SUPERGRASS + ED HARCOURT + THE RAVEONETTES.
AT YORK BARBICAN CENTRE. 23/ 01/ 03.
I spent most of the day of the gig in York with my friend. At one point I said to her �Wouldn�t it be cool if we happened to see Supergrass or Ed Harcourt wandering around�. About a minute later I turned my head to see Ed wandering down through the city centre! I was very freaked out by this!! He was with two other people, possibly members of his band. Me and my friend decided to stalk them for abit just because we could and because we were bored! I wanted to go chat with him but by the time I had plucked up the courage to do so, they had escaped into a vegetarian caf�! The cheek of it! Later in the day I also very nearly met the Supergrass drummer! He was getting on to their tour bus as I walked by! I didn�t notice him at first though because I was texting somebody!! Dammit! Another missed opportunity. The really annoying bit is that earlier in the day I had bought copies of �Alright�, �Mansize Rooster� and �Lenny�. I had them in my bag. They would have looked real nice with an autograph on them me thinks!
Ah well. At 7pm or there abouts the doors opened and we were all forced by staff to wear silly wristbands like you would wear at a festival! What's that all about?! We ran to the front row, for which I got told off. I took my jacket off and placed it over the barrier. Got told off for that too. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Me was not amused. But then I got handed a CD, badge and sticker promoting first band, The Raveonettes. So that made up for what had so far been a crappy night!!
The Raveonettes were weird! Weird but good. They seemed to be having major sound problems during their first song. Throughout the set, it was hard to hear any of the vocals. Think it was ment to be like that though. They used lots of distortion, samples and effects pedals. One of the highlights was probably single �Attack Of The Ghost Riders� and the last song were the band went mental.
They seem to go down well with the crowd. Talking of the crowd, it seemed to be made up of 13 year old kids, which was strange. None of them seemed to really understand what was going on. They had clearly never been to a gig before. As Supergrass had been around for quite a few years now, I thought the crowd would be filled with twenty something's and thirty something's, not little kids.
Anyway, I�m getting distracted again. Mr Ed Harcourt, fresh from having a vegetarian lunch, was on top form tonight. He put in a fantastic performance. His band all walked on stage wearing fake moustaches. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Ed regularly spoke with the crowd. Highlights included �She Fell In To My Arms� and new single �All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed�. He was on for about 40 minutes. Towards the end of his set I was starting to get alittle bored. I was real disappointed by the fact he didn�t perform �Something In My Eye�. Maybe him not singing it was my punishment for stalking him earlier in the day?
So on to Supergrass. Their equipment etc was all covered by a curtain. When the intro had finished, it fell to the ground to reveal the band who were stood behind it. It has to be said, I�m not exactly a die hard Supergrass fan. I like them yeah but I ain�t obsessed with them or whatever. This ment I didn�t recongise many of the songs they performed. I don�t own any of their albums so the only tracks by them I have properly listened to before are their singles.
About four songs in came new single �Seen The Light�. I love that song. Will hopefully do well in the chart. It sounds alittle like T-Rex. After a couple more songs, Supergrass walked off stage and we were left watching footage of them on the screen, which formed their backdrop. The footage was probably the highlight of their set.
They came on again, did about another six songs, left again, returned, left once more then returned for the encore. A weird way of doing things but it worked quite well. Amongst some of the tracks included within the set were �Moving�, �Sun Hits The Sky�, �Richard III�, �Grace�, �Pumping On Your Stereo� and �Late In The Day�. They ended with �Caught By The Fuzz�.
As you can see, they performed stuff from throughout their career rather than just boring us with new tracks from their latest album. I did enjoy the gig but on the whole I was rather disappointed. They aren�t exactly the most exciting or energetic band to watch, the sound was pretty crap, the venue staff were rude and the tickets were too expensive. To top it all, the chips we had afterwards were cold. Oh my god.
BY MR MARTYN. JAN 2003. |