Archive for April, 2006

Gig-Goer of the Week, Part 4

So, tonight we’ve been to see The Boy Least Likely To at the Academy 3. Per usual, the proper review is forthcoming, this really needs saying instead.

Now, I’ve said it a few times, but I’m tiny. At gigs I have a hard time finding a place to see. Tonight was a bumper night because I found a spot near the front but not right at the front (which is always better) behind and to the left of a group of 3 teenage girls, 2 of whom were almost as small as me. They were stood where they were because there were small females in their line of vision to the stage as well. On the other side of them were two women, also quite small in stature. For me this is the greatest thing that can happen at a gig – finding myself in a clump of friendly, small females who understand my predicament and who are going to be friendly and polite and will enjoy themselves and not talk through the whole performance. Yay.

So, about 2 minutes before the band come on this woman elbows up beside me, trying to get in the small gap between me and the young girls. So, I moved half an inch, just in an attempt to assert where I’m standing. So she takes this as a cue to elbow me a few times. I love it, really, people who rock up just as the band come on, push their way to the front and cause everyone to be uncomfortable and lose their view. When this woman realised I was not moving for her she stepped back a bit. I thought I was safe. Ha.

About a song and a half into the set this woman and her boyfriend decided to move, so they shoved past me quite roughly, past the girls in front of me and down into the front/middle of the crowd. They were promptly ejected as they’d pushed in where there was no space. So they thought it would be okay to move to in front of the girls in front of me and they got shouted at by the crowd around them more. Then they tried to stop in front of me, and got shoved again, shouted at by me and the girls. So they ended up between me and The Ledge, who’d been stood behind me. I got a few more elbows before the woman realised I really was not moving for her and she shifted to be behind the two women on the other side of the girls. Then the boyfriend tapped me on the shoulder and said “I’m sorry.” I gave him a look which I think expressed exactly what I was thinking about his apology – he should not have done anything to warrant having to make it. He then leaned in to The Ledge and tried to justify his behavior only to be told that The Ledge was on my side and that I had a good reason for being annoyed as this sort of thing happens all too often to me. This is the point at which one of the women they were stood behind left for a couple of minutes to go to the bar.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, somebody, but if someone leaves their spot at a not full show (any show really, but there was space here) and their friend stays, it’s polite to assume they’re coming back and will want to come back to where they were. I mean, why would you not let them do that?

Apparently when you think you are the most important people in the gig and everyone should move for you is when.

Oh yes, first they tried to not let this girl back in where she had been stood. Then they decided to start screaming at her. All I could hear was “Move out of my way” and a few expletives. And the sound of shouting. And these two nice women trying to say that this couple needed to shut up and let them watch the gig, they weren’t moving cause they’d been there first. Which seemed fair to me. But this couple disagreed and spent a few minutes shouting at them about it, thereby nearly causing a fight and disrupting the gig for everyone in the vicinity. And it meant we missed the throwing of cake.

So here’s this week’s gig etiquette lesson:
You do not have a right to stand anywhere in particular. If someone is there before you, they do not have to move and you should not try to make them move just so you can see. If you want to be at the front arrive early. If you want to stand in front of someone smaller than you, be polite and ask them if it’s a problem. Don’t just barge in. And never assume that just because someone’s walked off and left their friends that they are not coming back.

Posted by JustHipper on 30th April 2006 at 11:05 pm | comments (2)
File under Gig-goer of the Week,Random comment.

