My second visit to Bournemouth's newest gig venue,
the O2 Academy. And what a great venue it is.
We arrived just in time to grab a pint as The
Moons made their way on stage. I'm struggling
to place The Moons in a clear genre. There was
something a bit Ocean Colour Scene about them,
some Foo Fighters lurked in the choruses, a dash
of folk and then a bit of general indie. Opening
with “Chinese Whispers,” they put
on a pretty good show. Another highlight of the
set was “Let It Go,” a particularly
catchy track. There were five of them, one of
whom seemed to spend most of his time with a tambourine.
Someone always draws the short straw hey? It was
upbeat and rhythmic, but the crowd didn't really
seem to be getting very into it. I suppose it's
hard, when you haven't heard anything by the artist
before, and they did get a big applause at the
end. They were the only support for the tonight,
and a fine choice of act, complimented by the
set of Ocean Colour Scene that was to follow.
The crowd was buzzing by the time the room fell
into darkness and Ocean
Colour Scene rolled out on stage. With twenty
years experience in their
back pocket, this was sure to be an exciting display
of musical ability.
Opening with “Mrs Maylie” from the
new album “Saturday,” the venue came
to life, with hands in the air all across the
room, and the sound was
spot on. You could hear everything that was going
on up on stage, and
all of it was just, note perfect. This rolled
into “Policemen and
Pirates” and “The Circle,” one
of my personal favourites from the golden
years. The term 'golden years' is of course used
lightly, front man
Simon Fowler in an interview before the show said
he thought they were
at the top of their game at the moment. There
were to be seven tracks
from the new album played tonight, and the second
came in the form of
“Magic Carpet Days” featuring a guest
female vocalist. I say vocalist,
she did a bit of “la la” and that
was it. Other tracks from the latest
release include the title track “Saturday,”
“Rockfield,” “Just A Little
<
Bit Of Love,” “Sing Children Sing,”
and “Old Pair Of Jeans”; the lead
of
which is sung by second guitarist – and
hey he's got a pretty good
voice. It seems they all do. And they can all
play one another's
instruments, so to speak. I saw the bassist on
drums, the drummer on
piano, the second guitarist on bass, the lead
guitarist on piano, it was
like musical chairs. Other favourites to make
their way into the set
list before the encore (which was obviously going
to be epic,) were
“Traveller's Tune,” “One For
The Road” and the fantastic “Hundred
Mile
City,” to name but a few.
And so the main set was over, a fabulous display
of their abilities and
performance skill. Everything really was spot
on, they all looked so
comfortable, really something to witness live.
Practice makes perfect.
Everyone in the room had guessed what would crop
up in the encore, and
we were buzzing. Firstly, “Riverboat Song,”
that had the entire room
singing along and boogying uncontrollably; what
a riff. What a riff
indeed. And then, came one strum from Fowler's
acoustic guitar. Most of
the room susses the significance of this strum
and the cheering arose,
and we were into “The Day We Caught The
Train” to close the set.
Deafening “oh la la” from every direction,
this was the perfect end to a
really inspiring set. Yes.
The Moons 3.5/5
Ocean Colour Scene - 5/5
Review By Thom Curtis |
