It can hardly have escaped any gig goers attention nowadays just how eye-watering the price of gig tickets has got of late. I’m not talking about arena gigs, which have always attracted a premium, but even mid-sized shows. When it has got to the point that it is rare for a signed band to be […]
There aren’t many bands I’ll shell out silly amounts of money for to see them live, but Rammstein are one of them. I’ve seen them five times previously over the past ten years, never been disappointed, always amazed and entertained, so when the “greatest hits” tour got announced there was no was I was missing […]
One of the joys of going to smaller gigs again, and indeed seeing bands from a “scene” that I’ve not generally been involved in for some time, is that I am going to venues I never even knew were gig venues – and this gig was one of those. A pleasantly restored pub on Essex […]
For my first gig of a busy few weeks (five gigs between now and the end of February, and quite a few in the month or two after that), it was time to revisit a band who I only saw about three months ago. Call it a case of making up for lost time, perhaps, […]
If nothing else, I couldn’t suggest that this night didn’t offer some variety in terms of the bands onstage. Going from garage rock, to political polemics, to deeply emotional, electro-rock. Kind of.
I’ve been following Blindness for a while now, and having picked up their debut EP a long while ago now (and promptly putting it in my best of 2010), seen them live once last year, I’m now making more of a concerted effort to see them live again – and this was the first opportunity […]
During 2011 I saw an awful lot of live sets. At a rough count, around about 125 (including supports and festivals) – and I saw a few bands more than once, in particular Front 242, who I saw four times in four different countries. Like the albums list, a few that might have made it […]
There are times when I wonder exactly how and why the support bands are picked for a live show, and this was most certainly one of those. On occasions, an eclectic bill can work, surprise and enthrall a crowd, other times it just becomes a real frustration. We missed Global Citizen this time around (mainly […]
So for one final flourish this year, in a year where I have attended more gigs and seen more bands than I have done in a long, long time, I headed outside of the UK once again, this time for a weekend visit to Antwerp for the two-day, tenth-anniversary of BIMFest. Despite a grim and […]
It has been a while since I travelled this far for a gig in the UK. Let me explain: I love Front 242. And given the news that old friends of mine in Je$us Loves Amerika were announced as the support act for this Glasgow show, it was not a difficult decision to head north […]
I’m all for an interesting multi-band line-up when it comes to going to a gig. I love discovering a new band in a support slot, and then going and tracking down their recorded material. It is, after all, what support slots are there for – to give newer, or up-and-coming bands, a push. But when […]
I got into The Twilight Sad thanks to a chance link from my girlfriend, who having read about them suggested they might be “up my street”. She wasn’t wrong, either, and a couple of years later, I finally got my chance on Monday night to see whether they lived up to their live reputation, and […]
A bit of a late start for me on this one – my third gig attended in a week – and as a result I missed the first two support bands, and indeed only just got into the venue in time to see most of the Global Citizen set. I’ve heard a few positive things […]
Another week, another gig. I’m currently in the middle of a long run of shows to attend, that lasts until somewhere in mid-December. Indeed this year (2011) I’ve seen more bands in one year than I have in a long time. I’ve seen some poor shows, some OK shows, and some very good ones – […]
So, the looking backward in 2011 continues. I’ve said enough about that already, right? Let us talk about the headline band instead then, eh? Well, I also have to confess that I totally missed support band RSJ – but then, apparently they’ve been around for a while, and I’ve never come across them before. Maybe […]
2011 will go down as the year of nostalgia more than any other, I suspect. I’ve lost count of how many returning bands, re-issues, retrospectives and the like that I’ve seen…and while it probably isn’t doing a great deal for the future of the music industry, going on the numbers it must be helping the […]
I seem to be playing catchup with a number of bands nowadays. Insofar as having missed them live in the past, I’m now taking every opportunity possible to see some of my favourite bands, even as they edge into perhaps the later stages of their career.
There is hype, and there is genuine excitement about some bands. And it is fair to say that it is often difficult to tell which is which without making the effort to find out for yourself.
Like so many Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls fans, I’m no stranger to seeing her live – this was my fifth time (one Dresden Dolls show, two full AFP shows, and two “ninja” gigs), with a sixth time coming on Monday in the unusual settings of the British Library. But all of the previous shows I’ve seen, […]
In a flash, that is Infest over for another year already. A weekend that shot by – of fifteen bands, a good many DJs, many more friends new and old, some silly moments, some serious moments, a fair bit of wonderfully cheap booze, and whole lot of fun and silliness (and thanks to assisting Tails […]