Gig Review: Low and My Latest Novel, Manchester Academy 2, 28th April 2006

Alan Sparhawk of Low, Manchester Academy 2We were down at the Academy 2 on Friday night to see Low make a welcome return to Manchester after Alan Sparhawk’s health problems last year made for some some uncertain months and a canceled tour. It was a disappointing turn out, however, with the hall little more than half full for Low, and just a handful of people turning up early enough to catch openers My Latest Novel. Which was just plain wrong because they were excellent, a literate five-piece from Glasgow steeped in the fine pop traditions of their native country and recalling at times Teenage Fanclub, Belle And Sebastian and even The Proclaimers. Belle And Sebastian comparisons will be inevitable thoughout their early career but they produce a much more strident sound than B&S and have darker experimental side that should further distance them from their fellow countrymen as they continue to progress. They are blessed with four members who can sing and the opening “When We Were Wolves” showcased their close harmonies, while “Sister Sneaker Sister Soul” was as compelling a six minutes as I’ve seen from a support band for quite some time. They left the stage to rapturous applause and calls for an encore.

Low have always been a great live band; playing slowly and quietly they demand the utmost respect from their audience and they always get it. You could hear a pin drop through most of their performance and the minor annoyances of rustling paper and camera shutters replaced the major one of audience chatter that usually comes with the territory of the quiet band. I was expecting Low to be a little louder than usual after the release of their “rock” record The Great Destroyer last year and though Alan Sparhawk certainly turned his amp up for tracks such as “Monkey” and “Pissing” they didn’t rock as hard as on the album, opting for subtlety instead. Towards the end of “Pissing” Sparhawk turned everything up to 11, the buzzing from his amp almost drowning out the rest of the band, and as the crowd anticipated searing ear pain from the torrent of noise he was surely about to unleash on us, he instead eked out the tiniest squall of feedback to close the song. Perfect.

They played a good mix of stuff including oldies like “Lazy”, from their debut, and “Condescend”, as well as crowd favourites like “Sunflower” and “Over The Ocean” and a few newies like the opening “Sandinista”, all of which sounded like classic Low and suggest that their next album, like most before it, will be a cracker. As ever, Sparhawk and Mimi Parker were in fine voice throughout, they are two of the greatest singers operating in the indie rock arena at present and their voices are the most important ingredient in the band’s sound. They dovetailed beautifully on “Sunflower” and the brilliant quiet/loud thrill of “On The Edge Of” while Mimi excelled on the heartstopping “Laser Beam” and the closing “In Metal”.

The only negative aspect of the performance was that new bass player Matt Livingston doesn’t seem to have bedded in well and seemed detached and isolated, a non-presence at the far end of the stage, barely acknowledging the audience or even his own band members. This should change as they play together more and hopefully it won’t be too long before they’re back in Manchester with a new album to promote.

Posted by The Ledge on 30th April 2006 at 5:55 pm | comments (6)
File under Gig Reviews,Reviews.

Gig Review: Tom Kerswill, Palominos, Manchester Roadhouse, April 25th 2006

Last night we popped down to the Roadhouse to catch Tom Kerswill, a young singer/songwriter from Devon who recently moved up to Manchester and has been a regular commenter on The Indie Credential, and probably many other local blogs, ever since. It was the first time we’d seen Tom play and he did a fine job in front of a small gathering bashing out love songs on his acoustic guitar that were not as folky as we’d assumed they might be but were rather poppy and, in some cases, shoegazery; like Ride unplugged, maybe. We’d certainly like to hear him with a full band backing him and some big droning guitar sounds. We had a chat after the gig and he’s a really nice guy and admitted that he’d love to get a band together to flesh out the songs. He also told us that he does a weekly radio show (can’t remember who for, sorry) and has podcasts available on his website.

Tom also told us about a short film he is making about a regular on the Manchester gig scene called Man With Beard (though I think he said his real name was David). We’ve been seeing this guy at most of the gigs we go to for the past 18 months or so and have long wondered who he was (we’re far too shy and in awe of his beard to approach him and introduce ourselves). He’s unmissable: middle aged with a huge beard and yet alway in the company of attractive women. So, if you notice him at a gig in town in the near future then you may well see Tom there, pointing a camera in his face.

