Mega 2016 Catch-Up ( Gigs ) Part Three - Bruce Springsteen and various others

To prevent these 2016 catch-up posts spreading into 2018, I'm going to quickly run through some memorable gigs from last year. First up is my second visit to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to see the mighty Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on their River Tour, 03/06. ( Photo above courtesy of Backstreets.com )
After major traffic problems on the M5 I got to the gig extremely late ( after also dropping Sarah off at a hotel in Coventry )  -  meaning I'd missed 11 songs (!) including two of my absolute faves, Sherry Darling and Hungry Heart. In fact, I could hear Bruce playing Out In The Street when I was Out In The Car Park  -  not good. When I finally got into the arena he was bashing out some good ol' River rockers in Crush On You and You Can Look ( But You Better Not Touch ) which got me in the party spirit. Although maybe not the best performance I've seen from the E Street Band, there were still plenty of gems: a vicious Murder Incorporated, a spine-tingling take on The River, a beautiful Drive All Night ( the first time I've heard this live and miles better than the recorded version ) and a rip-roaring cover of Creedence's Travelin' Band being highlights. After some old favourites ( Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, a full-band Born In The USA and, of course, Born To Run ) the set finished with a wild, exuberant cover of Shout and a lovely solo-Bruce encore of the majestic Thunder Road to send us home with a warm glow. And here's a photo of my view of the stage. showing just how far back I was after arriving so late:

By complete contrast, the week before going to this 50,000 capacity venue, I'd gone to see the wonderful Slow Club at the Lantern in Bristol with my good friend Tom alongside only a couple of hundred other punters. The Lantern is a small venue within the Colston Hall and is ideal for more intimate gigs. And this certainly was intimate as the core duo of Slow Club, Rebecca and Charles, had dispensed with their touring band and were giving a very stripped-down performance. Playing songs from their new album, One Day All Of This Won't Matter Any More ( clunky title! ), plus some more familiar tunes, the low-key format meant we could focus more on the words and their beautiful singing voices. It really was a treat to hear these two sing live again and to enjoy their warm, onstage banter with each other and the audience. Great gig, great company.

Of course, I've recently posted about my trip to beautiful Amsterdam to see the Dandy Warhols last May. Two weeks after that they were again playing in Bristol, so I couldn't resist the chance to see them at a more local gig :-)
Glenn and I carried on our sordid mission to stalk the band, but this time dragged along Sarah and Glenn's partner Beki as well. It was another cracking gig from Portland's finest, maybe not quite as special as the one in Amsterdam, but good fun none the less. They played all the usual faves, including probably the best version of Good Morning I've yet seen from them, absolutely haunting. And we yet again met some of the band after the gig  -  this time the terminally cool but friendly Courtney ( vocals ) and the ever-smiling Brent ( drums / vocals ) who were hanging out in the Hatchet pub, just over the road from the venue. Dandy's Rule OK!

Moving on to August, Sarah and I went to Gloucester's Sport Beat 2016 festival. This strange combination of music and sport ( the clue's in the title! ) has been running for a few years but we've always somehow missed it before. I was determined to go this time because the lineup seemed very cool in an '80s / '90s revival kind of way. Even though it was bloody cold and wet, hundreds of people turned out with the intention of partying to some bangin' choons ( as I believe they're called ) on a muddy sports field. After some fine modern pop-Metal from the up-and-coming Coasts we were treated to the spectacle of the masked DJ known as Jaguar Skills mashing up dance classics and retro TV theme tunes, whilst spraying the crowd with confetti  -  loads of fun... with added Chuck Norris!

After all this technicolor lunacy the focus shifted to stately Gothic blisspop as the legendary
Echo & The Bunnymen took to the stage in a fog of dry-ice. Although I've never been that familiar with the Bunnymen beyond their big hits I've always wanted to see them play live and they certainly didn't disappoint. Not the most dynamic of live bands, they make up for this with a wonderfully all-encompassing sound and the stratospheric personality and still-solid voice of Ian McCulloch. It was fantastic to hear such Goth classics as The Killing Moon, Seven Seas and The Back Of Love washing over the crowd. And the highlight of the set for me was an absolutely jaw-dropping version of The Cutter  - proper shivers down the spine! I'll definitely have to see them again.

We moved from Liverpool to Madchester for the headline act as the irrepressible Happy Mondays came out to mess with our heads. The 24 Hour Party People may only party for 23 1/2 hours these days and then head home for their cocoa and slippers but they put on a hell of a show for the muddy Gloucester audience. Shaun, Rowetta and Bez were on fine form  -  bickering, dancing, singing and rapping like some strange, E-flavoured sitcom  -  while pulling out classic tune after classic tune. Hallelujah, Kinky Afro, God's Cop, Loose Fit and, of course, the mighty Step On had the crowd up and dancing... "mad fer it" in fact. A delirious ending to a mostly great day.

I was sad to hear that one of my favourite bands of recent years, The Sunshine Underground, were calling it quits so I made sure that I caught them on their farewell tour last October. On a boat...

This was Bristol's famous floating venue, the Thekla. I can't believe I'd never been there before so it was high tide... sorry, "time" that I got on board. And it's a really cool place too. Sarah and I had seen TSU a few years ago at the Gloucester Guildhall and loved them so it was good to see them for one last time. Their euphoric dance-pop was just as exciting and invigorating as before and I can't believe they want to split up. There was certainly no feeling of these gigs being any kind of wake as the band put 100 % into the show and their brilliant songs had everyone dancing, with Finally We Arrive, Don't Stop and Something's Gonna Happen being the stand outs. Without a doubt one of the best gigs we've been to in recent years and quite bittersweet when it was over  -  let's hope for a reunion!

I can't finish this series of posts without a mention or two for our favourite venue, Gloucester's fabulous Guildhall. I saw some great gigs there last year, starting with The Beat ( bloody fantastic as always ) last February. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of that one  -  I was too busy dancing to the red hot ska sound! However, I do have some pics of the following:

From The Jam
( June ) Yet another stop-over in Gloucester for FTJ  -  they seem to be constantly touring! A cracking set of Punk-Mod tuneage as ever. I dragged Sarah along to this one and she enjoyed her first brush with the Setting Sons...

The Damned
( August ) I was really in two minds about this one as I've been put off The Damned by a few lacklustre performances in recent years, as well as Captain Sensible's sour-grapes mutterings about the Pistols and the Clash, and some appalling treatment of support bands that I've heard about, and of fans that I've witnessed. Anyway, as they were celebrating their 40th (!) anniversary, I thought I'd give them one last go. And I'm glad I did because it was a great gig! They were very tight and energetic, had lots of banter with the crowd and played a fine selection of classic songs  -  including the groovy Disco Man, which compelled me to leave my mate Caz behind ( sorry Caz! ) and head down the front to get crushed. As I say, a great gig, but I'm probably going to part ways with the Damned now and let them go out on a high...

Dodgy
( November ) Another blast from the Britpop past! Dodgy were one of those second-tier '90s bands that I somehow never caught at the time. So, when they rocked up at the Guildhall I thought "Why the hell not?" And so did Sarah, Glenn and Cliff who came along too for some sparkling, Who-influenced, muscular pop. A very enjoyable set, a bit slow to start but they eventually pulled out some crowd-pleasing anthems like In A Room, Staying out For The Summer and Good Enough  -  with the title track from their new album, What Are We Fighting For, boding well for the future too.

Ash
( December ) Great to see one of my all-time fave live bands back at my fave venue! That's a lot of faves! This gig had been rescheduled from back in June (!) so it had been much anticipated. Ash never disappoint and the set was a perfect mixture of old faves ( there's that word again! ) and material from their last album Kablammo! In fact, a lot of their new songs ( like Let's Ride, Cocoon and the beautiful Free ) stand tall in the company of classics like Kung Fu or Girl From Mars. The band played with their customary good humour and exuberance ( and volume! ) and finished with a note-perfect version of The Undertones' classic Teenage Kicks  -  a lovely tribute from one great Northern Irish band to another.

Post no. 700: Bruce Springsteen at Ricoh Arena 20/07/13

One week ago I was in the fair city of Coventry to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band bring the 2013 leg of their Wrecking Ball Tour to the Ricoh Arena. It was the first time I'd seen Broooooce and the gang since Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park back in 2009, so I was more than ready to do the E Street Shuffle...

