Owl City?? No, Manchester actually..... Owl City, Manchester Academy 1 22/01/2010

RE: Last November time, general conversation between me, Mike and Hayley-
You Heard this band? Owl City? Kinda like Postal Service but with a bit more beat and structure. Yeah, he's really good. We should go see him in Academy 3, Manchester.

Now:
Right, yeah Academy 3.... that all changed.I'm happy for the guy but at the same time gutted. You see Owl City's fan club are the bottom of the scales. And by that i mean the age scale and weight scale. They are very very young. More on that later.

The trip there was fun. The snow worried us, made us take 2 de-tours and made the Peaks look like the Alps. We passed the giant nipple hill and made our way through the hills. Struggling upwards in the car that somehow got us to London and back without a blink.....always an event with Dyall. Passing an absurd amount of derelict boozers also worried me. I had a rather 'ARE YOU LOCAL?' feeling in my stomach.


We got to Manchester in good time though so all was well, got parked, nipped to subway. Standard. In subway was an interesting student newspaper which had a review of Owl City's album 'Ocean Eyes'. One out of five stars..... I like the album myself, the fact it bares resemblance to Postal Service is a good thing. Not for that reviewer. Ripping the shit out of him seemed enjoyable in his writing. Aw well, we were there by then, we were gunna see him live.

The queue was ridiculous, so a pint was in hand. To do this we had to walk down the line of youngsters. I'm not gunna lie, there was a sinking feeling in my tummy. But all was well, a nice cold pint helped that. In we went to the Academy and stood in the crowd. I could see everything :) it was nice. The support band The Lights from Canada had started. They were very Owl City style to be honest but a woman singer. A stunning woman singer at that. The fact they were Canadian made all her talks to crows hard to listen to because all i wanted her to say was 'about' or 'aboot' in Canadian. She was alright musical wise though. Apart from the last two songs were just her and an acoustic guitar, they were a bit boring.

Owl City time. Now by now i was looking forward to this, but scared shitless of 'Fireflies' at the same time. Screeching girls in my ears was a terrifying thought. He came on and people went wild. Accompanied by 2 keyboard players, a drummer, 2 violinists and a guitar player. Played a lot of Ocean Eyes, as expected, including *sigh* 'Fireflies', 'Saltwater Room', 'Vanilla Twilight', 'Dental Care' (which has the worst lyrics of any song ever written) and my song of the gig - 'Meteor Shower'. For the 5 mins that he/they played that song, it felt like a proper gig not a concert. It felt more like Airborne Toxic Event then Owl City. Starting with a stunning violin/synth intro then a moment of silence crescendoing into the slow, light played piano start of the verse. Then bursting into the chorus with a true sense of atmosphere. Lovely. Adam/Owl City had a great sense of stage presence, reminded me of Thom Yorke from Radiohead in the way he moved, held onto the mic. Yet looked like Damon Alburn from Blur. Interesting mix.

He played 'Fireflies' and the daunting sense of people around me knowing only that song sunk in. Starting with the annoying girls behind us that thought an amusing way to spend the rest of the gig would be to steal mine and Mikes hats and complain about wanting to home. Urgh.

We decided to play it safe and use the motorway to go home. Didn't fancy the Alps at night.

All together a good night and a surprisingly good gig. Good times. Next gig is You Me At Six w/ Forever The Sickest Kids and We The Kings. This I am looking forward to :)

Peace

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p.s. Jesse did it again... Good girl

We Stole The Sun! - Twisted Wheel, Leadmill Sheffield 19/02/2010

Twisted Wheel are a 3 piece indie band from Manchester. I kinda knew what was coming from this gig, I've seen em twice before and knew what the crowd was like. To my surprise, it was on the Steel Stage at The Leadmill. Tiny stage, no barrier. Nice.

So yeah we got there half way through the first support band, not much to say about them, dunno who they were and they didn't sound that great to be honest.
Second support band i heard from the bar area, they sounded half decent enough. Local band, no idea of their name. Met em in Take Away after, seemed like dicks to be honest.

The crowd was a mixed one, ages young to old, indie to mod to full on football hooligans. One guy seemed to think he was actually taken out of the film 'The Firm'. I even bumped into a few people from Goole there. Always a nice surprise at gigs. The crowd bounced around enough to keep the energy going, seemed pretty tame compared to some recent gigs I've been to if I'm honest. At least they weren't moshing...

