Bands You’ve Seen Live

[Burroughhill]

One big rug

[moehat]

Arcade Fire Tonight!!!! can’t wait

[graysonscolumn]

Deeply envious, Moe!

Still, it’s Peter Bjorn and John for me and Mrs Column this weekend, followed by Cardiacs the week after, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

gc

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[Adrian]

My concert going has just turned full circle as my first gig was Wreckless Eric in Cambridge in 1980 and most recent were The Wombats at The Junction in Cambridge earlier this month.

I’ve been to hundreds so easiest to name some of the ones I’ve seen at least twice:

The Jam (including their last ever concert)
Squeeze
Elvis Costello
Pretenders
Joe Jackson
Blondie
INXS
Katrina and the Waves (just because they are local)
Mari Wilson (used to chase after a Wilsonette)
Altered Images
Simple Minds
Crowded House
Bjorn Again (inc a memorable gig in a Sydney pub)
The Stranglers at de Montford Hall (Aaronizneez was that the one where they got a heckler on stage and did remarkable things to him with a banana?)
Lloyd Cole
Aztec Camera

Favourite venue – The Marquee Club oozed atmosphere and every essence you could think of…

Worst venue – anything at Wembly Arena (especially bands like The Miami Sound Machine – yawn)

Most surreal – Seeing the sublime Martha Reeves (and a band purporting to be the Vandellas) playing a gymnasium in Cambridge where we sat in the sort of seats you do school exams on.

Concerts I wished I’d gone to –

The Clash in ’81 – my friends went to see them the night after we went to see the Jam but I didn’t make the effort (idiot)

Queen supporting Mott the Hoople at Cambridge Corn Exchange – who’d have thought it eh? My friends loved to gloat about this.

At least with the Newmarket nights concerts we are getting to see some decent bands on a weekly basis. I could have gone back stage and met Debbie Harry but went home instead – kicking myself ever since).

[moehat]

Arcade Fire amazing – until, that is some half wit in the crowd threw a full bottle of water at Win who stormed off the stage – luckily he came back on but I wouldn’t have blamed him if he hadn’t…..ruined the whole atmosphere of the show that had just been growing and growing….there is something evangelical about it all but hey, who cares…..some people grow up wanting to play music, these people ARE music….it’s when a band performs a song that you’ve never particularly liked on the album and you think to yourself ah, that’s why…

[graysonscolumn]

After last night’s gig at the Camden Falcon, I can add three more to my groaning list;

Peter Bjorn and John
Yes, they did THAT song (and dragged along special guest and fellow Swede Robyn to do Victoria Silvstedt’s vocals), but there’s another three albums’ worth of power-pop, 60s pastiches and the like from which to draw. And they did. In spades.

Maps
Have never grabbed me much on record, or on MTV2, but an absolute revelation live. Superior mathrock which, for all its calculated sheen and cerebral moves, is still on first-name terms with Mr Tune.

Those Dancing Days
Five young Swedish women in Laura Ashley cast-offs doing sprightly, happy contemporary indie-pop shot through with nods to the C86 and Northern Soul eras. The kind of inoffensive, giggly, all-female ensemble that makes the neanderthals at NME eggplant with rage, or come up with offensive epiphets such as "the pre-pubescent CSS". Tsk tsk.

Next gig? Unless a ticket for The Shins at Hammersmith this Wednesday miraculously materialises (unlikely – sodmonster), it’s Cardiacs at the Astoria for me a week on Friday. Pronk mayhem and yet another broken pair of specs almost inevitable.

Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[Kingston Town]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-ticket-to-The-Shins-Hammersmith-Apollo-Wed-7-Nov_W0QQitemZ270183626358QQihZ017QQcategoryZ1306QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Only one though……

[Burroughhill]

Old gigs/concerts have come back to me……..

First one ever…..Steeleye Span at the Ipswich Geaumont

Bad Manners at uni
Jilted John again at uni
Hawkwind

That’s all I can remember

[moehat]

Kaiser Chiefs tonight – why does everybody laugh at them? – I think they’re brilliant,

[moehat]

my daughter works at a school where one of the teachers used to go out with one of them, and when she walks down the corridor all the kids sing ‘I predict a diet’ [she’s a little bit tubby]..

[Author]

Posts