Gig 'whores

[Paaaaul]

I saw Bo Ningen last night at Norwich Arts Centre and they were  astonishingly good. I hadn't heard then before the show, and came out the show thinking that their recorded output can only disappoint.does it?

[Johnny Townmouse]

Is that the real Scorn playing Supersonic?

Mick Harris, Nick Bullen and Broadrick (or the original Napalm Death line-up as they are better known)?

Edit: Aha, it's Harris on his own doing mainly dubby stuff.

[Nobody Soup]

just came back from aidan moffat. best moment was when he introduced a new song as "an erotic story with a halloween theme." nothing out of the ordinary for aidan but when the music started up and he sang the first couplet.

"father" she said "can I ask you a question."
it was the 1st of November and I still had my costume on.

The whole audience couldn't help but erupt with laughter forcing him to stop the song and over come a fit of the giggles before starting again.

[Serge]

I saw Bo Ningen last night at Norwich Arts Centre and they were  astonishingly good. I hadn't heard then before the show, and came out the show thinking that their recorded output can only disappoint.does it?

They played in our shop a couple of weeks ago and were pretty amazing. I don't remember ever listening to their record, and almost daren't now in case it doesn't live up to how good they were live.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I saw them live a few months back and they blew my hat off - but, likewise, I don't have much inclination to hear their actual records.  Maybe my loss, but I tend to prefer that type of sonic maelstrom in the flesh.

I'm missing @gruffingtonpost live in Edinburgh tonight, and it's causing me much teeth gnashage.

[Paaaaul]

Let's start a gang!

I saw The Victorian English Gentlemens Club last night who I hadn't heard much by previously.
I really enjoyed the music - a bit like a dronier and punker British Sea Power - but the singer/guitarist has so little character to his voice they would be much better off with a separate vocalist.

[Crabwalk]

I'm off to my first gig in over a year (since fatherhood, basically) tomorrow. It's Flying Lotus at the Roundhouse. I've no idea what his show's like or how he brings his hyper-produced sounds to life on stage.

My dream is that Thundercat will be playing live bass, but there's no mention of him on the poster.  All I know is that FlyLo's being accompanied by some fancy projections by 'Anti VJ'. So no idea what to expect, but rather looking forward to it.

[Paaaaul]

Off to see The Nightingales, Ted Chippington and BROTHERS tonight at Norwich Arts Centre.
I'm ridiculously excited about this considering I don't think I've ever heard The Nightingales.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Biii - i - ZEE gig-going fortnight or so coming up.

First up, Gordon McIntyre/ballboy tomorrow evening, then King Cresosote on Wednesday and The Fall-uh on Thursday.  A prior engagement on Saturday meant I couldn't go to see Lana del Rey, but next week I'm seeing kora-maestro Toumani Diabate on the Monday, Ghostface Killah on the Wednesday and Girls on the Friday.  Then Wild Beasts the week after!

Packed in like sausages in a bottle.

[Unoriginal]

The Fall played in Cardiff last Saturday, Mark E. Smith was so pissed that he left the stage half-way through and didn't return. Ted Chippington then hopped on stage and goaded the pissed off audience, who proceeded to throw bottles at him. Fun night.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Is T. Chippington supporting on all gigs on the tour?  That would be convenient, as I've never seen him.

[Paaaaul]

I saw Ted supporting The Nightingales last week, and he got the opposite response. He antagonised the audience as much as he could for 10 minutes and it was obvious that he was playing to a friendly crowd so he changed tact and became amiable and shambolic instead. The only 'material' that he did was a version of Pull Up, but everything else was improvised non-jokes.

[scarecrow]

Is T. Chippington supporting on all gigs on the tour?  That would be convenient, as I've never seen him.

Apparently not. Weirdly, when I saw him open a disastrously under-attended Nightingales gig in May, the band were howling at his material from the back of the venue, as though it was, you know, proper jokes and things.

Things don't bode well for the Fall tonight. Leeds sounds like another disaster:

http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/thefall/index.php?showtopic=31577&view=getnewpost

[CaledonianGonzo]

Oh dear...

Ach well.  Whatever happens, it probably won't be boring.

At any rate, I'll be there on my todd and lingering down the front towards the left hand side of the stage if any Verbwhores in the house want to say hello.

I enjoyed King Kenneth of Kreosote last night, even if Kid Canaveral stomped all over the delicate electronic textures of John Taylor's Month Away with all the grace and panache of a galumphing tweecore mastodon.

[Neville Chamberlain]

The Damned at Rock City, Nottingham, is the next gig I'm up to see, where they're running through the entire Damned Damned Damned and The Black Album, the latter of which just happens to be my favourite!

Let us know how The Fall are, Mr Gonzo!

[Famous Mortimer]

I remember the Fall playing for about 20 minutes in about 1999, with Smith shouting abuse at the band and storming off. The band played an instrumental, then apologised for not knowing any more (instrumentals) and left the stage. Odd evening.

[scarecrow]

Whatever happens, it probably won't be boring.

You called it.

Having said that, I feel it my duty to warn anyone considering buying tickets for this tour that MES currently has "big wounds on his feet" and that it hurts for him to stand up.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yup:

http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/thefall/index.php?showtopic=31586

The highlight was definitely the fan who leapt on stage, grabbed the mic and started to do a bang on impersonation of MES, prowling around growling:

I took my friends to see The Fall-uh?  But where was Mark-uh?  Where was Mark-uh?

The version of Mr Pharmacist at the very end after MES had been carried back onstage was good, though.

[Famous Mortimer]

I think there's a thread in "your disappointing / weird experiences seeing the Fall".