Anyway so yeah Twisted Wheel came on stage to a light cheer. Gave a good 45 min set, no encore. They played the 'big' hitters including 'You Stole The Sun' and 'We Are Us'. YSTS was my song of the gig, mainly because it was what got me liking Twisted Wheel, and the crowd seemed to mainly be of the same thinking. 'You stole! You Stole! You Stole THE SUN!' Rang through the room as the crowd joined in in the chanting.

Short but sweet set, almost felt like a pre warm up for a night out. Best time I've seen em live if I'm honest (most likely because the other 2 times were at festivals), this is only a short entry purely due to time and the fact I feel pretty ill. Also, not that much else to say.

Owl City next... That will be.... well interesting.

Peace
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EYEBROWS! - Fightstar, Corp Sheffield, 12/02/2010

Sorry this is so late; my Microsoft Office trial ran out. Finally worked out how to get it going again. So yeah, I’m back. Got this and one more to write in 2 days.... so this will be short.

Yeah, yeah... that guy from Busted. I feel sorry for Charlie Simpsons, not only has he gotta put up with those huge caterpillar eye brows he fashions, he has to live his life knowing that before his actually decent current band, he was a teenage girls dream boy in the sickening ‘band’ known as Busted. So many jokes all round tonight then?

Well getting past that fact, Fightstar are actually a great alternative rock band. Mixing different parts of metal, hardcore, light rock even indie at parts.
Back to gig. The first 2 bands were All Forgotten and Cars on Fire. Neither was anything to rave about. Both sounded identical. The third support band however was pretty damn good. The Xcerts, a Scottish ‘distorted rock pop’ band had so much energy, a great clear sound to them and on stage were very thankful for the attention. I was already familiar with this band due to the fact that they are signed to Xtra Mile, the same record company of Frank Turner (the greatest man alive). Their wasn’t long but sounded great. Unfortunately some idiots though it would be funny to start a pit to them.... they are not ‘mosh pit’ music. At all.

Fightstar time. Now bearing in mind this gig is in Corp in Sheffield. A small but great venue for gigs. My watering hole most Monday nights if i’m honest. The place was pretty packed. People of all ages at that too. The set was a decent enough one with a good selection of ‘hits’ and fan favourites. Including ‘The English Way’, ‘Mercury Summer’, ‘Paint Your Target’, ‘Chemical Blood’ and ‘Deathcar’. At one point all but Charlie went off stage for him to then play one song acoustic. ‘Deathcar’ was my song of the gig though, last song the band played and indeed the most manic. ‘Paint Your Target’ was the big sing-a-long though. Charlie seemed pretty happy with the crowd that turned up and even managed to plug the special edition of the album ‘Be Human’ which comes out soon. All in all, pretty fun gig.

Twisted Wheel next at Leadmill.

Peace
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Hello Sunshine! - The Sunshine Underground, Plug Sheffield 9/2/2010

Fightstar will be the next one... I promise. So another 'surprise' gig for me here. Text off Nicky saying he's got a spare ticket. Also Marrit, a friend from home was off. I'm not gunna say no am I? But I am gunna make this a quick un'.

So we got there just before the support came on. Cosmo Jarvis. A solo artist, singer song writer type, with a 3 piece band behind him. He was impressive. Very much a mix between The Kooks and Paulo Nutini. He used various instruments including a recorder and a ukulele. One song particularly that stood out was 'Crazy Screwed Up Lady', easily, if he gets his break, a chart hit (maybe a top ten at a push).

So onto The Sunshine Underground. Everybody there seemed to be of a particular type of style. The 'trendy' style. Fred Perry tops, smart shirts up to the top, bomber jackets, very 'MOD' esc. Unusually (to say i they looked like football hooligans) they were fairly quiet all the way through. So The Sunshine Underground came on for what was an hour set (including encore). They played pretty much their 'Raise The Alarm' album in its entirety. Which i won't complain about as it was great, the band had fun and the crowd sang along with all hearts in it. About half way through the set they played the first of 2 massive songs though. So moment of the gig for me this time was 'Borders'. As soon as he started singing, arms went in the air. People got really into it and the band responded with passion and energy back. So they finished the rest of the set, went off stage and came back on for one final song. Everybody knew which song it was gunna be, there was no way they wouldn't play 'Put You In Your Place'. And they did that exactly, after a lengthy intro (to which many looked confused at) they burst into it with the crowd chanting 'I'm on top but you're trying to stop me now' with the band. The great part though was when the music went quiet at the pinnacle moment going into the chorus and everybody there shouted.. 'Well just don't think I'm coming down'. Magic.

