.jpg)
Last weekend, the wife and i headed through to Glasgow to go and see the Manics. For me this was the 15th time seeing them, so you can probably tell that i'm a bit of a fan. I went to this gig with mixed expectations. On the one hand, its the Manics and they've never really disappointed live, on the other hand the new album is very low key and acoustic and if the set draws heavily from Rewind The Film it could be a little bit disappointing. Especially as the last time i saw them at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange in support of Postcards From a Young Man, they were probably the best i'd ever seen them. Then they had a set list that drew from their entire career with at least one song from each album and something to please everyone.
We arrived at the Barrowlands about half way through the support band Public Service Broadcasting's slot. Their sound seemed to consist of drum loops, and soundscapes with spoken word samples over the top of it. Given the right frame of mind to give it a go, i can seem me enjoying their work but tonight it just didn't work for me and so we decided to hand around downstairs for a while until the Manic were on. What struck us is how old most of the crowd was. It seems that the Manics have got their core support and aren't really attracting much interest from the younger generations now - which isn't much a surprise i suppose.
Anyway, the Manics finally took to the stage to the strains of Manorbier - the atmospheric instrumental from Rewind The Film. Then the launched straight into Motorcycle Emptiness, which i don't think works as a set opener, that's a song you want to hear later on (they should keep Sleepflower as an opener - that worked really well last time round) and followed up with Ready For Drowning from This is My Truth. Its a song i've not heard them do since the 90s and i can see that it fits with the new stuff but it was the first of too many times this evening when the attention wandered during the gig because it's not a great live song. The set then kind of never really got going launching from big hit and big song to meandering new song.
(source)
Don't get me wrong, they sounded good and the songs are good but the energy and excitement that i associate with the Manics was missing and you got the feeling that the bands heart wasn't fully into it. Then it really got going with You Love Us, Sleepflower and If You Tolerate This and the seemed to be hitting their stride only lose it again by entering James Dean Bradfields acoustic section which brought the mood down again. After that the last 8 songs where fantastic and like the Manics of old and you got the feeling that Nicky Wire was only half joking when he commented during Motown Junk on James being finally let of the leash after too much acoustic guitar.
Overall, the sounds was great and the Manics did a great job as always but the setlist just didn't work as a whole and there where too many troughs and not enough peaks in the performance. They announced that the venue was on standby for next April where they'll be back to tour in support of Futurology which promises to be a more upbeat and presumably more live sound friendly album than Rewind The Film which i think works better on record than in a live setting.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment