Barns Courtney @ Think Tank? Newcastle

This was a first.  Well, at least a first for a long while.  Barns Courtney was introduced to me by my wife, Clare.  I was away at Glastonbury when she texted to say that she’d like to see him.  I’d never heard of him, but said yes.  When I got back, I had a listen on spotify and was hugely impressed by Golden Dandelions, Fire and Little Boy.

Think Tank? is a small venue in Newcastle with a capacity of about 250.  This one was far from full with about 70 to 100 or so present.  I was surprised as I expected it to be full.  It should have been as it was a little treat.

Barns Courtney took the stage at 9pm and the first thing I noticed was that he was sporting a moon boot on his right foot.  This didn’t impair him much.  It probably should have as I feared for his safety for most of the gig!  He seemed intent on bouncing around the stage as if it wasn’t there and fortunately managed to stay upright for the whole gig.

The audience was relatively odd for the evening.  I don’t think I’ve previously been to a gig where the crowd stood back from the stage for the main act, but they were intent on doing so tonight.  Clare & I were probably the furthest forward and we were a couple of meters away.  That didn’t affect Barns’ from engaging with the audience.  He did so impressively, but his masterstroke (presumably tried and tested) came 4 songs from the end when he asked everyone to come forward so he could take a photo of everyone.  Everyone duly came forward.  He took some video footage, threw his phone to the ground and informed everyone that they might as well stay where they were now.  Sweet move.

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The highlights were clearly the tunes I knew from Spotify, but all in all it was an excellent 12 song set with a huge amount off energy.  John Waugh, the saxophonist with The 1975, played on three of the tracks and it brought an extra quality dimension to the set.  Barns was clearly happy to have him there.

Glitter & Gold, Never Let You Down, Little Boy, Golden Dandelions and Fire were all awesome.  His debut album is out on the 29th September, so I’m looking forward to hearing it.  Shame it doesn’t look like it’s getting a vinyl release, but it will be well wroth checking out.

There was something about his attitude that I really liked.  I don’t know why, but he brought me in with something that I found incredibly amusing.  As he was finished with his mouth organ on one tune, he absently discarded it over his shoulder and it bounced to the back of the stage.  It was the way he did it that just had me laughing and warming to his excitable style.  I’m interested to see what comes next.

I pilfered the setlist from the stage as others were clearly hovering to do the same.  Shy bairns…

Support act: Georgie Keller opened the evening.  He was on the stage by himself with a backing track for 30 minutes.  Pretty impressive and pretty brave, only taking brief respite with a single acoustic guitar cover of a Shawn Mendes track.

Food & drink: Clare & I were on our own for this one and as we were bit rushed there was no time for food in advance.  The post gig chicken kebab was a bit on the dodgy side, but welcome.  I took on board a Dead Pony Club and Clare had a Peroni at the gig.

Merchandise: none available.  Makes a refreshing change that I wasn’t tempted to part with more cash.

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Ryan Adams @ The Sage, Gateshead

Ste introduced me to Ryan Adams around the time of Gold.  I loved that album and subsequently picked up Heartbreaker and then committed to investing in each album going forward…to a point.  Love Is Hell Pt.1 is an awesome album.   I continued enjoying the releases (Pt.2, Demolition, Rock n Roll, Cold Roses) through to Jacksonville City Nights, which I didn’t enjoy.  I haven’t been back to it for a while, but it put me off.  I picked up 29 and Easy Tiger and then stopped.  I didn’t give the next few much of a chance until Ryan Adams was released.  I enjoyed that, but didn’t put in too much time.  Prisoner then followed and something changed.  I know it’s been critically well received, but I mean something changed with me.  I wanted to listen to it.  Perhaps because my friend and workmate, Laura, is a huge fan.  Perhaps, because I caught Ryan at Glastonbury in 2015 and loved the set.  Perhaps, because I’m in love with music again.  Or perhaps because it’s just so damn good.

The show on Sunday took place at The Sage in Gateshead.  I feel privileged to have such an amazing venue on my doorstep.  Yes, at times, it can be a little pretentious and the atmosphere can feel a bit stilted, but the acoustics are amazing and the setting is breathtaking.  On Sunday, there was no pretentiousness, just a quality rock and roll show.

Ryan made pretty regular references to Kiss throughout the night.  Kiss aren’t / weren’t quite as big in the UK as the US, but you could tell he was channelling the rock god in an alt. country style.  V-shaped guitar and all.

The set was a little over 2 hours, powering through 23 songs with no encore.  The only breaks taken were for a few anecdotes and some lengthy end of song wig-outs.  Ryan noted a few times that he was feeling “low energy”.  If this was the case, it didn’t show.  He opened with the awesome Do You Still Love Me and proceeded to play; 7 from Prisoner, 3 from Easy Tiger, Heartbreaker & Cold Roses, 2 from Gold & Love Is Hell and 1 from Ashes & Fire and Ryan Adams and 1 new one (Tired Of Giving Up).

I mentioned the anecdotes.  These were long, but they had a pay-off and I couldn’t help but like him a bit more after each one.  The was a fascinating tale of “Every Pirate” from an early career performance in Newcastle and another sobering tale for us all on the dangers of consuming a full bottle of Robitussin.

It’s of no surprise that the Prisoner tracks stood out for me as did those from Heartbreaker, but it was When The Stars Go Blue & Breakdown that stole the show.  When The Stars Go Blue was complete with a mirrorball and was quite possibly perfect in every way.

