Black Gives Way To Blue

Considering the recent weather, torrential rain and strong winds, I really didn’t fancy queuing outside for long if it was going to be typical Manchester weather. Luckily the rain held off and I was outside The Academy at about 7:00pm. Finding ‘a’ queue wasn’t fun. A huge trench had been dug in the pavement and instead of the usual boards covering the gap they'd just put barricades along the full length of it. It also didn’t help that there was a vast amount of people outside the main student union building for another gig, or two. Long and short of it I'd joined the wrong queue. This was eventually pointed out to us by a man shouting for tickets who seemed either drunk, or high, or both so his first announcement fell on deaf ears. A group of us left the queue, which was the ticket collection queue, and walked past the front doors and around the side of the building to where the buses were parked, to the end of the real queue.

It is kind of saddening that you have to be searched before you enter these places. We’re all there to listen to the music and see the band surely? Possibly some aren’t. They’ll have airport style security next.

The audience certainly seemed about the same age as me, maybe older. I bought Dirt back in early 1993 after Kerrang! magazine voted it album of 1992.

The support act was a woman on guitar and vocals and a bloke on drums. Even now I don’t know who they were. You'd think they'd say “we’re The Support Band, goodnight” at the end of their set.

With only a mic stand and a small drum kit to remove from the stage the change over should have been really quick. At least that’s what I thought. I wonder if someone keeps a list of the amount of times a microphone is checked by a roadie?

Set List

It Ain't Like That

Again

Them Bones

Dam That River

Your Decision

No Excuses

Check My Brain

A Looking In View

Rain When I Die

Heaven Beside You

Got Me Wrong

Black Gives Way To Blue

What The Hell Have I

Acid Bubble

Angry Chair

Man In The Box

Encore

Would?

Rooster

After what seemed like forever the stage lights lit the audience and a cameraman pointed a video camera across the crowd. Then the lights went back to the way they were before, lighting the stage for the roadies to do their job, checking microphones and shining torches on cables. The sight of two members of the road crew with their elbows resting on speaker stacks didn’t bode well at all. The crowd, growing increasingly restless, started booing and slow clapping and for a minute I thought that the show wasn’t going to happen. Then, at about 9:30pm, because I kept checking my watch, after what felt like forever, the band walked on stage.

After Layne died this is something that I never thought I'd see, Alice In Chains playing these incredible songs live. Highlights? Again, Them Bones (during which I almost lost it completely), Check My Brain, all the heavier stuff. Whenever Jerry stood centre stage everyone shouted his name. William sang and played guitar like he was born to do it. The only slow spots were the acoustic, barstool songs. Black Gives Way To Blue was so quiet that I'm sure people talking in the crowd was louder. There was a huge cheer at the end when a really short black and white video clip of Layne was played. It was just the right length and exactly what was needed, fresh faced, long curly haired, smiling and giving the peace sign.

With the technical difficulties, and the curfew, we won’t know if they would have played more songs.

William really did a great job, fitting in like the role was always his. Certainly big boots to fill but I think the crowd, like I was, was just pleased to hear those songs again. Like the man said, “This is just the beginning!”.

Somebody check my brain.

Update
Official blog entry for the Manchester show

Ticket

I must be becoming a serious ‘fan boy’ for Henry Rollins as this is the fourth time that I've seen him, the second time at this venue.

The Academy looks like it’s undergoing serious improvements as the entire hall is wrapped in an eight foot high wooden wall. If I didn’t know better I would have thought that it was closed completely. You even have to walk through the rubble to get inside. Luckily we were let inside early as it was damn cold waiting in line. Unfortunately the hall doesn’t seem to be heated at all which just meant an hour or more wait, but at least we were all sat down.

At 8:30pm prompt Henry ran on stage, grabbed the mic, wrapping the cord around his hand and started to talk.

To try and mention all the topics he covered would be futile… but I’ll try :– he talked about singing with The Ruts, making a film (which could have been goat porn for all he knew), being in Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, seeing The Van Halens and remembering Ted Nugent, meeting David Lee Roth in his art gallery, going to Beirut, searching for stuff on ‘the internets’ and using ‘the googles’, George Bush declaring that Mandela was dead. The list goes on.

One thing that he hasn’t mentioned before is his pet snake. I knew that he kept snakes but, apart from letting it chase Heidi around the office, he hasn’t ever said what type of snake it is, just that it’s female. Possibly he hasn’t even named it, as most of us would.

The other thing to note is his spot on impersonation of Christopher Walken, which I thought was brilliant. He even did a little Jello Biafra for good measure.

Three hours later and the show is over. My arse was completely dead and numb. Next time I'm bringing my own cushion.

Related Links
YouTube – Bush pronounces Mandela dead
Walken 2008 – Campaign Website
BBC – US man saved from alligator jaws
Henry does Manchester – a photoset on Flickr

Rancid

I almost didn’t go.

I was not in the best of moods. I left work and managed to get slightly lost getting into Manchester. Luckily the new Hilton Hotel building can be seen from miles around to I just pointed the car at that. The NCP car park that I was heading to is just next to it, which was fortunate.

I managed to get something to eat and wandered around the centre for awhile, trying valiantly to kill some time. I didn’t really fancy standing outside The Academy for over an hour. But after walking around the town hall a couple of times I decided to head off down Oxford Road.

At about a quarter to seven there was already a fair few people milling about. In front of me were about 5 or 6 blokes and in front of them were 4 girls. Two of the girls were really the worse for drink. One of them kept asking anyone who would listen if they like Rancid. The other one was either lying on the floor or was leaning against one of the buses as if her stomach contents were about to make a hasty exit. “Do you like Rancid? I love Rancid me.” One guy with a mohawk helped the girl who had trouble with gravity up off the cold pavement. Punks do have hearts.

I can’t understand why people can only enjoy a concert when they are completely drunk. So out of their heads that they cannot function. Why would you buy a ticket to a concert months in advance, count off the days until the gig, only to get plastered a few hours before.

7:30pm came around and we filed in.

I had seen Henry Rollins at The Academy back in March but I'd never been to a concert there. Being one of the first 40, or so, people inside it was only a few people deep at the barrier at the front of the stage. Or at least that’s what it looked like from my spot in front of the mixing desk.

Kamikaze Sperm started things off and must be one of the few punk bands to have a saxophone player. That horn really cuts through the fuzz of the guitars, but after awhile the songs started to sound the same. The Unseen, who were energetic and passionate enough but I just felt that they suffered a similar fate. Possibly it’s because I hadn’t heard their material before. I remember listening to one of the more recent Rancid albums for the first time and thinking the same thing.

Speaking of which… the lights dimmed and the Rancid logo was projected on to the backdrop, then the faces of the band members. The first song kicked in and whole place went apeshit. Don’t ask me what it was because they all went by in a blur. Lars looked great in his grey striped suit jacket. I've never seen anyone in any band move around as much as he does. Tim kept spinning around and jumping off a box at the front of the stage and then off the drum riser. Matt just kept to his own side of the stage nailing those bass lines down hard. Brandon, the new drummer, was astounding considering that this was his first concert I think Lars said later on. All the while the screen is flashing up stills from zombie pictures and more Rancid logos and art work. As musicians they can’t be faulted. Tim and Lars exchanged the majority of vocal duties with Matt singing a couple of songs. The majority of the songs from And Out Come The Wolves was aired with an Operation Ivy song thrown in for good measure. For the first encore they played a couple of songs unplugged before blasting through Ruby Soho before the end of the show. I'm pretty sure it was Ruby Soho as this was the song that was buzzing around in my head as I wandered back down Oxford Road.

And to think that I almost didn’t go!!