Gigs.

@hightensoline - Hope you've got 6 Music on...Beta Band currently on as I type. They will undoubtedly be excellent.

As for me, Irish trio Chalk last. V very good live. But as I'm terrible as describing,  here is a cool track of theirs: Chalk - Afraid

Rag n Bone Man last night at a one off Warchild gig in Bexhill of all places. Absolutely fantastic performance. Played a couple of unreleased songs which were great too.

Chuffed - nabbed Factory Floor tickets for London in June. Dice app is awesome for a quick purchase, tickets sold out in seconds 🙂 (ah, only sold out on Dice)

Got a few gigs later this year, taking it a little more steadily than I used too - so a bit of a quiet year.  

Doves - this weekend, Brum

The Flaming Lips, April, Brum

Supergrass, May, Brum

The Beta Band, September, Nottingham

Butler, Blake, Grant - a few venues…

Managed to snag some tickets for the Beta band  @ the roundhouse in Oct. Will be good to see them again.

Dinosaur Jnr @ troxy (can't remember when) 

And lastly hopefully LCD soundsystem at Brixton in the summer. 

Oh and forgot about Forever now at MK bowl in the summer which the wife got tickets for....very eclectic but interesting line up and the venue isn't great unless you live walking distance away...so all good.  

Dinosaur Jr!!! Are you kidding that they are still performing?   I think I saw them in 90 or 91 in Brum at the long deceased Hummingbird with some awful UK indie band in support.

I guess a flick through this thread shows they are all still at it - Manics, Primal Scream, Suede....

Do these bands still have something to say or have they reformed for the Gen X cash cow...?

Great show from MIKE at Patterns in Brighton, really fun crowd too. His voice was going by the end, hopefully he hasn’t got too many more shows on this tour!

I see that Underworld are playing TRNSMT this July.

Do these bands still have something to say or have they reformed for the Gen X cash cow...?

Undoubtedly some of the impetus is to try to make some money; precious little in royalties, etc.

I don't get the slightly sneery tone (in general, not specifically Winston) at this sort of comment. Even if it is just a gallop through back catalogues, or '30 years since.....' tour with nothing new to say - some of these are fabulous records, that hold a very special place in people's hearts. And it's not as if you're being asked to pay to listen to the record again; it's a live show and live music >>>>>> listening to recordings. As per above, whether a new band trying to find their way, or some old Dinosaur Sr on the road again (and I saw them a couple of years back and it was still amazing) ALL live music is to be valued for the event.

So get with it Grandad, one day we won't be able to see them any more and I for one will be very sad about that.

For once I've got a few in the diary.

Michael Kiwenuka tomorrow at the Civic, Boff Whalley doing his book thing on Thursday up in Holmfirth, Miles from the Stuffies at Katies in April, Zach Bryan at Hyde Park in July (wife is a huge fan), Rebellion festival in Blackpool in August...

I've also got a few lined up, no doubt they'll be a few more:

Antony Szmierek

Hot 8 Brass band

Lambrini Girls

Greentea Peng

James at Cannock 

Forwards Festival in Bristol 

English teacher 

Belly for the King album 30th anniversary tour,in Leeds in September. Fizzing!

Saw them last in 1995 for the King release tour.

Posted by: acyclist

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Do these bands still have something to say or have they reformed for the Gen X cash cow...?

Not sure what my point is, but probably my favourite gig of last year was the Manics/Suede co-headline tour. Both bands still releasing new music, with the some of the tracks up there with their best (moreso Suede on that one).

Posted by: Jay

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Doves - this weekend, Brum

Be interested to hear what you think. I love Doves, and have seen them a lot, but can't say I was tempted by a tour without Jimi (lead singer), given the vocal performances on the few song in their catalogue that he doesn't sing.

A few of us got tickets for Shack yesterday when they went on sale. Their first tour for 15 years. We're seeing them at the Ritz which is a great venue. Somehow I never managed to see them back in the day. Probably as they were usually so off their heads on skag, they barely ever performed

Lots to look forward to, new and old - 

Joshua Burnside on Tuesday for some modern Irish folk in Islington

Craig Finn album launch on Wednesday in Shoreditch.

