The Big Gig Thread 2018

[evilC]

(Oooh, that turned out a bit big! Better try to shrink it!)

(Ummm... how do we *retrospectively* shrink image sizes nowadays? The old "size=400" isn't working like it used to when inserted after the "IMG".)

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

At the complete opposite end of the gig spectrum, on Saturday I chaperoned the 15 year old Thing Two to one of Ed Sheeran's enormo-gigs. I remain completely baffled as to this chap's huge success, but I don't worry about other people's right to enjoy his rather bland oeuvre. He played 17 songs and if someone had said afterwards that he'd actually played the same one 12 times for a laugh, I'd believe it - but accept that others could level the same thing at some of the acts I'll obsessively watch.

The logistics were more of a worry though. 55,000 went on each of the three nights, from all over Scotland and further afield. You got a pdf emailed a few days before saying local parking restrictions are in place, and advising you to use public transport. No park and ride option, just use public transport, and telling you to use Mount Florida, which is a wee 10 minute ride from Glasgow Central. Or hop on a bus, grand. No designated pick up points for anxious parents to retrieve their little boppers.

I wasn't falling for this nonsense, headed for Rutherglen and got a parking space I was so proud of, I nearly wept. Outside of the restricted area, but less than half a mile from Hampden, so even my daughter couldn't complain at the required walk. Coming out of the stadium on foot was chaos - thousands of people moving in different directions, going across and into each other, mixed with cars on the still-open roads. We battled through, eased out of our little parking haven, into the traffic flow (much lighter heading away from than towards Hampden), and back in Carlisle not long after 12.30.

Next morning twitter was full of the horror stories - reports from 12.30 that cars still hadn't made it out of the car park of the Asda we walked past to get to our car, long waits for buses stuck in gridlocked traffic around the stadium and more seriously people queueing for over 90 minutes to get onto trains at Mount Florida, with (reportedly) thousands still waiting when the last train departed - after (again reportedly) trains leaving half-full - with announcements then telling them they'd need to walk into the city centre. So on balance I'm glad I endured the gig to make sure daughter got home safely rather than leaving her to navigate that challenge.

People have already said 'well what do you expect, par for the course' - but it shouldn't be, we should be aiming for better than that.

[Fearful Symmetry]

The cynic within me would suggest divine retribution for watching an Ed Sheeran gig, but hey ho.

The Coral were super-ace last week, a damn sight better than I expected them to be. This Saturday sees a corker of a gig at the magnificently named Zebedees Yard as part of the week long 53 Degrees North music conference, as Slaves head a line up which also includes The Horrors, Dream Wife, Life, The Blinders, Our Girl, Lady Bird, Night Flowers and Vulgarians.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The cynic within me would suggest divine retribution for watching an Ed Sheeran gig, but hey ho.

Can't be that, if there was a God he or she surely wouldn't allow him to be so popular.

[MsD]

I went to see Psychedelic Furs, Patti Smith and Nick Cave in Victoria Park on Sunday, and it was ace. And Kylie came on to do Where the Wild Roses Grow, which was super brilliant.

[WOM]

Springsteen on Broadway. Fan-fucking-tactic. Well written, funny, intense, insightful, touching and with a large handful of very good tunes. Pricey as fuck, all things accounted for, but worth it.

[imp]

Max Richter at the Alte Oper on Tuesday night. I semi-nodded off a few times, but that's part of the idea. Beautiful and calming.

I read in my old-fashioned paper-based newspaper today about Yondr, the SF-firm that makes cell phone holders for gig-goers so they can't access the fucking things during concerts. Jack White's currently doing a phone-free US tour, with 13,000-odd people obliged to disable their handheld devices at every gig. I want to buy shares in this company.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Max Richter at the Alte Oper on Tuesday night. I semi-nodded off a few times, but that's part of the idea. Beautiful and calming.

I read in my old-fashioned paper-based newspaper today about Yondr, the SF-firm that makes cell phone holders for gig-goers so they can't access the fucking things during concerts. Jack White's currently doing a phone-free US tour, with 13,000-odd people obliged to disable their handheld devices at every gig. I want to buy shares in this company.

He's doing it on his UK tour later this year too.

After the Ed Sheeran experience, I've cleansed my soul with Courtney Barnett and LCD Soundsystem (on separate nights, not as some supergroup). Thing One came to the latter and continued on to Download after the gig, arriving at 1.30am. Earlier in the day his mates had left a car in Manchester (parked right outside the venue) for him to drive to Download, and taken all his camping gear and set it up for him. Impressive organisation lads, well done.

[MsD]

Springsteen on Broadway. Fan-fucking-tactic. Well written, funny, intense, insightful, touching and with a large handful of very good tunes. Pricey as fuck, all things accounted for, but worth it.