[Dead kate moss]

The Damned at Rock City, Nottingham, is the next gig I'm up to see, where they're running through the entire Damned Damned Damned and The Black Album, the latter of which just happens to be my favourite!

Got tickets for same at Camden Roundhouse. Seen The Damned about thirty times but not for 20 years. Love The Black Album, Strawberries might be my favourite album of theirs, but The Black Album's up there (and a better one to do live).

The Sisters Of Mercy are playing the same venue the next day. Tickets have sold out but I might be able to blag it on the night.

[scarecrow]

MES currently has "big wounds on his feet" and that it hurts for him to stand up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPdNnpVE08

Here's the fan onstage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u88wj8api34

[Paaaaul]

I was going to break my Fall virginity at Cambridge on the 15th, but am having second thoughts now.

[Dead kate moss]

Very much enjoyed The Damned last night, especially songs from The Black Album that I love like History Of The World which I don't think I've ever seen them play before. The audience sadly looked like a bunch of fat bald nobodies who couldn't even be bothered to wear black, let alone look like Damned fans though.

Neville, let me know what songs they did for the encore, Sensible was acting like they were taking requests, but possibly not. One in particular was very gratifying to hear.

[bomb_dog]

Devin Townsend doing the middle 2 albums of his recent 4 album-night concerts in London. Last night he & band played through all of Deconstruction complete with decending 4-foot cheeseburger, 4-piece backing choir, 'Ziltoid for president' balloons and flags, guest vocalists represented by on-screen puppets at the appropriate points, and finishing with a three song Punky Bruster encore.

Absolutely brilliant.

[CaledonianGonzo]

So Girls on Friday night.  For me, they just don't have the mixture of rockers/uptempo tunes and ballads right.  Tracks like Alex, Honey Bunny, Magic were great, but for me the gig got bogged down a little too often in the Don't Let Me Down-soundy stuff that also dominates the album.  Each of these tracks is pretty good in its own right, but when heard in panoply it just becomes a little too one-paced.

That said, they sounded great, particularly the guitar sound.  The lead guitarist just kept pulling off these dazzling 70s-style soft-rock guitar solos that gave me a cheesy grin from here to there.

I also managed to smuggle my mate in for free by drawing a black X on his hand with a magic marker beforehand, which cheered me up no end.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Spent all day Saturday at the Roastfest in London and had a marvellous time in the company of millions of Cardiacs-and-related-bands fans and members of said bands (and Steve Davis!). Particular highlights included Stars in Battledress, William D. Drake and Redbus Noface, Sanguine Hum, Knifeworld...actually, it was all good. Here's hoping there's a Roastfest 2, which I've heard is on the cards. Also, Max Tundra was playing choice tracks from his iPod between bands, so I enjoyed pestering him about what tracks he was playing and discovered two new bands thanks to him: Tame Impala and Sax Ruins!

Last night, I went to see the really rather magnificent Islets .Kind of mathy/punky/all-over-the-place sound, reminded me of The Ex in some ways. They're from Cardiff and contain former members of Victorian English Gentleman's Club and are VERY VERY GOOD.

[small_world]

Went to see a few bands on at the (new-ish) Boulevard in Newcastle.

Hassle - First band on, pretty standard Reggae with a slight hint of northern soul.

Symphonic Pictures - who we went to actually see. Were brilliant, really good, some slight sound problems which we'll get onto later... But well presented, great sounding and genuinely interesting. A bit like 3/4 of the way from Talking Heads to Arcade Fire. With a lennon style vocal... Good.

Luna Jet - Fucking hell. Brilliant. Really funny, really suited the venue. Loads of enthusiasm and interesting fun songs. But you can tell they are battle hardened old hands. Very well produced barring the same sound problems everyone seemed to suffer from.
Would go and see them again.


Yeah, the guys doing the sound were shit. Just couldn't stop messing with it. They sat at the desk the whole time, and those of us to the right of stage had a huge amount of treble blasted into our ears.
Someone asked if they could tuen it down a touch, it was during the first -Reggae - band's set, the guitaris was playing a solo, and while it does have to be punchy to fit that style, the treble was just pushed way too far.
Not good.

Great venue again, it should have been far busier on a Saturday night though... Maybe the location is a bit out of the centre for that kind of thing though.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Very much enjoyed The Damned last night, especially songs from The Black Album that I love like History Of The World which I don't think I've ever seen them play before. The audience sadly looked like a bunch of fat bald nobodies who couldn't even be bothered to wear black, let alone look like Damned fans though.

Neville, let me know what songs they did for the encore, Sensible was acting like they were taking requests, but possibly not. One in particular was very gratifying to hear.

Yep, was a really, really good gig last night. I've only seen them once before, but they seemed to be on about as cracking form as any band can be. Really great sound too - the psychedelicy flavour of the The Black Album came across brilliantly. The encores weere most generous too: Captain Sensible got very upset when nobody wanted to hear Happy Talk, but he played a bit of it anyway before it fizzled out, then there was a snatch of Black Night, but then that fizzled out too - but then they launched into Disco Man, Love Song, Antipope and Smash Up (1 & 2!). Not sure how serious the request for requests was!

[Dead kate moss]

Yes, he made the Happy Talk joke too, but didn't play any of it... - encores were Disco Man, Love Song, Eloise, Anti-Pope (yay!) but no Smash It Up...

[Paaaaul]

I saw The Damned last year, and Dave Vanian turned up 30 minutes after the band had hit the stage. We were treated to half an hour of Captain S fronting the band, and he was bloody good, and we did get a full band version of Happy Talk along with a nice chunk of Machine Gun Etiquette which didn't get much of a look-in once the vampire turned up.