Joshua Idehen at the Jazz Cafe in April for some rap/poetry 

Beirut in Brixton in May

LCD Soundsystem on the first Saturday of their 8 night residency in Brixton in June

Beta Band at the Roundhouse in October.  (really looking forward to this - didn't catch them live first time around and Steve Mason's solo work has been consistently interesting. I particularly liked Brothers and Sisters from 23)

Plus loads of great stuff on the Glastonbury  (Neil Young, Kneecap, Cymande, St Vincent, Beth Gibbons being the 'have been on the list for ages' bands) and EoTR  lineups.  

I'm away for a few weeks in May and will miss two gigs that should be really good - the Golden Dregs have a new album out and are playing a few gigs.  And the ever brilliant Ezra Furman is launching her new album with a day long festival thing at EarTH in Hackney (and it's not sold out yet) 

Unfortunately I decided to give my ticket away. Didn’t want to give anyone the virus I am suffering from.

Be interested to hear what you think. I love Doves, and have seen them a lot, but can't say I was tempted by a tour without Jimi (lead singer), given the vocal performances on the few song in their catalogue that he doesn't sing.

Unfortunately I decided to give my ticket away. Didn’t want to give anyone the virus I am suffering from.

Penultimate gig for Fish last night in Glasgow.. Cracking evening.

I guess a flick through this thread shows they are all still at it - Manics, Primal Scream, Suede....

Do these bands still have something to say or have they reformed for the Gen X cash cow...?

The Manics never disbanded. Is there a rule that bands need to stop enjoying success after a certain point?

I saw Ian and Ben from Gomez in The Wardrobe, Leeds on Saturday night, great show as always from them (and Buddy).

Posted by: b33k34

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Beirut in Brixton in May

LCD Soundsystem on the first Saturday of their 8 night residency in Brixton in June

Love both Beirut and LCD but have had to skip these gigs at the Brixton Academy - went to LCD's last gig there a couple of years ago and even though we were stood smack bang in the middle of the crowd the sound was appalling - it could be my ears but it was so loud and harsh, it was like it was overloading my hearing, like I've never had before anywhere - I was so glad I had my ear plugs with me or we would have had to leave.

Went to see Michael Kiwanuka at the Civic in Wolverhampton last night - sound was absolutely fantastic clear, loud but no nasty harshness, what a wonderful big venue it is, the people standing by the doors and stiffening up to make it hard to get back to the middle (where there was a lot more space) made me laugh, but overall a great gig, I'm still amazed there are people who don't know who he is, he deserves to be massive really.

Looking forwards to going back there in two weeks to see PSB, got Mercury Rev at New Century Hall before that though.

Jalen N'Gonda tomorrow night at SWG3 here in Glasgow. Very much looking forward to it

Tickets nabbed for clipping. in September. Be the 4th time seeing this band Covid made me think I'd never see. Chuffed!

Shorter term, Mercury Rev, Monday, Wedgewood Rooms. Comedy with Russell Kane the weekend after.

Posted by: oomidamon

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I saw Ian and Ben from Gomez in The Wardrobe, Leeds on Saturday night, great show as always from them (and Buddy).

I saw them in Glasgow on Sunday night, fantastic stuff 

I went to The Weekender this weekend past, 4 gigs by The Hold Steady in London. They've been doing Weekenders since 2018 now and I've been to all of them. They're very good and in particular the Saturday and Sunday night shows this time were really good, in particular when they played all of Separation Sunday, their second album, at the Sunday show.

Later this month I'll be seeing Public Service Broadcasting at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, and they're always pretty good too.

Yeah "I say this every time, but I only say it because it's true ;)"

The Hold Steady's weekender is just an absolute fixture for me and maybe the best example of just how incredible live music can be. I said this last year and then a bit before that I talked about another thing, which was that once it fell right at the start of the pandemic- in a week I literally went and saw And You Will Know Them By The Trail Of Dead one night in Edinburgh, went to London and saw the Hold Steady 3 times, then came back and right on the eve of lockdowns saw Frank Turner in Glasgow...

