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Gigs 'n' Tours

Franz Ferdinand were quite fab last night with some great new songs and good audience interaction. We got a cheeky photo with Alex (singer/guitarist) and and he came across as a very nice chap.

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Also, rather amusingly, their tour bus got a parking ticket.

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^ Saw that pic on FB ; thought who is that blond CF-geek don't recognise him... then the penny dropped.
 
Saw Bowling for Soup on Saturday at Brixton Academy. It was excellent and even better than when I saw them a few years back on their "last ever UK tour". They played their first album in its entirety with a couple of extra popular tracks. I was surprised and thrilled that they played the Phineas and Ferb theme song, I always love how most of the audience knows it, so fab. They were recording the show for a DVD so I might be on that.

They had two support acts. First was Army of Freshman who I'd never heard of before. Weirdly they started pretty much when the doors opened, I felt sorry for them as people were still spilling into the venue by the time they finished up. They were ok, had a good stage presence though and they looked like they were having a great time.

Next up was Aquabats, another band I had no prior knowledge of. They have gained a new fan! They were ridiculous in every way and I loved it. Their whole gimmick is they're like a lame superhero group from 80s kids TV and it's wonderful. There's a song about fighting a shark so they threw out inflatable sharks into the audience (someone crowd-surfed on one), another song about pizza where they threw out inflatable pizza slices (someone crowd-surfed on that too). At one point a villain arrived who threw actual bread into the audience and him and his goons had a fight with the band, the band won the fight and saved us from gluten! The whole thing was silly and hilarious.



Such a great show.
 
They also have done their own kids show was on a couple of years ago. I was gutted not to be able to see them and bowling for soup this time around

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Saw Alestorm last night, an evening of insane Pirate themed metal, great stuff. The first support act were really fun and despite not understanding a word they were saying/singing (vocal audio was pretty rubbish all night, think it was down to each bands sound guys as it varied) I just enjoyed the vibe they created and the crowd really got into it. The second act however were not good, like.. at all. Really didn't help that the vocal audio managed to be worse for them but they all wore balaclavas which just looked really out of place? I dunno, their set was just a bit pants and you could tell the audience weren't as involved compared to the first band.

Then magic happened, in between the second support act and Alestorm Queens greatest hits were playing and everyone got involved. Things were pretty awesome during We will rock you but Bohemian Rhapsody took it to another level. Over 2000 people singing their hearts out to every single lyric is just a beautiful moment, even the guy in front of me made his hatred of Queen pretty known to his friend but he was singing along like everyone else. Such a joyous and fantastic moment. Pretty sure the intense singalong caused a delay in the band coming on stage too.

I've wanted to see Alestorm for years and it was incredible to finally see them live, the whole set was great pirate fun. They even had a large duck on stage! During the "slow" song the mosh pit seized and everyone sat on the floor and "rowed" along with the tune, it was amazing. The amount of people crowd surfing was nuts, they were also more successful than those at Bowling for Soup. At one point there was a rubber dingy for crowd surfing which amused me. The end song was very amusing and hearing people chant it on the way down to the underground afterwards would have been very weird for those that didn't attend.




Oh and they played the Mr Blobby song when they finished because that's just the sort of band they are.
 
it's a good year for gigs for me!

Back in february I saw Erasure - who were excelent, a few notable omissions (including star), but when they've had as many great albums as they've had, they're never going to fit them all in! The support act "Bright light, Bright light" were pretty decent too! might invest in a cd of their's someday!

About a month ago, I saw the stranglers - Ok gig, but venue sucked a bit, and they missed a number of my favourites (Skin deep, 96 tears, All day and all of the night), and I've always found their music very hit and miss - great stuff's great, but the rest is meh!

This weekend was brill - saw "let's rock norwich" (80s fest) and "sunday sessions"

Let's rock - the first few acts were just 20-30 minutes each, all with the same house band (have to say, they were good!), Highlights here were Toyah, T'Pau and Nick Heyward (haircut 100).

Then it got relly good with Heaven 17 (great finish with temptation!) and ABC. OMD were sensational - never seen a live show Quite like it! would happily watch them again and again!. Human league finished things off and were good - but not as good as OMD!

Sunday Sessions - Main two acts were Kaiser Chiefs and the bluetones - other decent acts were Lucy Spraggan, Gabrielle Aplin (she did the cover of frankie goes to hollywood's power of love)- there were around 10 other smaller acts, one of which was enjoyable enough (Reverend and the makers), and one which was truly awful (goldie looking chain)

The bluetones were good, but the Kaiser chiefs were incredible! possibly the best live band I've ever heard!
 
Was hoping to get on one of the Iron Maiden gigs but they're 16+ :(
Only real gig I've been to is Saxon's Thunderbolt tour - first to hear the new album live! Reason I've been to so little gigs is that the gigs that I like (metal and rock) are often 16+. Hope to change that soon!
 
