I went to my first gig for a while last night, the Manics are one of my favourite bands and it was the god knows how many-eth time I’ve seen them, but it was still well worth it, especially as I got the ticket for £10 less than face value on e-bay – it’s great when people try and ticket tout and come a cropper.
I’ve been to a few gigs at the refectory in my time, and it’s not one of my favourite venues, I’m not sure there is anywhere you get sweatier watching bands, although I’ve only got myself to blame really. I like going to gigs by myself as I tend to get into the music a bit more, and that certainly happened last night, happily they didn’t play too much stuff from their latest couple of albums (which I am not too keen on) and they played plenty of classics from Gold Against the Soul, which was nice, although they were back to finishing with “A Design for Life” which, great as it is, is way too predictable.
The band have had a bit of a break pursuing solo projects over the last couple of years and they certainly seemed to be a bit recharged by it, they seemed more energetic and happier to be there than they did the last time I saw them, there was also a mumbled mention of a tour in December which is good, which gives me something to look forward to – hopefully by then they will have dropped some of the newer stuff completely!
