was the same as last time. They are clearly talented as fuck, but the stupid guitar effects and insistence of throwing in 80s metal solo's really kills it.

Last neet at PRIZM in Kingston, SLEAFORD MODS. Did a huge set, 23 tunes. Probably a band that are better to see intoxicated on a weekend than on a weeknight but still, god bless Sleaford Mods, may they make an album every single year that sounds the same for eternity.

Nathan Fake at Norwich Arts Centre last night.

Norfolk's answer to Aphex Twin. Was a decent set but for some reason the sound wasn't as good as it normally is at the Art's Centre. Last time he played was banging but this was too quiet. It was also only about half full which for a Saturday night hometown gig was weird. It all led to a slightly flat atmosphere so not the best time I've seen him.

Went to VICEFEST at Bush Hall with popular forum member ROD last night.

Now, Vicefest I had foolishly assumed had been put on by by Vice Media, when it went on sale I saw the Cool Greenhouse was playing and snapped up a ticket expecting it to sell out & have big bands added to the bill. Well, it turns out Vice fest is a travelling "festival" that takes part in a few major cities hosted by a Dutch band called The Vices. The turnout was abysmal, maybe 50 people in a room that holds 400. A good half of them being dutch. There was 5 bands in all but I only saw BULL, who were kinda shit and the singer looked like JP, though admittedly they had some hooks, it felt like they could break into the theme song from Game On at any given moment.
Cool Greenhouse was probably the worst I've seen them, not that it was bad. But the sound was just a big muddy mess + they didn't have a huge set. Still I fucking love them & I'm glad I went. Very weird night, felt like we had gatecrashed a private party. I can only imagine what shit went down when The Vices headlined!

THE WAEVE at Lafeyette Monday neet with popular forum member Krburg. I do quite like the record but those tunes come across a lot better live. Enjoyed the set.

Saw three decent bands at Voodoo Daddy's in Norwich tonight.

Marseille headlined. Really like these guys. Quite unassuming teenagers but got a knack for a melody and their tunes sound like a mix of Stone Roses, Oasis and The La's. Scouse band Riverstone supported along with a Welsh band called The Malakites. All proper lads playing proper music for proper geezers.

The Go! Team last neet with popular forum member Krburg @ Lafayette

For some reason I'd only seen them once since 2011. I know they've not toured that much in that time but still, shameful. They are just an absolute joy live. Ninja is such a star. As soon as they came on stage I was reminded why I used to love seeing them so much in the first place. Go! Team forever! ABRACADABA (nice name LOL) supported. I don't mind their record, was the same live. Few good tunes, feels like they could break into a Duran Duran mega-hit at any moment. Perfectly acceptable support slot though wouldn't pay to see.

Whereswilder at le Molotov in Marseille, last Thursday. That's a Greek band that call themselves glam pop. Didn't know them before the show was announced but it was great. A bunch of fun, catchy tunes and really rocking. I bought the record from the bass player at the merchandise stand. (As they're from Greece, I messaged Themis afterward. He didn't know them either.)

9/10

CHUZE!

Raw Poetic & Damu the Fudgemunk last night at the Jazz Cafe

This was good, but perhaps not as good as I'd have liked. The setup was Raw Poetic on the mic, behind the decks plus a guitarist and drummer. They had technical difficulties when they came on stage so Raw Poetic and the guitarist just did a few quiet numbers. Then when it started a lot of the material was very kinda chorus heavy and the live arrangements were drawn out. When it did get down to the old school boom bap beats it was great, but I think the pacing of the set was off so the crowd was subdued. Not to complain too much as I really enjoyed the set, but I think it would have been a lot better without the additional musicians. Damu came back on after it was finished drop a few beats which the crowd was up for much more than the gig itself, yet he only had about 10 minutes. Was Raw Poetic's first ever TCOTU gig which was surprising. Anyway, good night even if it didn't meet expectations.

CHUZE!

Airbag yesterday at 16t - was good

eels at epic studios norwich tonight

forgot how much i love the E's voice/sad guitar sound combo. did a few too many new songs though which ruined things a bit given i don't like earth to dora much.

Tom Meighan at Epic Studios Norwich tonight.

Support band The Mercians are the worst band I've ever seen live. They even had the audacity to do an awful cover of Live Forever.

Tom was genuinely great. What a frontman and what big tunes. Did seven Kasabian hits and then some stuff from his solo album. All the geezers in the bogs were commenting on how much better than the Serge fronted Kasabian it is. 10/10

FAUST @ the Jazz Cafe with popular forum member KRBURG. It trod the line between the incredible & the ridiculous. There's only one old crusty German left from the original lineup now but that's fine. When it was good, it was something special. That hard hitting pulsating KRAUTROCK. Then there was some over the top performance art which was hard not to laugh out loud too, add in a DISC SANDER used live on stage, spectacular scenes! Wonderful gig.

It’s little wonder this forum has so few female members when guys like JP are out supporting Tom Meighan!

Foxy would be appalled.