^
See if you can talk an over-18 into accompanying - my little brother's been going to Maiden gigs since he was 14.
I'll be doing the Birmingham gig with the family :)
 
Iron Maiden continue to go from strength to strength with their latest tour, which was probably the most impressive I've seen in ten years in terms of the stage show, sets, costumes etc.
Minor gripes were the fault of the Genting Arena (sat under a speaker, slightly dodgy sound and half the crowd seeming half-asleep as it was a weeknight) but the band themselves were on fire (almost literally in some cases) and a great setlist too - this was my 14th time seeing them and there were at least three tracks played that I'd not seen live before. The likes of The Clansman and Sign of the Cross were amazing and it was nice to have For The Greater Good of God (one of my personal favourites) and the long awaited return of Hallowed be thy Name. I thought of CF when The Wickerman was played as well :p

Up the ****ing Irons!

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And my good year continues!

Lets rock the north east (Sunderland)
Highlights:
Tony Hadley - Great set, one or two new ones, but most of my fave old Spandau tracks.
Go west - One of those bands who had a few decent hits, but are surprisingly good live!
MIdge ure - Set was too short, so missed a few faves
Nik Kershaw

MIssed Modern romance when popping into ocean beach

Lets rock leeds
Highlights:
Adam Ant - Sensational stuff, Played all my faves (except one), and only one I don't really like. SUperb backing group too!
Marc Almond - good mix of Soft cell and solo stuff
Boomtown rats - Geldof's voice is a bit shot now, but great to hear rat trap and I don't like mondays live

Missed captain sensible and the christians, because I was out of pants and tshirts!

Lollapalooza (paris)
Saturday Highlights: (arrived late, as none of the early acts interested me)

Kasabian - Absolutely sensational show! CVan thoroughly recommend them!
Kaleo - Hadn't heard of them before booking the tickets, but recognise "no good" and "way down we go" - a good solid performance
Depeche mode - one of my fave bands, not quite enough of their 80s stuff, but still did some gooduns! (everything counts, Walking in my shoes, Personal Jesus)

Lowlight: Travis scott - absolute garbage!

Sunday highlights:
Stereophonics - played some faves, but no "handbags and gladrags" or "Just looking"
Noel gallagher's high flying birds - Played a few of the oasis classics!

Also had gorillaz - who's songs I either love or hate, unfortunately , played most of the ones I don't like, but was a decent show
Lowlights:
Rag n bone man clashing with stereophonics
Missing Jess glynne, who was on first - because I didn't realise how huuuuge Gare de Lyon was (but at least it didn't happen the next day, when I'd have missed my train!!)

Lets rock london:
Highlights:
UB40 - Headline act, but weren't given long enough!
From the jam - Would probably be better with Paul Weller, but played all the good stuff.
 
Saw Iron Maiden at London's o2 arena on Friday night. Took my Mum who has never seen them live so it was great that it was an absolutely incredible show (she loved it!). Like Will pointed out, the sets, costumes and props were the best they've ever been. The spitfire flying out over the band was amazing and that was during the first song! A couple of songs I wasn't too fussed about were probably great for the die hard fans but were a tiny bit tedious for the more average person like me. Still can't get over how energetic and insane their 2 hour show is when you consider how old they are - legends.

It was my third time seeing them and I will absolutely try and get tickets the next time they go on tour.
 
A couple of songs I wasn't too fussed about were probably great for the die hard fans but were a tiny bit tedious for the more average person like me.
Is that the same songs I got excited about because I'd not seen them played before? ;)

My Dad was also impressed and said it was probably the best Maiden gig he'd seen - high praise after Gothenburg 2 years ago!

I'm going to see a Maiden tribute band on Friday evening - it's in a slightly dingy pub in Stoke that only holds about 300 people and will probably result in me drinking a bit too much, jumping around like a nutter and joining in more enthusiastically than the rest of the crowd :D
 
Is that the same songs I got excited about because I'd not seen them played before? ;)

Probably! I do appreciate them playing some of their lesser played tracks. No set list from Maiden is ever going to be perfect for anyone considering how many tracks they have to select from.

Bruce also sounded confident they'll do more tours, not sure I've heard him say that before?
 
I'm flying to Manila a week today to see Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, which is probably the gayest thing I've ever done.
 
Went to my first concert yesterday! I went and saw Gorillaz on their "world" tour. I thought they were fantastic- great visuals, awesome performances, and quite a lively crowd! Although, they were a bit delayed, so I didn't get home until around 1 am(and having to get up at 7 the next morning). Concert was great, but would not recommend doing that to your sleep schedule.
 
Weyhey! Tranz and Humility are great tracks off the new album, a return to form. Saw them on the Plastic Beach tour and marked out for Little Dragon for the duration. Who was the support?
Went to my first concert yesterday! I went and saw Gorillaz on their "world" tour. I thought they were fantastic- great visuals, awesome performances, and quite a lively crowd! Although, they were a bit delayed, so I didn't get home until around 1 am(and having to get up at 7 the next morning). Concert was great, but would not recommend doing that to your sleep schedule.

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