Who did you see live last?

[4000]

On 06/11/2019 at 15:42, Buzzy said:

Friday night I saw John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett. A great evenings entertainment and unlike anything you've ever seen.

 

John Otway played at the Acoustic Festival of Britain last year, the day after we did our first slot. I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed as much. Comedy gold. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by 4000

[bassbiscuits]

Have just come back from watching Ginger Wildheart playing at the Y Theatre in Leicester. 

Brilliant as ever - great mix of genuine warmth, witty banter and openness about his mental health problems. And a knack for writing absolutely cracking songs. 

Glad I made the effort to go.

Edited November 10, 2019 by bassbiscuits

[Paul S]

Saw Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Shepherds Bush Empire last night.  Very disappointing - left after 40mins - what a dreary, self-indulgent load of posey, soul-less fret-wankery.  The band were awful, looked like they wanted to be elsewhere so went through the motions while ol' Kenny Wayne stood on the edge of the stage pulling his well-rehearsed faces.  

The support were better, in as much as the singer bassist Danielle Nicole had a cracking gutsy voice.  The rest of the band were out of her league, though, and the songs a bit weak.

I wonder if I am getting too fussy these days.

Still, the day was not lost - went to the Royal Academy earlier to see the Anthony Gormley exhibition.  I am not generally one for 'modern art' but Mrs S was keen to go.  Totally blew my mind  

[guyl]

Saw Blicher, Hemmer, Gadd at Nottingham Southside Bar on Sunday. No bass player - Hemmer covers this on his B3 (which was frighteningly better than some bass players I've seen). But mainly i went to see Steve Gadd on drums who did not disappoint. That old boy can really groove!   Fab gig.

[Oopsdabassist]

The UK Pink Floyd Experience on Sat, tickets bought by my daughter for our wedding anniversary, so had not heard of these guys and didn't know what to expect.  I have to say they absolutely nailed the sound and visuals of Pink Floyd, even using what looked like the actual video reels and projection screen from the later Floyd tours. I was a tad disappointed with the lead guitarist who flubbed a line in Money, but found out later in the evening that he had only been with the band for 3 weeks and had learned the whole 2.5 hour set in that time....Impressed I was!

 

 

[Rubbersoul]

Machine Head last Thursday in Belfast. Absolutely epic night.

[mangotango]

Snarky Puppy, Royal Albert Hall, last night. Amazing gig. Who would envisage a 14-piece band, playing instrumental jazz/funk/world music/whatever, selling out a venue like that? (Of course, landlords will tell you that you'll never draw a crowd with that kind of thing - original music? no singer? - as an excuse for knocking you back for a gig....). Great compositions and ensemble playing, and some fine soloing, the pick of which came from Bob Reynolds on tenor sax and especially crowd favourite Shaun Martin on keyboards, but featured particularly on Moog synth played via a talkbox.

A lot of the set was based, obviously, around the most recent album, Immigrance, which they've been touring for over 6 months.  Bad Kids At The Back from that album gained the first big reaction of the night. Rightly so, as well - good tune, well played.  Nice moment of audience participation too on Xavi, with the 5,000+ audience split into two by Michael League, Snarky bassist and bandleader (and what a fine description that is!! ), to clap a 4-over-3 rhythm, over which the band came in and grooved like monsters.

Turns out that they were recording the gig for a live album...which. remarkably, was available as a double CD package a quarter-of-an-hour after the gig finished. Yes, really.  I didn't queue for it, having a train to catch to get home; but it will be worth picking that up at some point...and not just because I'm in the crowd noise.

Huge shout also for the support act, which was a trio comprising vocalist Lucy Woodward, Snarky percussionist Keita Ogawa on kit drums and the amazing Charlie Hunter on guitar/bass.  Hunter's an interesting player - his instrument is a fan-fret 8-string Novax; the bottom 3 are bass strings, the top 5 being guitar strings.  And he plays both roles at once, with a technique that's part like Chapman stick-style, part Travis-picking, but with a healthy dose of bluesy funk groove. At one point, on their cover of Terence Trent-Bridge Derby-County's "Wishing Well", he was playing a guitar solo whilst simultaneously holding down a descending bass line. Quite cool. Here's a video clip from a while back, that shows his playing - it's from a TV show hosted by jazz pianist Ramsay Lewis, who has clearly never heard of either Hunter or Nirvana.....