And then, boom. There'd never been a month since about 1996 where I didn't go and see a live band and you do take it for granted. But a year in, the Hold Steady figured out how to put on a proper "gig" livestream, they took over the whole brooklyn bowl and instead of a crowd set up screens and a massive zoom call so they could see the "audience" and we could see them and each other and had a live chat going, and played another London Weekender by remote. Loads of people did livestreams but this was the closest thing, and it just about blew my brain up, getting so close to what we were missing. I still count it as a real show, I jumped around and got drunk and sang along.

So now every year it's not just about the show we're at or the fact we've been doing it since 2018 or the fact that I was kind of barely even a fan the first time, more of a casual liker and I went from that to fully indoctrinated in 3 glorious nights...

In the end this was 4 shows and tbh one was only decent, one was good but not amazing, and 2 of em just went beyond all of that and were what drags me down to London every year and I hope always will, it's every show I've ever been too and every time I've been crushed or battered in a pit or sunburnt and drowned in dust or almost struck by lightning at a festival, every sweaty hug and random punch and stagedive and crushing disappointment and surprise new favourite band.

I mean, we're in a cult, there's no getting away from it but it's a pretty damn good cult.

Treble bill at a community centre last night in Oxford; a proper community centre among the leaflets and posters for Mother and Baby groups and the pensioner's cake club.

First up, Top Shortage; post-punk LGBTQ+ and proud. Entertaining, hint of Siouxsie and the Banshees

Then-  The Plan - not a band I'd heard of but also entertaining enough, apparently have been around ages.

Finally House of All - a band that definitely isn't The Fall, but given the membership is drawn from long standing former members (I know, everyone's been in the Fall at one time or another) there are definitely "influences". Which has upset Mark E Smith's relatives a bit but oh well.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/02/mark-e-smith-fall-members-house-of-all-martin-bramah

Highly recommended (if you like bands that sound 'a bit' like The Fall). Playing Brighton later this month, @desperatebicycle

Posted by: teethgrinder

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Belly for the King album 30th anniversary tour,in Leeds in September. Fizzing!

Yeah, I’ve got tickets for the Bristol show, on the 29th, Throwing Muses in Bristol in May, Sleeper in September in Bristol on September 29th along with Dar Williams in Bristol on September 30th, Suzanne Vega in Bristol on October 30th. Also Sting 3.0 at Westonbirt Arboretum on June 18, Miki Berenyi Trio at Rough Trade Bristol on April 6, which is a gig with signing, entry was £12 including their new CD!

Oh, I’ve got Wardrunna at Bristol Beacon on Friday, which I’m really looking forward to. 🫶🏻😁

I got surprised by the good lady tonight with a pair of tickets to see the Architects in Manchester later this year. Saw them a few weeks back for their album launch gig in Leeds. 

A nice end to a shitty Monday. 

RIP Tom. 

Just back from seeing Mercury Rev. Bloody brilliant. What a sound

Went to see Michael Kiwanuka at the Civic in Wolverhampton last night - sound was absolutely fantastic clear, loud but no nasty harshness, what a wonderful big venue it is, the people standing by the doors and stiffening up to make it hard to get back to the middle (where there was a lot more space) made me laugh, but overall a great gig, I'm still amazed there are people who don't know who he is, he deserves to be massive really.

It's funny, I was at that gig, quite like his music and the band are clearly very tight...but it left me cold.  Wierd crowd didn't help. 

Not a gig as such but a mate rang me yesterday to tell me he's got me a free Glastonbury ticket.  I had a look at the line up and realised how out of touch we music I am.  I'm sure it will be fine though, an opportunity to widen my musical horizons.

