Gig Going Thread.

[CMcK]

Went to St. Lukes in Glasgow on Friday night to see Otoboke Beaver with support from Drinking Boys and Girls Choir. I think DB&GC made a fair few new fans, they were really good and have yet another new guitar player. Who is a Glasgow lassie that lives in South Korea! You can imagine how pleased she was to be playing in her home town. Special mention for their drummer Myeong-jin Kim too. She's awesome, a tiny little bundle of talent. She's arguably the best singer in the group too.
Otoboke were utterly brilliant definitely the best gig they've played in Scotland. And the crowd broke the singer Accorinrin. She normally plays the too cool for you vamp but despite her best attempts to compose herself she gave in and the smiles broke through.
The gig might have been a year late but was well worth the wait. And that is without a doubt the best sounding venue in the country.

[QualityChimp]

I hadn't heard of either of those, so had a quick listen.
Top comment: "I feel like I did something wrong and I'm being punished by them."

[QualityChimp]

Continuing my frugal push to see tributes to bands I can't afford to see or just aren't touring, I had a bumper weekend!

Starting with The Killerz, that I got free tickets for sharing some footage with the venue!
I forgot my earplugs, so it was a bit loud and they did two sets with the first being a bit low on hits, then a 30 minute break.
Shows how strong Hot Fuss was and IMHO haven't matched since.
Not sure how the actual Killers do the sound live, but there was a sample track that did synths and some guitars, but it was live "enough" if you know what I mean.

The second set had all the hits though and was great fun.
I absolutely love "All These Things I've Done" and "Mr. Brightside". Absolute anthems, so it was great to hear them played live.

A good night and a great venue - Robin 2 in Bilston.

Then on Sunday, I travelled about an hour to Leicester for a double-bill of NOT Radiohead and Smashed In Pumpkins, the latter I'd seen before last year at the WV1 tribute festival.
There are quite a few Muse and Radiohead tributes, but have only seen this Pumpkins one, so made the effort to go and it was only a fiver for both bands and I'm so glad I did as it was a brilliant night.

Bank Holiday weekend in the middle of town and it was buzzing. Loads of students around and I was really pleased to see loads of younger people in the venue, not just people who were around when the music first came out and they knew most of the words too.
A tiny basement venue that was hot, at capacity and a great atmosphere.

NOT Radiohead were up first and were really good. I don't think they'd played together in some time, but you couldn't tell.
Vocalist struggled to hear himself, so hit a few bum notes, but no worse than the crowd. I was proper chuckling at how out of tune this one gaggle of girls were!
But they didn't care and they were having a blast!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cr9guTuIUGZ/

Then it was headliners Smashed In Pumpkins and I was worried everybody had scarpered, but as they started everyone flooded back in the pack the basement out.
The singer does a decent approximation of Billy Corgan, who has a pretty unique voice, but he does lots of the vocal nuances that I've picked up from decades of watching live performances on telly/VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray.

I've got to say that the musicianship was phenomenal, though. Every solo nailed and every drumfill hammered perfectly and I was really impressed.

Sang my heart, along with the crowd and I was loving it!

Great setlist too:
Siva, Zero, Today, Hummer, 1979, I Am One, Adore, Soma, Disarm, Tonight Tonight, Cherub Rock, Bullet wBW and Thru the Eyes of a Ruby.

I'll definitely see them again, but hopefully slightly closer to home!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cr9f2dBogqQ/

[Atticus]

Smashed In Pumpkins

Love it

Interesting take that tribute bands might be doing well in the current economic squeeze.

[QualityChimp]

Love it

Interesting take that tribute bands might be doing well in the current economic squeeze.

The thing is, I absolutely love their enthusiasm.
Almost all of them have asked for any footage I've got or at least liked it and they seem genuinely pleased with any interaction and promotion.

[CMcK]

Off to see Australian purveyors of bad haircuts The Chats just shortly. But a quick smoko first!

[fuse]

Meant to say before, but thanks for the great write-up of the Otoboke Beaver / DBAG show! I was excited for both of them too but yeah, there was no chance I was ready for that. I've missed another show this weekend just gone too while still in recovery, but the big one I'm now psyching myself up for is Portals festival this weekend. I am currently strategising how I want to play it, taking into consideration a number of factors to maximise my enjoyment while also not completely wrecking myself. Very glad that this coming Monday's a bank holiday!

Cult of Luna had a 'Beyond the Redshift' one-dayer in 2021 that got indefinitely postponed, and I was expecting it to just get cancelled given the number of other shows they've scheduled between then and now, but they've finally managed to reschedule for later this year. While it's not the same line-up, I'm certainly not going to complain at the addition of Napalm Death. The bigger problem though is that they've picked a Friday at the start of a weekend when I have friends coming to London to hang out, so I'm not even sure if I'll be able to make it.

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[QualityChimp]

That's quite a way away, though.
Maybe you could politely ask to rearrange for another date?

I would totally understand if something like this happened and a one-off, postponed gig was back on!

[Colin]

Saw Bruce Springsteen again last night for maybe the 11th or 12th time. I'm exhausted this morning after watching him perform his three hour set, so christ knows how he still rips through it the way he does at 73, absolutely brilliant.

