Red Hot Chili Peppers – Hampden Park 23/8/07

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

T in the Park 2007

Another T in the P, another great day out J. This year only went to the Saturday because last year we felt we really did not make the most of the Sunday at all due to being totally shattered.  Although the number of days decreased, the number of people I went with increased to 5 from 2 last year, which made it even better! Thanks to you all for making it such a laugh!  Anyway here’s the run down of all the bands I went to see this year…

Charlotte Hatherly – Pet Sounds Arena

Although the tent was only half full, it was a good start to the day. At the moment Charlotte’s sole stuff appears to be going largely unrecognised which is surprising considering the success of her former band Ash. The early slot probably did not help either as people were still trying to sort themselves out after the trouble with the weather the previous day.  Charlotte’s set itself spanned her two albums full of catchy punchy pop rock tunage.

Camera Obscura – King Tuts Tent

This is one of those bands I’d heard of, just not heard anything by them. What I got was like a very pleasant stroll in the park in the height of summer.  The female vocalist’s soothing vocals and laid back guitars created a wonderful soundscape making it a very enjoyable set.

Calvin Harris – King Tuts Tent

After a fairly chilled out start to the day, Calvin Harris changed that pretty quickly! Full of energy and boundless enthusiasm; Calvin blew the roof off the King Tuts tent as if he was a festival veteran.  The whole place was just going wild.  Especially “Acceptable in the 80’s” and “Girls”.  Having completely low expectations of the set before he came on, I was literally transformed into a dancing monkey by the end of the set.  What I expected was a guy to come on with a laptop, press play as if he was doing something then nod his head every so often (believe me, I’ve seen it before!).  This was very different; as Harris was singing, jumping around and playing on the laptop, while being accompanied by a full backing band.  Definitely would recommend seeing this live!

Reverend and the Makers – Scottish water future stage

After seeing three acts in a row beginning with the letter ‘C’.  As you can imagine you can get a bit “C’d out” and could start suffering from “C” syndrome if we listened to anymore acts beginning with that letter, so we felt it was time to move on to ‘R’.  Only to find the tent was so full there were people hanging out the entrances trying to catch a glimpse…………so we just dingied that!

Lostprophets – Main Stage

So it was onwards to the Main stage to catch the last half an hour of Lostprophets who were on top comedy form.  Having the job of fitting on to a bill where none of the acts could really be put in the same category as them.  Not because they are highly original but because they are the remains of the nu-metal scene which started in the mid 90’s. They certainly went the right way about getting folk to listen, even if it did mean taking the piss.  As they blasted through their catalogue of hits, I couldn’t help but notice they’ve never really bettered ‘Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja’.  If they don’t come up with anything better soon they will be joining the other Nu-metal bands on the scrapheap…

James – Main Stage

Only caught the first 3 James songs, including ‘Sit Down’ which, as expected, felt like they were born to play at festivals, but had to head off to catch Air Traffic.

Air Traffic – Scottish Water Future Stage

Having listened to Air Traffic on XFM the previous week and consequently buying the album; I was delighted to find them playing T in the P.  Originally I was more inclined to see Black Rebel Motorcycle club at this time, but having seen them before, I decided I wanted something fresh.  Air Traffic are exactly that with a good mix of songs ranging from the epic ‘Shooting Star’ to the punchy ‘Charlotte’.  This is a band who are making waves and destined to get bigger and bigger.

DJ Shadow – Slam Tent

Having had a bit of food and nothing really worth seeing it was time for a bit of random tenting! So destination was the Slam Tent for a laugh only to find DJ Shadow playing who I thought was headlining that night.  It was impressive stuff, with a cool video backdrop.  The crowd itself was comical! As one of my friends stated ‘Do you not notice, the nearer you get to the slam tent, the weirder people get’……………..oh it was so true!