 

[Old Man Riva]

45 minutes ago, mangotango said:

Snarky Puppy, Royal Albert Hall, last night. Amazing gig. Who would envisage a 14-piece band, playing instrumental jazz/funk/world music/whatever, selling out a venue like that? (Of course, landlords will tell you that you'll never draw a crowd with that kind of thing - original music? no singer? - as an excuse for knocking you back for a gig....). Great compositions and ensemble playing, and some fine soloing, the pick of which came from Bob Reynolds on tenor sax and especially crowd favourite Shaun Martin on keyboards, but featured particularly on Moog synth played via a talkbox.

A lot of the set was based, obviously, around the most recent album, Immigrance, which they've been touring for over 6 months.  Bad Kids At The Back from that album gained the first big reaction of the night. Rightly so, as well - good tune, well played.  Nice moment of audience participation too on Xavi, with the 5,000+ audience split into two by Michael League, Snarky bassist and bandleader (and what a fine description that is!! ), to clap a 4-over-3 rhythm, over which the band came in and grooved like monsters.

Turns out that they were recording the gig for a live album...which. remarkably, was available as a double CD package a quarter-of-an-hour after the gig finished. Yes, really.  I didn't queue for it, having a train to catch to get home; but it will be worth picking that up at some point...and not just because I'm in the crowd noise.

Huge shout also for the support act, which was a trio comprising vocalist Lucy Woodward, Snarky percussionist Keita Ogawa on kit drums and the amazing Charlie Hunter on guitar/bass.  Hunter's an interesting player - his instrument is a fan-fret 8-string Novax; the bottom 3 are bass strings, the top 5 being guitar strings.  And he plays both roles at once, with a technique that's part like Chapman stick-style, part Travis-picking, but with a healthy dose of bluesy funk groove. At one point, on their cover of Terence Trent-Bridge Derby-County's "Wishing Well", he was playing a guitar solo whilst simultaneously holding down a descending bass line. Quite cool. Here's a video clip from a while back, that shows his playing - it's from a TV show hosted by jazz pianist Ramsay Lewis, who has clearly never heard of either Hunter or Nirvana.....

 

Great review!

I went with my wife, who it’s safe to say isn’t generally a fan of the type of music that Snarky Puppy play, and she was absolutely blown away by the whole evening, as was I.

Also, there appeared to be huge affection from the crowd towards the band and it felt like a real celebration of their career so far.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer (or more talented) bunch..!

[jay-syncro]

John Mayer at The O2. Bumped into this bloke back stage 😎

[el borracho]

Adam Ant - surprisingly good!

[DaytonaRik]

Aussie rockers Airbourne at Rock City - top gig!

Edited November 16, 2019 by DaytonaRik

[lurksalot]

Coughlans quo 

my old band were supporting , and played a blinder 

coughlans quo were ok but a bit obscure for me , so I got an early bus back to town for more beer

interestingly though, my old band sounded awesome. I told the guitarist how good his AC30 sung through , he said he couldn’t hear it . That was the reason I left the band , he kept turning up so HE could hear it and would be too loud out front .

only been discussing this issue for about 8 years 

[mikel]

Hot Club of Cowtown at the Sage last night. Superb musicians including an upright bassist who is awesome. Great songs and spot on harmonies. Third time I have seen them over the last 10 yeas and they seem to get better every time. There version of Orange Blossom Special was jaw dropping.

[Gottastopbuyinggear]

Ghost last night at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.

Not something I ever thought I'd be into, but having been told about them by my sons (both into their metal in a big way) one Sunday afternoon sitting in the garden, beer in hand, I jokingly said that if they played Cardiff I'd buy tickets.  The tour was announced the following day...!

I have to say I do like the music, and they put on a great show.  Really notable for me was the sound, which is usually pretty disappointing in the Motorpoint.  There was none of the overpowering kick and sub bass mush that seems to be so prevalent these days, and for the first time in that venue I could actually hear the bass quite clearly.  I think the overall volume might have been a bit lower than other bands I've seen there, too.  One way or another their sound guys did a great job.

[mattbass6]

Marillion at St.David's Hall in Cardiff on Saturday (16th Nov) & Ghost at The Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on Sunday (17th Nov). Both utterly brilliant sets by two very different bands. Both know how to put on a show, and both contain wonderfully talented musicians. A weekend of music heaven. I will say, it is so good to see a rock band like Ghost bringing back the big stage production, and genuine entertainment factor to a large stage. The sound for both bands was out of this world, as well.

[doomed]

Agnostic Front last night.

