Tonight was the fourth gig I have been to this
week and the third at the Academy in Bristol a
venue I love but also hate. We got to the venue
about ten minutes before Supergrass were due on,
there was no queue to get into the venue apart
from 3 people stood at the box office arguing
with the woman in the box because they had a white
receipt ticket and not a proper ticket, I don’t
get what they were trying to achieve as it doesn’t
matter what ticket the box office gave them they
were still going to get into the show and every
one was going to be happy. After the people finally
stopped arguing we got our tickets and headed
in, as soon as we walked into the venue we could
feel the heat, it was just like we had stepped
off the plane onto a tropical island at its hottest
peak, we looked into the main room and it was
rammed, people were against the main doors to
get in, we some how managed to squeeze our way
through the door and past the people and found
ourselves a position for the next two hours.
 I have been into Supergrass ever since they released
their debut album 'I Should Coco' back in 1995,
the song 'Alright' got me into Supergrass and
is still my favourite song by them with many others
close behind. Supergrass were down for playing
from 9pm-11pm a solid two hour set that I was
quite excited about, at 9pm the lights went down
and Supergrass took to the stage, on stage it
was like a Coombes family reunion with Gaz Coombes
taking front position dressed quite smartly in
black, with a white hat hiding his hair and a
guitar in hand, latest band member Charlie Coombes
was on the far left side dressed in a black leather
jacket and checkered shirt also playing guitar.
Rob Coombes, the bands touring keyboard player
was situated on the right hand side of stage and
to be honest looked quite out of place. Drummer
Danny Goffey hasn’t aged since the band
formed and still looks not a moment over 16, he
took no time getting to his drum kit and spinning
his sticks, it was a welcome return for bassist
Mick Quinn who is back on the road with Supergrass
after a bad sleepwalking accident left him with
a battered back just seven months ago, Mick was
situated to the far right on the stage with his
bass and like Danny, hasn’t aged and still
looks as young as he was when the band first started
off.
 Supergrass wasted no time in playing new material,
kicking off with a double header from their new
album with 'Diamond Hoo Ha Man' and 'Bad Blood'
being the first tracks of the night, The opening
guitar riff of 'Diamond Hoo Ha Man' got part of
the crowd going, you could clearly tell that the
front of the crowd was full of the true fans who
have followed Supergrass from the start and have
not let a bad album release not make them check
out the next, the other half of the crowd were
clearly people who have the bands Greatest Hits
album and haven’t heard much more. 'Bad
Blood' went down equally as well as 'Diamond Hoo
Ha Man' did but you could clearly tell that the
fans wanted to hear the classic hits, but saying
that a year from now the fans will be crying out
to hear these two songs again as they are huge
songs that just haven’t been played enough
yet.
To be fair to Supergrass they had a lot off balls
to play a hell of a lot of their new material
right from the start, they seemed to have the
right formula to play 2 new songs then play one
of their classic hit singles and then play a couple
more new songs and then another hit single, it
seemed to work well as the crowd was slowly getting
into the new material and when a classic song
was played such as 'Sun Hits The Sky' the crowd
were clearly in their element bopping along and
singing the song word for word.
 I have always moaned about the bad lighting at
the Academy, it’s normally red or blue and
makes the lighting in your old school hall look
like something special when it really isn’t.
Well tonight Supergrass did something about the
lighting and brought along their own massive screen
and own lighting effects, throughout the whole
show the screen of lights was changing from flashing
up words like Supergrass to having a multicoloured
lighting display to showing little cartoon strips
to showing the band live on screen as they play,
this was very welcomed and really brightened up
the set.
By the end of the night most of the hits were
played which included the muppet friendly 'Pumping
On Your Stereo', the hard hitting 'Richard III',
the chilled out sounding 'Late In The Day', and
one of my favourite tracks 'Mary' which has the
best chorus Supergrass have ever written, with
its eerie sound. The crowd were clearly in their
elements as the hits were pouring out, there were
drunk people everywhere dancing along at their
own pace singing along word for word but very
out of tune and out of place, you could clearly
tell everyone was having fun. Supergrass finished
the night with their first ever single release
'Caught By The Fuzz'.
 When the show finished I looked at my phone and
realised that it was only 10.25pm and Supergrass
only played for 1hour and 25minutes, now this
seems like an average time for a gig but when
you are a band who have been going for nearly
15 years and have hundreds of songs anything under
an hour and 45minutes is a bit of a let down and
the main disappointment of the night was that
they never played their biggest hit single 'Alright'
which would of took the roof off the venue with
the crowds participation if it did get played.
Supergrass are one of the very few indie gems
from the 1990's Brit rock era who can still knock
out good songs and play killer shows and tonight
was just as good as any Supergrass show with only
a few disappointing moments which can easily be
fixed. If everyone didn’t go away from tonight’s
show with a smile on their face then I will seriously
be shocked.
4/5
Review By Trigger
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