Caught them last night at the Southampton Guildhall and they were brilliant.

They’re my girlfriend’s favourite band so I was kinda dragged along to the gig. I think that they’re alright but I don’t generally get down with that type of music so there’s never been a massive attraction there. However, I’ve been listening to them a lot in the few weeks or so trying to make sure that I didn’t end up standing there last night wondering what was going on and by doing so, I have a newfound appreciation. Coupled with the gig itself, I reckon I now have enough appreciation to say that they were bloomin marvelous. And they were.

The support band (Kids In Glass Houses) were shit. No two ways about it. Really didn’t enjoy their 30 minutes or so. Blah. But then, no-one goes to a gig to see the support do they. (Except, I did. But that’s an anomaly). So yeah, the Manics were great. For almost two hours, they played stuff from their entire career (I can say that now, because of my self-inflicted history lesson :)), with so much vigour and quality that you couldn’t really help but enjoy it. That said, it did seem like a fairly quiet crowd.. I was only 2 people from the front and yet was extremely comfortable and uncrushed all night. Could that be partly due to the fact that the majority of the audience were in their early 40s(?) Testament to the band’s longevity I suppose..

Really good stuff. My only complaint was the fact that I had my camera confiscated because it looked too professional. Fucks sake. So I had to take photos on my phone. And they weren’t good. See the photo on this post for instance. Ah well.