The Big Gig Thread 2019

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

That's some line-up over the course of the week, European festivals do tend to offer a lot better value than UK ones. There will be a lot of Brits and Irish there, it's popular with festival tourists, though it would take some stamina to do the whole week.

[ad hoc]

Cheers WFD that's really helpful. I've been listening to stuff by the bands from that day, and am quite liking Black Mountain. They might not be everyone;s cup of tea (some kind of Canadian prog/psychadelic mixture) but they could be good live, I'm thinking. Mind you, if I'm going to listen to them and Khruangbin, I may need to get high and as I'm chaperoning a 13 year old, that may be a bit unwise on many levels

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Can any of you regular gig goers help me out here. As a result of my 13 year old daughter's present for Xmas 2018, I will be attending the Sziget festival in Budapest on Tuesday week. (My daughter is attending specifically to watch 21 Pilots and I am being present to make sure she has someone looking after her, as, well, as she's 13). Anyway, the line up for that day can be seen here
https://szigetfestival.com/en/progra...//2019-08-13//

Any recommendations? I am familiar with Foo Fighters (meh), 21 Pilots (I don't really like at all, but obviously I'll be seeing them), Johnny Marr (who I'm looking forward to seeing) and Khruangbin (likewise). the rest are totally unknown to me. Any of those bands worth seeing?

Idles are very much the band of the summer, but they are "marmite", you'll love them or hate them. I loved them when I saw them at one of the festivals I mentioned above. I'm actually not that keen on their recorded output, I can take it or leave it, but live they are quite a spectacle (I have some reservations about this as well, but I won't bore about it).

Frank Carter is another rising star in the modern Brit metal/punk scene, and again puts on quite a show, I find it a bit of a young 'uns game (lots of mosh pits and circles) but it's entertaining enough from the edges

However without knowing much about your personal tastes, I could be sending you into your own vision of hell seeing either of these. Take it your daughter is dragging you there for 21P - I'm not that keen on them myself but they are entertaining and for some reason really connect with their audience - I took my own daughter to see them (and am likely to see them again at Leeds festival with her) and it is a very young crowd.

Saying all that, it's likely that there will be clashes in the schedule which means you wouldn't get to see them all anyway. [Edit - on slightly closer inspection I see that Idles are the only act of those mentioned that aren't on the main stage, so most don't clash with each other].

Johnny Marr was fantastic when we saw him, although a delayed start due to technical difficulties meant we lost a couple of songs from his standard set list.

[ad hoc]

Can any of you regular gig goers help me out here. As a result of my 13 year old daughter's present for Xmas 2018, I will be attending the Sziget festival in Budapest on Tuesday week. (My daughter is attending specifically to watch 21 Pilots and I am being present to make sure she has someone looking after her, as, well, as she's 13). Anyway, the line up for that day can be seen here
https://szigetfestival.com/en/progra...//2019-08-13//

Any recommendations? I am familiar with Foo Fighters (meh), 21 Pilots (I don't really like at all, but obviously I'll be seeing them), Johnny Marr (who I'm looking forward to seeing) and Khruangbin (likewise). the rest are totally unknown to me. Any of those bands worth seeing?

[Furtho]

Seconded and the Gainsbourg one in particular is stunning.

It is, yeah. Great work, WFD.

Going back to my last "This is what I'm going to see" post, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever were energetic and seemed to go down well with the Bedford crowd, but I thought they were pretty forgettable.

Advance Base were (was) absolutely fantastic; just a big guy with a synth/electric piano, a sampler and a bunch of FX pedals, he's very characterful, very wry and funny. The audience at the show I saw in London were silent and spellbound. Think he's finished playing over here now, but his albums are worth checking out too.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Double post / clumsy edit.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I've never come on this thread, as I live in Jersey, and it was suggested to me by Benjm. The last gig I saw was Charlotte Gainsbourg back in June 2010, at the Shepherds Bush Empire. WFD, your photos are superb!

Cheers both (you and NS I mean) and happy birthday Serge.

[WOM]

Lyle Lovett and his Large Band at the (ugh) Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls.

Great set, lots of charming / funny chatter, good tight band (as usual) with most of the best-of stuff weighted toward the end. We got there early enough to have a wander through the casino and let the desperation and disgust settle onto our skin before the show. God, what a scene. Addicted Chinese people, elderly white people, and tattoo'd douchebags all plowing their money into video terminals with absolutely none of the charm of arm-pulling or coin-dropping. It was awful. The concert hall itself is called the Avalon Ballroom, which certainly ups the expectation factor. It's a rectangular room devoid of charm or acoustics, but at least it's intimate.

As I've said before, the country & western crew are very, very good at gratitude. A lot of 'thank you for coming all this way' and 'hopefully next time you're in Texas we can treat you as good as we been treated here' sort of thing. It really does make you feel appreciated.

[Nocturnal Submission]

WFD, your photos are superb!

Seconded and the Gainsbourg one in particular is stunning.

[Beatle Simon]

Some pictures I took recently, festival-ing with daughter.

Charlotte Gainsbourg:

I've never come on this thread, as I live in Jersey, and it was suggested to me by Benjm. The last gig I saw was Charlotte Gainsbourg back in June 2010, at the Shepherds Bush Empire. WFD, your photos are superb!

[elguapo4]

This should give you an idea...

Thanks Brian, that's a helpful site.