Glad you got there, and it was fab.

[Benjm]

I went to see Sink Ya Teeth at The Social last night. They're a two piece with bass, percussion, guitar and vocals over highly danceable electronic foundations and very, very good indeed. The post-punk tag seems to be attached to them but the music isn't as scratchy as that might suggest. They've been touring with A Certain Ratio (Martin Moscrop was DJing last night) which seems a good fit.

[MsD]

MX Tyrants for me at Paper Dress. Apart from it being a mate’s band, I love their sound. The guitar was turned up last night at the expense of Lolo’s keyboard and vocal, but still, very enjoyable.

[Benjm]

I'm going to see her on Nuns duty next Saturday; for people leading cloistered, contemplative lives, the various Nuns seem to have a bewildering number of projects on the go between them.

[MsD]

Lolo is in 4 bands, I think. Nuns, Joanne Joanne, MXT and The Fallen Women. And she has a day job.

[Wouter D]

Was at the Best Kept Secret festival last weekend. Warpaint, Vince Staples, and LCD Soundsystem were the absolute highlights. Father John Misty and Chvrches with an honorable mention.

I'm still half deaf.

[Benjm]

I went to see Gruff Rhys do an in-store at Rough Trade East this evening. It was just him with a guitar, metronome and record player (the Babelsberg album is quite lush and orchestral apparently, I only picked it up at the show) but he was in good voice and the new tunes were very catchy.

[WOM]

Took the girl to Imagine Dragons last night and had a much better time than I'd planned on. They're quite entertaining, and I knew more songs than I thought I would. A lot of samey-samey stuff, but easy to sway to. The guitarist and bass player just make noise, but the drummer seems to have pretty fine chops. Lead singer ... <glances quickly down at notes> ... Dan Reynolds is destined for bigger things.

[elguapo4]

Going to UK Subs and Bad Manners tomorrow, combined age of the lead singers is 133

[Benjm]

What, Buster Bloodvessel is only 36?

[Nefertiti2]

David Byrne supported by Laura Mvula. Simply the best choreographed show I've ever seen

[Third rate Leszno]

Couple of weeks ago I went to see Superchunk at the ULU, supported by Memphis garage punk legends Oblivians. Thankfully, for two bands who play some pretty fast stuff, the sound was absolutely crystal clear so it was an excellent night with a dickhead-free crowd and lots of, ahem, more mature chaps like myself who've been fans of Superchunk since the early 90s.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Back at the other end of the gig spectrum there was a piece on the BBC website yesterday about this year's stadium gigs (other than the aforementioned Mr Sheeran) selling badly - it confirmed something that had been rumoured earlier in the week, that they were letting people into the Beyonce/Jay Z show at Hampden for free on the day.

[Benjm]

I saw that; the bit where someone explains, in relation to Taylor Swift, that not filling the venue can be more lucrative than dragging people in by any means necessary sort of made sense, although the feeling of something being an unmissable event and a hot ticket must be a big factor in getting people to jump in early at the big prices.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I saw that; the bit where someone explains, in relation to Taylor Swift, that not filling the venue can be more lucrative than dragging people in by any means necessary sort of made sense, although the feeling of something being an unmissable event and a hot ticket must be a big factor in getting people to jump in early at the big prices.

True and as mentioned above, the Rolling Stones (well, their promoters) played this quite well this year - build up the events, charge high prices, get the fanbase to scramble for tickets, then knock out the last 10% or so at £30 to people who wouldn't otherwise have gone but fancied a bargain.

There's also the factor that most artists and promoters don't expect to sell out every gig. If you can comfortably sell out (say) the Hydro for one night, you've got a choice on whether to take it to a stadium instead, or just keep adding nights at the Hydro, and it'll be a question of maths. In turn I've seen plenty of bands at the Hydro who are too big for the next biggest venues in Glasgow but don't have a hope in hell of selling it out, but evidently would rather play to 6,000 in a half-full Hydro with full arena production than 5,000 over two nights in the Academy. In fact all the times I've been to the Hydro I've only ever seen the full capacity utilised (and sold) twice.

Had to laugh ruefully at 'the average gig-goer spends £40-50 a year on tickets'.

[MsD]

Furs at Meltdown tonight, hooray!

[Ray de Galles]

True and as mentioned above, the Rolling Stones (well, their promoters) played this quite well this year - build up the events, charge high prices, get the fanbase to scramble for tickets, then knock out the last 10% or so at £30 to people who wouldn't otherwise have gone but fancied a bargain.

Some of the Stones shows were pretty disastrous, around 60% of capacity in some cities which means a vast loss for the promoters.