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Au quatrieme fois..

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace.

Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to their upcoming album Raise The Alarm on their website.

The Subways entered the room to applause - after a moment's gasp as Charlotte's hair is now red! I think the first track was With You - most of the set was (of course) made up of tracks from Young For Eternity. A few extra gems in the shape of 3 new songs. I didn't catch the title of the first one, but the other 2 were Shake Shake and Kalifornia. Slightly heavier sound than the songs we know and love, a great reaction - I really like Shake Shake. Unfortunately no sound clips on website/myspace as yet. Usual on stage antics, Billy jumping on the speakers, and at one point during the show climbed off the top of one of the speaker stacks onto the first floor balcony! I think it was at that point that I also noticed someone in the crowd with a gas mask.....The encore was Rock & Roll Queen (after another old favourite which has slipped my mind)

The crowd were really appreciative, I think this gig rates even better than the last 3! It didn't look sold out, though, which is a real shame. Come on people -If you don't already own Young For Eternity, get it!




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