[KevB]

Good night last night in Sheffield watching Steve Hillage. Felt for the drummer. As Gong are SH's backing band and also do an hour in their own right as the support act he was playing some quite intense stuff for a total of 2hrs 45 minutes with a short break between the Gong set and restarting with Hillage. He looked utterly knackered at the end of it. As I said in another thread I never thought I'd see him perform stuff from those first 4 solo albums live and having Miquette Giraudy joining him (I know they do System 7 together) was great. It's music that always makes me smile, full of positive energy.

[funkydoug]

Caught Snarky Puppy in Glasgow Barrowlands. 

As others have said about the London gigs, they're just amazing and such a pleasure to watch! I expected that, and enjoyed it immensely, but I didn't expect such a top support performance from Becca Stevens. She and her band were brilliant. 

 

[Paul S]

Aussie Pink Floyd at the Cliff's Pavilion in Westcliff.

Not seen them before, what a performance!  Absolutely spot on in all respects (maybe the bass could have had the tone rolled off a fraction)  They lost the backing track on the left hand side for a short while but it came back again.  Can't recall seeing a better light show.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Paul S

[MrCrane]

1 hour ago, KevB said:

Good night last night in Sheffield watching Steve Hillage. Felt for the drummer. As Gong are SH's backing band and also do an hour in their own right as the support act he was playing some quite intense stuff for a total of 2hrs 45 minutes with a short break between the Gong set and restarting with Hillage. He looked utterly knackered at the end of it. As I said in another thread I never thought I'd see him perform stuff from those first 4 solo albums live and having Miquette Giraudy joining him (I know they do System 7 together) was great. It's music that always makes me smile, full of positive energy.

Saw them in London on Saturday. Last saw him live in November 1977 at the Rainbow. Absolutely agree re the drummer.

[Stub Mandrel]

Hawkwind at Glasgow O2 on Sunday. Not particularly loud, but very good sound and excellent visuals.

Crowd full of diehard Hawkwind fans, lots of singing along, lots of friendly reminiscing about past Hawkwind tours and lineups with random strangers 🙂

Tim Blake was with them and his theremin playing was astounding. Niall Hone is no slouch on bass either.

Support Blackheart Orchestra were 'different' in a good way, they went down very well.

Of course I turned out to be the only person wearing a labcoat... mind you my sister in law had a pair of wings on and my brother was wearing his kilt and cyberpunk goggles. Quite funny when security searched his sporran and found his migraine medication!

Songs from Hurry on Sundown to the latest album including Master of the Universe, Shouldn't Do That, Spirit of the Age and Motorway City. Must be tough picking a representative set from 50 years of back catalogue.  Good fun was had by all.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, KevB said:

Good night last night in Sheffield watching Steve Hillage. Felt for the drummer. As Gong are SH's backing band and also do an hour in their own right as the support act he was playing some quite intense stuff for a total of 2hrs 45 minutes with a short break between the Gong set and restarting with Hillage. He looked utterly knackered at the end of it. As I said in another thread I never thought I'd see him perform stuff from those first 4 solo albums live and having Miquette Giraudy joining him (I know they do System 7 together) was great. It's music that always makes me smile, full of positive energy.

Seriously considering driving down to Cardiff to catch them on Friday.

[Si600]

On 14/11/2019 at 23:45, Rubbersoul said:

Machine Head last Thursday in Belfast. Absolutely epic night.

Going to see them in March. I can't wait, I last saw them at Rock City on the Burning Red tour.

[Si600]

I saw Alter Bridge with Shinedown and The Raven Age on Tuesday. I'd never heard of The Raven Age but I really liked what I heard. Shinedown were excellent, not much in the way of set as the cloths were up to hide the headliners set but bags of onstage antics and energy. Alter Bridge were a disappointment. Good songs but they mostly just stood there. The light show and other visuals were outstanding but a meh from me due to the lack of "bounce" on stage from the band.

[cetera]

I saw the fantastic 'Young Gun Silver Fox' last night at Nells (formerly The Orange) in West Kensington. Sold out show, singing and dancing audience, happy & smiling band, soulful vocals & harmonies, Fender Rhodes, funky horn section, bouncy 70's/early 80's west coast grooves and a bassist with killer tone that could be heard in a great mix - wonderful!!
If you like what they now term 'yacht rock' - i.e. Hall & Oates, Michael McDonald-era Doobie Bros, Steely Dan, early Chicago, E,W&F etc then check them out!

Edited November 22, 2019 by cetera