Wed 24 Oct – The Wedding Present plays George Best

I would describe this as something of a quasi-religious experience for me, but there’s something so relentlessly normal about The Wedding Present that it wouldn’t seem right. Twenty five years since the release of their brilliant debut album George Best the Weddoes are on tour, playing the album in its entirety. Sort of the musical equivalent of the testimonial match footballers get after ten years of service.

To large extent The Wedding Present are a teenage boy’s band. If you’ve ever been a lad at that age, Gedge has an…

Fri 26 Oct – The Arcade Fire, Clinic, Wild Light

I tell you what, any band that can defeat this utter shitbox of a venue and show you a fucking good time anyway must be bloody good because, as crappy industrial warehouses guaranteed to swallow even the largest of sounds go, the SECC is one of the worst. It didn’t help that I had only been able to get tickets in the seating area way off to one side of the stage, but ultimately it was like watching them play through bloody binoculars.

This all meant that the gig started…

Mon 24 Sep – iLiKETRAiNS

This was quite simply one of the best gigs I’ve been to in a very, very long time. Christ almighty this lot batter it out when they get going. I had the extremely good fortune to be able to interview them before the gig - something I’ll be writing up shortly - and the bizarre sight of these five thoughtful, rather intellectual and unfailingly polite and friendly young lads stepping up to the stage and going absolutely fucking mental was something to behold. They, in the no-nonsense words of Mrs. Toad, know how to rock…

Wed 22 Aug – Interpol

What a weird, weird gig this was. Interpol were absolutely, note-perfectly, beat-for-beat immaculate. Honestly, it was barely possible to notice a single difference between what they played last night and the final, mastered, recorded versions you hear on their albums. This is some feat of technical accomplishment, I’d guess. And bloody impressive as it was, it makes for a really pointless gig.

Honestly, it was all so amazingly well-executed that you might just as well stay at home and watch their music videos on a really big telly. What the fuck is the point of…