Got HOTWAX and Gurriers in the space of a couple of days in April, then I grabbed tickets to the Common Thread tour in October. Hot Water Music, Strike Anywhere, Defeater, Crime in Stereo, Broadway Calls, Comeback Kid all taking me back to the early noughties... Plus Spanish Love Songs and Makewar and a few more current bands. 

Should be a goodun. 

Posted by: Mister P

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realised how out of touch we music I am.  I'm sure it will be fine though, an opportunity to widen my musical horizons.

Neil Young? Nile Rodgers? John Fogerty? Alanis Morissette? Rod Stewart??  Get with the kidz man!! 🤣

@northwind

I love the Hold Steady/Craig Finn and the weekender is a fantastic way to connect with their fans, but wife found the almost entirely male audience a bit intimidating and unfriendly when we went the other year.   Why did a couple of the shows disappoint you?

We caught Craig's solo book reading/interview/gig at the Strongroom bar and enjoyed it a lot. The new album (produced by War on Drugs) sounds really good and I've been listening to more of his solo stuff recently. That said, completely rocked out to Boys &Girls in America in the car at the weekend. 

In the end this was 4 shows and tbh one was only decent, one was good but not amazing, and 2 of em just went beyond all of that and were what drags me down to London every year and I hope always will, it's every show I've ever been too and every time I've been crushed or battered in a pit or sunburnt and drowned in dust or almost struck by lightning at a festival, every sweaty hug and random punch and stagedive and crushing disappointment and surprise new favourite band.

I mean, we're in a cult, there's no getting away from it but it's a pretty damn good cult.

1st night, I'm just not that into sitting down shows and the seats were bloody terrible, there some really good songs but tbh the middle sagged and there were like 10 less songs than the other night, it just felt a bit halfassed and lazy tbh. The "Storytellers" format didn't really deliver, especially because they didn't really seem to have actually thought much about the stories and there were less of em than you get from Craig on a random night. Someone gave me a free pint though so that was a boost. Could have been a matinee and saved us a night of london accomodation. Second night was all fine, it just didn't really quite go off (crowd seemed to have no sense of movement? Like, not everyone has rhythm but you can't <all> bounce to a unique beat, surely, that shouldn't even be possible?). TBH it only really fell down compared to the two brilliant ones. 

It can definitely be very middle-aged-male though. I was going to say that I ended up in a wee knot of randomly hardcore women on the last night but that probably proves the point, they were such exceptions. Compared to a lot of other shows I've been to recently it was pretty obvious. But then it's also obviously an ageing fanbase so that'll play a part.

Really like Craig's solo stuff, especially when it's brutally sad. 

Saw the magnificent Public Service Broadcasting last night - a band that shouldn't work on record, but it really does & it really shouldn't work live. But it really really does. 

They were abley supported by She Drew The Gun - always liked them on record, & saw them a few years ago wasn't massively impressed. Last night however they were great, much better performance. 

Sadly missed out on Yeah Yeah Yeahs tickets at the Royal Albert Hall this morning - by the time we got in the tickets were £385 for 2, so voted with my wallet & said no.

Posted by: sc-xc

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Went to see Michael Kiwanuka at the Civic in Wolverhampton last night - sound was absolutely fantastic clear, loud but no nasty harshness, what a wonderful big venue it is, the people standing by the doors and stiffening up to make it hard to get back to the middle (where there was a lot more space) made me laugh, but overall a great gig, I'm still amazed there are people who don't know who he is, he deserves to be massive really.

It's funny, I was at that gig, quite like his music and the band are clearly very tight...but it left me cold.  Wierd crowd didn't help. 

I do know what you mean, perhaps Michael confusing Birmingham for Wolverhampton didn't help! 

Going to see Public Service Broadcasting there (in the smaller Wulfrun) on Friday - I've seen them before at festivals and its a good show, but I have a slight chip on my shoulder that it's all a bit contrived, anyway a mate of mine has invited me along and he loves them so I'm sure I'll have a great time.

