The Killers - Royal Albert Hall - Monday July 6th 2009

The Royal Albert Hall does not see the most obvious of places for a Las Vegas rock’n’roll band to be recording their live DVD, yet The Killers are not the most typical band. To kick things off Jimmy Carr is the alternative, personal choice of the band for the support act, which is a breath of fresh air from the usual mundane samey support bands. It seems appropriate for such a grand venue as the Royal Albert Hall to have a special start to the evening, especially as it gets the whole audience in good spirits. When the band do stroll on to the tiger printed floor with the palm trees scattered over the set, the crowd goes wild. The Killers kick off the set with the first single off their third album, ‘Day & Age’ Human. The venue is buzzing; the standing area is just a mass of bouncing heads, whilst people in the boxes are dancing around. In fact, Brandon Flowers barely needs to sing his own lyrics, because everyone is shouting them back at him. Flowers possesses exactly what a fan seeks in a rock’n’roll front man. He oozes charisma and is unbelievably likeable, especially with his erratic crazy dancing. The set seems to pass so quickly, most probably due to the expertly picked set list with a mix of all the albums that everyone can sing along with. It is most certainly one of the most enjoyable concerts I have experienced. In fact, I would not address it as a concert but more a performance and show, especially with the spectacular pyrotechnics at the end of the show. One thing is for certain the band are putting their all into this performance. When the band leaves the stage the crowd wait impatiently for the encore, the audience are even treated to a double encore, with Brandon announcing after they have played Sweet Talk and This River Is Wild how they did plan to go off again and come back on again for a second encore, but the impatient vibes from the audience suggest the band should play another song immediately! The Killers then end their set with Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine, Bones and finally their last song When You Were Young, which ends a perfect evening.

Atmosphere 24th June 2009

What a better way to start than with discussing an Atmosphere gig.
I saw Atmosphere for the first time last summer in Bristol, and they were amazing. I spent the rest of the year complaining about how they needed to come back here and tour, so when I found their only UK date at the Scala in Kings Cross I was over the moon.
Atmosphere played music as early as Overcast right up to their modern stuff. With a 2 hour set, due to the set list being seen by people at the front of the crowd and Slug therefore feeling obliged to sing all the songs that were listed for possible encore choices.
By far one of the best gigs I been to. Atmosphere still remain an underground act that not many people know of, but once people are exposed they seem to be hooked.

Puppets at Scala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oX7clqn-3U
Only video I can find online as my camera went mad!

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. Here I shall review most of the gigs I go to, and collate anything I write for Label Magazine or the Loughborough Echo, and a sporadic venture into album reviews every now and then.