overlap

First gigs in places hitherto unvisited are always a source of a tiny bit of time pressure, directions pressure, parking pressure and the general stuff of unfamiliarity. Even if the venue's own website is somewhat rudimentary and yet the venue is sufficiently distinctive to be visible in the google maps satellite view, it shouldn't be that tricky. In a small town where there may not be hundreds of bars/clubs/pubs/venues and other sources of entertainment for a friday night, any kind of night out may turn out to be more of a night out than just another gig. Which is how I found myself surrounded by pretty young things in their friday best, in a venue that's rather smarter than my manky trainers, tracksters and t-shirt are fit for. Of course I'm not jealous, in any way. First support is Ben Squibbs from the Calling Card - no, me neither. He's pretty chipper for someone who doesn't get everyone's full attention, and seems rather good humoured about it. In his quieter moments he sounds not unlike Dave Gibbs in his Kid Lightning guise, but there's also more than a hint of voice-as-instrument power that leaves me missing the words. I'm sufficiently impressed that I will have another couple of listens to what he's got on myspace, and he's young enough you never know what might yet happen. Second support goes without being named. Partly because I'm not so keen on slating things I don't really enjoy. I'm a big fan of bombast in the right place, and that's in the hands of Clarence Clemons and Roy Bittan, not in an acoustic guitar that's played almost entirely for rhythm, and not in a voice that's got power and urgency by the bucketload but falls short on melody and subtlety. I know, different strokes and all that, and I just don't get the sainted Damo either for the same reason. Making any sensible kind of comment on someone I've seen more times on a stage than anyone else is not easy. To answer the question of what keeps me going back, it's definitely something to do with making the acquaintance of new material that I've not heard done live before or revisiting old tunes that are being partially revised and reinvented. The convenience of relative locality helps, especially when the novelty of a venue new to me like this one is added in. In some ways it's refreshing and in others it's predictable how people who don't go to multiple gigs by the same artist within the same month still seem to have the same predictable expectations. Ok, so nobody should be surprised that a couple of particularly high profile hit singles over fifteen years ago stick in people's minds more than the other twenty-odd singles, or their b-sides or associated album tracks. Sure, there's the odd exception - see the Weddings Parties Anything I saw last year - but I gave up on the fantasy setlist game a long time ago. And that's probably the nature of what you should generally expect to read here, it's as much about my relationship with the material and/or the artist as it is a description of an event, and often more so. And likewise nobody wants to do the same thing at work day after day after day without some kind of variation, so it's only right that those people who do that particular kind of thing for a living must embrace the differentness wherever they see it. As with football matches, there's barely a gig where there isn't something to differentiate it from the one the week before or the year before, or even the decade before. Sometimes it's the travelling to get there, sometimes it's running into people I was or wasn't expecting to see, and every now and then it's a song I haven't heard in ages coming back to say hello in different clothes. In this case it's plenty of the latter, as Miles and Erica have worked out ways to play some things I've not heard them do before as well as adding forthcoming single Stay Scared Stay Tuned from Catching More Than We Miss. That and DWI are the higlights for me from the new stuff, but I'm delighted by Miles doing Can't Shape Up all by himself, and the duo versions of Cartoon Boyfriend and especially this version of The Animals And Me are tremendous. Overall probably not a career-defining highlight gig, or much in the way of a radical departure, but a thoroughly decent gig representing excellent value for money. If only everyone's every gig lived up to that description, but that would only make for more boring predictability! That setlist in full. DWI/Corny But true/Back On the Charm Offensive/Stay Scared Stay Tuned/Rogue's Biography/Fill Her Up And Foot down/Welcome To The Cheap seats/Mission Drive/Circlesquare/Room 512/Can't Shape Up/The Cake/The Animals And Me/Cartoon Boyfriend/Amongst The Old Reliables/Golden Green/Unbearable

Labels: Erica Nockalls, gigs, Miles Hunt