When The Stars Go Blue

Breakdown

The set was made very atmospheric throughout by a smoke machine pumping out low levels to maintain a smokey mood.  At one point I turned to Andrew and commented that the smoke was really starting to billow out now.  Little did I realise what was to come.  Ryan explained that there was a strict curfew at The Sage and that Shakedown… should be considered as the encore.   What followed was the most polite rock n roll end to a gig I’ve ever known.  Almost as soon as the tune started, the smoke machine went into full effect.  Soon, Ryan was no longer visible and before long, nor were any of the other band members.  Still playing, it wasn’t long before the whole auditorium was filled with smoke.

The set ended behind the cloud.  The lights came on.  The doors opened.  The fire alarms went off.

Attention please.  Attention please.  A fire has been reported.  Please leave the building immediately by the nearest exit.

Trust The Sage to have to most polite fire alarm in the world and what was presumably a brilliant coded message.

Can Mr Snow please report to the stage door…

I / we went home happy.  To cap it all off, I got a retweet from the man himself.    As did my friend, Laura who has been having a tough pregnancy – I think it made her year!

A superb set from @TheRyanAdams @Sage_Gateshead tonight. The smoke machine was put to full effect. That was a polite fire alarm! pic.twitter.com/ge5gO1dJ3w

— Chris Williams (@cwblueroom) September 17, 2017

I always think that any performance is so much better when the artist or band are enjoying themselves.  I sense that Ryan Adams was, judging by the number of instagram posts he made about this gig.

Prisoner will be my next vinyl purchase.

Support act: Karen Elson was pretty great too.  I hadn’t heard anything of hers prior to this gig and I definitely will be listening in the future.  She made a pretty tidy contribution to the Ryan Adams set too.

Present: Andrew, Ste & I were all there, but Andrew didn’t mage to get down until the headline set.

Pre-gig entertainment: Ste & I went to the Hop & Cleaver.  We weren’t too impressed with the food, but the pint of Cara Munich (brewed on site) was nice.  We followed that with a coffee at the Head of Steam while discussing record & music collecting.

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The Sherlocks @ Newcastle University

Last July, apropos of nothing, one of The Sherlocks started following me on Twitter (I think it was Bran, but can’t check now as their accounts have been spring cleaned).  Curious, I checked them out on Spotify and duly followed them back.  I liked what I heard & booked some tickets to see them at The Ku Bar in September.  We then saw them in Newcastle & Glastonbury.  Tonight was the first gig of the tour, following the release of their debut album, Live for the Moment.

I took my nephew, Chris.  I introduced him to The Sherlocks last year and he’s been raving about them ever since.  He managed to catch them at Hardwick Live in August, but this was his first proper gig.  It was a good one.

The Sherlocks played with the confidence of a band whose first album has just debuted in the UK top ten (no. 6 to be precise).  A fine effort from a band that seemed to have really put in the effort to reap the rewards.

The set was made up of the entirety of the new album and nothing besides.  I managed to procure a setlist on the way out.

The set opened with the excellent Will You Be There?  The audience responded to every tune with a huge number of the crowd knowing every song and singing loudly along.  The crowd were massively up for the gig, starting the Sherlocks Army chant of Papa’s Got a Brand New Pig Bag at regular intervals.

Before the album came out, I was really familiar with all the tunes on Spotify and as such; Last Night, Live for the Moment, Heart of Gold, Will You Be There? and Escapade were some of the clear highlights for me.  However, the other songs on the album shone too (particularly Motions) and you could barely pause for breath as they powered through an impressive collection of anthems.

I mentioned before that there was a confidence about The Sherlocks.  Having seen them three times before, I can say that this was definitely the best yet.  Whether that has something to do with the album coming out and me being familiar with all the songs, I don’t know.  I don’t think so, though.  This is a band that seem to love what they do.  They are willing to put a lot of effort in and it shows.

If you’ve not yet investigated The Sherlocks (horrible pun), then start with Escapade and go from there.  If I was a dancing man (I’m not), then this would be the tune to get me moving.

Support acts: we arrived just in time to catch the last two tracks of local band, Social Room.  They sounded reminiscent of Kasabian and would be worth a further listen.  Vida were the main support.  I wasn’t too impressed with them earlier this year, but I enjoyed the set tonight.

Merchandise: the merchandise on offer looked pretty cool, but having just bought the deluxe bundle of their new album, I was in no need of further merch.

Food & drink: a dirty McDonalds was purchased at the drive thru on the way.  The drinks at the Uni are eye-wateringly priced.  Student life don’t come cheap these days.  I had a bottle of a real ale, but as the bottle was poured into a plastic cup, both the aesthetic and name were lost to me.  It was tasty.

As an aside: the pre-performance music was selected well.  Full of classic (new and old) indie anthems.  I’ve rarely heard a crowd sing-a-long to so many songs before the main act takes the stage, but the crowd were in an ebullient mood.  My nephew loves music and can get pretty obsessed when he likes something.  He can sing every word on all five Arctic Monkeys albums and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of their demos and b-sides. He has decent taste in music.  However, I was amused and horrified in equal measure at what he knew and didn’t know off the playlist.  He immediately recognised Cocoon by Catfish & The Bottlemen and another recent indie anthem.  The next tune up was This Charming Man by The Smiths.  “Never heard it”…”never heard of them”.  Parklife by Blur then came on.  He didn’t recognise it until the chorus.  Common People by Pulp was up next.  “Who are they?”.  He’s a big Oasis fan so, was pleased that Morning Glory was the song that preceded The Sherlocks taking the stage (well, the tune before Pigbag).  I think a musical education is in order.

Storming set from @TheSherlocks tonight to kick off their tour. Took my nephew – loved it. #agigamonth2017 pic.twitter.com/pCfKjYXNDC

— Chris Williams (@cwblueroom) September 14, 2017