This is the first concert I've gone to post covid, and not related to The Boss in any way, I think I'm done with it now. As someone that's been to hundreds of gigs I'm surprised to say this myself, but I just can't be bothered with the hassle of it any more. The travel, the queuing and all the other annoying crap that comes along with it, not to mention the guaranteed knob heads in every crowd of every gig you ever go to just see's me done with it.

Negative bit out of the way it was still a brilliant show and we had a great night. We took my wife's dad with us and it was his first ever concert at the ripe old age of 82! I doubt he has a single bit of memory left in his phone this morning with all the photos and videos he took yesterday.

[QualityChimp]

Went to Download for the day yesterday.
I'd have gone all weekend, but have a wedding on Saturday, so settled on seeing Metallica on just the Thursday.

Initial traffic issues were solved and we drove straight in.

Shame the bands didn't kick off until later, but we saw an dance group open the 2nd stage.

Then we saw Mammoth WVH, who is Eddie Van Halen's son if you didn't know. They were pretty good and Wolfgang was pretty engaging with the crowd.

Then we split so one half saw Hundred Reasons, but I opted for Punk Rock Factory on the 3rd stage and it was packed out and a lot of fun. They were stoked to be there.
The set began with shadowy figures in robes entering the stage, then they threw off the capes to reveal Power Ranger costumes and the band opened with that theme. They played punk covers of Disney songs and other theme tunes. My fave was Pokemon.

Back to the main stage because we could tell it would be heaving as it was sold out and felt noticeably busier.

I saw Halestorm whilst queuing to get in the front area (there were several barriers to break up the crowd and stop surges). Perfectly enjoyable Rock songs, but I wish I clicked more with them because Lzzy Hale is a phenomenal front person.

Then Alter Bridge. I find these guys pretty vanilla and their performance was functional, rather than exciting. Nothing that made me want to see them again, but others seemed to enjoy it.

Finally to headliners Metallica, who are playing two different sets on two nights, which is a cool idea and shows how many songs they have. We got some blinders though:
Creeping Death
Harvester of Sorrow
Leper Messiah
King Nothing
Lux Æterna
Screaming Suicide
Fade to Black
Sleepwalk My Life Away
Orion
Nothing Else Matters
Sad but True
The Day That Never Comes
Blackened
Fuel
Seek & Destroy
Master of Puppets

I was about 6 people from the barrier and had a blast seeing them so close!

In other news, I finally got to meet the amazing [MENTION=8265]CMcK[/MENTION]!
Hilariously we met by the bar, but we'd both had a skinfull, so were having a break!
Nice to put a name to the face, although the shorter day and pressure to get to mainstage ASAP to get a spot meant we didn't have long. Next year!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtQ7p4-ADK-/?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==

[QualityChimp]

Oh, I forgot to say the family went to Wychwood Festival at Cheltenham racecourse last week.

Had a fab time!
Loads of stuff for the kids like crafts, boardgames, circus performers and book readings.

Plenty of bands too, for me!
We mainly went for Scouting For Girls, my wife's obsession, but I also saw Dancehall, whom I really enjoyed. Loved their angular riffs.

Sleeper were a fun nostalgia trip. Louise Wener is still lovely and a great front person. "Inbetweener" is an Indie classic!

The Proclaimers were next and I only really knew the two hits, but they were good fun.

Travis headlined and I thought they were great. I've never caught them live, but they're perfect festival fodder. Their songs are enjoyable but they've never thrilled me, but tonight I realised I knew quite a lot and was singing along with most of the set.
Fran was a brilliant front man, though. Really engaging, pleased to be there and telling the stories behind the songs. Really enjoyed it.

[Colin]

I couldn't help but feel it was a bit weird to see all those folk at the front of the Metallica gig standing taking videos instead of rocking out to the band! Oh how the world has changed. (Not having a dig by the way, I know you love a vid!)

[QualityChimp]

No, 100% get you, mate.
I film some bands to give exposure (covers or unsigned), document for myself and sometimes for others.
I do film at face-height, so I wouldn't block anyone more than normal.
I Limit myself in how much I film, though.

I took about three 30 second clips just to give a vibe, but we also noted how it felt there was a constant wall of phones out this year.

Dunno if it's a young person thing where everything has to be fully documented, or if Metallica have attracted a new crowd after Stranger Things.

Thing is, people are jumping around at the same time, so the footage must be awful!

I took a purposefully decided to just drink the show in.
I had my eyes closed just drinking in the chug of "Sad But True" and "Master of Puppets" was such a surprise, I just wanted to enjoy seeing the Thrash Kings playing their classic.

[Colin]

I think it was just more jarring to see it at Download if that makes any sense?

There's definitely a thing these days that a whole lot of people only see things they do as fodder for their socials, which is a little sad really.

[QualityChimp]

No, I get you.

Feels like it's an analogue festival in a digital world, so it's even more incongruous!

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?
If you have fun and don't post about it, did you really have fun?

There's a fine line between reporting back on gigs you've enjoyed, like on here, and people just posting "I was there and you weren't" FOMO-fuelling updates on socials.