I saw them twice in 2014 but nothing since so this was long overdue. They really are a great live band. Brett did nearly ruin things by spending the whole of What Am I Without You in the audience giving people hugs but he's the kind of frontman who can just about get away with it.
Desperate Journalist supported. A band I've been aware of for years and given a couple of their albums a listen but found them just ok. Live they were a different beast. Really impressive and the singer has an awesome voice. They look like proper music geeks stuck in the 90s and I like that about them. It was a bit like if Sons of Dwayne gained a successful support slot. I'll revisit the albums again now though I've a feeling they're just one of those bands who are a lot better live.
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.
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 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.
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!
