London Astoria show 10/12/00

[OriginalPosterLost]

Well, the show was great last night. Mike, J and George really have got it together. This has got to be J’s best band since the early Dinosaur days.

Mike’s backing vocals are great too – All the girls and I’m Not Fine were immense. J seemed to dig the cover versions too although I would have preferred to hear more of his stuff instead.

So – I may post more of a review later but for now here’s the set:

1. COVER VERSION(Maggot Brain?)
2. SAME DAY
3. WHERE’D YOU GO?
4. LITTLE FURY THINGS
5. THE LUNG
6. AMMARING
7. BACK BEFORE YOU GO
8. COVER VERSION
9. ALL THE GIRLS
10. REPULSION
11. I’M NOT FINE
12. WHAT ELSE IS NEW
13. COVER VERSION (TV Eye?)

14. MORE LIGHT
15. RAISANS
16. FREAKSCENE

OK – I’m pretty sure of the above order up to about 7 and I think What else is new was followed by TV Eye but I’m not 100% certain.

The new stuff was really strong – I think Back Before You Go and Ammaring were the highlights for me. I felt More Light didn’t really work although it was cool to see Mike rocking behind the kit while J made a racket with his keyboard and his guitar.

Oh, Queen Adreena were awful. I also think I saw Simon (?) taking pictures just in front of me – he must have got some great shots of J.

And Mike said happy birthday to J about midway through the show.

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

A good-ish show I thought. George’s bass playing is certainly a powerful thing, just a pity he hit so many bum notes, some of which Im sure I saw J wince at. Also George’s bellowing is hard to mistake for singing.

But on the plus side, Js guitar playing was spot on, helped by a good sound mix. I was sufficiently far forward to get the guitar from the marshalls and not from each side of the stage (which I find irritating). On the other hand I was too close to the moshers so every now then I had to ignore the band and palm off some git who couldnt hold his cider. Where did all those young kids who only seemed to know ‘Bug’ come from?

Certainly loud enough, mu head hurts a bit. Im suprised it was sold out as I have been to gigs at the Astoria where you couldn’t breathe and this one was definitely not a full house imho.

rock on tommy

Kockney

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

Truly amazing show. Kockney – George is the drummer, but I agree on principle, he was kinda "keen", but his heart was in the right place.

But the support were one of the worst bands I have ever seen. What the hell was she playing at, and what was she wearing? Imagine a scantilly clad blonde writhing around the floor screaming. Well, ok, that does sound kind of good, but what you want at home ain’t necessarily what you want at a gig.

Top show (poor t-shirts – no difference there then). Come back soon.

PS George’s drumming has come on incredibly – do you think J gave him some pointers???

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

Oh yeah – Kockney.

Sorry about the cider.

It was snakebite actually – I was reliving my youth. Regret it to f**k this morning[img]http://www.freakscene.net/ubb/smilies/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Don’t remember being palmed off though!

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

There’s a review of last night’s Astoria gig over at http://www.crowdsurfer.com. Here’s the link: http://www.crowdsurfer.com/index.php3?id=20001211160227&cat=

Cheers, Mike.

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

Good god my ears are still ringing! Last night’s gig was ace. It was the first time I’d seen J and has gotta be the best gig I ever saw. Good to see a few of the classics played, esp. Raisans and the Lung. New stuff was cracking as well.
I guess I’m the only person who enjoyed Queen Adreena, I saw them in Oxford a few weeks back and they played a less rock heavy set.

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

Revised set list after reading that review (thanks Mike). I’m still pretty sure that Mike Watt sang another tune during the set – can anyone confirm this?

1. REAL COOL TIME
2. MAGGOTBRAIN
3. SAME DAY
4. WHERE’D YOU GO?
5. LITTLE FURY THINGS
6. THE LUNG
7. AMMARING
8. BACK BEFORE YOU GO
9. COVER VERSION
10. ALL THE GIRLS
11. REPULSION
12. I’M NOT FINE
13. WHAT ELSE IS NEW
14. TV EYE

15. MORE LIGHT
16. RAISANS
17. FREAKSCENE

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

The gig was excellent.
The crowd seemed cool.
The band were amazing.
I thought Queen Adreena were good.
(though not everyone’s cup of tea)
I got More Light on vinyl.
I was utterly happy all night long.

Favourites:
So what else is new – J did a big long solo by himself in the middle of this. Mike stood back and the spotlight was on J. The song came back in slower, then built up.

The Lung – it was great too hear this song live, especially as there is only two lines, so therefore has more guitar work.

Also great: Little Fury Things, Raisins, Ammaring, Back before you go and Freakscene.

Dissapointments: No material from either Green Mind or Hand it Over. Thumb or Water would have been excellent.

LEE.

PS: kockney, if people want to mosh then they can, it is a way for them to get into the music, so you should appreciate that. And don’t have a go at other fans when you don’t even know the bassist’s name…
and what ‘young kids’ do you refer to that ‘only know bug’?

