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The Big Gig Thread 2019

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  • Benjm
    replied
    I just booked tickets for Bikini Kill at Brixton Academy (unfortunately) in June. The first show sold out in a flash but a second night went up almost immediately afterwards. That might not go so quickly; sometimes the contrast between the scramble for a first date and reduced demand for a second is quite noticeable, The Replacements' last visit for example. I'm a big Kathleen Hanna fan but prefer Le Tigre and her current outfit The Julie Ruin to BK on a purely musical level.

    Tonight I'm fulfilling my BGT contractual obligation with Massive Attack at the O2. Looking forward to it based on Walt's review upthread and some other feedback that I've seen. This'll be my first visit to the O2 on a Friday or Saturday since the night tube started and not having to rush onto the Jubilee Line afterwards will be very welcome.

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  • Sits
    replied
    I cottoned on when there were three McGinley songs in the first six. They're great musicians and there are still some excellent songs, but it was hollowed out. That's before the awful sound.

    I'm just glad I saw them two years ago, outdoors at Taronga Zoo. Perfect gig in a perfect setting. That's what put tonight into stark contrast. They need to jack it in.
    Last edited by Sits; 17-02-2019, 05:38. Reason: Called McGinley McAulay

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  • Greenlander
    replied
    The thought of TFC performing without Love might be tolerable, but without his tunes then I'm with you Sits.

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  • Sits
    replied
    Originally posted by Sits View Post
    That's a great pic which he will treasure.

    Teenage Fanclub on the 15th at the Metro. Could well be the last time now Gerard Love has left.

    And it is the last time. Didn't do any of his songs which rips the heart out of their set. And the sound was bad.

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  • Benjm
    replied
    In a variant of advance booking angst, I have accidentally bought tickets for two events on the same night in May, Giuda at the 100 Club and A Certain Ratio at Islington Assembly Hall. I'll go to Giuda, the more recent announcement and purchase, and go to see ACR later in the month in Manchester. The Factory samba kings have a loyal but compact following so selling the tickets on (at face value or below, obviously) can't be guaranteed.

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  • imp
    replied
    Originally posted by MsD View Post
    Missed Neneh Cherry last night as I forgot. I bought the ticket in September.
    My sympathies - I did that once a few years ago with theatre tickets. Ever since I keep the envelopes on the desk top in order of the upcoming gig/event, with the artist's name and event date in big block caps on the outside of the envelope. I suppose I could type them in to my smartphone too, but I'm old school and can't be arsed.

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  • MsD
    replied
    Missed Neneh Cherry last night as I forgot. I bought the ticket in September.

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  • Felicity, I guess so
    replied
    In what’s becoming a regular habit, I’m now going to see another 70s band with another 70s throwback school pal: Blue Oyster Cult in Newcastle with visitor from StAndrews.

    my brother had the album with ‘Reaper’ on it but that’s about as far as my awareness of them goes. Pal says they’re a bit more ‘Americana’ now, which might be better for my hearing.

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  • Walt Flanagans Dog
    replied
    Originally posted by BallochSonsFan View Post
    Last night was The Lemonheads. Dando looked like he's back on at least the sauce and you'd have picked him for 61 rather than 51 but once he relaxed it was a good concert.
    I went to the Newcastle date last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it* - they were a lot tighter and he was much more together than I expected. Fairly rattled through the songs, around 30 in 90 minutes. We didn't get 'Luka' but did get 'Different Drum', as well as 'Straight to You' (which they seem to be playing every night). He had the occasional slug from what looked like a bottle of Makers Mark, neat. The venue was Wylam Brewery, which was a new one for me - good venue and 20 beers on tap, but I was driving.

    *apart from a new gig annoyance, a puffa jacket tied round someone's waist, those things can cover a fair bit of space when jigging and/or grooving are afoot.

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  • DPDPDPDP
    replied
    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
    I had no idea that Forbert was still performing. I saw him sometime in the late 70s.
    Yes, and released a new album too this year. He's now 64. Played a whimsical version of the Beatles' When I'm Sixty Four". He's playing in Amsterdam tonight. If you get your skates on......

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  • ursus arctos
    replied
    I had no idea that Forbert was still performing. I saw him sometime in the late 70s.

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  • Benjm
    replied
    My Saturday seems to have been a bit lacking compared to the above. Ill didn't come on until about five to eleven (curfew was supposedly eleven) by which time I was more than adequately refreshed and had one eye on the train home. I enjoyed the 20 minutes I saw - noisy and angular but still catchy - but my attention had largely wandered by then. Islington has more anaemic clothes shops with two grey cardigans and a Breton t shirt hanging against the tastefully exposed brick walls than ever these days. Maybe they all have fixed odds betting terminals in the changing rooms. The theatre where I wanted to exchange some tickets was closed for refurbishment and one old haunt that I tried to visit for a pint was closed for a private function. Clearly not my night.

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  • DPDPDPDP
    replied
    Saw Steve Forbert (an American singer-songwriter) in The Woodside Hotel in Aberdour, Fife, of all places, on Saturday night. He was superb. I've loved Forbert's music since I first heard Romeo's Tune on the Anne Nightingale show in 1980. Second row seats (it was hardly a massive venue) and met up with some family and mates too. Last night of his UK tour and apparently he knows the owner of the Woodside which explains the relatively bizarre venue. Got some stuff signed, got photos taken and had a chat with him. What a great night.

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  • BallochSonsFan
    replied
    First 2 gigs of the year done.