The three-hour set started in a low-key fashion as Bruce sang a solo acoustic version of Steinbeck-esque anthem The Ghost Of Tom Joad before bringing the full might of the newly-expanded E Streeters to bear on a lovely Long Walk Home and a glorious charge through My Love Will Not Let You Down  -  definitely not playing it safe by giving us "hits", but instead just damn good songs. The loose Wrecking Ball theme of "hard times come and hard times go" was reflected in a venomous version of Seeds, a blue-collar anthem from way back in the '80s which still resonates today with its tale of working people facing economic realities. The more things change...
After mass crowd singalongs to the evergreen Hungry Heart and an absolutely spine-tingling take on The River, Bruce announced the band were going to play the Born To Run album from start to finish and dedicated it to their "great friend" the actor James Gandolfini who had died that day...
 


Above is Mr. Gandolfini in his most famous role as Tony Soprano, with E Street guitarist "Miami" Steve Van Zandt ( with amazing hairpiece! ) as Silvio Dante. I watched the first couple of seasons of The Sopranos then kind of lost track of it and always wished I'd persevered. I'll have to invest in some box-sets and catch up. On the way to the venue that night I had seen a massive video screen outside the Coventry Transport Museum, showing a BBC News tribute to James Gandolfini, and was expecting there to be some mention of him at the gig. The romantic film noir rock 'n' soul of Born To Run was the perfect choice...

I have to admit I had tears in my eyes as those first, haunting harmonica notes of Thunder Road echoed around the arena. ( I'm such a pushover! ) BTR is not only my favourite Bruce album, but my favourite album, full-stop. ( For further dribblings on the subject see my long-lost 15 Albums blog. ) Suffice it to say, I was in hog's heaven for the next 40 minutes or so as the modern E Street Band did a brilliant job of replicating the sound of 1975  -  especially Jake Clemons who treated us to a wonderful rendition of his late uncle's beautiful sax solo from Jungleland. And Springsteen's vocals were out of this world. He's still got it, alright!

( Picture above courtesy of Backstreets.com )
Before you get the impression this was all a bit too worthy, let me tell you that the E Street brothers and sisters rocked out for all they were worth. The greatly-expanded collective now incorporates elements of folk, soul and gospel into Bruce's music, bringing the party to the people. And Bruce himself? Well, he's still the most energetic, committed and passionate frontman in rock 'n' roll, giving 100% every time. The sign request in the photo above from one of Bruce's many forays into the crowd says it all, really. Bruce and his band can and do play anything and everything in their ongoing mission to give their audience the best night... every night. And I'm sure the three women, one 9-year old boy and one guy called Evan who was looking for a "man hug" from Bruce all agreed as they were dragged onto the stage for their moments in the spotlight :-)

After playing big hits ( Dancing In The Dark, Born In The USA ), future classics
( Shackled And Drawn, Death To my Hometown ) and the obligatory soul cover version ( Raise Your Hand ) Bruce ended the three-hour set with the Pogues-folk/punk stomper American Land, a wild and raucous conclusion to another awesome set from the greatest rock 'n' roll band on Earth. Long may they run...

( Also courtesy of Backstreets.com, here's the full set-list... )
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Long Walk Home
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Two Hearts
Seeds
Trapped
Long Time Comin'
Wrecking Ball
Death to My Hometown
Hungry Heart
The River
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Night
Backstreets
Born to Run
She's the One
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
Pay Me My Money Down
Shackled and Drawn
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Lonesome Day
Badlands
* * *
We Are Alive
Born in the U.S.A.
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark
Raise Your Hand
American Land

Street Art in unlikely places

I'd expect to find street art in big cities like London or Bristol ( the home of the mysterious, controversial Banksy ) but sometimes you can run across some examples in the most unusual spots. The witty piece above is actually stencilled on the wall of Brixham fish market  -  "Let them eat fish" indeed! Clearly based on one of Banksy's most famous pieces, it may not be the work of the great man himself... but it's pretty cool.

The above ( also from Brixham ) seems to be a debate on the age-old "What is Art?" question  -  "There's a thin line between street art and shit art!"

And then there's "a shave and a haircut..."

The pic above obviously doesn't count as street art... but I just like it. It's from a tiny vegetarian cafe down a Brixham back alley. Where else would you find an alley cat?

The last two images are actually by Banksy himself. Whilst in Coventry on Thursday and Friday for the Springsteen gig ( review to follow, of course ) Sarah and I had a look around the city's Herbert Art Gallery. The Banksy pieces were part of an exhibition called Caught In The Crossfire: Artistic Responses To Conflict, Peace And Reconciliation. Sounds heavy, doesn't it? Well, er, it was. But there was some powerful artwork on display and it was worth a look... even if it wasn't exactly fun.