Mrs_bob has been a bit of a fan since the first album. She tried to get tickets for his solo acoustic tour several months ago but the gig at DeMontfort Hall was sold out. They offered to put her on a cancellation list which we'd both promptly forgotten about.
...until she got a phone call yesterday afternoon asking if she still wanted tickets. Babysitting arrangements were swiftly made and off we went.
Damn, he was good. I had my doubts about how interesting he'd be for an hour or more with just a guitar, but I needn't have worried. He's a solid player and a decent singer with a really good back catalogue of interesting songs to draw from- he also played decent covers of Wichita Lineman and Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues. His voice is an acquired taste, but you could say the same of Bob Dylan (I'm not comparing...).
Also not nearly as surly as I expected- quite talkative in fact, even made a joke about how he comes across as a "douchebag" in interviews ("when the guy interviewing you is the biggest douchebag you've ever met... well, not always").
Well worth checking out if he's coming to anywhere near you.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
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I know what you mean about his voice, but I quickly got used to it and now I think it really suits his songs. He can really play the guitar too.
Sadly the gig near me is sold out as well.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I haven't heard it yet either, or the previous one. Mrs_bob bought it a while ago and I did my dutiful husband thing and ripped it to our NAS, then forgot about it.
I normally put new stuff on my phone to listen to while I'm at work but didn't bother with that one. I'm going to rectify that.
I was surprised how many empty seats there were for a "sold out" performance at DMH. Also surprised by how many people left during his performance- probably exacerbated by the fact that the only way out of the stalls was via the stage, and obviously you don't get to stand by the exit and ask people whether they weren't enjoying themselves, or if they just realized they'd left the oven on, but I do wonder if the solo acoustic sit-down format put people off. It's not like he misrepresented what it was...
And further to recent discussions about guitar heroes, there were a large number of very young people there- passed a couple of kids who must have been under 10 on the way out, and there were loads of teenage girls. On a school night too. Disgraceful.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Quite common to go see people leave big gigs early, presumably to beat the rush out the car park or get back to the baby sitter. But I imagine they aren’t going to big/ expensive gigs all the time and the finish time is usually pretty clear in advance at big venues so it seems odd behaviour to me.
DMH only holds 2000-ish, so it's not exactly a small gig, but it's not that big or expensive in the grand scheme of corporate-sponsored soulless concrete enormodomes. Actually, it's pretty much the perfect size if you ask me- even if you had seats right at the back you'd have a good view, and I've never known it to have bad sound (seen Bellowhead, Counting Crows, Elbow and Jake Bugg there...). Booking choices are fairly MOR, as you'd expect, but that's life outside of a very few places in the UK.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Have heard Jake Bugg's wichita linesman cover before, its excellent.
What really pisses me of is, how quickly tickets appear on reselling sites. When I looked I could of got a ticket for Edinburgh, but they were going for 5-6 times the original price.
Jake Bugg had no truck with that shit at all. Off stage, house lights up, "What A Man" on the PA (Linda Lyndell, not Salt & Pepa! And yes, I did have to look it up), game over. Having been given such a clear "I ain't fuckin' doin' an encore" signal, everyone went home without protest. Who says rock and roll is dead?
Which reminds me- his background music mix was ace.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Good. I don't mind a genuine encore - best if it's something unexpected, like an old song you didn't expect to hear, or a cover - but I can't stand that contrived "encore" crap where they don't play the biggest hits and it's painfully obvious that they're ending a few songs early, then come back on and do three or four.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein