The concert report/setlist thread

[unalaguna]

I thought I might as well start a thread for people to post/comment on shows they've recently been to.

Even if nobody else uses this thread, it should stay fairly active! I saw Blackfield yesterday, and tomorrow I'm seeing Crippled Black Phoenix!

[unalaguna]

Blackfield
Support: The Pineapple Thief

[/b]
Manchester Academy 2, 7th April 2011[/center]

Phwoar! What a show. I arrived an hour and a half early, so was able to get a great spot, not just at the front on the rails, but right in front of Steven Wilson! Here's a picture to show you where I was. This was with the gear set up for The Pineapple Thief, but Steve's microphone was in the same place:



Speaking of The Pineapple Thief, I may have a new favourite support act! Supposedly they owe quite a lot to Radiohead (but I still haven't listened to Radiohead so I can't comment), and there was also a strong Porcupine Tree influence, but the music was not quite pop, not quite indie, not quite prog, not quite dance... it was a very clever mix of genres and styles. Very atmospheric, but in a different way to Porcupine Tree. Also quite intense at points, well, at least compared to Blackfield!

After the show I asked their keyboardist, Steve Kitch, to recommend one of their albums for me to buy. (I reckoned if anybody knew which Pineapple Thief album to listen to, it would be one of the band members!) I now own a copy of Someone Here is Missing. I gave it a spin this morning: it'll need a few more listens to sink in, but it was pretty good!

Then after some jigging around of gear, the lights dimmed and Blackfield came on stage. Aviv came on wearing a jacket with LED strips across it! I knew Aviv put a reasonable amount of effort into his on-stage appearance, but that was almost as impressive as the coat Peter Gabriel wears at the end of the Sledgehammer music video.

Music-wise the show was cracking. They opened with Blood, from the newest album, which was a really good opener, although unexpected. This followed immediately into Blackfield. Aside from the new album, I haven't really listened to any Blackfield at all for a good eighteen months. Hearing songs like Blackfield and Where is My Love? really brought a lot of nostalgia up. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was Pain, with everyone singing along for the chorus, and an extended outro. Touching stuff.

Although they played 17 songs before the encore, their set was probably little more than an hour long. While it's fair enough that they don't have much of a repertoire of songs, it really felt like it was over too soon. I would have probably liked a few more songs from the second album, which they didn't play live, like 1,000 People, This Killer and Epidemic.

I also thought that the sound could have been better. The bass sounded very loud to me, which wasn't too much of a problem for Blackfield's set, but for The Pineapple Thief it rendered some of the keyboard parts almost inaudible.

The crowd were pretty boring, at least around the front. Sure, people were singing along and being appreciative, but most people seemed completely static. I felt a bit stupid doing air keyboard, occasional air drums and actually raising my arms up as I cheered. I was also a bit disappointed that there wasn't as much banter and crowd interaction between songs. I like to feel like I've experienced something with the band as they've performed, whereas with Blackfield (and also Porcupine Tree), it was very much they performed the song, and we were the audience, and they'd say thanks and something every three or four songs. Maybe I'm just disappointed because the last band I saw live was the Devin Townsend Project, also at Academy 2.

But those minor niggles aside, I had a great evening.

Here's the setlist:

Blood
Blackfield
Glass House
Go To Hell
On the Plane
Pain
DNA
Waving
Rising of the Tide
Glow
Once
The Hole in Me
Miss U
Zigota
Oxygen
Where is my Love?
Dissolving with the Night

Encore:
Hello
End of the World
Cloudy Now

[consciouspilot]

The Pineapple Thief are FANTASTIC!

[sknowbird]

Uber cool show report with some great details una!! Thanks for the photo and setlist too. I most certainly hope they stick to a similar set for our late May gig in Chicago. Yeah, I bet you were a little bummed not hearing "1000 ppl" too. It's made for live experience! Great idea to start new show thread too btw..

And that's sofa king awesome you were able to catch the Pineapple Thief as well. They seemed to impress you live substantially and that says a lot to me since we all have great taste here of course..hehe I, too, am unfamiliar with Radiohead but I really like the American band Wilco who some call the US version of Radiohead.

