2009: The Year I Went To More Gigs Than I Did In 2008

by Teenage Hangover Post to Twitter

During 2008, I attended a shameful total of 4 gigs. To compensate this, I am trying to go to as many as possible during 2009. Having only just turned 17, I can’t drive yet, and am pretty lazy so won’t be learning any time soon. Not being able to drive means I struggle to find means of transport to and from gigs. This is a documentation of my journey through 2009 so far. Exciting, right?

8th Jan - Colour/Tubelord/Calories/Venice Ahoy @ Hamptons Bar, Southampton

Running (or any other form of exercise) is not my forte. But when there’s a Tubelord gig at stake, things change. I ran not very far at all to catch the bus into Southampton and almost had a heart attack. Everything was okay by the time I got myself a quick Burger King. So, I got to Hamptons Bar (my new favourite venue), and Venice Ahoy opened, although you could’ve mistaken their performance for that of a headlining band. Their set included tracks from their EP like Fireworks and Maps, as well as some of their newer songs from their trip to New York like Triangle. They seem to be playing at every gig I go to at the moment. And then there was Calories. I was getting ma Coke when they came on so I missed their first song (well, wasn’t watching, I still heard it). They were okay, they got kinda dull, technical difficulties didn’t help. Apparently they have an album out soon, I don’t know how long they’ve been around as Calories but that’s pretty good going to already have an album.

Tubelord’s reason for not being the headlining band was that they and Colour were deciding from night to night who was last. That was how the night could’ve been better; having Tublord’s epic ending with Feed Me A Box Of Words, blow-keyboards and all. Still, an energetic and exciting set as usual. Very excited about their album, titled "Our First American Friends", artwork by Kraffhics, released on BSM. Then the headliners, Colour. They were also impressive, sounding like a mathpop version of Meet Me In St. Louis, which makes sense seeing as both those bands share the same bassist! So a really awesome gig, 4 bands I love.

MP3: Colour - Run Like You’re Being Chased
Purchase: Colour - Unicorns 7"/Cd
Purchase: Tubelord/Tellison split 7"
Purchase: Calories - Adventuring Cd

5th Feb - Brontide/Tall Ships/Part Dinosaur @ Hamptons Bar, Southampton

This gig was another great Meat Pie Promotions at my favourite venue (Hamptons). Part Dinosaur were fairly good, rehashing Blakfish and Meet Me In St. Louis, although they seemed to lack something that the previously mentioned bands have. Maybe they can get better with experience. Then came Tall Ships from Falmouth. They had a really interesting set up; drums at the back, two keyboards facing eachother splitting the stage in half, guitarist and bassist on each, with bits and pieces of a drumkit in front of the two keyboards, both of them having a smash at them in their songs. And their songs, as awesome as raptor jesus time travelling whilst riding a dolphin. Definately check them out, preferrably live. They were fantastic.

A seemingly non-stop set from Brontide finished the night off, and what a finish it was. Their epic instrumental heavy math tunes last centuries without going stale. Guitarist Tim asking everyone to move as close as possible to them made the performance a lot more real, and impressive. The guitar players in the audience had their eyes on his pedals for most of the set, the loop pedal at it’s best.

MP3: Tall Ships - Words Are Pegs Upon Which We Hang Ideas
MP3: Brontide - Crunk Anansie

20th Feb - Late Of The Pier/Mikachu/Connan Mockasin @ Wedgewood Rooms

My first gig at Wedgewood Rooms (Portsmouth) for a while. Late Of The Pier were good fun, as to be expected, everyone got sweaty. They did a bunch of songs from their album and one new song, didn’t really stand out. Their set was actually pretty short, still good. However, I much preferred the first support act Connan Mockasin. He got an incredible response at the end of his songs from the audience considering he was first on, and rightfully so. Originally from New Zealand, his sweet psychedelic blues pop combined with his incredible lulling voice wowed everyone, the stand out song was Macheeky, a song about his Japanese friend. Apparently at the some of the other dates of the tour he wasn’t so popular, so people threw toilet paper at him. Baaaaw.

MP3: Connan Mockasin - Macheeky
MP3: Late Of The Pier - VW
Purchase: Late Of The Pier - Black Fantasy Channel

Uuuurgh. Writing 3 gig reviews in a row got boring. Let’s not do that again. Tomorrow I’m going to see Data.Select.Party, Colour and Venice Ahoy, will most probably write something about that. Adios.