---

‘confusion is sex’

[OriginalPosterLost]

Nothing against moshers per se, but some of them were being unnecessarily belligerent I thought. Far from getting into the music, some of them seemed keener on a fight.

I do know the bassist’s name, but for some reason I wrote George instead of Mike, a result of my head ringing when I was typing I suppose.

I noticed that many of the ‘moshers’ seemed most interested in Dino music like Bug and somewhat bored by the More Light tracks. Many of them also seemed too young to have been more than 10 or 12 when Bug came out which was interesting.

There was,overall, I feel a Heavy Metal element to the crowd who perhaps did not appreciate our man’s tunesmithery and were just there to bang their heads.

Queen Adreena were indeed appalling. Somehow the guitarist’s haircut told you he was called Crispin before you even knew his name!

And how long can Katie Jane Garside trade on her knockers and knickers as opposed to any discernible talent? Mind you, she could do a very creditable Kate Bush on Stars in their Eyes should she ever feel like it

Kockney

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

Did they play in a jar i was sure they did but no one`s mentioned it

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

They didn’t play In a Jar Robin – it would have been great if they had.

Kockney – I think the metal element was always going to be there after J’s management decided to go with the "Kerrang" sponsored gig thing.

I didn’t feel the moshers were too bad (I was one of them) and although some people were going a bit over the top I didn’t feel that a fight was going to break out at any minute. If anyone did bump into me they seemed to apologise straight away!

It was a shame that some people weren’t into the More Light tracks but I think that is only natural with an artist with such a huge back catalogue and a clear association with a particular time and genre: in J’s case grunge and the early 90s.

Also, in England people seem more keen on harking back to artists’ older days (comments like "his new stuff is nothing on "You’re Living All Over Me/Bug" etc spring to mind) rather than embracing the new material. This is understandable when an artist has lost it but J clearly hasn’t. If anything he has regained some of his stature from years gone by.

Maybe those people who were only there for the older tunes will have the new stuff in their heads right now and might just hit the shops to grab a copy of the new record.

If not, they’re the ones who are missing out.

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

I loved the gig. I must admit, I’m not too keen on Mike. To be honest, I thought his playing was erratic and his vocals (particularly on Same Day) were extremely dodgy. I’d rather have had Mike Johnson playing bass. Although I think he’d struggle to get that high pitch Bob Pollard vocal sound on Same Day…

Apart from that, it was excellent. The high point for me was Raisans. I wasn’t expecting that, so it was a great surprise. The only down side was that during the quiet bit in the middle, J realised his tremolo bar was trapped behind his guitar cable, so couldn’t put the nice shimmering sound on the chords. He got it untangled, but it was too late.

Excellent gig. Around 5.30 I went around the back of the venue and found that someone had accidentally left the fire escape door open. They were soundchecking and I could hear it really clearly. They soundchecked Waistin’, but then didn’t actually play it in the set.

I met Dave from Birmingham (username Dave) in the queue, which was cool. I hope my spare earplugs saved your girlfriend’s ears… [img]http://www.freakscene.net/ubb/smilies/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Didn’t realise there were so many of us there though. theexile – help me put your name to your face – I spoke to so many people…

I was the tall one standing right infront of J, and yes, I did take pictures. It was a bit hit and miss with my digital camera, but some of them are awesome. I’ll be posting them soon.

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

it was fucking incredible, yeah mike’s vocals were’nt too hot and they really lost the plot on where’d you go (though it’s not the best song..) but they pulled it back great after that. i saw j acoustic at the underworld and it was great and stuff, but i’m glad mike and george were there to keep him in line…
j was excellent – more animated than in a long time and sameday n’ i’m not fine kept up with leper and furry things real well…
shit, my ears have’nt stopped ringing and i’m still knackered ‘cos it was a late one driving from cardiff…

---

i need more light…

[OriginalPosterLost]

Yeah, great show. My ears are still ringing – that must be the loudest gig I’ve ever been to and I’ve seen Dinosaur Jr 3 times before! In some ways I think it was too loud. I would have liked to have heard some songs and playing more clearly as they seemed to be drowned out a bit. I’m not sure someone who didn’t know all of the songs would be able to distinguish very much. I noticed a few people with their fingers in their ears which I haven’t seen since My Bloody Valentine in 92. Still it made a interesting comparison to the acoustic show a few months back. Very different setlist as well. Highlights for me included Raisans, The Lung, Ammaring and More Light.

---

[OriginalPosterLost]

Simon – you were definitely the guy a few yards in front of me. I was moshing so we probably bumped into one another at various points.

I was wearing a white FOG t -shirt and I have glasses and ginger hair.

I don’t think I spoke to anyone really just kind of sang along….

Look forward to those pics

---

[Author]

Posts