Anathema are the US openers for most of their shows, ours included. Am very unfamilar with them. A friend told me they're like Porcupine Tree was in the 1990s but I wouldn't know! Either way, una, thanks for sharing this INFORMATIVE concert review! ;D

[unalaguna]

Someone shouted for "1,000 People" when they came back on for the encore; Steve simply said "Sorry, we don't do encores". In fact, four shows into the tour and the setlist hasn't changed at all (apart from the first show where they didn't play Cloudy Now as part of the encore).

Anathema should be great - I'm only familiar with one of their albums (Alternative 4), but it's a classic. Glad you enjoyed the review!

[unalaguna]

Crippled Black Phoenix
Support: Ageing

[/b]
Islington Mill, Salford, Manchester, 9th April 2011[/center]

That's right, two shows within two days of each other! Yet these two gigs were completely different in almost every way.

For those who don't know Crippled Black Phoenix but are polite enough to read anyway, think Pink Floyd meets Godspeed You! Black Emperor. If you're not sure what that sounds like, think of bluesy guitars, old school production values, quite slow, atmospheric and apocalyptic music. Not apocalyptic in the sense of doom metal, but quite melancholic, sober, and mournful. If you want a couple of their songs for reference while you read the rest of this review, here are a couple:




The first thing to mention is the venue itself. Most gigs I've been to have been on crusty old theatres, or big black rooms. The Islington Mill is different. It used to be a mill of some sort, but was done up a few years ago as an arts centre. The old brickwork is still laid bare, and the ventilation isn't great, but the place feels like it has a soul, a history.

The actual "auditorium" is very small - the place probably couldn't even take 200 people. But it feels incredibly relaxed. There are sofas, chairs and coffee tables dotted around the edge of the room, where people just sit and chill. There's nothing to stop you pulling a chair up when watching the main act play. The place has an incredible vibe.

The support act were a band called Ageing (although more than a few people were taken aback when they mis-heard it as "Asian"). They played what I suppose can be described as hardcore rock/metal/punk. Their music was rather generic, and the sound didn't help them either; the guitars just blurred into one noise for most of their set.

One of their guitarists got a bit too excited during several songs, and started jumping about and kicking microphone stands over. He got points for wearing a Frank Zappa shirt (Hot Rats, if you're interested), but apart from that I wasn't particularly impressed.

After about half an hour, Crippled Black Phoenix took to the stage. The band is made up of eight members (two guitarists, one guitarist/vocalist, bassist, drummer, violinist, keyboardist/vocalist and synth player). The stage wasn't exactly big, either, meaning that none of the band had much space to move around.

The audience was quite small - probably less than 100 people - but the band played their hearts out. The show was incredibly intimate - the band was on a slightly raised stage (the front of which wobbled whenever one of the guitarists tweaked their effects pedals), but there were no barriers between the band and the audience. While the band was setting things up, the audience stood a few metres back, but one chap walked and stood right in front of the stage, and the rest of us soon followed. There was casual banter between the band and audience - but the intimacy meant nobody needed to raise their voices to be heard, and it all felt very natural.

Their songs were many and long, with the set around 1h40m long. There were many standout moments, but the most memorable included the opener Troublemaker, Of a Lifetime (a cover of the Journey song), 444, and Rise Up and Fight. A particularly special mention goes to the last two songs. The penultimate song, features gang vocals which the whole band and whole audience joined in on. The audience loved it, and the band seemed to enjoy it even more - the synth played took a moment to get his camera out and take some pictures of the crowd, such was his approval!

But the final song, the 18-minute Time of Ye Life / Born For Nothing / Paranoid Arm Of Narcoleptic Empire, really took the biscuit. The song starts brooding, atmospheric and contemplative, before slowly morphing into a hypnotic set of riffs and improvisations. Through the middle of the song, there was an unconventional guitar duel: rather than trying to playing as many notes as possible, the two guitarists tried to create the weirdest noises as possible with their guitars: slide versus ebow. The guitarists loved it, we loved it, it was great.

But then, for the final riff, the rhythm guitarist, Justin Greaves, came out into the crowd. First he stood right up against me, playing his guitar, then proceeded to go around and do the same for a few lucky people at the front of the audience. As the final chords started playing, he took his guitar off, put it on me, and he, me and a few others nearby started strumming the guitar together! After posting on the band's Facebook page, it turns out that it wasn't a standard trick Justin did every night - it may have even been the first time he did it!

