Gig Going Thread.

[QualityChimp]

Bought a day ticket for Friday Download to see Queens of the Stone Age and Royal Blood. The latter I've been particularly enjoying of late and that two-man lineup is fascinating.

If QotSA don't play "Song for the Deaf", I could always head to the other stage to watch *checks notes* Busted.
Snootiness aside, I reckon there are plenty of younger rockers who started out listening to Busted and their tastes went on to heavier stuff their (especially Charlie's other band), and they'll have an amazing time.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Saw Odie play at The Courtyard Theatre (Hoxton, East London) last night. Hadn't heard of him before but a listen of a few of his tracks on Spotify got me curious.

Alt-R&B/Soul. Young-ish audience. Was alright but probably wouldn't go out of the way to see him again.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Went to see Chuck Strangers play a short and free set @ Rough Trade East last night, his first-ever UK show to launch his new LP.

Impromptu, unplugged vibes to it but generally smooth easy-going rap music. Decent.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Went to see Ibibio Sound Machine @ KOKO (Camden) last night, despite feeling under the weather - last-minute ticket buy.

Glad I did in the end. Highly enjoyable electronic afro-funk. Very danceable! Mix of older stuff and newest stuff from their latest LP.

[QualityChimp]

I went to see The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer at the Birmingham Utilita Arena.
Two of my fave bands as a kid. I rinsed the Blue Album so much on my Walkman whilst doing my paper round that I can tell you that you turn over between "Undone - Te Sweater Song" and "Surfwax America".
I love how resilient the band have been with band members disappearing and Rivers Cuomo going to get a degree and almost disappearing, then returning to bang out loads of new albums. Not all are classics, but each one has at least one amazing singalong anthem.

My relationship with The Pumpkins is even deeper, they were my first live bands and one of the first albums I bought - it just clicked when I heard them on Noisy Mothers and they showed the videos to Cherub Rock and others. Siamese Dream is a timeless album to me and I'll always jump at the opportunity to see them live.

I started about 8 back from the front, but when "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" came on, the crown went nuts, with a massive circle pit opened up.
I forgot I'm not a teenager and dashed through the gap when the chorus kicked in and ended up about 4 from the front with a great view, but full of regrets as I got crushed and shoved about!

Brilliant set, with some songs they haven't played for yeeeears ("Through The Eyes of Ruby").
The sound was awesome and the new guitarist, Kiki Wong was great, although I'm not sure why they needed so many guitars.
There were some real laughs as well as they tried to do Ozzy impressions.

There were some weaker moments like a "Zoostation" cover and some of the more recent songs, but Corgan refuses to do just the hits, which means as a fan you get deeper cuts that might mean something to other fans.

Then on Saturday, I drove to London to the 02 Arena to see The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer!
Look, I told you they're two of my favourite bands!

I probably enjoyed Weezer more this time as they snuck in some extra tracks like "Burndt Jamb" and "Surfwax America" and the crowd was more into it.
Their sound was monstrous - Rivers' guitar distortion sounded amazing. I loved "All My Favourite Songs" and ended up a bit hoarse from 2 days of singing!

Pumpkins were great too, with Corgan enjoying the show even more.
Personally the crowd were less enthusiastic than Brum with no real pits or moshing, but that meant I had a good spot all night as we got there as the doors opened.
Those low points in the set dragged more the second time, but that's a minor gripe when they have so many massive songs.

The teen QC is well and truly buzzing!

[Nu-Eclipse]

Went to see TRAAMS play @ The Shacklewell Arms in East London last night. My first gig in 2 months!

Short (just under an hour) but sweet post-punk. A fun Friday night.

[eastyy]

Went to see AcDc tonight, The Pretty reckless were the support and they were great, AcDc were on the whole great only a few issues with sometimes Brian being hard to hear and the start of For those about to rock sounding a bit off but still was a great show

[QualityChimp]

Last weekend I went to WV1Fest in Wolverhampton and I'd genuinely been looking forward to it all year, it's such fun.
The Smashed In Pumpkins were playing again and I've made friends with their lovely lead singer, just by going to gigs and taking some footage for the socials, and he very kindly put me and my family on his guestlist.

