2nd Best Weekend Ever
Jun. 18th, 2007 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99This is going to be a long story so it shall be in three parts.
Edit: Due to this now being the best/longest week and a half ever, there are now 5 parts
First on Friday night I got to see the Manics live. Sadly I could get standing ticket, but I did manage to get front row of the circle.
The support band 'The Strange Death of Liberal England' weren't too bad. They weren't too good either and were exactly as pretentious as their name suggests, but they were young (like hideously, horribly 3/5ths of them were probably younger than me young) and had talent and possibility.
So the Manics come on and there's no fancy flimmery, they're just dead on, looking 10 years younger and more alive than ever. They start with You Love Us. And they do and we love them and the cult of the Manics is out in full force. Rather annoyingly with the exception of the four people just to the left of me. Bah to casual fans, bah I say.
Next up was Motorcyle Emptiness then Faster, with the seque being that after Motorcycle Emptiness there was only one way to go. Then they did Patsy For Your Love off the new album (which shall be reviewed in much detail later). Then I think it was From Despair to Where or it might have been La Tristesa (Duera).
Following this may well have been Your Love Along Is Not Enough. Then they went into a big, long intro from a song, only for James's guitar to break and go totally out of tune. Causing much giggling on stage. And a quick change of guitars.
This hadn't been the first oops, an accidental fluffing of words leading to an explaination that Motorcycle Emptiness was going to be dedicated to the people that showed up to the Charlotte gig they did, only, as Nicky explained, it had been cancelled 3 times due to Nicky's health problems. He got the response he was looking for (which is of course zero sympathy [we love him dearly, he had kidney issues, strange Manics fan and band logic declaims this to be less worthy of sympathy than you might expect]) cue one truly evil cackle from the Wire.
So having found a spare guitar tuned right, they lauch into Born To End. At this point I am all asquee because they've played a lot of stuff off their first album.
At some point following this they played You Stole the Sun From My Heart. Then there were further gremlins, by now blamed on Austin Healy (Leicester scrum half) what with him being a Leicester Tigers player and them being Cardiff Blues boys. And let me assure you the rugby related banter kept going all evening, starting with Nicky entering onto the stage whirling a stuffed toy tiger by the tail.
The other two went off after a rousing rendition of Everything Must Go, leaving James to do his acoustic bit, we got a lovely version of the Everlasting, complete with crowd singing in tune and in time and he got total silence, except for us clapping him in at the intro, for This is Yesterday.
Return of other two after a costume change for La Wire, who was now wearing a military style cap, a white vest and a tiny mini-skirt (plus big white knickers).
After that we get Stay Beautiful, complete with the crowd adding the parts that are silent on the record. While not quite the Holy Grail of Manics songs to hear live (that would be 'Yes') it's not far short and just ... they're so good and wonderful and lovely and clever and they're just everything.
It's off their first album and amazingly they played more tracks off it than they did off the album they were supposed to be promoting. We did then get Send Away the Tigers and Autumn Song interspersed by Kevin Carter, which sounds really different when they use a saxophone instead of a trumpet for the instrumental bit in the middle. At some point towards the beginning of the first half they also did The Second Great Depression off the new one. We also got If You Tolerate This ... somewhere in the second half.
As is traditional, James started to introduce the band. In a staging fraught with symbolism, they're now letting the backing guitarist and keyboard/other players actually be obviously on stage, rather than just lurking at the sides. Of course, due to the curse of the venue, or the malign influence of Austin Healy, he manages to get their surnames the wrong way round, causing Nicky to totally crack up and he just looks round and gives this great despairing look.
Nicky supplies the correct names, James introduces the rest of the band, Sean gets the loudest cheer and then said, 'and this ones for Richey Edwards'. Cue Motown Junk, full speed and full of feeling.
There's only one way to follow that and that's 'A Design for Life' then walk off to cheers.
In short:
1 - They've remembered that their lead singer is also a guitarist of not inconsiderable talent.
2 - They've also remembered that they used to want to be Guns and Roses.
They're back and they're wonderful again, and I'm so happy I got to see them.