Everyone seemed to love the show, although some members of the audience felt the need to talk loudly during the quieter moments (the standard feature of post-rock audiences). The band told us that of the four shows they'd played so far on the tour, we were the best audience they'd had (assuring us that it wasn't something they said every evening!).

So, if you're into atmospheric, bluesy, Pink-Floyd-esque music, then check out Crippled Black Phoenix! Their album 200 Tons of Bad Luck is probably the best place to start; I, Vigilante, their most recent album, is also brilliant. At the gig I bought a copy of The Resurrectionists / Night Raider, a double album which is effectively an expanded version of 200 Tons. And their live shows... well, the gig I went to didn't even cost ten pounds! That's value for money, right there.

Setlist:

Troublemaker
Fantastic Justice
A Lack of Common Sense
Goodnight, Europe
Song for the Loved
Whissendine
Of a Lifetime (Journey cover)
The Brain / Poznan (new song)
We Forgotten Who We Are
444
Rise Up and Fight
Burnt Reynolds
Time of Ye Life / Born For Nothing / Paranoid Arm Of Narcoleptic Empire

[sknowbird]

RUSH

United Center - Chicago, IL - April 12th, 2011

Setlist: www.setlist.fm/setlist/rush/2011/united-center-chicago-il-7bd3b26c.html

First Set

The Spirit of Radio
Time Stand Still
Presto
Stick It Out
Workin' Them Angels
Leave That Thing Alone
Faithless
BU2B
Freewill
Marathon
Subdivisions

Second Set

Tom Sawyer
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs
Caravan
Drum Solo
Closer To The Heart
2112 Part I: Overture
2112 Part II: The Temples Of Syrinx
Far Cry
Encore:
La Villa Strangiato
Working Man
(with Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage tease)

We TOTALLY loved it!! Went w/ my friend who just turned 40. Yes, the reason we went to this show since I'll be 40 in two weeks myself. We had seen Rush only twice beforehand, but it had been 21 years so we treated ourselves right! Yeah, gee whiz, RUSH may be 56-57 years old but they still play & sing like they're in their 20s 30s! Afterwards my pal remarked they play as a machine (lol)..that was SO very true and befitting with this tour's name itself!

Altogether, 26 songs in two and a half hours for both sets. A reggae version of Working Man was pretty interesting! Yes, only half of which sounded reggae. The other, ROCKED like original! Prolly my favorite song of theirs, "SUBDIVISIONS" just ruuuuled! My fave song from the concert was 1st encore, La Villa Strangiato... so kewl. And altho we were SO FAR away from stage their sound still RULED. Man, and the stage show as always + they rocked bigtime giving everything they had.

It was so sweet too w/ big screen behind stage and it indeed helped LOTS for us And, OH MAN, Alex Lifeson's les pauls. Those gibsons he has? So beautiful all his various axes..their SOUND was so awesome!! Rush played this new interlude within RED BARCHETTA near middle to end part. That, i guess, Neil Peart said in this radio interview my pal heard was supposed to be on original MOVING PICTURES cd. Yes, so i guess it may be on remastered version which was just released. It was odd and different after years of being so used to, you see.

So RUSH played 1 hour...from 7:40pm-8:45pm then came back 20 mins later at 9:05 and played until 10:45 so it was WELL worth the price of our $46 tickets. And, of course, i failed to mention..Neil's AMAAZING solo! When they began YYZ ppl everywhere, including us, went absolutely nuts! ;D When I mentioned to a fellow Mooreatorium member on Skype last nite he wrote: "YYZ ... YYY" and I told him that's all i thought of too!! Idk if anyone here recalls but someone asked Kevin that on Chroma Key forum when graveyard mountain home came out and he said i wanted to do my own YYZ..hahahaa!

After show, we took a look-see at the incredible Michael Jordan statue outside facing east towards downtown Chicago. We had no idea that Jordan' footprints and handprints are actually in the cement at the front of his statue so that was very nice! All in all, a most astounding experience. And RUSH's performance without doubt. Needless to say, this Canadian 3-piece so deserves to be in R&R Hall of Fame!!

