1124th
Jan

On Saturday was the rescheduled Manic Street Preachers gig at Brixton Academy. I’ve had the tickets for it since May last year, so to say I was looking forward to it would be an understatement. Honestly I think it was the best Manics gig I’ve ever been to. The venue was ram-packed full of fans, old and new, with some having queued all day in the freezing cold for their spot at the front, and I arrived just in time to see British Sea Power take to the stage. I wasn’t expecting much from them as the last time I saw them I had been bored out of my mind and the singles I had heard on the radio weren’t great. They really took me by surprise with their stage presence and enthusiasm and I found myself really enjoying them. I think I’ll have to check them out properly in the future. Song recommendations please!

Manic Street Preachers came on just after 9pm and spent the next two hours blowing everyone away. The only way the setlist could have been any better, was if they took out ‘Tsunami’ and added in some more tracks from ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’. They only played four songs from their latest album and then the rest was a divine mix of hits and fan favourites. I think the highlights for me were opening with the energetic ‘Slash ‘n’ Burn’, hearing ‘Enola/Alone’ for the first time and the beautiful acoustic rendition of ‘You Stole The Sun From My Heart’, which had the whole audience singing along as loudly as they could. I think the band were trying to make up for rescheduling the gig, as they were bounding around the stage even more than usual, getting the audience to sing along and laughing and joking in between songs. It put the crowd in such a good mood and I think everyone left the gig smiling.

A lot of people seem to disregard Manic Street Preachers based on their more recent (and usually rubbish) singles, but if they delved deeper into their back catalogue and live shows they would find a band with some fantastic songs, who are consistently amazing live.

Slash ‘n’ Burn
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Motorcycle Emptiness
(It’s Not War) – Just the End of Love
Everything Must Go
Roses in the Hospital
My Little Empire
Postcards From A Young Man
You Love Us
Suicide Is Painless (Theme from MASH)
Enola/Alone
A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun
Motown Junk
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Small Black Flowers That Grow In the Sky
You Stole the Sun from My Heart
Faster
La Tristessa Durera (Scream to A Sigh)
Some Kind of Nothingness
Me and Stephen Hawking
Tsunami
A Design for Life

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1017th
Dec

More gigs this week! December has been a pretty busy month for me.

Tuesday was Tim Minchin at the O2 Arena. Having seen him on his last tour a stupid number of times, I had gotten a bit weary of seeing the same show over and over, so this was a welcome change. It was mostly new material, beefed out with a 40 piece orchestra and theatrics that can only come with touring arena-sized venues. Tim seemed to make it work, although I do miss the days when I used to see him in tiny 200 capacity rooms. The new stuff was very funny, and I especially enjoyed his religion-based rants and songs about taking things out of context. No doubt some of the dates on the tour have been filmed for a new DVD, so everyone will be able to enjoy it.

On Wednesday I went to Brixton Academy with my mum for the XFM Winter Wonderland. Due to tube fuckups we arrived late and missed all of Mona (not a great loss) and all but one song by The Drums. We slotted into our favourite position (front right, just by the middle barriers) in time to see Two Door Cinema Club. I hadn’t realised before just how many singles they had released, so it came as a surprise to me when all but one of their 6 song setlist was a single. The crowd seemed to enjoy it though and bounced around gleefully. The music may not be a work of genius, but it is very catchy and fun.

Next up was White Lies, who surprised everyone else by not playing many singles at all. It was mostly tracks from their new album, which as it is released in January they are obviously very keen to promote. I’m not sure how well it went down with the XFM crowd though, as the audience seemed to thin out towards the end as people headed for the bar. I liked it and I’m definitely going to be getting a copy of their new album.

The penultimate act was Suede, who unfortunately had to do a quick acoustic set as their drummer was off sick. It was a bit of a disappointment for me as I had been looking forward to seeing them, but it was still pretty good. They played ‘Trash’, ‘Animal Nitrate’ and ‘Beautiful Ones’.

Lastly it was time for the Manic Street Preachers who chose the right route and played a set consisting of their greatest hits, rather than tracks from their new album. There were clearly a lot of die-hard Manics fans in the audience and everyone had a great time. It really got me excited for their rescheduled Brixton gigs next month.


Two Door Cinema Club


Suede


Manic Street Preachers

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