Razorlight – Main Stage

Pretend its battle of the bands.  You’ve got the choice between Razorlight, Klaxons and My Chemical Romance.  First to be eliminated was My Chemical Romance for the easy reason “Nobody liked them!”.  So it’s down to the Klaxons or Razorlight.  Not really a big fan of either but decided to go for Razorlight (majority vote).  Klaxons I felt didn’t really have enough material yet to pull off a festival storming set, as although the singles are good, they would just be rehashing the only album they have.

Razorlight were ok, good sing-a-long music.  ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘Stumble and Fall’ are good tunes.  However in the end with all the mediocre impromptu bits in the last song which seemed to last forever, it was clear they don’t have enough material to pull off that slot, and I seriously worry about there capability to headline Leeds and Reading festivals.  I think festival organisers generally should implement a minimum 3 album rule for headliners and co headliners, this way the slots would be more prestigious and not given to the latest hype band with a lack of good material.

The Killers – Main Stage

In saying that The Killers had it a bit easier because although just having two albums they have a lot more good tunes than Razorlight, so maybe there could be some exceptions.  The Killers set was magnificent, all I really remember is bouncing up and down continually for an hour and a half, singing every word.  I always felt the first album ‘Hot Fuss’ was half good, half bad, but ‘Sam’s Town’ was a lot more complete. With the new album though it means they could afford to just not play the weaker songs from ‘Hot fuss’ and concentrate on the classics. Still ‘Mr Brightside’ is still sounding as good from the first time I heard it.   It was a great end to the day and The Killers were worth the price of the ticket alone, never mind getting all the other treats and bonuses along the way.

Reverend and the Makers - The State of Things

There has always been a select group of bands who attempt to make rock music you can dance to. Some might say The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays kicked it all off back in the 80's. Then you've got bands like The Music, Franz Ferdinand and more recently the Klaxons setting the standard nowadays. A new band that has emerged on to the scene in the last year that is doing the same sort of thing is Reverend and the Makers. Yes they still have the thumbing bass lines to fill the dance floors across the country. But as their debut album `State of things' shows, they also have the ingredients to make themselves standout. Most notably, along with the usual singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer; they have 2 keyboardists to add some more grooves and depth to their music.

First track `The state of things' sets the scene not only for the album but acts as a great introduction and insight into the whole bands ethos. It is clear from the outset lead singer John McClure is not shy about giving his opinion with lyrics like `While some sore heads will rue last night's endeavours, Make Sunday's vow that they won't get so leathered' from first track `State of things'. He says it as he sees it and meanwhile the five other members create a great tune to go along with it.

Hit single `Heavyweight Champion of the World' has become an indie classic. Telling the story of a guy who had great ambitions growing up but never fulfilled as reality hits. This is just one example of how McClure writes about topics a lot of people can relate to, but I could say the same for every song that he writes about topics a lot of people can relate to. I find it quite appropriate that the lead singer is shares a flat with the Alex Turner, the lead singer of Arctic Monkeys; because in my opinion these are the best 2, lyricists in the UK right now. Moreover McClure doesn't just write lyrics, but he delivers them with the conviction and passion which shows that he really does mean every word he says. He may not have the best voice in the world, but it fits the style of music which at the end of the day is the most important thing. A great song and one of these ones which will be a mainstay on their set list, probably for the rest of their career.

The only real gripe I have with this album is that the last 2 tracks; `Miss Brown' and `Armchair detective' sound like the same song, just with different lyrics. It's almost as if they wrote `Miss Brown' first then thought, hang on a minute, we can make an even better song with these lyrics. Although the backing tune sounds the same, the position of the vocals within the songs are different and ultimately make `Armchair detective' sound amazing and `Miss Brown' sound distinctly average.

Overall though this really is a cracking debut which although I don't rate quite as highly as The Music's and The Stone Roses debut efforts. It is still well and truly worth a purchase, especially if you are into the whole rock/dance scene or as I like to call it Ronce or Dack. Although if it was down to lyrics, this album wipes the floor with any band I have mentioned in this review, bar Arctic Monkeys.