Who did you see live last?

[cetera]

Saw Winger last night at The Forum in London. Still a fantastic band.... and great to catch up with Kip Winger again after.... 🎸👍😎

[Cliff Edge]

Gretchen Peters in Bexhill on Sea last night. First class professional performance as expected from this seasoned artist. The final live tour by all accounts. Great band behind her with Colm McClean on upright and Precision. Not a name I'm familiar with. And no drummer.

The support was Kim Richey who finished her set with quite possibly the best ever rendition of Sunday Morning Coming Down getting a standing ovation.

A very enjoyable evening and a packed house.

[Rich]

Sam Sweeney at our local folk club on Thursday. It was held at the church and the acoustics were absolutely perfect for solo violin. What a glorious evening of music.

His main instrument for the evening was  'Hale Bopp', the violin that Dave Swarbrick gave him shortly before his passing.

 

 

[SteveXFR]

Airborne at the Cheese & Grain in Frome tonight, our local. 

Airborne were just brilliant as always. Simple hard rock played well and a very entertaining performance. They really know how to get a crowd going.

Really great sound,  I guess they have their own sound engineer. The venues PA is the old Glastonbury Westholts stage PA so it's got mega power and quality. 

Support band Florence Black were brilliant as well, I've not heard them before but really enjoyed them. Heavy rock occasionally breaking in to full on metal.

 

 

 

[mr4stringz]

Melvins in Leeds on Saturday, followed by Melvins in Manchester Sunday, followed by Kiss in Birmingham tonight (the last of which was so my son could break his gig going duck at the grand age of 11).

[bassbiscuits]

Just back from seeing Kiss at the NEC on Monday night. Absolutely awesome gig. My first and last time I’m going to see them, so I’m glad it was everything I’d wished for.
 

And also what a brilliant venue the Resorts World Arena is. I was expecting to grab an overpriced hot dog in a corridor somewhere for tea - instead we parked up and went for a Pizza Express before the show. 

[cetera]

10 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

Just back from seeing Kiss at the NEC on Monday night. Absolutely awesome gig. My first and last time I’m going to see them, so I’m glad it was everything I’d wished for.
 

And also what a brilliant venue the Resorts World Arena is. I was expecting to grab an overpriced hot dog in a corridor somewhere for tea - instead we parked up and went for a Pizza Express before the show. 

 

Yep! What an amazing night!

Can't wait to do it all over again at the O2 Arena in London in a few weeks time

 

[snorkie635]

At my age: JS Bach (and he was only twelve and three-quarters).

🤗

[diskwave]

Steelye Span in Basingstoke last yr. Just superb tho I was awfully distracted by bass player constantly fiddling with his jazz bass knobs!

[Lozz196]

Moving Pictures, a Rush tribute, in The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes.

 

I’m not that familiar with Rush’s material but what a night, they were incredible and from what I’ve seen online I’d have been hard pushed to tell one band from the other by sound alone, amazing musicianship.

 

Big thumbs up to The Craufurd as well, they’ve really grown the venue over the last 10 or so years, get some very good bands there now.

[Bolo]

Went to see Gogol Bordello at the Melkweg in Amsterdam last week. What an amazing band to see live!

[Marvin]

Mrs Marvin and myself went to see Dodgy at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, on their Free Peace Sweet tour last night. The last time we saw them was 10 years ago when they were doing their First and Last tour (they played all of Stand Upright in a Cool Place and all of The Dodgy Album) playing a small venue of no more than 100 people.

 

Great musicians in my opinion, Matthew Priest is a great drummist. I couldn't fault the band last night and a great crowd made for a really good atmosphere. All excellent APART from the sound. It was woeful. Everything was drowned out for large parts by the drums and a booming undefined bass. And the top end, what you could hear, was shrill and brittle. Perhaps it's the venue. There is a banjo part in one song on the Free Peace Sweet album for which Dodgy got a touring player to just play on that song. Total waste of time, didn't hear a note. Perhaps where we were sat, up in the balcony. However, the O2 Apollo in Manchester is a very similar venue, and when we saw Editors there a few years ago the sound was spot on. If someone made my bass sound like the bass last night they'd get a bollocking (the bass in The Supernaturals, who were supporting, was exactly the same).

 

It marred a very good gig. I know how good they can sound. On the First and Last tour the sound was brilliant. The mix was perfect, not too loud, you could hear the vocal harmonies and so on.

 

Chris Helme, previously of The Seahorses, played a support slot which was very good. Which was surprising because I didn't really like The Seahorses... probably due to John Squires' constant guitar widdling. 😁

Edited June 11, 2023 by Marvin

[Muzz]

Went to see Roger Waters Satdy night at the (insert current sponsor here - I forget) stadium in Manchester, on a last-minute cheapo deal from Twickets, and for the first time in possibly ten years the sound in there was very good, aided more by the layout than anything, I think: it was a central stage, and the arrays were in four sections, radiating the sound out to each stand; this meant that they were no more than 50-60 feet from the stand they were facing so they didn't have the whole length of the place to cover, plus it wasn't ear-bleedingly loud as the FoH engineer didn't try to hit 125db at the back wall...

 

The rest of the gig was a Curate's Egg of a do: Rog is still furious at 79 (looking good and mobile for it, too*, tho it was a grin moment when he sat down at the piano with an audible 'Ooooof' 🙂), and still delivering. The Floyd numbers were spectacular, tho it's a very polemic/political gig, so if you think, for example, Julian Assange should be extradited, or that US Presidents shouldn't be on trial for war crimes, it wasn't your gig, but as I say, the good bits were very, very well done...apart from the solos that Dave Gilmour isn't allowing him to do: Comfortably Numb, for example, had a huuuuge hole in it without That Solo...