Tom’s excellent set was followed by The Palominos who played a short set of fairly authentic Southern Rock. JustHipper was impressed by the lead singer’s singing accent which reminded her of back home in Georgia (though his speaking voice was somewhat Northern England). I enjoyed them; they do what they do very well, the guitarist being particularly good, and the songs weren’t bad at all.

Posted by The Ledge on 26th April 2006 at 10:50 pm | comments (2)
File under Gig Reviews,Reviews.

Gig Review: Calexico/Iron & Wine, Manchester Academy, 21st April 2006

Calexico at Manchester AcademyThe tickets for this gig had been rattling around in the Indie Credential ticket drawer for months and although my anticipation of the gig had diminished a little during that time, my attention being diverted by some rather excellent shows by the Moz earlier in the same week, the gig turned out to be an absolute treat: three hours of (almost) non-stop brilliance from a collaboration made in heaven.

Iron & Wine
arrived first; just the impressively hirsute Sam Beam, an unidentified flame-haired female backing vocalist, and the ubiquitous, nay, legendary, Paul Niehaus on pedal steel. It’s sad that nowadays when you go to a gig in a venue of this size to see a quiet band it’s inevitable that your enjoyment of the gig will be tempered by other punters who have paid £15 to stand around chatting to their mates. Thus, the beautiful “Sodom, South Georgia” was ruined by people who didn’t seem to realise that the gig had started. Fortunately the chattering around us subsided in time for the next song, “Cinder & Smoke”, as people began to realise just how special a gig this was going to be. New song “Resurrection Fern” impressed but the real big hitter was the seven minutes of wistful beauty that is “The Trapeze Swinger” which held the audience entranced through its entirety. Half way through the set Iron & Wine “went electric”, bringing on the full touring band and cranking up the volume. They lost a little momentum here with songs like “On Your Wings” and “Free Until They Cut Me Down” sounding better suited to the acoustic treatment. Joey Burns joined them at some point and a superb rendition of “Woman King” gave way to the In The Reins section of the show where the rest of Calexico took to the stage to play a selection of tracks from their collaborative EP which began with a hypnotic “Red Dust” and ended four songs later with the excellent “Burn The Broken Bed”.

There followed a short five minute interlude before Mexican musician Salvador Duran took to the stage to perform three songs and went down very well with an unfamiliar crowd, largely due to his incredible, almost operatic, voice, and to his genuine humiliy and joy at the crowd’s reception.

After Salvador, Calexico finaly took to the stage and played two of the quieter numbers from their new Garden Ruin album, an album which on first listen was a major disappointment as it contains little of Calexico’s trademark tex-mex stylings and no instrumentals. A couple of weeks later and it’s beginning to sound rather good and seeing the band play these songs live certainly helped. “Yours And Mine” and “Cruel” sounded more lush than on record while “Panic Open String” and “Letter To Bowie Knife” sounded like classics-in-waiting. Of the older songs played “Stray” and “Black Heart” stood out in particular while “Not Even Stevie Nicks”, perhaps my least favourite Calexico song, didn’t sound too bad at all. My only gripe is that I’d have loved to have seen Iron & Wine’s backing vocalist take on the female parts in “Ballad Of Cable Hogue” as the song loses some of its impact with Joey Burns singing the whole thing. Anyway, it was a great set and they closed with “All Systems Red”, possible the highlight of Garden Ruin.

Iron & Wine joined them again for the encore and a stunning version of “He Lays In The Reins” with Salvador Duran before rounding a memorable night off with a beautiful, hushed version of “All Tomorrow’s Parties”. I can’t think of too many collaborations that have worked as well as Calexico/Iron & Wine; they’ve given us an EP that is every bit the equal of either band’s own work and now a tour which was better than we could have dared to hope.

Posted by The Ledge on 26th April 2006 at 7:54 pm | comments (2)
File under Gig Reviews,Reviews.