Was a nice little gig with the 2 songs making it so much better than it could of been. Maybe its because I'm not an obsessive fan, maybe it's because I wasn't drunk, maybe it was because I was still hungover but I failed to (in their words) 'av it' with the rest of the crowd.

Also, PLUG WILL YOU TURN THOSE BLOODY LIGHTS OFF ABOVE THE CROWD OR FACE THEM AWAY FROM THE CROWD, YOU CAN'T SEE A BLOODY THING WHEN THEY'RE ON!!!

Fightstar is next...

Peace

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A Nice Suprise - Mike Hughes, Frog & Parrot Sheffield 3/2/2010

Before I start this blog entry I wanna draw attention to something I noticed yesterday in the Metro daily newspaper. On a picture of Florence, the caption said 'Don't forget you can still win tickets to be in the mosh pit at the 30th Brit Awards...' MOSH PIT? I just though the fact the Metro thinks there will be a mosh pit at the Brit awards is hilarious, they clearly have never been to rock concert.

Any who, this gig was a bit of a suprise, a nice one at that. After a few pints watching the Leeds match, we headed down Div Street in Sheff. Ended up at Frog & Parrot where Mike Hughes was just starting a small acoustic set. Mike Hughes is one half of the Sheffield band Lenders In The Temple, the other half been Bromheads Tim Hampton. This set was a solo acoustic one and was nice to come across. We walked in at the beginning of a stunning cover of The Beatles 'Help'. After this he went on to play 4 more songs by himself, all with a nice settling feeling. Then with some help from a friend (on the electric guitar for effects), he finished off with 2 more country esc songs including a personal favourite song of mine 'Shake the Shakes', both seem to have a similarity to Bob Dylan. This was the third time I've seen Mike live now. Thoroughly enjoyed it once again,
Fightstar is next now :)

Peace
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Let's Rock 'n' Roll. Kerrang Tour, Leeds Academy 31/01/2010

Well this was exciting for more than one reason, firstly because this gig consisted of 4 of the great names in modern alternative rock. Secondly because I WAS DRIVING! My mum’s Micra mind but still. I hadn’t driven since over a year ago. So I spent the entire morning aimlessly driving around Goole and Howden. I even made a practise run to Reedness (where I picked Hayley up from). So yeah, I picked Hayley up later on and away we went to Leeds. I hadn’t been to Leeds Academy before (about the only academy I haven’t been to) yet I pretty much knew what to expect. I wasn’t far off wrong, yet there was some surprises.

Once in Leeds (with the help from Mr. Tom Tom) we had to find somewhere to park. Luckily (again after last week’s luck in London) I know someone in Leeds! So big thanks to Sean for letting us park at his house. We got to the city centre and it was apparent where the academy was from hundreds of young girls and boys draped with colourful skinny jeans and more colours in their hair than the McFly song. I already felt old. This also meant the queue, an hour before the gig, was already massive. McDonalds it is then. After been fed and watered we headed back to the Academy. By this time, the line was almost entirely round the building (which by the way didn’t look like a typical o2 ‘warehouse’ academy, more like an old bank). So we did what all gig goers know best to do in this situation, find someone you know to ‘get your ticket off, your bus was late’......honest. With this trick we ended up near the front of the queue at the door opening time. The amount of blankets and even duvets being chucked around suggested some of these kids had been there since the morning. The inside of the academy once we got in was unusual. It seemed smaller and the balcony was about twice as high as the Sheffield branch. It felt more like an opera house than a gig venue. This aside we were stood so I didn’t care. Cloakroom, merch stand, crowd. Where I ate my free cheeseburger from McDonalds, it was nice, and prepared to have my socks rocked off.

