Irony? I Haz It

On recommendation from Raleigh, I bought an Ingrid Michaelson album. It's good. So I've booked tickets to go see/hear her (Ingrid Michaelson, not Raleigh) sing in May.

At the Deaf Institute.

Apparently it's quite the venue. But still, the irony of it...

*Picture stolen shamelessly from Ingrid's site. Do me a favour and buy her CDs so they don't take legal action on my ass. It's actually really good, you'll like it.

Dave Matthews Band

Remember when I used to do lots of gig reviews? Back when I was new to the North and had more energy and less commitments? Yeah, I don't either.

Anyways, I went out on Sunday night (gasp! a school night) despite feeling rubbish because The Husband had bought tickets to see The Dave Matthews Band. I'm not a massive fan, but I remember liking Dave Matthews when we saw him solo a while back and our first date was actually a Dave Matthews gig, so I was happy to go.

Venue is Manchester Apollo (no idea what The Husband paid for tickets) and the support act is a band fronted by a moping teenager type who hides his face behind a curtain of dark locks. He's alright but every track sounds like a carbon copy of the last. Dave Matthews Band comes on after a short interval and gets going on what can only be described as the most self indulgent display I have witnessed since Boston and Raleigh left me a half kilo of chocolates last month. The gig is made ever so slightly worse by the guy who stood in front of us and frequently held up a full size South African flag, but I'm short of stature so not being able to see is par for the course - I was only annoyed because other than his flag waving antics I, for once, could actually see.

As for the music - well, if you have 3 hours to spare, don't mind crazy instrumentals that go for 15 minutes each, then this is your thing. And it's not that I hate instrumentals - I've been to see the vocal-less Rodrigo Y Gabriela 3 times now. No, it's the no-idea-if-this-shit-even-has-a-beat and that soprano-saxophone-sounds-like-a-car-alarm that gave me the irrits. What made the evening worse was the second encore (indulgent in itself) that we had to wait 10 minutes for. Argh!! I swear if we hadn't parked our car in a paid lot where you're parked in and have to wait for everyone to get back to their cars before you can leave, I'd have played my 'we're leaving now, thanks' card.

Sorry to the Dave Matthews Band fans, but this did not rock my boat.

Verdict: Talented, but painful. Go if you are a huge fan and ever wondered what happened to Kenny G, stay at home if you lack time or patience.

Meatloaflike: The Verdict

I'm not sure any words could do the 'Phoenix Nights' style venue justice, but that aside, it was a fab night. As I mentioned, there was a hog roast. And it was goooood. Again, I apologise for the vegetarians amongst the readership, but I am what I am. To my surprise there were no kids and I actually felt rather youthful in my attendance. All good. There was a raffle and being the charity whore I previously mentioned I am, I bought a few strips of tickets though I had no idea what was on offer. So colour me shocked when I won! I swagger to the stage to have the choice of any of the prizes I so desired - a massive gift basket I quickly discovered I could barely lift and shedloads of booze and chocolates (none anywhere near the quality that Jaser brought us, so that was a no-brainer). I took the basic Nokia phone instead because I felt greedy with the oversized basket in my hands and I was conscious that only 3 people in the entire room actually knew me - I thought they might be wondering who this ring-in was that scooped the biggest prize. Anyways, I take the mobile phone back to the table where The Husband is laughing because I used to work for Nokia and have a dozen or so better phones in the office gathering dust. I tell him it's not the point. But the icing on the evening's cake (or, the bacon on the burger as is more appropriate) was the show. I mean, this guy came second on Stars in The Eyes back in '2000 and we saw why. He was ah-maz-ing.

Poses? He's got them...

Air grabs? You bet!
And the crowd went ... erm... wild. OK - the guy to the right totally lost his shit. And that's what made it a great night. I'm off to see Dave Matthews Band tomorrow night. Somehow I can't help thinking it won't be as good :)