Month: November 2018

Jon Hopkins @ The Boiler Shop

Beers were bought, drunk and sloshed. All to the electronic sounds of Jon Hopkins.

A fantastic social evening. Andrew, Ste & I were all present for this gig and were all free to have a drink or two. To add to that, a friend of ours, Aaron, was at the gig with his Uncle Alan. We caught up with them just after the support act finished.

The evening started with a trip for Ste & I to the Tynebank Brewery for a record market browse and a nice pint. Ste picked up a bit of Bob Dylan and The Byrds. I left empty handed.

Back to Ponteland and an eventful trip to the Blackbird pub while we waited for Andrew to arrive. 1 pint down and we found ourselves generously offering to share our table with a young family. The two young kids seemed to be out pretty late on a busy drinking evening. This proved to be the case. Ste & I were busy chatting as I heard the clunk of something metal (a toy car it would seem) clanking my 3/4 full pint of beer. The glass was sent over by this matchbox projectile and the contents rapidly gushed across the table entirely soaking Ste’s jeans. Profuse apologies from the parents and a fresh pint didn’t particularly make up for the saturated jeans. To make matters worse, another glass was sent flying. This time half a glass of coke flowed on to the floor making the top of my trainers pretty damp. Andrew arrived and got a pint in. Ste spent a considerable amount of time under the hand dryers and Andrew ordered us an Uber.

We headed to the Hawkers market and grabbed an awesome kebab each from Baba Ganoush and three pints of Goodbye Eric. Andrew grabbed a slice of diabetes from Cake Couture & Ste and I decided some pizza fries were required from Dirty Fries. A power walk to The Boiler ship enables us to pitch up towards the support acts conclusion.

IMG_4668

Pints of Silver Dollar were the order of the evening.

It was at that point that we met up with Aaron and Uncle Alan.

The gig itself was completely different to anything I’ve been to before. No band. No words. Just a man and a laptop. I’ll admit that it wasn’t really to my tastes, but I could see that the three A’s (Andrew, Aaron & Uncle Alan) were completely absorbed.

There was a screen with some imagery that sort of matches the music, but it wasn’t enough for me. I connected slightly to the last time which had a few chimes from Coldplay’s Viva La Vida album, but that was about it.

IMG_4672

Post- gig, we nearly took on another one. Andrew has seen that DJ Format was playing Head of Steam. We marched that way, but dipped out after taking a peak in the venue and discovering there was only a slack handful of others there (at 11ish) and it wasn’t due to finish until 3am.

We took on board another pint in The Forth before saying our goodbyes and catching an Uber home.

A good night had by all. I love this gig a month lark.

Jon Hopkins Setlist The Boiler Shop, Newcastle, England 2018

 

Circa Waves @ The Georgian Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees

Circa Waves were incredible at an intimate venue before unleashing a new album

We were going to see Circa Waves about a year ago, but the gig calendar got far too congested.  The opportunity to catch them in a small and very local venue (to me) couldn’t be passed up.  Unfortunately, Andrew couldn’t make it, so it was just Ste and I.

Our last few trips to Stockton haven’t resulted in any delightful culinary experiences. Instead Stockton has produced the nadir of all food forays on more than one occasion. Tonight was different. We asked the bouncers at the venue and were directed to Hope & Union which was hidden away around the corner. Beer & a burger were the order of the day for both Ste & I.  Ste picked a pint of Bad Seed Brewery Murky Magic and I plumped for Northern Blonde from the Brass Castle Brewery. Hope & Union broke the bad food cycle and set us up for a fine evening.

The last and only time we had been to the Georgina Theatre was to watch Fionn Regan in 2003.  It’s changed since then. Nice a compact. Definitely one to return to.  Support came from Ed The Dog. Ste noted a likeness between the lead singer and Harry Potter, a fact acknowledged by the singer after track 1. I wasn’t inspired by their performance to start with but I’d certainly grown into it by the end of the set.

Circa Waves took to the stage and launched into a great set only mired by some technical difficulties which caused a significant delay midway through the set and took a bit of momentum out of the performance.

I’m more familiar with the Different Creatures album, which I’d say I prefer, but the set was heavy on album one, drawing 9 numbers from Young Chasers and only 4 from Different Creatures. 1 new song was played with 1 b-side too…at least I think he said it was a b-side. Movies (the new song) sounded like classic Circa Waves.  I managed to bag a set list which showed a 15 song set, but I can’t quite remember if the delay led to one song being missed. 

We had a great view for the gig keeping ourselves to one side out of the way of the mosh pit. I’m sure I would have enjoyed one of those throngs in my youth, but they look insane now.

Anyway, the set was great and I’m looking forward to the new album.

 

 

 

fullsizeoutput_d51e

First Aid Kit & The Staves @ O2 Academy, Newcastle

A night of perfect harmonies & gorgeous songs

Ah, the perfect combination of two quality bands made up of sisters singing sweet harmonies. This should have made for a gentle relaxing night. Competing events on the day meant this wasn’t to be. After traveling from a swimming gala in Leeds that finished at 5.20pm, then dropping my daughter at Mum & Dads and then picking up Clare all with an aim of getting to Newcastle for the advertised start time for The Staves, which was 7.30pm. We arrived dot on 7.30pm (as did Ste & Amy), only to find a queue around 3 corners of the building. Fortunately, The Staves didn’t take to the stage until 7.50pm and we’d made it in by then.

4 of us at this one. No Andrew, but the wives instead. We had standing tickets. I’d normally book seats when Clare is coming, so I’m not sure why I didn’t. Anyway, with the view encumbered by tall people, we settled in for a beautiful night of music.

The Staves were up first.  We weren’t far away, but with a black curtain backdrop and all wearing dark clothing, the photos are terrible.  The music wasn’t.  A short but quality set featured 7 or 8 tracks including a couple of new ones and a cover version.  Blood I Bled and Mexico were superb.  I wanted more.

First Aid Kit took the stage to rapturous applause.  The crowd were clearly loving the evening and were behind the sisters throughout.  It’s hard to fault the set.  Loads of highlights and a little treat with The Staves coming back to the stage for a Lykke Li cover.  We last saw FAK at the first gig a month back in 2015.  This one was better.  They seemed to enjoy it more and have more incredible tunes to showcase.  The encore was stunning and I left happy that we’d made it after a day with challenging logistics.

First Aid Kit Setlist O2 Academy Newcastle, Newcastle, England 2018, Rebel Heart

 

The Staves Setlist O2 Academy Newcastle, Newcastle, England 2018