Posts Tagged ‘rock music’

The Offspring are touring to support their new album Let The Bad Times Roll. They did two stops in Leeds, one to play a big gig at Leeds Arena and another to do a more intimate acoustic site at The Wardrobe.

Ironically, despite it being an album launch, I don’t think they played any songs off their new album. It was all about the classics: The Kids Aren’t Alright, Self-Esteem, Why Don’t You Get A Job, Dirty Magic and a host of others. But perhaps the highlight was Noodles busting out Come Out And Play on the ukulele.

COVID compliance was good. The venue was checking COVID passports and face masks at the door, and most people kept their masks on if they weren’t actively drinking.

I was in a pub last week when I heard a song Snowy White – Bird In Paradise. Here it is:

If you are a Dire Straits fan, you might notice it sounds uncomfortably similar to Brothers in Arms:

Bird In Paradise came out in 1983, beating Brothers In Arms by two years.

Last month I took my mum to see The Who at Leeds Arena. It was nice to see a band worth going to playing there. The whole place was packed; I’ve never seen the arena have all of its sections open before. The couple behind us were talking about how they had not seen this band for 40 years.

They were excellent.

I was a bit cold at first as it was just Roger and Pete at the front of the stage, then a wall of amps, and the rest of the band behind almost curtained off. Of course those two are the actual “Who”, but Zak Starkey has been drumming for them for over 15 years now.

However, as the show went on it got better and better. They played for two and a half hours. I do not think I could do that at my age, let alone theirs. Especially Starkey as although he is a lot younger, he has the most intensive job and did not have any songs off.

Last month I went to see Nickelback in Leeds. It was the first time I had been to the Leeds Arena. It was pretty good. Nothing amazing, but it is quite a nice layout.

Nickelback were entertaining live. They weren’t a band where you come away from the show thinking “that was absolutely amazing”, but they were a lot of fun on stage and far less serious than I imagined them to be.

I didn’t get any good photos.

I did finally get a chance to use my massive goth boots to see over everyone’s heads though. Well worth the investment!

As a child, I never had a chance. By the time I was 14, soon to discover what an amazing band The Smashing Pumpkins were, they had already split up. But, in 2006, front man Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin reformed the band with a rotating cast of extras to bring out a new album, Zeitgeist.

Many people weren’t expecting good things, with only two of the original band members together. But this was nieve, as Billy Corgan is so much the heart and soul of the band – indeed, in the early days, Corgan would actually play all of the guitar and bass parts himself, putting Chamberlin’s drums over the top, and ignoring the contribution of the other band members so that the album fitted together the way he wanted.

When Zeitgiest was released in 2007, I wasn’t that impressed though. It was OK, but it didn’t really capture my ears – I’ve listened to it a couple of times since with no strong desire to keep going back to it.

Their new album, Oceania, released last year, is no such disappointment however. Bringing back musical memories of their most successful days, the album is everything you want from a Pumpkins record – dark, soulful, and with a hint of fun.

Ah to be 17 again. Billy Talent were rocking the scene, I was there before they were big, etc, etc.

Now, I’m somewhat older than that, and I would imagine Billy Talent are too because time works like that (on this scale at least). I didn’t expect great things from their fourth studio album, and first not to be self-titled, given their previous albums had been good, but not amazing. But it turns out I was to be pleasantly surprised.

While the screaming of Benjamin Kowalewicz has certainly become greatly toned down as the band have matured, it turns out that they actually have some great music underneath it. My personal favourite so far is Show Me The Way.

On Thursday myself and Norm headed over to Manchester to see Linkin Park at the MEN.

Turns out that the upper tier is somewhat higher than I remembered from last time I was there so booking seats up there wasn’t exactly the smartest idea. Still once you get settled in you eventually reach a point where you don’t feel like you could fall to your death at any moment which is nice.

Until recently I had forgotten how awesome Linkin Park where so having rediscovered them safely in time for the gig it was awesome to see them live. I’m not sure how well their new stuff really works in a gig setting as it’s a bit experimental a lot of the time, which works really well in the context of an album but maybe not so much in a gig.

Never the less they are still great songs though and when you add in the classics it made for a really enjoyable performance – especially when badly screaming along to every song is not only permitted but actually a good replication of the band 😉 .