Gig Review: The Brakes, Manchester Academy, April 23, 2006

The Brakes are my new favourite band. It’s official. They are. I feel a bit stupid because I wandered into Fopp at 2:30pm on Sunday and saw a sign saying they were playing instore at 2pm. They had evidently just finished because they were sat at the tables downstairs when I went down for a browse. I texted The Ledge and he told me to say hi. But I couldn’t think of anything to say to them that was remotely interesting beyond, “Hi, I’m an idiot. I just missed your instore but I think you’re really really neat.” So I left them alone.

But to the gig.

The opener that we managed to see, the 1990’s, was really good. They played fairly melodic, angular, spikey and energetic pop tunes, a bit reminiscent of The Futureheads, et.al., but very well constructed and enthusiastically delivered. And the drummer was ace. And the lead singer looked a bit like Steve Lamacq, poor man. But I enjoyed watching them and I’d like to hear more. The songs were interesting and very catchy.

The Brakes really deserved a fully-packed venue, and while they didn’t get that, the crowd they got was very appreciative. They came out and delivered a set of short and very much to the point country-tinged punk tunes. I cannot fault a single moment of their earnestly-delivered words of wisdom. Mostly I just like the fact that they say it like it is, without mincing their words but with a lot of humour. “Shut Up” with the shouted lyric going something like “Shut the fuck up I’m trying to watch the band!” is how I feel about every quiet gig we see these days and “Cheney” which went, literally, “Cheney! Stop being such a fucking dick!” pretty much sums it all up quite succinctly.

Even the choice of cover versions be it “Jackson” by Johnny Cash or “Sometimes Always” by the Jesus and Mary Chain or the Camper Van Beethoven cover are all reclaimed, unique sounding and while not as good as the originals are certainly made the Brakes own with their renditions.

This is a unique band with an unusual voice and, quite frankly, I am amazed that Eamon, the singer, was ever a part of British Sea Power who, although interesting, are hardly short, simple and to the point. It was a brilliant performance and it made me want to dance and jump about and I am very much looking forward to seeing them at Summer Sundae in a few months’ time.

Posted by JustHipper on 24th April 2006 at 9:33 pm | comments (2)
File under Gig Reviews.

News: Register Your Disapproval for XFM Manchester’s Playlist!

We’re still not happy with XFM Manchester. It’s like listening to cheesy Adult Oriented Rock stations from America. We are not amused.

If you are annoyed that they aren’t sticking to what they do in London and instead are delivering us a playlist of classic Manchester music and MOR singer-songwriters (and Hard-Fi) then join us at XFM Manchester Sucks. Add yourself as a friend, add your comments and tell everyone you know.

Posted by JustHipper on 23rd April 2006 at 6:50 pm | comments (24)
File under News.

News: Sounds From the Other City

It seems that we’re getting our own version of In the City here in Salford. Next Sunday, April 30, sees Sounds From the Other City take over a range of pubs on Chapel Street. It looks brilliant. Live music from 3pm-closing. £7 buys you a ticket for all venues.

Posted by JustHipper on 22nd April 2006 at 2:56 pm | comments (4)
File under News.

Gig Review: Morrissey, Salford Lowry Theatre, April 18 & Leeds Town Hall, April 20, 2006

I’ve been walking around all week with a stupid grin on my face saying “Yay! Morrissey!” repeatedly to anyone who will listen. That’s just how Morrissey gigs make me feel. This week we had the privilege and pleasure of seeing two Moz gigs in three days. They were honestly that good that if I had slightly less common sense I’d probably have phoned into work on Friday morning telling them I was having the next month off and taken off after him on tour, spending our savings to do it. Luckily for The Ledge and Morrissey fans across the country, reason prevailed.

