Friday, October 28, 2011
Sing Us A Song That We Know To Be True
There's only so many ways you can have a go at 'I've seen this band I like a few times and now I've seen them once again and I still like them' before even writing it gets boring, so it's good when something reshapes that position ever so slightly. In a brief fit of extravagance I'd bought a few tickets and then had a couple of other gigs come up around the same time and suddenly I'm a bit busy.
With other stuff being fitted in around making it to the gig, at least the electronic communications possibilities of the modern world make it simple to catch up with expected stage times and avoid rushing only to sit around waiting for hours. In an uninteresting coincidence it's seventeen years to the day I first visited this venue, and though a couple of rooms have gone through slight changes of name over that time, and it turns out it's also the single venue I've visited the most (among two hundred and odd).
Something different to challenge my tastes is never a bad thing, and support act Louise Distras provides plenty to challenge me. Just her voice and a guitar make for a powerful combination, but sometimes the power gets in the way of the song; there's no denying the passion but when the voice goes beyond the mighty rasp of Bonnie Tyler at her most momentarily foghornish into a slightly unfocused roar it produces something that I'm not going to buy so I can sing along with it on my own. There's nothing wrong with what she's got to say for herself, it's just my middle-aged ears would prefer a slightly different delivery!
New Model Army fit into a category something like 'bands I know I like but don't rush to buy every single album on release day', and the last time I saw them it was a trifle unsatisfactory, largely due to that particular venue I gather. This is a short flurry of only five gigs, and that alone makes it rather more of a special occasion than just another show in a long tour.
There are songs from the last couple of albums that I don't have, naturally, but there's more than enough familiar material to keep me engaged between the people on the shoulders of the people on the shoulders formation acrobatics displays.
Purity sounds immense, and the encore starting with Get Me out and finally ending with No Rest threatens to take the roof off the place. Today was a good day.
Setlist in full:
Island
No Greater Love
Christian Militia
Rumour & Rapture
See You in Hell
Today Is a Good Day
Disappeared
The Attack
States Radio
Autumn
Orange Tree Roads
Rivers
Knife
Purity
Ballad of Bodmin Pill
Whirlwind
---
Get Me Out
High
No Rest
'Sing Us A Song That We Know To Be True' is a line from Purity.
With other stuff being fitted in around making it to the gig, at least the electronic communications possibilities of the modern world make it simple to catch up with expected stage times and avoid rushing only to sit around waiting for hours. In an uninteresting coincidence it's seventeen years to the day I first visited this venue, and though a couple of rooms have gone through slight changes of name over that time, and it turns out it's also the single venue I've visited the most (among two hundred and odd).
Something different to challenge my tastes is never a bad thing, and support act Louise Distras provides plenty to challenge me. Just her voice and a guitar make for a powerful combination, but sometimes the power gets in the way of the song; there's no denying the passion but when the voice goes beyond the mighty rasp of Bonnie Tyler at her most momentarily foghornish into a slightly unfocused roar it produces something that I'm not going to buy so I can sing along with it on my own. There's nothing wrong with what she's got to say for herself, it's just my middle-aged ears would prefer a slightly different delivery!
New Model Army fit into a category something like 'bands I know I like but don't rush to buy every single album on release day', and the last time I saw them it was a trifle unsatisfactory, largely due to that particular venue I gather. This is a short flurry of only five gigs, and that alone makes it rather more of a special occasion than just another show in a long tour.
There are songs from the last couple of albums that I don't have, naturally, but there's more than enough familiar material to keep me engaged between the people on the shoulders of the people on the shoulders formation acrobatics displays.
Purity sounds immense, and the encore starting with Get Me out and finally ending with No Rest threatens to take the roof off the place. Today was a good day.
Setlist in full:
Island
No Greater Love
Christian Militia
Rumour & Rapture
See You in Hell
Today Is a Good Day
Disappeared
The Attack
States Radio
Autumn
Orange Tree Roads
Rivers
Knife
Purity
Ballad of Bodmin Pill
Whirlwind
---
Get Me Out
High
No Rest
'Sing Us A Song That We Know To Be True' is a line from Purity.
Labels: gigs, New Model Army
Saturday, May 20, 2006
And Back To Normal
Slipping back into the working routine was easily enough, but having got used to having that little bit more time in the morning I'm hoping to stick with having breakfast more often than I don't, instead of the other way around. We'll see.
Meanwhile I know I'm back to normal living, having seen a great gig; Justin Sullivan has all the wild-eyed charisma required of some sort of cult leader, and the New Model Army catalogue is a mixture of defiance against authority wielded harshly, and individual and personal responsibility - for me that's nothing but the cult of humanity.
And they did Stupid Questions, which is definitely my favourite NMA song, and one I don't believe I've seen done live before so it was with a very broad smile I was running in the rain back to my car.
And they did Stupid Questions, which is definitely my favourite NMA song, and one I don't believe I've seen done live before so it was with a very broad smile I was running in the rain back to my car.
Labels: gigs, New Model Army, rock
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Two Down, Five To Go
Mark Burgess ex-Chameleons' new band. Remarkably Chameleons like, and while I saw them doing a reformation show a few years back, and they made no good impression whatsoever, this trio was suitably jangly and interesting in a way the whole lot of 'em weren't. Despite doing some Chameleons tunes.
New Model Army - what can you say about a band that's been going for a quarter century in some form or other? There's a bit of a cultish element to the Army, Justin has got all the right charisma, the little twinkle in the eyes and the way with putting a grandiose statement into a snappy soundbite to win anybody over. Two hour show, nice mix of material from the new album and from the back catalogue. Green And The Grey sends a shiver up my spine as arms and voices are raised in unison - it's such a great song. It was good and healthy to combine the gig with seeing some people and places and laying a few more demons to rest on the North Circular.* In a suitably rock n roll footnote, I realised I was getting a little sleepy on my way home, and pulled over at 2am for a quick kip. And woke up at 6.30 to drive the rest of the way home - it's a very long time since I got home from a gig in daylight!
Labels: gigs, New Model Army, rock
