Its one of those gigs you buy the tickets well in advance,
and it feels like ages till the actual date comes around. When it does the excitement is
inescapable….well for me anyway. I
managed to get away from work early and get home about quarter past 5. My bro
and I got dinner and I really wanted to get out of the flat by 6, to ensure I
didn’t miss any of the action. It got to
six and I was hyper as anything, not being able to stand in the same place for
any period of time, pacing up and down the flat. Meanwhile my brother was slouched on the sofa
saying “I can’t be bothered going just yet, my legs are sore from football and
we’re going to stand for 5 hours anyway” Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. But eventually
managed to get him to get up and get this show on the road. Conveniently Hampden’s only a 20 minute walk
from my bit so we got there about 20 past 6.
Just as we were heading down the front the first band came on. During
the first song we could not put a finger on who it was until my bro turns round
and says “Its Reverend and the Makers!”
Reverend and the Makers
This is the band that my brother so desperately wanted to
see at T in the Park but couldn’t due to the tent being packed out. Oh the irony and oh how I laughed! Anyway, live the songs such as ‘Heavyweight
champion of the World’ and ‘He said he loved me’, sound brilliant live. All the songs have these thumping base lines
which I imagine in a smaller venue would go straight through you. Complete with 2 keyboard players on top of
the bassist, guitarist and drummer, in turn create some magic tunage. Another thing which made me laugh is when the
singer announced one of the song titles as “Why do British holidaymakers go on
holiday and act like twats, then come home and slag off immigrants” or
something to that effect, anyway its definitely a contender for Longest song
name of the year award (assuming he was being serious!). Anyway, a pleasant surprise to see them
playing to say the least and from this performance they certainly deserved the
slot.
Biffy Clyro
Having been announced as the main support act, this was
probably one of the biggest gigs of Biffy’s career. It must have been strange for them having so
many people seeing them who do not know every word to there songs off by heart
like their headline shows. Although
having toured constantly for the last 5 plus years, they’ve had enough practice
to ensure a storming set was delivered. 7
of the 10 songs they squeezed in were from there most recent album ‘Puzzle’
showing a band who have put full faith in there new material and quite right
to. ‘Living is a Problem because
everyone dies’ went down particularly well as they manage to pull off the
complex intro live.
Set list below (Think it’s the right order?!):
Saturday Superhouse
Who’s got a match?
57
Love has a Diameter
Living is a problem because everyone dies
Just boy
Now I’m everyone
Machines
Get Duck stud
Glitter and trauma
Red Hot Chili Peppers
It was a long wait till the Chili’s came on, almost an hour,
as there seemed to be a technical glitch.
Who knows whether they were meant to play for longer than an hour and
three quarters or not? But from the time
we did have of them, it was business as usual with a few surprises thrown in
along the way. For example the Drum solo
by Chad
followed by a trumpet solo by Flea at the start of the encore.
The set was predominantly post Frusciante mental drug era
with only ‘Give it away’ played at the end as a token gesture to the hardcore
fans that have been with them since the start.
It is funny in a way though, that they do only play one song from
roughly the first 15 years of there career, but it just goes to show you the
strength, depth and popularity of the last 3 albums. Having nearly 60 songs to choose from, from
their last 3 albums, you wonder what decision process they go through in making
the set list at all. Most artists when
playing a tour to promote their album play most of the songs off that
album. But of course being the ‘Stadium
Arcadium’ tour, Within a 2 hours slot they would still have songs from the
album the didn’t have time to play, never mind delving into their humongous
back catalogue. Out of the 28 songs,
they played 7 off ‘Stadium’. So I doubt
there will be no one from that gig who could say “They played every song I
wanted to hear”. Highlights for me in
particular were ‘She’s only 18’ and ‘Wet sand’.
Shame ‘Especially in Michegan wasn’t played but as I said before!
But with out I doubt I went home thinking the Chilis are one
of the best live acts in the world today.
You don’t just get the songs thrown back at you like they were
replicating the record note perfectly.
You get Frusciante playing differently solo’s every time he plays. You get Frusciante, Chad and Flea going off
on wild jams at the end of songs such as ‘Throw away your television’ and the
unforgettable 15 minute version of ‘Give it away’. Its one of these bands I would just go and
see again and again and again and again…………..
Set list:
Can’t stop
Dani California
Scar Tissue
Readymade
Throw away your television
Snow
Fru song – unknown
Get on top
Emit Remmus
Wet Sand
So Much I
Shes only 18
Right on Time
Californication
By The Way
Encore:
Drum solo followed by trumpet solo
C’mon Girl
Give it Away
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