I find it hard to nail down favourite gigs, but at the same time I guess I’m becoming more underwhelmed by live music the older I get. There just aren’t many surprises these days. Arrive early to get a good spot, the support band might be listenable if you’re lucky, then after a few hours standing the main act comes on and by that stage I sometimes find myself thinking..I’d love a seat. Then there’s the tiresome encore routine. What? They’re going to come on again to play another song?? What…it’s their biggest hit? Well I wasn’t expecting that!
Maybe I’ve reached the point where I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of my favourite bands in concert so gigs are now no longer the defining moments of youth? Anyway, I was thinking of those gigs which have been real disappointments. There haven’t been that many but here they are.
4. Flaming Lips – Belsonic Festival, Custom House Square (2008)
This isn’t a criticism of the band (who are ace on record and live) but of Belfast crowds, who can suck the life out of live music. I think Flaming Lips are better as a support act rather than the main draw, it fits with their underdog approach. And as the headliners here they worked so hard to get the crowd behind them but the standoff-ish audience just seemed to want to stare and chat.
3. Gomez – Mandela Hall (2002)
Loved their first two albums but by the time they were touring In Our Gun it seemed like they were pissed off with playing “the hits” and just jammed for two hours. Add the infamous Mandela Hall non-atmosphere and it was a pretty crap end of undergraduate life concert. Since then they’ve toured America and gained a bit of cult following over there!
2. Josh Rouse - Spring & Airbrake (2005)
I have all of this guy’s albums and his first trip to Belfast was this show. He started off as an observant singer-songwriter before veering into 70s soft-rock pastiche. I preferred his earlier work but also enjoyed the more fun later stuff. But this gig majored on the later material and played it like a good-time party band. It was under an hour too, and the place was full of rowdy culchies for some reason. It affected how I viewed his music from then on.
1. U2 – Croke Park (2001)
Loved the 2001 Slane Castle show, but for some reason not long after they came on stage at Croke this summer I just wanted to go home. Mid-paced, poor sound, badly-arranged set and maybe just too big?
Far more good shows than bad ones really!
I don’t think I’ll ever go to see a U2 gig. The venues are way too big, and it’s ridiculously expensive…
That’s a pity for Gomez and Josh Rouse, I always quite liked their music…
surprisingly the tickets we got were about £30 quid each, which for a show that size wasn’t too bad! But still….
Aw flip Josh Rouse was poor. Haven’t heard of those two dudes on your blog?
No I never blogged about them. I think I’d found out about Josh Rouse from Uncut magazine. They had a great Americana sampler CD a few years ago (don’t remember if he was in it though). I just saw Patrick Watson last night, if you’ve heard of him. He put on a great show!