Monday, September 29, 2008

So Glad I Could Make It*

Some gigs turn out to feel almost like obligations, having bought a ticket months in advance and then had other stuff turn up around the same time, such that given a full choice it would have been relatively simple to decide which one to miss. And often it turns out that the effort of going anyway is more than repaid, possibly down to the lowered expectations of unfamiliarity. My tardy start means I missed quite a bit of support band Touchstone. The few soundclips on their website had me thinking of Within Temptation, and in person that's not a long way off. Singer Kim has a smoother voice than her from WT, but the band's sound in general lacks their bouncy pop influence in favour of a more extended, epic feel. There's tons of Steve Rothery type heavy sustain below the thirteenth fret, and a wall of keyboards, but the live sound does them no real favours. I don't know whether it's deliberate and intentional, or a side effect of the venue and the not being headliners, but the bass guitar drones too much over the top of what I imagine ought to be rather more tuneful finesse. On that showing I'm not rushing to buy anything, but I'd definitely give them another go somewhere else to find out whether it was just the night, or if that's how they want to sound. Being primarily known for one song can be a tricky thing to get beyond. And just as it is with Size Of A Cow or Where's Me Jumper?, so it is with Calling All The Heroes. Equally, being primarily known for one song on which the vocal element is a very major component must make life difficult when the person whose voice that is in the main has other things to do and a replacement needs recruiting. Or so you would think, but not a bit of it. I was still wondering if it would turn out to be worth my while to turn up, but almost from the second they started that question was answered. Four figures all dressed in white emerged on to the stage, and for someone who has sometimes struggled with aiming a camera at black t-shirted musicians against a black backdrop in low lighting conditions that's a welcome change, and it also makes a refreshing visual impact of its own. As replacement lead vocalist and sole guitar player, John Mitchell might have a hard job of filling Francis Dunnery's shoes, but if you didn't know better you could be forgiven for thinking he'd been singing with It Bites for decades. And what I never realised is just how much vocal Bob Dalton's nifty headset mike supplies while he's drumming, and how much John Beck's voice is also in evidence over his keyboards. Relative new boy bassist Lee Pomeroy adds vocals at some points too, and it sounds rather more like a choral round than I had envisaged. Which also answers questions about how the FD-free It Bites compares, with John B and Bob's vocals doing a remarkable job of rounding out a sound that's based around rather more than just one lead vocal. Three tracks in and All In Red nearly takes the roof off. I should explain my initial curiosity was based on loving the Eat Me In St Louis album and one or two other singles, but basically I'm pretty uninformed beyond that. All In Red is a fantastic song, and a welcome mark of familiarity, but the set goes on to include eight or nine tracks I already know so it's hardly all novelty. I'm bored of picture-taking after a while, and get to take in a bit more of what's going on rather than just take pictures of it. Again this is a band who look like being on stage together is the most natural thing in the world, and they'd rather be there than anywhere else. For some reason I'm reminded of Big Country in the whole 'this is what we were born to do' vibe, and in Mitchell they have an engaging frontman who clearly understands the difference between 'putting on a show' and 'playing some songs with some other people in the room'. As an encore, a mighty romp through Kiss Like Judas rounds off the evening, and another great gig comes to a close. Nice one. John Mitchell in big mouth action! * 'So glad you could make it' is the first line from the fabulous Kiss Like Judas, and one which neatly sums up my thoughts on the night.

Labels: ,


Thursday, September 25, 2008

Rescue Me!

Posting in anger is posssibly not always the best idea, but it is the most honest! Before heading out, I'd re-read what I wrote when I saw Y&T just under a year ago: it still rang true, and I was looking forward to celebrating my 600th gig with something special. Support band Glyder come from Ireland, have two guitar players, and a bass playing lead singer. What do you expect them to sound like already? Given there's a picture of them with Philomena Lynott on their website, are you feeling confident about that? You should. I'm in two minds, having listened to what they've got on myspace. Weather The Storm is fantastic, and it sounds a lot like The Sun Goes Down. Pretty Useless People is twin lead boogie out of exactly the same mould as Black Rose. In person the lead singer comes over rather more like what you'd get if you put a hefty proportion of Lynott's voice into Alan Lancaster's body, but there's a bit more to it than that. On balance, I need to listen to more of their stuff, and I expect I will, but I can say I'm hoping to like them. Despite the fact no support band ever needs to waste five minutes of their set with drum solo, no matter how skilled the drummer. One of the great things about watching Y&T is how much every one of them looks like someone having a good time on stage. Dave Meniketti remains a genius guitar player, half the unfamiliar songs (Keep On Believing and Don't Wanna Lose You especially) are still easy to sing along with on first hearing, and a very hot room produces the sort of sweating this summer has sorely lacked. Mean Streak is fantastic, Midnight In Tokyo rumbles along like a rock leviathan, Summertime Girls is equal parts cheesy pop and guitar anthem, and I think I was getting a few decent results out of the camera. Earlier on, Y&T's set was introduced by Kim Hooker, and with the night ticking on, there was plenty enough fooling around between the songs already without it being excessive. Dave called Kim back up to the stage, and over the course of an awful lot of 'I'm gonna tell you something' and Dave talking about what fun they'd had with Tigertailz opening for them last year, we ended up wasting long enough to do a couple more songs before eventually getting the assembled Tigertailz racing their way through a shambolic though eventually entertaining version of Ace Of Spades. The variety of voices suggesting they might want to stop messing about and get on with doing something, anything, before they finally started Ace Of Spades is a reasonable guide to how much what should have been a corking gig was heading towards feeling like intruding on a private party, and with that in mind I stayed for Rescue Me and then walked out. I'm not in the habit of leaving gigs early - I count four, possibly five in six hundred, and I'm still a big fan of Meniketti's songwriting, singing and guitar playing. But I might think a bit harder about exactly where I choose to see them next time around.

Labels: , , , ,


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

Lucky Miss Pettigrew! I was planning to go see this remarkably female-oriented film, but circumstances just prevented my making it. No doubt I'll catch up with it somewhere or on DVD, but it has proved that the brown shoes, the white jeans and the brown handbag work very well together, so that's a result in itself.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Little Or Nothing

I've had nothing to post because I've not been up to much fit for here, mostly down to getting over the excitement (and expense) of replacing the old car. That and hiding from the rain. Proof that the car really did need to get binned? Can you tell the old one from the new one here?
_