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| Gig
Review |
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Tonight
I headed to Gloucester to the newly revamped and
renamed leisure centre now called the GL1 to see
Feeder play their first ever live show in Gloucester
and all in all it was a really good night.
We got to Gloucester at about 7pm after totally
underestimating the time it would take us to get
there, we parked the car in what seemed like the
un-safest part of town where there was a what
seemed like 18 year old lad on the floor crying
with a bike a few yards away from him with no
wheels left on it, we thought nothing of it got
out the car and walked out of the car park passing
what looked like a couple of cider drinking wasters
heading into the car park, which left me thinking
all night that I would come back to see my car
turned upside down with no wheels left, nevertheless
we headed off down to the GL1 in hope that the
car would survive the 3 hours of the gig.
 The doors for the show were due to open at 7.30pm,
we got to the venue at 7.10pm and for some reason
the doors were already open and the queue was
moving really fast, so 5 minutes later we were
in the venue which was a good result, we headed
straight to the main room to see what size the
venue was and wow it was massive it was the main
hall of the leisure centre where sports like basketball
and everything is normally played, so you can
kind of imagine the size of the venue and like
true leisure centre style the ceiling was really
high up, after checking out the main room I went
to talk to the security guard about the photopass
rules for the night, he didn’t have a clue
what I was on about and looked at me like I was
an alien, he then sent me off to another security
guard who then sent me to a lady out side the
main room who then sent me to someone else who
then went and asked the manager who then came
back and told me the rules, from this I could
clearly tell that there haven’t been many
gigs before at this venue as the security didn’t
know rules about anything.
 The Chemists were the one and only support band
tonight, they took to the stage at 7.50pm and
played a 40 minute set, they had big neon red
lights on stage displaying their band name, it
kind of looked like the kind of sign you see outside
oldskool barber shops, it was good that the band
had a stage prop as the lighting for their set
was terrible, with the usual bland red lighting
that every support band seems to get stitched
up with. I only know two songs from The Chemists
and that is their two singles 'Something For The
Weekend' and 'Radio Booth', 'Something For The
Weekend' was played really early on in the set,
I think it may have even been the second song
they played, anyway the song sounded good from
where I was standing, the riffs were big and chunky
sounding and frontman Johnny Benn's vocals were
really strong sounding, but the crowd seemed like
they weren’t enjoying it whatsoever, no
one was jumping up and down their was pretty much
no movement whatsoever and in fact The Chemists
appeared quite tiresome on stage pretty much standing
on the spot or swaying slightly playing their
instruments. The Chemists finished their set with
frontman Johnny Benn announcing this is our new
single 'Radio Booth', and the band seemed very
alive for this song, they were moving more during
these 4 minutes than they had during the rest
of the set, they were rocking out and they were
clearly enjoying it and magically so were some
of the members of the crowd, but it seemed like
The Chemists left it too long to rock out because
as soon as the song finished they were off the
stage.
 On record The Chemists sound really strong and
rocking, but on stage tonight they seemed to be
lacking energy and passion for the music they
were playing apart from during the last song,
and this really isn’t good especially when
they have been supporting a massive indie band
like Feeder on a mammoth tour of the UK, which
is the perfect chance for any new up and coming
band to rack up a whole new fan base, I just hope
this was a one off tiresome end of tour performance
otherwise these guys won’t last long on
the live circuit.
Feeder were due to take to the stage at 9pm,
we headed out to the bar to grab a drink of Coke
whilst waiting for the roadies to do their job
and set up the stage for the headline act, we
headed back to the main room to wait patiently
for Feeder to take to the stage, I took a look
around and the main hall had filled up nicely,
there was still enough space for everyone to stretch
out as you weren’t all sandwiched together
like at most gigs and I guess this was down to
the band playing a big hall rather than the “normal”
sized venues they play, the age group of people
in the room was totally mixed, you had the teenagers
right at the front, you had the drinkers and middle
aged people in the middle and you had the people
who didn’t really know much of Feeder but
came along for a night out at the back.
 At 9pm the room went dark, backing music started
up and Feeder took to the stage walking in a line
one by one, what I first noticed was that tonight
Feeder have 5 members when as a band they are
a 3 piece but this all made sense, quite a lot
of bands add a few extra people to the band for
their touring band to help create a bigger and
better sound and this is what Feeder did.
The first song Feeder played was 'We Are The
People' the song is the opening track from their
new album 'Silent Cry', the crowd seemed to be
enjoying every moment of it, as soon as the song
finished the big black curtain at the back of
the stage came down, well it got stuck half way
but eventually fell down to reveal two huge video
screens, throughout the rest of the show the two
video screens flashed up different videos, distorted
images, slow moving images and so on, the band
also brought along their own light show, which
to be honest was pretty much needed as the GL1
really lacks on their own lighting equipment.
Early on in the set Feeder played a lot of their
hits from 'Comfort In Sound', 'Insomnia' and 'Rewind',
the whole crowd seemed like they were having a
party singing along word for word and a few select
people dancing along like looneys whilst enjoying
their beer and trying not to spill a drop, in
front of where I was standing it was like Bez
from the Happy Mondays had come along to bust
some grooves on the dance floor, it was definitely
a funny sight to see.
 After the flurry of hit singles, front man Grant
Nicholas spoke to the crowd about the recent bus
fire their crew had where everything was lost,
from laptops, mobile phones to clothing etc he
then dedicated the next song 'Fires' to the crew
which was met with loud screams from the fans.
From this moment Feeder started to play more of
their newer and softer sounding stuff and you
could instantly see the change in the crowds reaction,
the people at the front were still jumping around
and singing along but everyone else looked a bit
bored and didn’t know a word. Luckily things
picked up a few songs down the line when the band
played a stunning performance of 'Buck Rodger's
which really got the GL1 moving tonight.
One of the biggest highlights of the night for
me was when 'High' was played, it was good to
sing along with everyone to a song that you grew
up listening to, it was a wonderful experience.
Like most bands Feeder went off stage for a bit,
this was after they played 'Lost And Found'.
 Whilst Feeder were backstage doing whatever a
band does before they come back to play their
encore, the crowd in the GL1 was chanting "Feeder,
Feeder" as loud as they could, Grant then
came back on stage and played an acoustic version
of 'Silent Cry', after the song was over the rest
of the band took to the stage and played 'Yesterday
Went To Soon' and then it was a double whammy
of great songs to finish of the night, the first
was 'Seven Days In The Sun' which proved to be
a proper crowd pleaser and then the last song
of the night was 'Just A Day' which was the song
the crowd had been waiting for all night with
many people chanting out "dudaduda"
which is the most catchy bit from 'Just A Day',
in between each and every song hoping it would
be 'Just A Day', when the song came on, it went
down perfectly as the whole room erupted into
excitement with everyone dancing and jumping the
night away.
Just before Feeder left the stage Grant Nicholas
announces that they are going to go away and work
on a new album, I just hope that this time they
go back to their rocky roots, I loved every Feeder
album fully up to and including 'Echo Park' but
from then onwards they have released 3 albums
that have a couple of good songs on and the rest
are fillers and you end up switching off half
way through, hopefully this time they will return
back on form.
Overall the night was good, and it was great
to see a band I grew up listening to come to my
local town and play all their hits.
Feeder - 4/5
The Chemists 2/5
Review and photos By Trigger |
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| Feeder |
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| The
Chemists |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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Feeder