[brian potter]

At the start of the month I saw The Belishas in Bristol promoting their debut ep. 4 bands for a fiver, and as far as the support acts went you get what you pay for, we arrived as the first one was finishing, but if that was the finale we clearly didn't miss much. The next 2 support acts both had us walking out to the bar before they had finished their second song.

As for The Belishas, who are getting a profile on the Bristol scene, they were ok. Standard indie stuff at 100 mph. I think I'd like to hear some of their stuff in the studio before seeing them again, but they will need to develop a few more themes if they are going to make any progression.

Earlier this week I saw a very jet-lagged The Wedding Present at the Marrs Bar in Worcester, cracking little venue (and on the hottest day of the year excellent air-con). Support came from Vinny Peculiar, who I thought was excellent with his wry observations of modern England on acoustic guitar and ukelele. The Wedding Present have been touring Bizarro for a few months now and it's well oiled despite the jet-lag. Gedge and Charlie provide all the energy in this current line up and they managed to fit 2 new songs into the setlist, both of which sound good to me. In two weeks time it's off to Brighton for David Gedge's festival At The Edge Of The Sea.

[brian potter]

Just a question, anyone seen a Belinda Carlisle gig recently? She's playing Dublin in October and I was wondering does she do any gogos stuff or just her solo songs? Thanks.

This should give you an idea...

[Sits]

The Charlotte G one is great WFD. I hope Serge of this parish spots it.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Him out of Phoenix:

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Perry Farrell:

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Some pictures I took recently, festival-ing with daughter.

Charlotte Gainsbourg:

[Hot Orange]

Honeyblood on Monday were great despite drawing a small audience. A mix of 40-50 year old Indie blokes, and a load of student types. One of the good things to see in a Honeyblood audience is a noticeably high ratio of female gig goers.

On Tuesday, I saw an Australian quartet called Hatchie, who are doing a short stint in the UK ahead of their debut album released later this month. A decent set of dreampop songs not too dissimilar to the much missed The Sundays. Worth keeping an eye out for them if that's your bag.

I'm a bit of a Sundays obsessive. My eldest daughter is called Harriet as a result. Spotify has this morning introduced me to Hatchie and, deary me, I think I may develop a new obsession. Fabulous stuff. A bit more poppy than the Sundays, but there are definite similarities with them and the Cocteaus and the like. Shame I missed your heads-up here, Brian.

And, pleasingly, Hatchie is another Harriet(te) - the stage name of singer/songwriter Harriette Pilbeam, apparently.

[Benjm]

...for some reason Sink Ya Teeth played a show near me supporting The Wedding Present just recently, which seems a very peculiar combination.

Yes, they regularly support A Certain Ratio, which is a much more obvious/sympathetic pairing.

[Furtho]

Anyway, Sink Ya Teeth, the female duo from Norwich who've been getting great reviews and played Paper Dress a few months back (Benjm was there, so was I) were down to play the Pohoda Festival in Slovakia last night. The headline act dropped out so they got to replace them, and play the main stage to around 30,000 rather than the 50 they're used to.

Ah, that’s good. I really like If You See Me.

I couldn’t go, but for some reason Sink Ya Teeth played a show near me supporting The Wedding Present just recently, which seems a very peculiar combination.

[Benjm]

New Order were in great form in Bristol on Thursday. The harbourside setting wasn't too enormous for an outdoor show and a window of decent weather saw them take the stage in front of blue skies and play through sunset into darkness. Bernard Sumner was in a very genial mood, even by his upbeat recent standards. The set featured five Joy Division songs, four from Music Complete and the usual hits and fan favourites, all performed with aplomb with a top notch light show and arty video footage for each number.

[Furtho]

I'm going to see Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (never heard a note, but my mate has a spare ticket) in Bedford tonight and Advance Base (formerly Casiotone For The Painfully Alone) supported by synthpop queen Alice Hubble in Bethnal Green on Monday.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm not sure if "went stadium rock" means literally playing in stadia/large outdoor venues - because they did plenty of that while Stuart was in the band (Morfa, Millennium, Donington and more) - or is some kind of genre description. If it is the latter then I would say the run of albums two to four that he played on were probably the band's most "stadium rock" era.

Either way, as the most old school rockist of the three original members (by the end of his time with the band he had the whole full on seventies double bass drum kit and a fucking huge gong) he heartily endorsed both the big gigs and the big sound they played before he was sacked from the band.

I feel there's a difference between playing rock in a stadium and writing rock songs knowing you'll be playing them in a stadium. Same thing happened with U2. Less energy more melody. That's more what I meant.

I always got the sense Stuart was excited to be in a band.

I felt sad when he died.

[MonkeyHarris]

Saw No Vacation at Paradiso in Amsterdam last night. Played in the small room, which was almost full. They were better than expected but when their music builds, would have preferred that it takes off rather than drops back down to the bass line. Nice riffs, melodies and dreamy vocals on certain tracks, and a bit too busy on others with each instrument drowning the other out. Big Cranberries fans apparently. Played a cover from Everybody Else is Doing It... but I didn't recognise it, despite knowing that album quite well. Too much chat between songs, most of which was cringeworthy and inane. Seemed like pleasant young people.Geeky as fuck, though.

[elguapo4]

Went to see The Skatelites last night, they've been 55 years on the road and since all but one of the original line up have died, people might say that they are just a tribute band now,but it's the one survivor who makes all the difference.
Doreen Shaeffer is in her late seventies now (She doesn't know her exact age) but she still has the voice and energy of someone half her age. The venue was packed and enthusiastic, no yapping gig wankers nearby and I got through the night without being soaked in Heineken for once, so a definite good night out.