Gigs of the year pt.2

And so we continue my round up of my gigs this year:

JULY:

ROCK WERCHTER FESTIVAL @ Werchter. Belgium
I could go on and on about how brilliant this weekend was. But in the interest of space and not boring you, I'll just list some favourites.

Thursday- R.E.M., The Chemical Brothers, The National
Friday- Slayer, Ben Folds, The Verve, NEIL YOUNG, Moby
Saturday- Band Of Horses, Editors, SIGUR ROS, Radiohead
Sunday- Panic At The Disco (no, really!), GRINDERMAN, dEUS

Death Cab For Cutie @ Birmingham Academy
The middle of summer. Nothing better to do? Find a new band to love. On the same weekend as MBV I got Transatlanticism and fell in love immediately. A few more albums and I went to see Death Cab on a rare visit to Birmingham. They were just lovely. The songs got some great audience participation and the song 'Transatlanticism' was simply epic. Also, best banter of the year award goes to this:

Ben Gibbard: so, we got to birmingham today, and we wandered around and I have to say you guys have a beautiful city...
(someone down the front actually laughs as he says this, and others look a bit confused)
Ben: What? I'm trying to be sincere here! I really thing your city is beautiful!

I'm suprised the people of birmingham weren't very supportive of their city. I've been known to say some bad things about Brum but it's not that bad a place really. I've just lived there to long whilst growing up Anyways, I digress.

AUGUST:

A Day At The Races @ Moho Live and Night And Day Cafe, Manchester
2 venues and open from 5pm til 1am. I saw the following:

Calvin Johnson (no amplification, just him, a guitar and his very strong voice.)
Johnny Foreigner (As much fun as when I've seen them before.)
The Mae Shi (ok, quite fun in a way)
Olafur Arnalds (Beautiful instrumental music from Iceland)
Jeffrey Lewis (hilarious anti-folk musics, including the cautionary tale of the creeping brain)
Los Campesinos! (So much fun and so much energy, they were shocked so many people were wathing them rather than mum)
Four Tet (so loud the room shook a scary amount)

Also noticeable for meeting and hanging out with the lovely Olli and Rosie, and getting extremely geeky over Patrick Wolf. Good times.

Muse @ V Festival, Staffordshire
Along with the Stereophonics, the clear highlight of an otherwise fucking awful day. V Festival is the worst places I've ever been to and I never wish to return. Ever. Not even if I'm offered millions to headline.
Muse however were brilliant. Map Of The Problematique is a suprisingly good opener. No songs from Showbiz though. Fail.

Conor Oberst @ Manchester Academy 3
I saw Bright Eyes 3 times in 2007 and 2 of those times were awful. This however, was brilliant. His solo album being about 58042654789times better that the god awful Cassadaga, Conor seemed to come into his own live this time round. He actually looked happy as well. So much better than Bright Eyes.

SEPTEMBER:

Bon Iver @ Manchester Academy 2
I never thought Bon Iver's music would transfer well to the stage but I was very very wrong. Rather than trying to replicate the album, Justin Vernon added more instrumentation and got the audience to sing with him. Wolves (Acts I and II) is a song you HAVE to hear live. Honestly.

Sheerwater w/ Air Cav @ Manchester Roadhouse
I went for Air Cav who were ace in their shoegazing folk ways as usual. Sheerwater blew me away though. Fun, thoughtful and always gripping, I had loads of fun watching them. Also did a superb cover of Talk Talk's 'The Rainbow'.

Amusement Parks On Fire @ Retro Bar, Manchester
Shoegaze heaven. 10 songs of beautiful noise and bright strobes. Me = very happy. I don't remember what they played and the entire set became a blur but it was a fucking enjoyable blur.

THE DUKE SPIRIT w/ Joe Gideon And The Shark @ Leeds Cockpit and Club Academy, Manchester
Joe Gideon and The Shark were pretty damn fun. The Duke Spirit were definately on usual form though. The manchester show was the 10th time I'd seen them. the fact they played Stubbon Stitches (my favourite song by them) for the first time since 2005 on this tour made it extremely special indeed.