Tuesday night was the first night of the UK tour, and Moz had chosen Salford’s Lowry Museum as the venue. We’d had a real job getting tickets as See had managed to cancel my order, resell the tickets for which I had a confirmation, and then after a couple of shouted phone calls had found me a pair of seats. I know my orginal seats were not great, but they can’t have been as bad as what we got in the end – one row from the very top of a very tall theatre. Luckily for us these places are designed for the view, so long as you don’t suffer from vertigo or nosebleeds – I get both. So we had a lovely view of the top of the Mozfather’s head. But at least we could see, I suppose. And what a show to see. Usually in a seated venue the audience, particularly if you’re cursed with sitting way back, are very quiet and unengaged with the performance. This crowd was spectacular (if you discount the asshats directly in front of us). They were on their feet from start to finish, singing along, shouting, dancing. Security by the stage did not know what to do as the crowd was ignoring the seats and thronging forward to shake Moz’s hand. It was raucous and energetic and just fantastic.

Thursday night was at the Leeds Town Hall. We only bought these tickets because we couldn’t seem to get an order through for the Apollo gig in the ticket buying carnage. Although The Ledge lived in Leeds for many years, even he had never been to a gig here and we were not sure what to expect, especially as we had “unreserved seating.” Which, at least in my experience which extends solely to Brixton Academy, means, queue up to get right on the front or see nothing. This was much better. It was a small-ish venue, probably a similar size to the Royal Court in Liverpool, and we did get a seat at the front of the balcony. The atmosphere, while friendly, was not quite so raucous where we were (it was pandemonium on the floor) mainly because security kept making everyone sit down. I wished I had brought a rope ladder so I could get down onto the floor and into the dancing, and also because such a great view of Morrissey singing his heart out, from a distance where he looked like a person and not an ant, pretty much always makes me want to rush the stage and give him a hug. I’ve never yet managed that one. I’ll remember my ladder for Bridgewater Hall in a couple of weeks.

Support both nights was from the electric intensity of Sons & Daughters. These shows made it probably a half dozen times we’ve seen them live and they rarely disappoint. I am starting to realise that even though we own both the mini-album Love the Cup and their proper debut The Repulsion Box and although I enjoy both, they don’t really have much diversity to what they do. Namely, all the songs kind of sound the same. It’s a good sound, and very good in a live environment, but it will wear thin if they don’t begin to broaden their range. They were good enough support though, they kept us entertained.

Morrissey though. What a performer! He did the same set both nights, with I believe one exception. I know he did “On the Streets I Ran” in Leeds but not in Salford but I can’t remember what it replaced. It was an unusual set in that it didn’t contain some staples of previous tours such as “November Spawned a Monster” and “Everyday Is Like Sunday.” In fact, the furthest back into his solo career he went was with a brilliant rendition of “Reader Meet Author” off Southpaw Grammar. The only other pre-Quarry solo track was “Trouble Loves Me” which was Ledge’s favourite both nights and was an absolutely stunning example of exactly how strong his voice is. My vocal highlight was probably “My Life is an Endless Succession of People Saying Goodbye” from the Lowry. It gave me goosebumps. The sound in the Lowry was perfect and showed exactly how great a singer Morrissey really is – despite dancing around the stage and whipping his microphone cord about, he was note perfect and his voice seemed more powerful than ever.

On this tour the opening trio of songs pretty much set the tone for the night(s): “First of the Gang” got us up dancing, “Still Ill” made us remember exactly what made us love Morrissey so much in the first place – and it sounded remarkable – and “You Have Killed Me” brought us up to date with why he’s remained so loved by so many for so long. As he went through the set of new classics such as “The Youngest Was the Most Loved”, “I Just Want To See the Boy Happy” and “Let Me Kiss You” as well as two other Smiths classics, “Girlfriend in a Coma” and “How Soon Is Now”, he kept us entertained, per usual, with his witty, on-stage banter. In Salford he railed against Radio 1’s pathetic idea of a playlist and Bono’s lyrical prowess. In Leeds, the Dingle family of Emmerdale was his target.