First band on was the rock dance act My Passion. Been the opening band for the tour I didn’t expect what was about to come. They came on stage wearing smart all black clothes, playing matching guitars with their logo on. It seemed all very professional and well funded. Not to mention the remarkable likeness of the guitarist to bi-sexual Chris from Hollyoaks. Nether the less, they performed and performed very well indeed. The crowd jumped up and down to every song. Highlight for me was the song ‘Play Dirty’ and ‘Fabulous Blood Disco’, both being just as dancy as rocky. The band themselves were full of energy and talked to crowd plenty. They genuinely seemed to be flattered to be there.

Next on the bill was the pop punk band Young Guns. Now these seemed more genuine in their rock roots. As far as matching attire goes about the closest these guys had were skinny jeans. As for their set it was pretty standard. With only an EP out and a free downloadable single currently out, they didn’t have much sing-a-long effect. They made up for this with energy on stage and atmosphere. The crowd took this and went crazy for it. Gustav the lead singer jumped into the crowd at one point and seemed to get lost within the sea of people. The song ‘The Weight of the World’ really stood out as anthem for them, great song, pretty decent band.


Welsh post-hardcore band The Blackout was next. Now I do like this band, and have both albums of theirs so I was excited for this. Last time I saw them they impressed me except the fact as singer Sean is an absolute tool. This hadn’t really changed. Although this time it was a form of humour rather than just him been a dick. The fact that his stage ‘sign’ is him sticking middle fingers up at the crowd seemed a bit arrogant and self aware. The gig itself though was outstanding. Opening with ‘Children of the Night’ they burst onto the stage, first thing Sean did was clumsily climb up the stage frame to eventually sing the last couple of lines of the song upside down. The crowd lapped this up and went mental, pits opened up and the hundreds of kids jumped up and down in unison. They went on the play the majority of the newest album ‘Best in Town’ and a few big hitters of the first. The thing that makes The Blackout different to the rest was the crowd participation; they got the entire crowd to wave, click, and clap and even sit down throughout the gig. This made a great a great atmosphere into an amazing one. Last 4 songs made the night if I’m entirely honest. I even went into the pit and ended near the front of the stage to jump up and down like the crazy kids I was surrounded by. The final song ‘I’m a Riot? You’re a Fucking Riot’ was superb with the band going crazy on stage and the crowd to match, I was singing and shouting so loud my throat felt like I’d swallowed barbed wire by the final scream. They went off stage and I eventually found Hayley again, who also went a bit mental....nothing unusual about that though ;) (Trust me I’ve seen her see Fightstar).

The tour headliners up next in the form of All Time Low. The reason the majority of the kids turned up was for these. I can see why. They came on stage and played one hell of a set, full of all the hits and fan favourites. An All Time Low show consists of great pop punk hits mixed with the humour of Bowling for Soup. Great match. They opened with the song ‘Lost in Stereo’ followed by ‘Stella’ and ‘Break Your Little Heart’. Then they did the usual Hello’s and what have ya followed by a ‘We want to finger you all’ announcement..... They went on to play more songs with plenty of humour. Including confusion between ‘YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE’ and ‘YOUR SHIT, YOUR SHIT’ and a long chant for a kid called ‘Brian’... Alex (lead singer) decided to get him a girl and in an almost royalty fashion this kid was crowd surfed to the girl at the other end of the room, greeted with a snog. Lucky little bugger. After more laughs and songs, they went off stage. Encore time. However it was the most obvious last 2 songs ever thought of by a band. The fact they hadn’t played their biggest 2 hits made it apparent that they were saving the ‘best till last’. So ‘Damned if I Do’ and ‘Dear Maria’ it is then. This set up the biggest sing-a-long of the night. With my Moment of the Night (an award I’ve decided to include in this blog. (Why the hell not?)) being the first 4 lines of ‘Dear Maria’. Just the words ‘I got your picture, I'm coming with you, Dear Maria, count me in....’ sent energy into my lungs and feet. I was bloody knackered by the end.
So that was the end. With me and Hayley had our socks well and truly rocked off. We headed home. Bloody TomTom got us lost... but we still made it home alive. Great night, same again soon I hope.

Next gig – Fightstar (with Hayley....)Corp :D 12th Feb.

Peace
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