Gig Weekend

Hiho. This weekend was busy busy, and was basically a trip to Manchester for 2 gigs, with a trip/night out in 5th Avenue sandwiched between. What began with a hectic, last minute train ride preceeded an equally mad and last-minute style weekend, but I had a fantastic time! The two gigs I attended couldn't really have been more different. The crowds, the venue, and the type of music varied far more than I anticipated; saying that, I enjoyed both almost equally, but for different reasons! Aside from the weekend's main events, it was great seeing Rob and meeting all his housemates. This year really is an expansion of friendship groups for me, im meeting new people far quicker than I can remember them it seems! Anyhow, reviews below...

Maximo Park - Manchester Apollo - Thursday 8th October
The Apollo isn't my favourite venue, but I was not dissapointed this time. Maximo put on a great show that I'd love to see again, and the venue didn't seem to create an issue at all. The crowd was quite a mature one - average age being 18-30 - and this suited the music and setting perfectly. I found myself about 4 rows from the front, with a great view, but instead of the regular heavy jostling and sweaty crowd I was afforded a little space in which to go mad in: the fans were excited and enthusiastic, but strangely respectful.

To the music then... The concert was opened by Dutch Uncles, a manchester-based group who didn't impress all too much. Their best track was probably "Face In", but the mediocre performance was made somewhat more palatable by the lead singers terrible dancing. They were followed by Hot Club de Paris, who were on the whole much more impressive. The scouse trio were refreshingly original - my favourite track was "Hey! Housebrick", but they had a number of other good songs. They really got the crowd going, and had some good banter with the fans without being annoying - a delicate balance that certainly paid off for them in my eyes.

Enough of that though - to the main event! Maximo Park exploded onto stage with "Books from Boxes" and "Parisian Skies" before drafting in a orchestral quartet (yes, you read correctly!) to accompany them on a number of tracks from their new album. My favourite of these were "Cloud of Mystery" and "Questing, not Coasting", but to be honest it was a tough contest because they were all very impressive. It was largely a very energetic and upbeat gig (exactly what you'd expect from Maximo and Paul Smith) but it was interspersed with some really serious and moving moments; namely their self-professed ballad, "That Beating Heart" and their classic accoustic number, "Acrobat", complete with poetry. It was quite a long set, and nearly everything I wanted to see was in fact played, and they concluded with an encore of "Apply Some Pressure", "Our Velocity" and "The Kids are Sick Again" to end on an exciting high.

All in all, a great gig, allbeit quite different to the usual emokid one's I've attended in the past. I give it a 7/10.

Funeral for a Friend - Manchester Academy (2) - Saturday 10th October
All I can say about this gig was that it really suprised me. It is the sixth (I know!) time I been fortunate to see FFAF, and I thought I had got the measure of their concerts by now, but clearly not. Firstly, Matt (vocalist) managed his normal trick of looking completely different from the last time I'd seen him, or indeed, anytime previously. This time he had long hair and a shaggy beard and looked a bit like a tramp - I suspect some kind of inside joke was going on though, because 3 of the 5 looked exactly the same!

The concert was opened by Save Your Breath, and as is the norm with FFAF they had made a wise selection and picked a very capable Welsh punk/indie rock band. I expect to see SYB hit the charts in the near future! After a long while (not until after half 9!) FFAF finally made an appearence, opening with Roses for the Dead (the third time they have done this, while I have seen them perform live). Regularities seemed to stop there though - instead of playing a mixture of classic fan-favourites, new album hits and old and new singles, the Welsh quintet stated their intention to make this a "core fan" targetted gig. It was a small venue (500 tickets sold only) and the setlist to my surprise had been chosen by fans on the FFAF message boards. They played NONE of their newest album, only 1 song (Into Oblivion) from Tales~ and only 2 from Hours. Instead they played nearly all of Casually Dressed~ and a good portion of Seven Ways~, and basically thrashed out their rawest music. It was a really fast paced, passionate performance and the fans responded in kind, producing a really, really good gig. Of the six times I have seen FFAF, its a toss up for best out of this and their last intimate gig, at Academy 3 last year. I give this a 8/10.

I managed to get a video of "History"; the quality is really poor (although it does pickup somewhat after about a minute), but it's still worth watching I think:



Anyway, that's that. I decided against a review of 5th Avenue because otherwise this blog would just fill up with stories of silly things I do when im hammered; so suffice to say, it was a great night.

Chris