Friday, February 19, 2010
Better Get Ready For A Fistfight
New venues sometimes make me slightly nervous, whether it's a city I'm not familiar with or somewhere new to park the car, there's always the slight possibility of it going wrong. With something over 200 venues under my sizeable belt, I've mostly got used to it and on this occasion it turns out straightforward enough once I've done a lap around the block including a diversion round a building site, and the pleasant guy on the door has told me where it's safe to park. All the same I can read dire warnings of clamping on the wall and it'll be a couple of songs before I relax into forgetting that.
And to be fair, that's probably what I need. I've had a couple of difficult weeks, a couple of job interviews that have meant I've seen a few 3AMs running over interview question and answer cobblers in my head, and despite that and filling in half a printer ink cartridge's worth of forms, nothing came out of it all. So that's plenty of work and not a small amount of lost sleep for nothing, though this week has been a bit brighter, and I've started casting my net a bit wider and throwing my CV at all manner of unsuitable things. If nothing else I have the small consolation of wasting the time of certain recruitment agents as much as they waste mine!
It's only a dozen gigs since I last saw Miles and Erica, supporting The Proclaimers. Last time I saw a setlist from subsequent shows, it promised a rather more varied selection of songs and last night was to be no exception.
The support act sort of passed me by, nothing wrong with it and nothing to identify or commend it much either. Not unusually for an acoustic gig, we were treated to a couple of people who thought going to a loud environment to have a shouted conversation over something everyone else was trying to listen to. More than one person got politely requested by more than one other person to shut the hell up, and it does always put bit of a dampener on a gig, being unavoidably distracted by idiots.
Nevertheless, this was a fantastically well put together set featuring a few songs I've not listened to in ages, and the odd new story as well as some familiar favourites. I'm a little set in my ways these days, and it usually takes something truly outstanding to really affect me; nevertheless there's a shiver up my spine at the newly-bearded Miles telling the meeting Kirsty MacColl story prior to Welcome To The Cheap Seats, even though I've heard it before. And it's not the particular relevance of that song either, nor is it just that Kirsty is someone I had the privilege of seeing perform several times, but it's small consolation she remains unforgotten and rightly so. Unfaithful and Inside You sound great in that stripped down two-piece format, and Cartoon Boyfriend is another unexpected addition to a gig that turned out a hell of a lot better than it threatened to do when the conversation posse first got going. We didn't quite get as far as getting ready for a fistfight, but it's the sort of thing that it would only take a tiny bit more booze and testosterone to turn undesirably unpleasant. Instead it turned into a very good night though!
* Better Get Ready For A Fistfight is a song from The Wonder Stuff's Escape From Rubbish Island album
That setlist in full:
Send Me Onions
Not In My Plans
DWI
Fill Her Up And Foot Down
The Cake
Oars In The Water
The Sum Of Us
The Test
Plans In The Sky
Welcome To The Cheap Seats
Piece Of Sky
Sing The Absurd
Room 512
Unfaithful
Inside You
Circlesquare
Cartoon Boyfriend
Here Comes Everyone
_
And to be fair, that's probably what I need. I've had a couple of difficult weeks, a couple of job interviews that have meant I've seen a few 3AMs running over interview question and answer cobblers in my head, and despite that and filling in half a printer ink cartridge's worth of forms, nothing came out of it all. So that's plenty of work and not a small amount of lost sleep for nothing, though this week has been a bit brighter, and I've started casting my net a bit wider and throwing my CV at all manner of unsuitable things. If nothing else I have the small consolation of wasting the time of certain recruitment agents as much as they waste mine!
It's only a dozen gigs since I last saw Miles and Erica, supporting The Proclaimers. Last time I saw a setlist from subsequent shows, it promised a rather more varied selection of songs and last night was to be no exception.
The support act sort of passed me by, nothing wrong with it and nothing to identify or commend it much either. Not unusually for an acoustic gig, we were treated to a couple of people who thought going to a loud environment to have a shouted conversation over something everyone else was trying to listen to. More than one person got politely requested by more than one other person to shut the hell up, and it does always put bit of a dampener on a gig, being unavoidably distracted by idiots.
Nevertheless, this was a fantastically well put together set featuring a few songs I've not listened to in ages, and the odd new story as well as some familiar favourites. I'm a little set in my ways these days, and it usually takes something truly outstanding to really affect me; nevertheless there's a shiver up my spine at the newly-bearded Miles telling the meeting Kirsty MacColl story prior to Welcome To The Cheap Seats, even though I've heard it before. And it's not the particular relevance of that song either, nor is it just that Kirsty is someone I had the privilege of seeing perform several times, but it's small consolation she remains unforgotten and rightly so. Unfaithful and Inside You sound great in that stripped down two-piece format, and Cartoon Boyfriend is another unexpected addition to a gig that turned out a hell of a lot better than it threatened to do when the conversation posse first got going. We didn't quite get as far as getting ready for a fistfight, but it's the sort of thing that it would only take a tiny bit more booze and testosterone to turn undesirably unpleasant. Instead it turned into a very good night though!
* Better Get Ready For A Fistfight is a song from The Wonder Stuff's Escape From Rubbish Island album
That setlist in full:
Send Me Onions
Not In My Plans
DWI
Fill Her Up And Foot Down
The Cake
Oars In The Water
The Sum Of Us
The Test
Plans In The Sky
Welcome To The Cheap Seats
Piece Of Sky
Sing The Absurd
Room 512
Unfaithful
Inside You
Circlesquare
Cartoon Boyfriend
Here Comes Everyone
Labels: Erica Nockalls, gigs, Miles Hunt
