A bit previous, as Arfur Daley would say, since we're only in October but here we go:
5. The Wedding Present, Lille, 13 October 2013
This was a small club gig and there was no mosh pit (it would never happen back home in Blighty) but the Pressies knocked out a tidy 90 minute set with David Gedge throwing the shapes and dragging from his guitar the feedback that seasoned followers of the band have come to expect. The reputation of the band as jingly jangly indie heroes doesn't pay heed to the monstrous amounts of distortion that they've been producing for 20 odd years, the kind of noise you'd expect to hear at a ....
4. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Newcastle, 10 June 2013
concert. Apparently people were walking out of this and other gigs on Young's 2013 European tour. More fool them, I say. Old Neil was on top form, and if you came expecting peace, love, incense sticks and an acoustic ramble through Neil's gentler back catalogue then you really should have listened to his last album, Psychedelic Pill, before buying your tickets. Or listened to any Crazy Horse album from the last 40 plus years, really.
3. Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Manchester, 14 June 2013
My ears could still have been ringing from the Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert of four days before, but the sonic assault with which Elvis targeted his audience towards the end of his set was like a short circuit on a human juke box with seven (count 'em) of his early gems fired off one after the other. Throw in Elvis as the Master of Ceremonies wisecracking and gladhanding his audience and you had the Royal Variety Show, thankfully without the Royals. The audience were slightly less engaged at....
2. The Wedding Present, Lille, 13 October 2013 (matinee)
but what this gig lacked in atmosphere it made up for in sheer charm with the band playing a seven song 25 minute set with turned down amplifiers and toned down lyrics for an audience of pre school kids and their parents. I've seen the Pressies over 20 times now, but this gig will live in the memory a long time. And talking of kids with their parents....
1. The Rolling Stones, Hyde Park, 6 July 2013
The sun was beating down, the son was with me and happy to melt in the heat for a few hours so that we had a good spot when the band came on, and the Stones showed how they earned their reputation as the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world by dipping into their treasure chest of hits and putting on the kind of event that few (ok, no one) can match when it comes to entertaining a big, inter-generational crowd. My gig of the year (so far!).
No comments:
Post a Comment