PrettyInScarlett

Back to Barfly last night, the disappointment of last time luckily not repeated! This time it was to see Howling Bells plus support Indigo Moss. For once, a decent support band! Indigo Moss are a bit hard to categorise, low fi with country tinges? It worked anyway! Their sound is a mixture of original material and arrangements of traditional songs, and an equally interesting style - one of the female members had a vintage floor length dress on... but I digress. All obviously competent musicians; with the exception of the bass player and drummer, the other members kept swapping instruments. Very enthusiasic response from the crowd, at times it seemed as if they were more popular than Howling Bells!!! I purchased their EP straight after the set, & their album may find its way here too... For more info see their website or myspace . By the time Howling Bells took to the stage, Barfly was pretty much full! Another excellent set. Howling Bells are one of the current bands du jour and ...

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 st...

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? in relation to Barfly anyway.... M and I headed to Cardiff Barfly last night after a very long break, to see The Sunshine Underground ( see also previous post Au quatrieme fois ). Some bits of the cellar venue looked a bit smarter, others as scummy as ever!!! Say no more.... but crowd control barriers?? We were treated to 2 support bands, so no complaints on value! First up (breath in), Shut Your Eyes & You'll Burst Into Flames, were, sorry to say, an obvious rip off of TSU but not in a good way! On a positive note, they didn't hurt the ear drums, but mostly samey and easily forgettable, except maybe the bouffant hair and energy levels! Next up Foreign Islands (I think this is their myspace ) who were much better, although I was a bit bemused by the singer's face mask for first track. By the time The Sunshine Underground took the stage, Barfly was pretty much full and with a very enthusiastic audience! Perhaps the venue suited t...

Birthday smiles all round! The Rolling Stones ' A Bigger Bang tour rolled into Cardiff yesterday. No moss here! To start from the beginning, we arrived at Gate 6 shortly before opening time - no queues! So it took no time to get in & find our (very well chosen by M) seats. Support band The Kooks came on promptly at 7, and that was probably the only really weak part of the night. Either extremely nervous, tired (from Reading festival) or both, they seemed a bit underwhelming, certainly compared to the hype and the last time we saw them. Set list as much as I could get: Seaside, See The World, Matchbox, Eddie's Gun, Ooh La La, She Moves In Her Own Way, Naive, Sofa Song, You Don't Love Me plus a few new songs mid-way through. All the Radio 2 listeners obviously recognised She Moves In Her Own Way, and there was a decent reaction from those already seated, but there was a bit of 'who are The Kooks' around the place. The Stones took to the stage prompt at 8.30. Our...

Luckily the weather held as M and I sauntered down to Coopers Field, Cardiff yesterday for the inaugural (?) Cardiff Calling festival. Pictured above is the set list for the second stage which is where we spent most of our time. Caught Kid Harpoon on the main stage first, before heading in. Saw most of the above people apart from Lethal Bizzle (just not my thing) and Jamie T. Of the rest, highlights were The Chalets , The Pipettes and Misty's Big Adventure. Originally bought tickets in order to see The Chalets & The Pipettes and we weren't disappointed! To start with The Chalets, of what I can recall from their set they played Night Rocker, Sexy Mistake, No Style, Theme From The Chalets, Red High Heels, Love Punch, plus 2 (new?) songs. There didn't appear to be many fans in the crowd to begin with, the band got the crowd enthused by the end of the set! Picture below. Word has obviously spread about The Pipettes as the tent was nearly full for the start of their set, wh...

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 the...

I finally remembered the website! Scarlet Mist allows you to buy/sell spare gig tickets at face value. Had heard of it before..... The gig lull will shortly be over, counting down until the Subways on 23rd (and the Stones tickets arrived Wednesday).