[unalaguna]

Epic show report! I'm seeing them five weeks today - I was already looking forward to it but now I REALLY can't wait!! Good to hear that being sat miles away isn't too much of a hindrance sound-wise and with the big screen.

Your ticket was cheap, though - I think the cheapest ones for the gig I'm going to were at least double that! I ended up paying an extra £10 so that I wouldn't be right at the back of the arena.

[vivace]

saw Maceo Parker last night...pretty phenomenal and i wouldnt usually post it here but that iv never seen a guitar player do this before:

[unalaguna]

Saw Rush on Thursday. Incredible. Same set as you. Wish I could write out something a little more in-depth, but I'm too busy panicking about exams.

[southernsickness]

I saw Rush two weeks ago. They're one of my favorite bands so expectations were massive. Set list was as above. Unfortunately, and unlike Sknowbird wrote above, Geddy did NOT sing like he was 25 - instead he was very strained. And Neil is the machine, uncharismatic at that, which also is a shame. Alex was just super.

All in all they played the roof off the house. (At an overprice.)

[vivace]

i saw rush in toronto back in 1993. I was pretty into them back then and it was great to hear all my favorite rush songs played with live teeth. Surprized to hear you thought Neil uncharismatic. The question of his charisma never even crossed my mind when i saw him...he just seemed like this monster...i mean...it was just a great show.

theyv kinda been through a lot since then to put it mildly so...wouldnbt be surprized if things have changed a little...

[unalaguna]

I suppose it's fair to say Geddy's voice isn't what it's used to be. He was straining in places quite a bit, especially during Tom Sawyer. Still an incredible show, but I Geddy's voice is way past its prime.

[southernsickness]

May 24, 2011 0:25:42 GMT -5 vivace said:

Surprized to hear you thought Neil uncharismatic. The question of his charisma never even crossed my mind when i saw him...he just seemed like this monster...i mean...it was just a great show.

Oh, he is a monster for sure - but more Terminator than Godzilla. He's so focused that it (almost) can become a little boring. He doesn't look at the audience, he didn't walk to the front of the stage for thanking the audience at the end etc.

As you might now he did his jazz exploration thing a few years back and he himself thinks he loosened up his playing a bit. I don't think he did at all. That said, I love his playing - and let's not forget that he is the one who brings us the amazing (!!!) lyrics - but a guy like Mike Mangini could probably play with the same precision and be all over the place at the same time.

May 24, 2011 0:25:42 GMT -5 vivace said:

theyv kinda been through a lot since then to put it mildly so...wouldnbt be surprized if things have changed a little...

Very true, especially Neil. I read "Ghost Writer" a few years back and one really feels for the guy. He really doesn't have to prove anything, and just seeing him touring again is breathtaking. But over the course of three hours breathtaking can become boring

[vivace]

I dont know...i mean sure Mangini is technically amazing and all but Neil did it first and i still think he does it the best. He just comes up with the coolest things. Yea i always thought his jazz predicament was strange because i had always found his playing pretty jazzy sounding in many places. But yea he did the burning for Buddy project and was dissatisfied with his performance so he studied jazz drumming for a time and then did a burning for Buddy sequel.

The thing about Rush it was like they were a rock band...it wasnt like DT or other prog metal bands where its just part of the package to have an amazing drummer that is featured very prominently..rush was more like ok its a rock band and it just happens that the drummer is absolutely sick--weird canadians! but he wasnt trying to show off most of the time he was just providing drums for the songs, in an incredible way. Its a little different now with bands like DT when the songs are structured and written with the express purpose of featuring the drummer prominently.

[unalaguna]

I haven't written up any shows due to forgetfulness... here's a quick write-up of Mono, whom I saw back in June. I've been to two other gigs in the past couple of weeks, so I'll aim to write them up at some point, too.

Mono

[/b]
Sound Control, Manchester, 9th June 2011[/center]



I skipped the support for the band as I had a couple of events on which overlapped. Consequently I wasn't able to get as far forward as I would have liked (especially with my height!), but I was able to get a decent view.

Mono are a so-called post-rock band from Japan. Think a more symphonic version of Explosions in the Sky, although several notches up from the innumerable EitS rip-off bands. I'm only really aquainted with one of their albums, Hymn to the Immortal Wind, a good album which I hadn't listened to for a good 18 months.