    Friday night was the rather excellent Carson McHone at the Hug n Pint in Glasgow. Austin based singer/songwriter who can do honky tonk country and nuanced songwriter material with equal skill.
    Last night was The Lemonheads. Dando looked like he's back on at least the sauce and you'd have picked him for 61 rather than 51 but once he relaxed it was a good concert.

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  • Sits
    replied
    That's a great pic which he will treasure.

    Teenage Fanclub on the 15th at the Metro. Could well be the last time now Gerard Love has left.

    Leave a comment:


  • Walt Flanagans Dog
    replied
    This may or may not work - as mentioned went to Enter Shikari with son and his mates and opted for safety near the mixing desk and let him get on with it near the front, providing this opportunity to capture him on his mates shoulders, helping up a stranger doing the same next to them. He's the one on the right.

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  • imp
    replied
    Low last night at the St. Peter's Church. Last time I was here was for Gemma Ray four years ago (see, possibly, Big Gig thread 2015), in a tiny room that I thought would make for an intimate concert. But Low are playing the big room - that is, the church itself, which is in fact a completely modern concert hall with no remnants of religiosity. The whole place is some sort of youth community/small business centre these days, which you can only approve of. There's something rewarding about knocking back gins in church.

    Support act: Hilary Woods. Suitably low key and slowcore-familial. "She sounds like Grace Slick after a bottle of codeine," my mate Joe whispered half way through the set. Five songs were enough.

    The main act: Last time I saw Low at the Black Cat in DC they were drowned out by fans of support act Pedro the Lion standing at the bar (see, possibly, Big Gig thread somewhere between 2004 and 2011) and I stormed out in a huff. The sound here in church is much better, but there are still wankers talking everywhere. We keep moving to avoid them. Low - the band you can talk along to. One intense punter confronts two Lads who are having quite the chat, and they duly shut the fuck up. He was very direct about it, which is the usual native way of confronting an annoyance.

    I do like Low a lot, even though you can quickly become familiar with the structure and pace of any given composition. But that's their sound, and it's like nothing else on earth, and so are the songs once they've been coaxed out of the quiet/noise. 7/10.

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  • Felicity, I guess so
    replied
    My oldest school pal has a Mott the Hoople obsession so is coming up to see them in Gateshead in April.
    only problem being he clicked the wrong button, so he is 6 rows back whereas I’m on the 1st tier

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  • imp
    replied
    YOAV at the Brotfabrik last night, his first live gig in years as he's been building a 'toy box' - effectively allowing him to to reproduce his records solo by tapping out effects and rhythms on his acoustic guitar and looping them through said toy box. Just fucking brilliant from start to finish. Also belatedly realised how much his 2008 debut 'Charmed & Strange' may have influenced The XX's first record a year later.

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  • Walt Flanagans Dog
    replied
    Busy week. First report is from the Massive Attack gig at Glasgow on Monday. No support, relatively early start (advertised as 8.30 but eventually 8.45) and longish show. Very absorbing set, good linking of the paranoid feel of the music from the 1990s with changes in technology and society - said to my son at one point "it's basically Banksy: The Live Concert Tour isn't it" and he was thinking the same. Won't spoil for those attending later shows but a couple of well placed covers, apparently chosen because MA sampled the originals on the album - one in particular brought a big smile to my face (paradoxically). Looking on setlist.fm the next day more than half the set was either "live debut" or "first performance since 1999" or similar, but you wouldn't know it - very slick.

    Wednesday was Pete(r) Doherty in Carlisle. solo. I'd been tipped off a couple pof hours before and told not to put it on Facebook or whatever, that Carl Barat had arrived and was guesting. So we had a one hour set, with Barat coming out towards the end (to a huge welcome, and evidently the secret had been well kept) for a few songs, then we assumed it would be a two song encore - instead we got another hour with Barat staying out for most of it and the pair of them suggesting songs to each other and going on past the curfew.

    Last night was Dumfries for Frank Turner's (solo) appearance at the Big Burns Supper. Very professional event management (better than we're used to in Border TV land) and good show, very engaging (I've seen him a few times before, but not quite that close up). Highlight of sorts was him doing a Frightened Rabbit cover dedicated to his late friend Scott Hutchison, during which he was visibly welling up.

    Tomorrow after returning from Crewe I'm going to see a local ukulele covers band who I've seen before and are great fun, Monday it's Enter Shikari with the young 'uns.

    I realise my cred descended rapidly after that first paragraph, but y'know, broad church and all that.

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  • imp
    replied
    Abou Diarra last night at the Brotfabrik. Outstanding gig to kick off my 2019 calendar. He managed to impress and animate a crowd of mainly over-50 Germans, which takes some doing.

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  • Benjm
    replied
    Originally posted by Fearful Symmetry View Post
    Been a quiet start to 2019 for me, although that changes this week as I make IVW my bitch, with 5 gigs in 6 nights...
    Strong scheduling, there, FS. If I tried to go to five in six nights the fifth would probably have to double as my wake, the fourth possibly as a benefit for my medical fees.

    I added Michael Rother to my bookings list earlier today but the next thing on the calendar is Ill at the Hope and Anchor a week on Saturday.

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  • MsD
    replied
    Bad timing last night meant that we just caught three of Pete Williams’ songs last night. An unplugged set at the Groucho. He really is very good.

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  • Fearful Symmetry
    replied
    Been a quiet start to 2019 for me, although that changes this week as I make IVW my bitch, with 5 gigs in 6 nights, starting tonight with Public Service Broadcasting at the Adelphi. No, really.

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  • Furtho
    replied
    Going to see Teleman and am being taken to see Martha Tilston, both at the Junction in Cambridge in April. Also likely to attend The End Festival at Cecil Sharp House on 29th March -- mainly because my pals epic45 are playing.

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