audioglory

Just back, it was incredible.

I was eagerly anticipating this gig. I originally bought a ticket after becoming obsessed with the album Perfect From Now On which I stumbled upon at the beginning of the summer. I also saw that Curt Kirkwood (lead singer of the Meat Puppets) was supporting them which I thought would be an added bonus. Well, the venue which was originally The Academy changed to Whelans. I had been to Whelans for This Will Destroy You and loved the venue, very intimate I thought. Sound wasn’t the greatest but I could put that aside. When I came home today before the gig I saw that Curt Kirkwood was no longer supporting, I was really disappointed and had no real interest in seeing the support band which was now ‘Disco Doom’. How wrong I was..

I arrived to the sound of Disco Doom whom consisted of two guitarists, a drummer and a bassist. They were really brilliant, seriously great music and the lead guitarist was extremely talented. As I got into a place I look over and see Doug Martsch (lead singer / guitarist and brainchild of Built to Spill)  listening to the support band too, he then swapped spots and was standing pretty much beside me, this was before he jumped out into the centre of the room and started dancing with this girl who he got talking to. Then everyone started joining in, it was a beautiful moment.

Then, after a couple of songs, Doug got up and played guitar on the last Disco Doom song. He was later joined by other members of Built to Spill. It was a great song, a simple riff played repeatedly for a good 8 or 10 minutes. Disco Doom left the stage to a huge applause, I have never been so captured by a support act, they really were superb.

Then Built to Spill come on, I was desperately hoping Randy Described Eternity would start the show and it did. It was brilliant, the three guitars blending brilliantly to create a wall of sound in parts. Then, when the drum beat kicked in to I Would Hurt a Fly, I was in heaven. They were going to play all of Perfect From Now On. One of my favourite albums.

When they only had Untrustable Pt.2 to go, they said they would remove the formality of an encore and just keep playing. They finished Untrustable and the drummer went straight into the beat for Goin’ Against Your Mind. Throughout the song, confetti fell from the ceiling, it was a moment to savour.

Then, as the final song, they played Paper Planes by M.I.A, I love that song anyway, I thought it was a very strange cover, I wasn;t aware they played it live but it was magical. It finished up with Disco Doom coming back and playing the song out. Doug handed his guitar to the crowd, where we all strum (I use the term strum very loosely) from afar, the guitar finally found it’s way to the guy standing in front of me. We were all a bit non-plussed by what was going to happen next as he looked at his friends bemused, while Disco Doom basically jammed on stage. Doug Martsch packed his pedals and we all thought this lucky bastard had been given Martsch’s guitar. Unfortunately though, within a matter of minutes, Doug asked for his guitar back. The guy handed it back, somewhat reluctantly.

The show then ended, with many people getting autographs etc, I shook Doug’s hand and got my ticket signed. It was the end to a fantastic night. One of my favourite albums played in it’s entirety, a nice crowd, great support. What more could I have asked for?

Now, if you excuse me, I’m off to form a band.

- joseph.

Tags:   built to spill · gig · whelans2 Comments