Saw Mercury Rev last Friday in Manchester at the New Century Hall (nice venue) - another very good gig, Jonathan is somehow even more theatrical as he gets older, good set but slightly surprised there was only one song off the new album, mostly bald mid-50s blokes in the crowd but my wife and daughter really enjoyed it (my wife is a bigger fan than I really).

I do know what you mean, perhaps Michael confusing Birmingham for Wolverhampton didn't help! 

😂 

Probably didnt help me that I'm off the booze at the moment as well.

Saw Boff Whalley the other night in Holmfirth, maybe 25 of us. Incredible evening.

@b33k34 it might be worth mentioning that @Northwind had possibly the worst seat in the house for that first night! I'd consider that show to be fine or even pretty good, and some of the alternative arrangements and oddities played that night were really good, but we just know that The Hold Steady can achieve something far, far better than "pretty good". Plus as Northwind mentioned it meant we had to pay for an extra night of accommodation in London and the extra day of touristing it involved meant that my feet were very tired by the end of the weekend. 🙂

The Friday show possibly felt better for me than it did for Northwind, it felt like it passed really quickly, which seems like a good sign. It just wasn't as good as the Saturday or Sunday shows. Mainly I think that the setlist didn't click for me as well as the setlists for Saturday and Sunday did. Generally the Saturday show at the Weekender tends to eclipse the Friday show even though both are very good, and it went down the same way this year, despite the Friday show still being a great time.

The Saturday show also included The Horn Steady (UK), which elevates things further!

There always seems to be a non-trivial number of women at the Hold Steady shows I've been to, but I can't deny that there's a definite bias towards middle-aged blokes. I'm saddened to hear that it can seem like an intimidating audience, I'm sure that's not how the band (or most fans) want it to be. But then if you're not fully committed to the cult then I can see how it might seem less welcoming. My first Frank Turner gig was a bit like that, feeling like I was the only person in the audience who didn't know every word in every song was a bit isolating and my gender and demographic weren't in the minority there.

Posted by: ChrisL

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There always seems to be a non-trivial number of women at the Hold Steady shows I've been to, but I can't deny that there's a definite bias towards middle-aged blokes. I'm saddened to hear that it can seem like an intimidating audience,

We got into them after

0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Glastonbury in 2007, seen them a few times since.  She probably just had an off night - it's pretty beery and the crowd is boisterous a long way back....

Turns out - checking in later in the day, more reasonably priced tickets for Yeah Yeah Yeahs appeared, so I will be going to see them after all. Quite excited as I have never been to the Royal Albert Hall before.

WAs just about to say Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on general sale now. I always wanted to see them, but I've got over it now, especially at £80 upwards for a seated gig (that's not not a gig!)  😡 Reasonable tickets at those prices can **** right off!

So, this week we've been to see tunng twice, Monday at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds and last night at thenTrades Club in Hebden Bridge.

On the way home from Leeds my wife said it was the best gig she's been to.

But last night was even better, really good atmosphere and a sell out. Trades club can suffer from people continually talking whilst the band is on, but last night was amazing, and you could tell the band had fun on the penultimate night of the tour.

https://bobmould.com/tour/

I could have sworn that I saw him in my local Morrisons supermarket.

Bob Mould is touring the UK later in the year too, but it looks like that's solo shows. I saw him solo a couple of years ago and it was pretty good (still very loud!) but I'd have preferred for it to be a full band tour.

more reasonably priced tickets for Yeah Yeah Yeahs appeared, so I will be going to see them after all. Quite excited as I have never been to the Royal Albert Hall before.

.

especially at £80 upwards for a seated gig (that's not not a gig!) Reasonabletickets at those prices can **** right off!

yeah yeah yeahs are playing the albert hall at £80+??

wow, things have moved on!  saw them at the leadmill years ago and havent heard much from them lately that would suggest theyre in the big time now?  or is £80 at the RAH not considered big time these days....

Bob is playing with his band in November. hot_fiat and I are off to see him in London.

Can’t ****ing wait. His new album is awesome.

Spiritualized at the Theatre royal in Glasgow tonight, playing Pure Phase in full. Yaasss!