eep! – a blog

Back in July Jenn, Nic and I went to see Ben Folds at the Academy in Bristol. Following a brilliant gig, I’m not sure how it happened, but there was a conversation which roughly went along the lines of “The was great, we really ought to get some cheap gig tickets and a load of us go out one night”. A quick rummage on the internet later and we had bought tickets to go and see Alphabeat. Which happened to be on Friday 31st October, more famously known as Halloween. It didn’t take long before the decision was made that the only thing stupider than going to an Alphabeat gig, was in fact, going to an Alphabeat gig in fancy dress.

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Last week, gigging buddy Jenn, Nic and I went to see Ben Folds play at the Academy in Bristol. It was the last night of his tour and although I knew I would see him play at Glasto I decided he’d be worth seeing at his own show.

And how right I was.

Firstly we had the most random support ever from Corn Mo. I’ve not picked a specific video to link to on YouTube, as frankly I couldn’t pick one, so this link just goes to a pile search results hopefully. One man, an accordian, a keyboard and a drumstick in his shoelaces for kicking a cymbal with. I kid you not. Genius. Apparently he gave his demo tape to Ben at an airport and the rest is history (as someone somewhere says).

On to the main event though. I had semi-complained in my Glasto write-up that Ben Folds seemed a bit cocky and/or uninterested in the performance and I was a bit miffed that we lost two of Folds songs to Amanda of the Dresden Dolls. Thankfully it might be that he was drunk, upset that his $2000 synth was getting rained or maybe he just doesn’t really like playing festivals, as his Bristol show made up for it in spades.

He came on just before nine and then played a 2 hours plus set round til eleven and was on top form.

A quick look on Wiki post-Glasto and pre-gig confirmed that the reason I didn’t recognise a lot of his songs was due to the fact I only have one of of his two studio albums and none of his live stuff. But that didn’t matter. He was brilliant, playing with accompaniment on drums and bass from his two (main) backing musicians and occasional tambourine from a guy who ran on stage (to huge acclaim) from the crowd.

He played a tight and sharp set, sometimes sat at the piano, sometimes stood in a lunging position so he could still tap the pedal. Totally animated and involved at all times. Due to the overall shortness of our party, (I was the tallest so you get the idea) we were stood up on the balcony and we had a superb view of him playing and it was just incredble.

So I’ve gushed about the whole thing quite a lot, so I’ll shut up in a minute, but first a couple of personal highlights and then a couple of apologies.

Highlight 1. When he played Landed – one of my favourite songs ever.
Highlight 2. When he played Battle of who could care less – the first time I ever heard any of his songs when I was at Portsmouth in 1997. And still an awesome song today.

Apology 1. Corin – so much better than Glasto. I wish you could have been there. Sorry.
Apology 2. Jenn – yep, we were at the front of the balcony, in the centre, for Portishead back in December. Sorry.

Hot off the press (well the Guardian website) it’s the Glasto pyramid stage line-up. Initial thoughts below:

Friday June 27

Kings Of Leon – Not listened to them since Youth and Young Manhood. And that rocked.
The Fratellis – I think the young people are listening to them nowadays.
Editors – Yay!
The Gossip – Yay!
The Feeling – Meh (Although “Fill my little world” counts as one of my “Guilty Pleasures” tracks – we’ve all got them!)
KT Tunstall – She does rock.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – A favourite of Corin and Jen. Saw him last year and he is just great.
The Subways – See my comments re: The Fratellis.
Kate Nash – Yay! Saw her last year and at a gig in November last year. Brilliant!

Saturday June 28

Jay-Z – Er yeah. Keeping my fingers crossed for Fatboy Slim or the Chemical Brothers on the other stage.
Manu Chao – Not bothered.
The Raconteurs – Worth it for “Steady as she goes” but not really up to speed on their other stuff.
James Blunt – *vomits*
Crowded House – Didn’t like ‘em when I was 15 and I’m sure there will be other acts I’d rather see.
Seasick Steve – Who?
The Hold Steady – See above?
Shakin’ Stevens – Yeah. Dave Lee Travis used to play Shakin’ Stevens before he got “retired” from Radio 1. Nuff said.

Sunday June 29

The Verve – I loved Urban Hymns and History has a habit of making me cry. But Richard Ashcroft has a habit of being a berk and I’m not sure if I can risk him finishing the festival badly.
Leonard Cohen – Not bothered.
Goldfrapp – Saw them support The Streets a few years back. They are completely hatstand and I rather like them.
John Mayer – Not bothered.
Gilbert O’ Sullivan – No thanks.

So, lots of room for improvement, but it’s early days and there is always tons going on at the other stages. I think that as time has worn on, I see less and less bands on the Pyramid as I diversify my festival acts.

In an ideal world, the Hartnoll’s might reform Orbital… Not gonna happen, but I can live in hope!

Last night I went to see Elbow play at the Colston Hall. Jenn has already blogged about how awesome the gig was and frankly there isn’t really any point in me talking about it, as she has already done so more eloquently than I could possibly hope.

But… there are a few things that she didn’t mention about the gig, which I have to talk about here besides how amazing the whole thing was.

Firstly, I have never been to a gig where everyone was so polite. Normally at gigs, being short in stature, I spend my time trying to stare between the shoulders of taller people whilst bracing myself for the incoming barrage of elbows into my torso as people shove past me. Well not this time. There was room to move around in the crowd, I could see the stage and the band as no one felt compelled to push as far forward as they could and everyone who was moving through the crowd actually said “Excuse me”.

Weirder still, was the fact that between some songs the crowd was silent. Not just quiet, but silent, as if we were all at there between movements at a classical concert. Guy the lead singer was just as surprised as me. We were all there just waiting, rapt… (I was reminded of the green alien thingies in the machine in Toy Story in fact).

Guy (I feel like I know him now) talked to the crowd, was funny and came across as a genuinely nice bloke.

And finally, the band. They played perfectly and this combined with the fact that we were stood slap bang in the middle of a proper concert hall, roughly where row K would have been if the seats were there, a little way back from the stage just meant everything sounded incredible. Studio quality, as if it was the album, but played beautifully and live, just for us.

The perfect gig? I always maintain that the next one is the best one, but whoever that turns out to be, has got some big shoes to fill.

Elbow, Bristol, 9^th April
9½/10

Only quick. When will people at gigs learn that standing 15 metres back from the band and using the flash on your compact digital camera achieves nothing besides illuminating the heads of the people in front of you?

Grrrr.