However at £12 a day it's an absolute bargain. They put these minifestivals on up and down the country like Prestwich and Milton Keynes.
I went the Saturday on my own and saw almost every band, then was a bit more chilled on the Sunday when the whole family came along.

All the bands were great fun and all sounded fairly near the mark, but my highlights were tributes to the Pumpkins, Radiohead, Limp Bizkit, Biffy Clyro, SOAD and Nirvana.

Then I've just got back from Camp Bestival this weekend. It's a family festival and it's lovely. There are loads of activities for the kids to do like wild swimming, circus skills, puppet making, CBeebies story tent and so on, but also loads of live music. There's a rollerdisco, silent disco and shows like Brainiac and Horrible Histories.

It's organised by Rob Da Bank, so it leans into a lot of DJ sets (Gok Wan, Craig Charles, Sara Cox, etc), but there are bands too. One of my faves, The Darkness played, but they seemed a bit incongruous with the acts taming down the language. Well, after "Get You Hands Off My Woman", my daughter now knows mother ****er and ****. *shrug*.
Faithless were playing live after a long hiatus as I don't think Maxi wanted to, but his passing has released Sister Bliss to do so and it was great.
McFly were brilliant, I'm deffo a convert after seeing them live. Rick Astley was a lot of fun and everyone sang "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Mister Maker & Utah Saints teamed up again to become Utah Shapes and he's really funny because he doesn't take himself seriously. He got Barry from Eastenders to do some news reports and reluctantly sing "Old McDonald", screeching like a pterodactyl.
Also bloody brilliant and perfect for Camp Bestival are Dick & Dom, who are the perfect level of cheeky, banging out some great tunes on the main stage, then doing a "Massive Rave" in the tent in the evening, which is a bit more sweary, but we saw Paloma Faith instead on the main stage.

There's always a little vibe of activity happening somewere and you regularly find yourself doing something unplanned and loving it, like puppet making or listening to a Albanian Folk combo!

Rumours are that it's not happening next year in Shropshire, just Dorset, which is a real shame. I hope that's not true

[Nu-Eclipse]

Got back from seeing Lola Kirke @ The 100 Club on Oxford Street on Wednesday night.

Yes...the actress that you might know from the 2015 film Mistress America or Amazon Prime's Mozart In The Jungle. Now pretty much a country music artist, from Tennessee via NYC via London.

I'll be honest...I don't even really care that much for her music, bar one or two songs. I just have a massive crush on her. Good Lord, she looked damn good tonight.

[CMcK]

Went to see the Pixies on Tuesday night. Typical no nonsesne set. Arrive on stage, play a load of tunes, no banter and no encore. Magic.

[charlesr]

Bought ticket for Digable Planets in December. Going to be amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AiYulXizU

[Nu-Eclipse]

Bought ticket for Digable Planets in December. Going to be amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AiYulXizU

Which date did you choose?

[QualityChimp]

Rumours are that it's not happening next year in Shropshire, just Dorset, which is a real shame. I hope that's not true

Yeah, Camp Bestival have confirmed that Shropshire isn't happening in 2025. Gutted.
It says "a break", but I don't think any festival has had a break and then returned.

We're going to look at either a holiday abroad or a different family music festival:
CarFest
Beautiful Days
Stowaway
Deva Fest
Gone Wild
Deershed
Kendal Calling
Bearded Theory
Latitude
Elderflower Fields
Wilderness
Gloworm (bit more for younger children)
The Big Feastival
Camp Kindling

[charlesr]

Which date did you choose?

Friday 6th

[charlesr]

My daughter is playing at Victorious this weekend. She's 16. Mind blown. She writes all her songs and plays guitar and sometimes piano. https://www.instagram.com/alyxx.r/