PLACEBO + THE EIGHTIES MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER.
AT NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY. 13/ 04/ 03.
Following the Sheffield Placebo gig the previous week it was now time for round two, this time in Nottingham. No offense to anyone that lives there but Nottingham is one of the biggest shit holes I have ever been to. Does anyone in Nottingham actually work?? I don�t mean as a professional beggar. Does anyone there have a proper job? During the 25 minute walk from the train station to the venue I had about 5 people come up to me asking for money. I was also asked for money by the more lazy beggars, the ones that sit down all day outside McDonalds and cash machines, about 4 times. I was offered drugs, asked for a cigarette lighter and bugged by about 6 bloody Big Issue sellers to buy a copy.
It was such a relief once I had finally found and arrived at Rock City. Safety at last. I was greeted at the front of the queue by some of the same people that were at the front in Sheffield. Some of them went to meet Brian Molko at one point but I couldn�t be assed. I didn�t want to loose my place in the queue either so I stayed where I was. At one point we were asked by the 80�s Matchbox drummer where he could go get food. We weren�t much help to him. At about 7pm the doors opened and there was a stampede to get to the front.
I made it on to the front row, just in front of Stefan. It was the exact same place I was stood at the Sheffield gig. I wanted to get stood in front of Brian. So did everyone else. By the time the security geezer had let me all the spaces in front of Bri had gone. Ah well.
Luckily tonight The Faint were not supporting. Instead we had The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. These guys are rising to fame fast. Last time I saw them play it was in front of less than 200 people. Tonight they were playing in front of 2500. Their set seemed to be much tighter than last time I saw them. Their mixture of punk rock weird shit had a mixed response from the crowd but generally they went down well. Their frontman is as energetic as ever and often jumped off stage to walk along the barrier thing that seperates the crowd from the gap were the security stood. They played for about 27 minutes, which is the same length as their debut album.
After a 45 minute break Placebo came on, launching, just like at Sheffield, straight into �Bulletproof Cupid�. A clutch on new tracks soon followed. I enjoyed the new stuff much more this time than what I did at the Sheffield gig, simply because I was now more familiar with it. Brian once again introduced �The Bitter End� with an anti-war rant. This time he spoke about how he hoped Britain and America were going to repair the damage they had caused to Iraq.
About a minute into the track Brian totally stopped the rest of the band. He had spotted somebody in his eye line filming the gig. Brian was visibly angry. He had ago at the bootlegger in question and made him stop filming. �We have a bootlegger in the house� Brian joked with the crowd. After take two of �The Bitter End� Brian apologised for the earlier interruption before leading into the classic �Every You Every Me�.
The set-list seemed to be exactly the same as at the Sheffield gig. Apart from the fact that �Lady Of The Flowers� had been dropped that is. After �Black Eyed� came a host of newies including �Second Sight� and the already popular next single �This Picture�. They concluded with �Special K�.
The band looked quite tired and they said very little in between songs. Their busy schedule has clearly had a bad effect on them. Encore number one again featured the singles �Taste In Men�, �Slave To The Wage� and �Pure Morning�. Encore number two was completed once again with a cover of the Pixes� classic �Where Is My Mind?�. Most of the crowd seemed to be expecting it. Don�t get me wrong, it was a fantastic gig, it just wasn�t as good as the Sheffield gig 10 days earlier. The band seemed to enjoy Sheffield more and so did I.
BY MR MARTYN. APRIL 2003. |