The large gap in time between last listening to the band and experiencing them live didn't seriously hinder the experience though. Their characteristic melodies and textures immediately rang bells and captivated me. They probably played for about an hour, and I probably recognised most of the tracks they played, if not by name.

Overall, they played solidly and emotively. However, I was only able to get a clear view of the bassist and drummer, not so much because I wasn't that close but because the two guitarists were sat down for most of the show. Being a completely instrumental band, they had no need for microphones, and being Japanese, they might not have been able to communicate in the same language as most of the audience particularly well!

All in all - check them out if they're in town!

[sknowbird]

Thanks for sharing, una! I have a couple friends in Macedonia who saw them a year or so ago and i never found out how it was. Gonna see Opeth/Katatonia in 2 weeks and Steven Wilson next month. Are you seeing SW in the U.K., una?!

[unalaguna]

Luckily I'll be able to go down to London for SW's show. I was gutted when he didn't announce a Manchester show but luckily my uni timetable works out so I can get down for it. I'm also seeing Opeth (for a second time, but with Pain of Salvation supporting) and Marillion in the next couple of months.

Still got a couple of shows to post up!

[unalaguna]

Between the Buried and Me
Support: Animals as Leaders

[/b]
Moho Live, Manchester, 20th September 2011[/center]



I'm not particularly familiar with either AAL or BTBAM. I listened to an Animals as Leaders album a few weeks before the show, and I'd given BTBAM's Colors a few spins and enjoyed it. I mainly went at the behest of my brother, a big fan, and reckoned I wouldn't lose anything by going.

Between the Buried and Me (BTBAM) are a US progressive metal/metalcore band. Most of their songs are around the 10-minute mark, and are pretty intense metal songs. Lots of dynamics, although most of the time jumping from one intense metal piece to another. Their drummer in particular is renowned for his proficiency.

Animals as Leaders are an instrumental tech metal band, also from the States, cented primarily around their (incredibly talented) lead guitarist. I listened to their debut a couple of times, but it didn't really feel that engaging to me. Technical issues meant that the group had to fill out their set with two extended drums solos. The songs that they did play didn't really change my opinion of them: they're great players, but their music feels like it's lacking a lot of feeling.

By the time BTBAM came on stage I was boiling. The venue, Moho Live, is a poorly-ventilated club in the centre of Manchester. It also boasts a random staircase bang in the middle of the audience area. Fortunately I was able to take advantage of it and get a slightly better view of the stage.

In a word, BTBAM were intense. Their vocalist and bassist in particular put a lot of energy into their stage presence. Unfortunately, their songs I didn't know (most of them) tended to wash over me, and even during the songs I did know I felt I got lost in a myriad of metalcore sections.

It didn't help that they exclusive played their more intense pieces. They have some more mellow, dynamic pieces, but they elected to not play them, presumably as it would have prevented the large number of moshers from running into each other.

Performance-wise, the only weakness I would say was in the vocalist's clean parts (fortunately in the minority). He has these hypnotic clean vocals during some of the more mellow parts in the studio, but they just didn't translate into the live setting. Otherwise, the band was extraordinarily tight, energetic and good fun to watch.

If metalcore, or the more demanding side of progressive metal is your thing, BTBAM are certainly a force to be reckoned with. Although I definitely had a good time and enjoyed the show, I felt my enjoyment of the show was impeded more than usual by a lack of familiarity with the band's material. Like I said, I listened to their "classic" album a good number of times, but I think the nature of their music (long-form metal pieces) means that, in order to get maximum value out of the show, you need to be really familiar with their material.

[sknowbird]

Hey, that was a great review una. Especially for someone basically winging it going into the show! For real, that's an admirable trait to have. I used to be much like you (taking a gamble) but nowadays not so much. This band Animals as Leaders I've heard many nice things said. Like you said, being a mostly technical outfit cuts back on the songs played. If you're a musician, unlike me, I'm sure you'd get a lot more out of their shows.

And, likewise, I agree that songwriting with an emotional feel that you can relate with is sometimes non-existent with certain artists. Although I'm still pretty unfamiliar with Opeth, I've heard their live shows are great so I'm seeing them pretty soon. Guess what una and certainly myself are trying to say is SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC! Thanks for sharing your review too.