 | Reviews |
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| Reviews |
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If there is one word I would use to describe the gig it would be 'wow'. I have never been to a gig where both the main band and supporting bands have made such a good impression on me. Mansun, well they had to be good because I have had the misfortunes in the past that I kept missing them in Bristol! Travis were about what I expected them to be like, but I am looking forward to some releases from them!
We waited around a bit before they opened the doors, usual touts selling tickets for £25 when they cost £6 in the first place! No bootleggers in sight yet. After getting inside the Uni. we found that the doors to the actual Anson rooms were being watched by security guards who were not letting anybody in. There were still sound checks going on. After a couple of minutes they moved and let everybody in which was a great relief. We waited while they played lovely music like Oasis (PUKE!) over the P.A. when eventually the long awaited TRAVIS arrived on stage. They played a good set which comprised of 'Funny Thing', 'Happy' which they announced as being ironic today but failed to tell us why! 'Tied To the Nineties' and the EXCELLENT 'All I Wanna Do Is Rock' which was definately one of the highlights of their set, sounding quite a bit too much like Radiohead! Their last song was their new single which is due to be released on 1 April and it titled 'U16 Girls' and that was the masterpiece of the whole set! It was brilliant.
There was only a short gap of 20 minutes or so before Mansun came on stage, which was long enough in the rowdy crowd which had gathered! When the band came on stage I was quite surprised because there is usually a sudden huge push as soon as they come on, but this time there was not! I was very happy, then when Mansun started to play 'The Chad Who Loved Me' it really did get quite tight at the front! So tight there was no need to jump any more because you were lifted up by the crowd! The band did not finish 'The Chad Who Loved Me' and went into a combination on 'Ski Jump Nose' and 'An Open Letter to the Lyrical Trainspotter' which was rather excellent because SJN has been my favourite song for ages and I was told by a certain mate (not mentioning any names Max) that they would probably not play it! Mansun had this weird way in which they did not really want to stop in between songs and just played on to the next one with no gaps at all! After the first few songs the crowd did calm down a little which was a great relief! Their third single 'Stripper Vicar' was ok, but could have been better! Their next single 'Taxloss' was amazing! One of the most exciting songs of the entire gig. 'Drastic Sturgeon' was another highlight which I will always remember! Their first single 'Egg Shaped Fred' was of course brilliant and they finished with a version of 'Take It Easy, Chicken' which had a very long end where Draper decided to do some weird rituals with his guitar which included playing the drums with it, swinging it around his head as of he was about to smash it, but never did so, rubbed it up and down his amp many times, played it on his head and then did something on the floor I couldn't see! They then promptly left the stage.
During their set, I can't remember which song, but there was a stage invasion by one bloke who thought it would be funny to do so, but was promptly removed by security. If anyone heard what he shouted into the mic when he was on the stage please e-mail me! Another interesting event at the gig was how someone had added an 'M' to the front of the Anson rooms so it read 'The Manson Rooms', although spelt wrong it was still very amusing!
On our way out there was the usual crowd of bootleggers trying to sell their Fly Posters etc. for in most cases quite high prices. Once most of the people were out of the Anson rooms there was a sudden burst of a couple of hundred people following this... I just assumed it was a severe chucking out, then I noticed all the security leaving the premisies too and 3 fire engines pulled up! After a quick investigation they left, but managed to hold the traffic up quite a bit.
Overall an AMAZING gig, I would recommend seeing them as often as you can!
Thomas Betts, with the assistance of Max K. with titles of Travis songs!