Skip to main content

Tender ears....

Bit of a catch up today. First up Goo Goo Dolls from last Thursday 12th October at Cardiff Union. Again a good atmosphere & completely sold out, mostly by 5'0'' freshers at our end! Supported by Tinder Box who were quite similar - good modern sound, kind of Goos meets The Killers. Quite a professional sound and manner compared to many support acts. Check out their myspace or website.


Excellent set by the Goos - one of my few gripes that it wasn't long enough! Set list included: Stay With You (first?), Let Love In, Can't Let It Go, Better Days, Feel The Silence and Become from current album Let Love In; and of older songs, Iris (after having a dig at Ronan Keating's cover), Name, Laughing, Broadway, plus Smash & Tucked Away from the Gutterflower album. I would have preferred more songs from Gutterflower, but I imagine that theirs is a dynamic set list. Encore was Give A Little Bit. Great lighting as well, obviously designed for a larger venue as the stage was mich bigger than usual. Biased of course but maybe Millennium Stadium?? First outing for new camera as well, a few clips below.




Next - iLIKETRAiNS at Barfly last night (19th). I had heard quite good things of this band but was very disappointed by them. The 2 support bands, Early Years and locals The Jan Watkins Band were in our opinion completely crap. The Jan Watkins Band
were fairly melodic but just sounded like 1 song! Early Years were trying to be Mogwai and failing miserably, and seemed to be spending all their budget on lighting rather than tunes. iLIKETRAiNS - the songs I had heard online (myspace) were ok but the live show - the post title says it all! They were on late to start by about 20 mins and didn't extend the set to make up for it. Some good props - slide/film projector & a bow for the guitarist, plus v enthusuastic cornet player. Otherwise, sombre in the extreme, as if they need a good shake & be told to cheer up! Underwhelming.

Better things to come - a few more trips to Barfly in the offing and another gig by Innercity Pirates.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Hidden Witness

Moving house completed - for now - and we are back in the Vale of Evesham. The wonders of Facebook unearthed a live gig and St Richard's Hospice fundraiser by slow-burning band Hidden Witness so off we went for an evening out in Worcester. I honestly can't remember the last time either of us did that.... cue pleasant surprise at our venue for the evening, Keystones Cafe Bar . Quite open and spacious in terms of standing room, reasonably large stage and a bar ensconced in the remaining medieval walls - much more atmosphere than many other small bars... A busy few weeks meant I hadn't had time to check out Hidden Witness' SoundCloud page so I had fresh ears and no expectation. The support band, The Miffs , were ok, with a few engaging covers, but sadly (for my ears) nothing memorable.  After a short break -  in which the background music made me feel both young and old simultaneously - Dan, Chris, Neil and Dan took the stage for an interesting set. A few ...

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...