davidm
Strata Poster
My concert going for this year has finished I think, so the round up of what I've managed this year;
Started off in March with the former frontman of Mansun (who'd I'd seen back in the brief-day when they were a big thing) starting to build a
little solo-career of his own Paul Draper - and he played my fave Mansun album in full, so that was good.
--
Not long after that I happened to be in the pub with one of my pals who is a bit of a fan of Barenaked Ladies, and I'd noticed (whilst at the
Paul Draper concert) that they were playing 'soon', so pub-based decisions were made and off we went to see them in April.
That was OK, but not really a fan of them but was entertaining enough.
--
Now a band I do really like (who you'll probably never have heard of) are Wax Fang, who are this little psychedelic/prog-rock group out
of Louisville, KY who I had discovered originally from THIS episode of American Dad (which they scored).
Anyway have liked them a lot for a few years and rather unexpectedly they were doing a few little gigs in the UK. They weren't even the
headline act at the gig, that was another band who I'd never heard of (Low Cut Connie).
Gig was in a tiny little club in Manchester and there was barely anyone there (maybe 60 people?) so perhaps no-one has heard of any of these
bands?
But Wax Fang were absolutely brilliant - not kidding but that was one of my favourite gig-going things ever.
The headliners weren't bad either - all kinda divebar rock'n'roll. To illustrate how not-busy the place was, the singer of the band went around
the entire audience hugging them. Fair play they still put their heart into it all. Really good night that was.
--
Another blast from the past was next up a few weeks later, The Bluetones - who I liked (particularly a fan of their 'Return to the
Last Chance Saloon' album). This was a bit of a early-albums type tour, so they played all the good tunes (could tell that they really
are sick of their big hit 'Slight Return' now though)
--
A few days later was the legendary Svalbard, who need no introduction...
--
My experience of the Foo Fighters is a bit odd - when they first came out I recall getting their debut album and liking it at the
time, but for some reason then I had not bothered with any of the subsequent ones. Years (decades?) passed and I started listening to them
again and went back and picked up all their old stuff which I had been ignoring for no good reason.
Anyway they were on at the local football stadium, and they were really good - played for ages and really on form. Wolf Alice were the support
and they were good too (but not a band I'm familiar with)
--
I've been a big Floyd fan all my life, and seen their main-man Roger Waters a fair few times now too (I even trekked to Berlin to
see him do The Wall back in 1990). So when he plays at my local arena, it would be rude not to - even if there was an England World Cup game
on at the same time (Columbia - was a bit tense checking scores during the gig)
Concert was a bit epic - highly political of course, lot of anti-Trump stuff, great fun.
--
I'd actually bought a ticket for the next concert before the previous one, but a few days later I went to see Rog again, this time in
Hyde Park. Was better in the arena, but got a couple of interesting support acts (Squeeze, Richard Ashcroft (who I've seen a couple of times))
and then got to watch the next England World Cup match (Sweden) the next day at a brewery in London (Beavertown) which was a bit surreal.
--
That was it for quite a while, then the other week I spotted that Greta Van Fleet were playing Manchester for the second time this
year - they had played a small venue at the University back in March that I had considered going to (had sold out so would've been a tout job)
but didn't go in the end so it was a bit of a surprise when they were playing the bigger venue in November (also sold out of course).
Risked a Viagogo e-ticket for a stupid amount of money (risk as someone could presumably have sold it multiple times and you would not
know until they scan it on the gate - but they didn't even scan it, just looked at it and let me in - pah)
This was really good, bit weird watching these American kids play Led Zep rock music, but they were technically very good and very
impressive live.
The support act I'd never heard of 'Goodbye June' - they were good too.
--
Got nothing planned yet for next year though - boo.
Started off in March with the former frontman of Mansun (who'd I'd seen back in the brief-day when they were a big thing) starting to build a
little solo-career of his own Paul Draper - and he played my fave Mansun album in full, so that was good.
--
Not long after that I happened to be in the pub with one of my pals who is a bit of a fan of Barenaked Ladies, and I'd noticed (whilst at the
Paul Draper concert) that they were playing 'soon', so pub-based decisions were made and off we went to see them in April.
That was OK, but not really a fan of them but was entertaining enough.
--
Now a band I do really like (who you'll probably never have heard of) are Wax Fang, who are this little psychedelic/prog-rock group out
of Louisville, KY who I had discovered originally from THIS episode of American Dad (which they scored).
Anyway have liked them a lot for a few years and rather unexpectedly they were doing a few little gigs in the UK. They weren't even the
headline act at the gig, that was another band who I'd never heard of (Low Cut Connie).
Gig was in a tiny little club in Manchester and there was barely anyone there (maybe 60 people?) so perhaps no-one has heard of any of these
bands?
But Wax Fang were absolutely brilliant - not kidding but that was one of my favourite gig-going things ever.
The headliners weren't bad either - all kinda divebar rock'n'roll. To illustrate how not-busy the place was, the singer of the band went around
the entire audience hugging them. Fair play they still put their heart into it all. Really good night that was.
--
Another blast from the past was next up a few weeks later, The Bluetones - who I liked (particularly a fan of their 'Return to the
Last Chance Saloon' album). This was a bit of a early-albums type tour, so they played all the good tunes (could tell that they really
are sick of their big hit 'Slight Return' now though)
--
A few days later was the legendary Svalbard, who need no introduction...
--
My experience of the Foo Fighters is a bit odd - when they first came out I recall getting their debut album and liking it at the
time, but for some reason then I had not bothered with any of the subsequent ones. Years (decades?) passed and I started listening to them
again and went back and picked up all their old stuff which I had been ignoring for no good reason.
Anyway they were on at the local football stadium, and they were really good - played for ages and really on form. Wolf Alice were the support
and they were good too (but not a band I'm familiar with)
--
I've been a big Floyd fan all my life, and seen their main-man Roger Waters a fair few times now too (I even trekked to Berlin to
see him do The Wall back in 1990). So when he plays at my local arena, it would be rude not to - even if there was an England World Cup game
on at the same time (Columbia - was a bit tense checking scores during the gig)
Concert was a bit epic - highly political of course, lot of anti-Trump stuff, great fun.
--
I'd actually bought a ticket for the next concert before the previous one, but a few days later I went to see Rog again, this time in
Hyde Park. Was better in the arena, but got a couple of interesting support acts (Squeeze, Richard Ashcroft (who I've seen a couple of times))
and then got to watch the next England World Cup match (Sweden) the next day at a brewery in London (Beavertown) which was a bit surreal.
--
That was it for quite a while, then the other week I spotted that Greta Van Fleet were playing Manchester for the second time this
year - they had played a small venue at the University back in March that I had considered going to (had sold out so would've been a tout job)
but didn't go in the end so it was a bit of a surprise when they were playing the bigger venue in November (also sold out of course).
Risked a Viagogo e-ticket for a stupid amount of money (risk as someone could presumably have sold it multiple times and you would not
know until they scan it on the gate - but they didn't even scan it, just looked at it and let me in - pah)
This was really good, bit weird watching these American kids play Led Zep rock music, but they were technically very good and very
impressive live.
The support act I'd never heard of 'Goodbye June' - they were good too.
--
Got nothing planned yet for next year though - boo.
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