Two things, besides his lovely voice, really stood out in my mind. I know that many people have complained about him adding Smiths classics to his live set, saying it cheapened his solo career and that he could never do them justice without Marr, Rourke and Joyce behind him. I suppose those people are right in that The Smiths’ songs would be better as played by The Smiths, but I never had the opportunity to see The Smiths live (The Ledge has, but he’s an old git), and would guess at this point that I never will, and certainly were it to happen I can’t imagine Morrissey sharing a stage with Mike Joyce ever again, so it wouldn’t be that band. This is the only way I will ever hear those songs performed with any amount of authenticity and they meant and continue to mean so much to me that I will take it however I can get it. And even if the backing music isn’t exact, the voice is, and Morrissey singing those lyrics that he wrote so long ago, is priceless. The other thing is that there is no other artist anywhere in world who could cause an entire crowd to clap merely by shaking one person’s hand. Everyone in the crowd wants to be that person and everyone knows why that person is going home happy when he grants them the pleasure.

Even though I’d have written a completely different setlist for him if he’d asked me what I wanted to hear, I really enjoyed the show he delivered. While I hadn’t been 100% sure of the new album Ringleader of the Tormentors after two weeks of listening, the songs began to make sense live. It’s not a poppy album like You Are the Quarry. In fact, it’s more of a throwback to what he was doing stylistically back in the days of Viva Hate and Kill Uncle although this album does have some rather different instrumentation and production. Live it began to gel for me and I think it’s probably a grower as it is lyrically very powerful. The closing moment of “Irish Blood, English Heart,” while it didn’t send anyone out into the streets still singing like “There Is A Light” did on the last tour, was a fitting reminder of how good Morrissey’s songwriting remains and sent us off into the night dancing and gleeful that we have one more moment of Morrissey beauty yet to come on this tour.

Posted by JustHipper on 22nd April 2006 at 1:48 pm | comments (4)
File under Gig Reviews,Reviews.

Gig Review: The Blue Aeroplanes, Manchester Academy 3, 12th April 2006

The Blue Aeroplanes, Manchester Hop & GrapeThis was a strange one. The Blue Aeroplanes reform on the back of the re-issue their best album, Swagger, and set out on tour. Except I’m not sure if they ever split up as they seem to have released an album every few years since the last one I remember, Rough Music, back in 1995. I was a fan of theirs dating back to 1989 when I saw them a couple of times opening for REM. The next three years saw the Aeroplanes at their peak, releasing Swagger and Beat Songs to great critical acclaim before gradually dropping off the radar after the patchy Life Model in 1994, which is where I jumped off.

Hopes of a full-on reunion of the classic early-90’s line-up were dashed when the band took the stage and I only recognised lead singer/poet Gerard Langley and his brother John, on drums. Well, I recognised most of the other members because two of them, along with John Langley, were in the first support band Saturation Point who we caught the end of and who sounded terrible: loud, squally instrumentals with flashes of Zeppelin and Hendrix guitar licks and no discernable tunes. Another member was Gerard Starkie who was once in a band called Witness who released an excellent album called Before The Calm in 1999 and a not so excellent one called Under A Sun in 2001 before disappearing from the face of the planet. Gerard played a short acoustic set after Saturation Point and it was fairly dull, typical acoustic singer/songwriter fare. There were no members on stage from the third and final support band Catlow, who are from Canada and played some rather catchy, straight forward indie rock.

So, The Blue Aeroplanes took to the stage to almost no applause from a disappointingly small crowd who had nudged forward almost to the point of reaching the stage, but held back at the last minute and left a semi-circular void in front of the band where one might imagine a mosh pit would normally be. The first few songs I didn’t recognise; some were from new album Altitude and they sounded ok, although the muddy vocal mix rendered Langley’s words almost inaudible, which was a shame as his lyrics and the half-sung/half-spoken delivery of them are such an intergral part of the Aeroplanes make-up. They used to have a Polish dancer (no, not a pole dancer) called Wojtek who was, if I recall, classically trained in ballet and was a delight to watch. In his absence Gerard Langley took over dancing duties and it was ugly. I would roll out the old cliché about your dad dancing at a wedding but that would be a major slight on your dad’s dancing abilities. Langley’s dancing was both impossible to watch and impossible to take your eyes off, like watching an episode of The Office or a slow motion replay of some footballer breaking his leg on Match Of The Day.