Next time, and oh yes, there will be a next time, I have to try and get standing tickets though.
Edit: Due to this now being the best/longest week and a half ever, there are now 5 parts
First on Friday night I got to see the Manics live. Sadly I could get standing ticket, but I did manage to get front row of the circle.
The support band 'The Strange Death of Liberal England' weren't too bad. They weren't too good either and were exactly as pretentious as their name suggests, but they were young (like hideously, horribly 3/5ths of them were probably younger than me young) and had talent and possibility.
So the Manics come on and there's no fancy flimmery, they're just dead on, looking 10 years younger and more alive than ever. They start with You Love Us. And they do and we love them and the cult of the Manics is out in full force. Rather annoyingly with the exception of the four people just to the left of me. Bah to casual fans, bah I say.
Next up was Motorcyle Emptiness then Faster, with the seque being that after Motorcycle Emptiness there was only one way to go. Then they did Patsy For Your Love off the new album (which shall be reviewed in much detail later). Then I think it was From Despair to Where or it might have been La Tristesa (Duera).
Following this may well have been Your Love Along Is Not Enough. Then they went into a big, long intro from a song, only for James's guitar to break and go totally out of tune. Causing much giggling on stage. And a quick change of guitars.
This hadn't been the first oops, an accidental fluffing of words leading to an explaination that Motorcycle Emptiness was going to be dedicated to the people that showed up to the Charlotte gig they did, only, as Nicky explained, it had been cancelled 3 times due to Nicky's health problems. He got the response he was looking for (which is of course zero sympathy [we love him dearly, he had kidney issues, strange Manics fan and band logic declaims this to be less worthy of sympathy than you might expect]) cue one truly evil cackle from the Wire.
So having found a spare guitar tuned right, they lauch into Born To End. At this point I am all asquee because they've played a lot of stuff off their first album.
At some point following this they played You Stole the Sun From My Heart. Then there were further gremlins, by now blamed on Austin Healy (Leicester scrum half) what with him being a Leicester Tigers player and them being Cardiff Blues boys. And let me assure you the rugby related banter kept going all evening, starting with Nicky entering onto the stage whirling a stuffed toy tiger by the tail.
The other two went off after a rousing rendition of Everything Must Go, leaving James to do his acoustic bit, we got a lovely version of the Everlasting, complete with crowd singing in tune and in time and he got total silence, except for us clapping him in at the intro, for This is Yesterday.
Return of other two after a costume change for La Wire, who was now wearing a military style cap, a white vest and a tiny mini-skirt (plus big white knickers).
After that we get Stay Beautiful, complete with the crowd adding the parts that are silent on the record. While not quite the Holy Grail of Manics songs to hear live (that would be 'Yes') it's not far short and just ... they're so good and wonderful and lovely and clever and they're just everything.
It's off their first album and amazingly they played more tracks off it than they did off the album they were supposed to be promoting. We did then get Send Away the Tigers and Autumn Song interspersed by Kevin Carter, which sounds really different when they use a saxophone instead of a trumpet for the instrumental bit in the middle. At some point towards the beginning of the first half they also did The Second Great Depression off the new one. We also got If You Tolerate This ... somewhere in the second half.
As is traditional, James started to introduce the band. In a staging fraught with symbolism, they're now letting the backing guitarist and keyboard/other players actually be obviously on stage, rather than just lurking at the sides. Of course, due to the curse of the venue, or the malign influence of Austin Healy, he manages to get their surnames the wrong way round, causing Nicky to totally crack up and he just looks round and gives this great despairing look.
Nicky supplies the correct names, James introduces the rest of the band, Sean gets the loudest cheer and then said, 'and this ones for Richey Edwards'. Cue Motown Junk, full speed and full of feeling.
There's only one way to follow that and that's 'A Design for Life' then walk off to cheers.
In short:
1 - They've remembered that their lead singer is also a guitarist of not inconsiderable talent.
2 - They've also remembered that they used to want to be Guns and Roses.
They're back and they're wonderful again, and I'm so happy I got to see them.
Next time, and oh yes, there will be a next time, I have to try and get standing tickets though.