 

Overall, it reinforced my long-held view that in general he did his best work with DG and the other two, but maaaaan, he can ramble on the mic: the encore was particularly painful: after the 'why is this in the encore?' rendition of Two Suns In The Sunset (which is just flat depressing) the band gathered around his piano (and an accordion appeared from nowhere, an immediate red flag) and he set off into an explanation of a new song about his brother, so I went to the loo in order to beat the rush, and when I got back to my seat he was still blathering on...we left halfway through that one, and it all ended not with a bang, but with a whimper...

 

 

* I'll take his levels of energy when I'm 79...

[bassbiscuits]

Went to see Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour at Birmingham NIA (now called Utilita Arena) on Sunday night.

 

He seems like a very cool old granddad now, rather than the strident, bullish rockstar diva I'd half expected - more an impish, delighted old man enjoying the fun of celebrating a look back his life and music one more time. He can still play the b*llocks of his piano though, and his band were great.

 

Loved how he came on for the encore in his dressing gown, and then got whisked off by a sort of stairlift which took him up and away into a little trapdoor high in the backdrop, from where he waved us farewell. Quite poignant and really glad I went.

Edited June 12, 2023 by bassbiscuits
Photos now added

[cetera]

13 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Went to see Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour at Birmingham NIA (now called Utilita Arena) on Sunday night.

 

He seems like a very cool old granddad now, rather than the strident, bullish rockstar diva I'd half expected - more an impish, delighted old man enjoying the fun of celebrating a look back his life and music one more time. He can still play the b*llocks of his piano though, and his band were great.

 

Loved how he came on for the encore in his dressing gown, and then got whisked off by a sort of stairlift which took him up and away into a little trapdoor high in the backdrop, from where he waved us farewell. Quite poignant and really glad I went.

Saw him a few weeks back at the O2 in London. Fantastic performance and so many great songs. Yes, very poignant and emotional....

[BreadBin]

Puscifer, in Manchester. Just now. 

I am a changed man.

Edited June 13, 2023 by BreadBin

[mike257]

On 12/06/2023 at 15:19, bassbiscuits said:

Went to see Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour at Birmingham NIA (now called Utilita Arena) on Sunday night.

 

He seems like a very cool old granddad now, rather than the strident, bullish rockstar diva I'd half expected - more an impish, delighted old man enjoying the fun of celebrating a look back his life and music one more time. He can still play the b*llocks of his piano though, and his band were great.

 

Loved how he came on for the encore in his dressing gown, and then got whisked off by a sort of stairlift which took him up and away into a little trapdoor high in the backdrop, from where he waved us farewell. Quite poignant and really glad I went.

I'm staying on an extra day after the show I'm doing at Glasto and hoping to catch him there. They've (very inconsiderately) scheduled Queens Of The Stone Age to clash with him, but they'll be back again, and he won't, so I think I'll be sticking around for Reg. 

[bassbiscuits]

47 minutes ago, mike257 said:

I'm staying on an extra day after the show I'm doing at Glasto and hoping to catch him there. They've (very inconsiderately) scheduled Queens Of The Stone Age to clash with him, but they'll be back again, and he won't, so I think I'll be sticking around for Reg. 

Bravo - it’ll be your last chance to see him. And well done on playing at Glasto too! What’s the band?

[mike257]

On 14/06/2023 at 18:47, bassbiscuits said:

Bravo - it’ll be your last chance to see him. And well done on playing at Glasto too! What’s the band?

 

Thanks! Won't be slinging a bass there, I'm afraid. I'm there as a production manager with an artist. Hoping for a slightly more relaxed visit than last year when I did six shows over three days, doing three different job roles 🤣

[pete.young]

Bonnie Raitt at the London Palladium. An awesome voice and talent, undiminished by the passage of time. And what a great band.

[Lozz196]

Motley Crue & Def Leppard at Wembley Stadium last night.

 

We got there just as Mammoth were finishing their set so couldn’t really rate/review them.

 

6:45 and Crue started, sounded good, Vince Neil maybe a bit quiet but the whole band were much better than the last couple of times I saw them (2007 & 2012), John 5 doing a great job on playing Mick Mars’ guitar lines. Woke the Crue will never be with Tommy Lees titty-cam, but I don’t think anyone would really expect them to be, they’re stuck in the 80s and seem to love it.

 

8:45 and it was Def Leppards turn and they were amazing, the sound much better than Crue. It’s a double headline tour so think this more to do with music style & musicianship rather than headline v other. Rick Allen’s electric kit had no boom to it at all, plus where Nikki Sixx of Crues bass also a tad boomy Rick Savage of Leppards bass was for me just right, solid, there but not getting in the way. So the foundations for Leppards sound were clearer and crisper giving a great platform for guitars & vocals to sit on top which they did amazingly. I think I’m going to have to get at least Hysteria & Pyromania as I really enjoyed DL.

[MacDaddy]

Crue did a warm up gig at The Underworld on Friday to 450 people.

That would have been worth going to 😎

[ezbass]

25 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I think I’m going to have to get at least Hysteria & Pyromania as I really enjoyed DL.

Pretty much all you really need. I saw them on the Hysteria tour, it was just ok (Brian May came on at the end and they played Tie Your Mother Down), 40 or so years on, I imagine they would be slicker than oil on silk.

[rOB]

I went to see Pulp last night at Finsbury Park supported by Wet Leg. Sound wasn't perfect, unfortunately it was a bit windy but the energy was great, a really fun show.

[jonno1981]

Sigur ros. On the mount at Wasing. 
Beautiful outdoor venue. All wildflowers and smell of joss sticks burning away. Great sound, loads of clarity and power. 
Band were superb. Bass wise, so much power in hitting a simple whole note with loads of compression and octaver. Rattles your insides. All about building the soundscapes.