The other integral part of The Blue Aeroplanes’ sound was the guitars: they always had at least three great guitarists in the band and tonight was no exception. The guy from Saturation Point was particularly good and when the band got round to playing a few classics off Swagger such as “Jacket Hangs” and “Weightless”, the guitars were crystelline perfection , sounding even better than I remember back in the day. The indie dance classic “…And Stones” was exceptional with Langley toning down the bad dancing to concentrate on his vocal performance while the band built a wall of guitar in front of him. I recognised few other songs; my own fault as I should have boned up on the excellent earlier albums Tolerance and Spitting Out Miracles. I did recognise the folky “Days Of 49” from the latter, which was sung by Gerard Starkie and sounded very close to the original.

They encored, as always, with their rock-out cover of Tom Verlaine’s “Breaking In My Heart” which brought back memories for me and some of the crowd, which apart from a few die-hards, had been strangely subdued all night. It was good to see the band again but I’m not sure, given the indifference of the small crowd, whether this reunion or comeback or whatever is going to last too long.

Posted by The Ledge on 22nd April 2006 at 12:08 am | comments (7)
File under Gig Reviews,Reviews.

Gig-Goer of the Week, Part 3

Ahh Morrissey. The lovely lovely Morrissey. We saw him last night on the opening night of the tour at the Lowry in Salford. More on that later as it will be easier to review it in tandem with the Leeds gig tomorrow night. This space is all about the Morrissey fans.

Now, I have no beef with Morrissey fans. In fact, I rather love being around other Morrissey fans. Mainly because people who aren’t Morrissey fans really don’t get it. They don’t get it so much that they think Morrissey lyrics are depressing. They are tasteless fools, the lot of them. Morrissey fans, however, on the whole are a clever lot. And every single one feels a very strong personal connection to just about every song that ever came from his pen. Last night, although I didn’t attempt to test my theory, I am fairly certain that everybody in the room pretty much knew every song he played or might have played.

So, why is there always one fucktard (or two) who thinks they are a bigger fan than everyone else in the room, that getting to see him is more important to them than anyone else in the room, and wants everyone in the room, including good old Moz himself, to know it. Why as well does this person, or in this case people, always seem to think that despite being, quite literally, one row of seats from the top of a very large, very tall theatre, despite it being dark, Morrissey having a giant spotlight in his face and there being, oh, a couple thousand other places to look, that if they waved frantically for 80 minutes he might actually see them, point them out and wave back?

Now it might seem that I was fixated on this couple when I should have been watching the Mozfather, but that’s not actually the case. They were, in fact, completely and wholly blocking my view when the gig started. Luckily there were no seats directly behind me so I moved up a row and stood behind my chair, and they were still obscuring my view. Mainly because they had big heads which they had pressed together, but also because of the manic arm-waving. And the fact they kept trying to tango. And they were banging into the people on either side of them. I was waiting for a fight to break out, they were that exuberant in their dancing. They were not in exactly the best location for a maniacal crazy-person dance. And they were probably 25-30 years too old to avoid looking like total fools.

So yeah, middle-aged couple, trying to wave to Morrissey from the top row of the Lowry, dancing and banging into people in a seated venue. Yes yes, we all got it, they were fans. But if they weren’t fans, why would they have been there? So what exactly did they think they were proving to the world?

So kids, this week’s gig etiquette tip:
If you’re at a gig, people assume you’re a fan of the band or artist. You don’t need to prove how much you like them, especially if it nearly starts a fight.

Posted by JustHipper on 19th April 2006 at 8:50 pm | comments (0)
File under Gig-goer of the Week,Random comment.