OCTOBER:

Spiritualized w/ The Shortwave Set @ Manchester Academy
Ignoring the leaving early due to being under the believe my drunken girlfriend was on her way to manchester (she wasn't and I ended up running around manchester in the cold and rain. Bad Times. She's now an ex girlfriend btw) this gig was ace. Noisey and pyschedelic and anthemic, it was nearly perfect, until the girlfriend phoned me up.

dEUS @ Manchester Academy 3
I saw them headline Rock Werchter in front of 85,000 people. Now they were playing to 400! How very odd but brilliant. Most my favourite songs and they put on a great show.

OCEANSIZE 10th ANNIVERSARY GIGS! @ Manchester Roadhouse
3 nights, 3 albums, 3 hangovers. That was the tagline for the event and it became true. Not so much a series of gigs than a huge event. People had come from around the world to be there that night and everyone was so excited to be there. Oceansize gave it their all as well. Each night was outstanding and the supports were all excellent. On the support front we had Manatees, Rose Kemp, BIFFY FUCKING CLYRO ACOUSTIC, and AMPLIFIER! Biffy did the best set I've ever seen them do and Amplifier premiered 5 genius new songs. There was a huge pissup after the final night too, where most the fans, Oceansize, Amplifer and the roadcrew got right royally fucked. Aceness.

Mogwai w/ Errors and Fuck Buttons @ Manchester Academy
Errors were fantastic, Fuck Buttons were boring and Mogwai were outstanding. Mogwai played loads off the ace 'The Hawk Is Howling' album and some rare old songs like 'Christmas Steps', 'Cody' and 'Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home'.

Elbow @ Manchester Apollo
They'd won the mercury and it was a homecoming gig. These things are always ace and make for a good gig. The home crowd loved it and Elbow gave an emotional and brilliant performance. They closed with 'Scattered Black And Whites' too, which was just perfect.

NOVEMBER:

SIGUR ROS w/ For A Minor Reflection @ Blackpool Empress Ballroom
I've no idea where For A minor Reflection came from but they're one of the best post rock bands i've heard in a long time. Sigur Ros were stunning of course. A superb live band and they did a number of rarities like EBow. So much confetti as well. My pockets were just full of the stuff.

TV On The Radio w/ The Big Pink @ Manchester Academy 2
The Big Pink were droning shoegaze stuffs which I quite liked. TVOTR were unbelieveably good. I was at the front and got the full force of their sound. Wolf Like Me was insane live and so much fun. Tunde jumped around the stage like he was 4 years old and everyone looked like they were having fun. Great stuffs.

My Vitriol @ Ruby Lounge, Manchester
I was at the front (yet again) and loved every second. Even when they fucked up the opening to 'Cemented Shoes'. Loud, bright and addictive. I'm so glad I got to see My Vitriol seeing as they never seem to tour. Ever.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ Manchester Apollo
Nick Cave held the crowd in the palm of his hand and we stayed there. Nick Cave is such a great frontman and they played a perfect set, including the beautiful 'God Is In The House'. Stagger Lee is also one hell of an epic closer.

DECEMBER:

Hell is For Heroes @ BUSK, Birmingham
Sadly the last time i'll ever get to see HIFH as they're splitting up. This gig was superb though. Played the best of their 3 albums, with a lean towards their debut The Neon Handshake. Folded Paper Figures is a bit of a stunner live though, as was To Die For. They'll be sorely missed.

Milk And Cookies @ St Philips With St Stephens Church, Salford
David Ford did his 8th year of charity gigs this year and was superb as usual. He did lots of his own stuff, plenty of novelty covers (including a genius Karma Cameleon) and 3 (yes 3!!) Easyworld songs. I also met very nice chap that is Jack. Good times were had by all.

Squarepusher @ The Warehouse Project, Manchester
Now this was just insane. The beats were all over the place and I've no idea how the man can play bass so fast. The rave loved it as well, you could barely breathe but you just had to dance.

AMPLIFER w/ Charlie Barnes @ Manchester Academy 3
Nearly as big an event as Oceansize (who were present) this gig was another highlight of the year. charlie was very impressive in his support slot and Amplifier rocked even more than they did in February. Still no Post Acid Youth but the set was better than in feb, with virtually every song I've ever wanted to hear them play + GLORY ELECTRICITY! I spent the evening with the lovely Abatha as well. Then I got pissed with many Amplifier fans, amplifier themselves and Oceansize afterwards. Brilliant.


And that my friends, is the end of my gigs of the year review. I went to plenty more than I've talked about, but it's take too long to talk about them. So we'll leave it at this.