Month: September 2022

The Big Moon @ Newcastle University

The Big Moon bringing back gig magic

Sometimes a gig arrives at a perfect moment. Andrew needed a gig this month and it didn’t take long to persuade Ste & I to get involved in this one. A stressful personal week for me meant I really valued some time to catch up with some good friends, good food, good drinks and quality live music.

We just booked at the start of the month, but it turns out this was a twice delayed gig due to the obvious. We decided to head out to Pizza Punks in advance and a last minute decision to stay at Ste’s meant we were both free to have a few drinks with Andrew kindly being the designated driver.

The pizzas were tasty washed down with a pint of Blue Moon (in advance of The Big Moon!). We then headed for a couple in the City Tavern before making our way to the gig.

We arrived with Gently Tender already on stage and towards the end of their set. They sounded decent. We worked our way to the front with a couple of pints of Sharps Atlantic Pale Ale. A couple more were had before the end of the evening.

The Big Moon took the stage to a decent sized and very enthusiastic crowd. The 4th time I’ve seen them, but first as headliners. They were fantastic.

4 songs from the forthcoming album, 4 from the first and 7 from the second. Throw in a great cover of Praise You and it was a quality set. Wide Eyes from the new album is a great tune and the set was packed full of them.

Only our 4th gig this with the three of us present (plus a festival), but was a timely reminder of why we started this in the first place.

Someone else’s setlist prize
The Big Moon Setlist Newcastle University Students' Union, Newcastle, England 2022

Turin Brakes @ City Varieties, Leeds

Turin Brakes gig number 23

This was the first of three TB gigs booked on this tour. This one was with the whole family. The 3rd time Lana & Erin have seen TB and something like the 10th for Clare. 23rd for me!

The day leading up to this gig was really tough and emotional. My focus wasn’t on the gig and I definitely wasn’t fully present. Nevertheless it was just the tonic that I needed to soothe my mind and my heart.

Fast Trains opened the event after a minutes silence for the Queen. I enjoyed the set – particularly the cover of Somewhere In My Heart by Aztec Camera.

FastTrains

Just before the set I finally got to meet a TB fan I’ve interacted with loads on social media, but great to finally meet Rachel in person.

TB opened with Isolation. An instant classic from the latest album – Wide-Eyed Nowhere. They played 5 in total from the latest album. I’d have happily taken all 11, but the 5 were a treat.

Other than the new tracks I think Last Chance was my highlight of the night. It sounded awesome.

The start of the TB set had a few technical issues with their monitors, but if they hadn’t said anything I’d never have noticed!

Something In My Eye was the first encore song. I’m not convinced I’ve heard that live since the Dark On Fire tour, but I might be wrong!

Turin Brakes Setlist City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds, England 2022

My mood may not have been right, but TB did their best to bring some calm for a few hours. Looking forward to the next date in Sunderland!

Manchester Orchestra @ Manchester Academy 15/9/22

Manchester Orchestra and audience in a perfect connection

A while ago we developed a gig a month agreement that we’d be happy to travel further afield for bands that we really wanted to see. This was the first one that I felt compelled to ask the others if they’d be willing.

I discovered Manchester Orchestra in 2021. Pointed in their direction by a recommendation on insta, I played The Million Masks Of God on Spotify and put a load of tracks on my playlist. I found myself coming back regularly and started adding MO music to my physical collection in September. TMMOG was my album of the year in 2021 and by the time this gig rolled around I had all their albums including most on vinyl…and a load of related stuff.

Anyway. Having put in the ask (and I’d have gone solo), Ste answered the call. Good man. As we approached the date, the suggestion was to stay over and make a day / night of it. A travelodge was duly booked and we made plans to get there at around lunch. A car ride down filled with music and music based conversation ended with us arriving at 1ish.

Check in was later so we headed to a pub for a pint and some lunch. A few charity shops were explored for CDs (a few found) and a few more pubs were hit (including one at £6 per pint!). The gig was a fair trek from the hotel (50 minutes according to Google maps!) so we fell into a Brewdog pub on the way and had a couple more pints. We stumbled upon the venue earlier than Google maps predicted and found ourselves with another pint in hand.

Alex Lahey was the support. We enjoyed her set. The venue was filling up rapidly and everyone was respectful and engaged in her performance. We got another pint as the set drew to a close.

Coming back from the bar was easy-ish at this point, but as I had a final comfort break before MO, the journey back to our healthy position near (10 people back?) the front was much harder.

The band kicked off the set powerfully with Inaudible – lead of track from TMMOG. They stayed with the same album for the opening 4 tracks including Bed Head and Keel Timing – two of my absolute favourites. It was a real pleasure to hear and see those songs played live. Even within this early part of the gig, it was obvious we were in for something special.

I’m less familiar with the earlier stuff but it didn’t matter. The connection between band and audience was probably the closest I’ve ever witnessed. Everyone that was around me was loving it and all were singing along.

Cope & Simple Math were awesome and the they hit an incredible 3 song run from A Black Mile To The Surface. I was absorbed with no wandering of my mind like normal during gigs.

A mosh pit emerged just in front of us. I considered rolling back the years and getting involved in the bouncing, but like a proper old man my knee has been aching of late and I decided (wisely) against it. They looked like they were having a ball though!

I’m writing this a month later and so it’s tricky to think through the set. Suffice to say – it was all fantastic. At some point towards the end (not realising it was near the end), Ste went to the toilet and sent a message to see he was going to struggle to get back to where we were stood. We debated another pint and the next thing I knew he’d sent me a picture of two freshly poured beers. He fought his way back to give us some refreshments for the encore.

The encore was perfect. Shake It Out, 100 Dollars & The Silence. What an end to a quality experience. I took a picture of the setlist that someone had collected and we made our way into the night.

We were pretty hungry by this point and decided to head to Dixy Chicken for some very greasy fried chicken. It hit the spot. We considered that we may need to travel for our gigs more often if we needed to for this kind of quality. Wanting to continue our music conversation we spotted an open pub (The Salisbury) and got another couple of pints. The loudest pub ever seemed to want to stay open very late and so we got a couple more. Cheers!

Manchester Orchestra Setlist Manchester Academy, Manchester, England 2022