Last night saw an unexpected benefit of my coming to Cardiff - I got to see the Beta Band on their farewell tour. They played in Glasgow last Friday, but I only found this out on Friday night after the gig had started. Fortunately when I got down to Cardiff I was told that they'd be playing Thursday night, so I jumped at the chance of getting a ticket. I thought that getting a ticket the night before the gig would be rather challenging, but seemingly the people of Cardiff don't know the wonders of a live Beta Band gig and hadn't bought that many tickets (so little in fact that the venue had to be changed to a smaller room.)
I had rather high expectations of the gig seeing as the last time I saw them (back in 2000 at the London Astoria, supported by the bizarre Icelanders Sigur Ros) it was probably the best gig I'd ever been to. In fact it still is the best gig I've been to. This time was slightly different, the rather poor crowd turn out meant that the atmosphere was slightly lacking at from the start. I think the band were slightly pissed off about this. The songs were done really well but there was something missing. This all changed towards the end when the crowd suddenly picked up and the gig turned around. The band properly got into it and everyone started moving and cheering at a higher level. The encores were excellent. Still didn't match the last time I saw them, but something very special would have had to happen for that. A very good gig nonetheless - when it properly kicked off at least.
My mind fails me: who were the other wierd support band that night. And was it Sigur Ros singing into the pickup of their guitar?
ReplyDeleteYep, it was the Sigur Ros singing into the guitar pick up, but as for the identity of the other band I'm not sure.
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