Just came back from the concert.
First off I just have to say that I like Tim Booth a lot. And I liked James a lot too (probably even more). And they (James) have been to Portugal more times than I care to remember. And I managed to miss every single one of their concerts. Every. Single. One. That’s what being young, broke and stupid does to you.
Well then, now that that’s out of the way let’s get on with it.
This concert was based mainly on Tim’s new album, Bone, a few tracks from his previous one, Booth and the Bad Angel (made by him and Angelo Badalamenti –that’s right the one from Twin Peaks and so on– and which I still like even better than Bone) and a couple of songs from James.
The concert was great, albeit starting almost an hour late. I’m definitely getting old as this things just piss me off. Actually no, I’ve always hated this kind of thing. Not in another type of concert like in a festival or something like that where you expect it to happen and don’t care at that point, but in a single, booked concert? Almost an hour? Come on!
Still they did get there and they did put on a show. And what a show! This is clearly a band made up of people who know their stuff. Tim is a great composer, this is well known (and I’m not counting tastes here, if you hate it, you hate it) and also a great performer, but the rest of the band is more than capable of carrying their own weight around him. The playing was almost flawless during the whole show and even the hardest vocals were always right on the stop. Just great!
As I said the musics that were played were mostly from Tim’s two latest albums (heh, just can’t bring myself around to say latest CDs… Guess it is just as well I don’t say latest records. If you don’t know what the heck I’m on about you’re too young, go read some Marilyn Manson reviews now, shoo!) but there was still a great rendition of Laid and another mind shattering version of Sometimes. But the best part was that they did not play Sit Down, despite the shrieking pleas from some half crazed girl on the middle of the room! :-)
All in all a great (almost) hour and a half concert with a very simple lineup (one guitar, one bass guitar, one keyboard and one guy on main vocals), very loud sound, lots of distortion on the guitars… Sometimes it sounded like the good old rock concerts of my youth. Sometimes it was just so soft. Other times the vocals just filled the room all by themselves. A great time all around.
And I like the Aula Magna room more and more each time. This time there was even a girl siting a few sits over with a great big SLR camera and a great big lens on it, shooting almost in front of everyone (not to mention all the point-and-shoots and the cell-phone cameras) and no one bothered her. Now this was frustrating as I was in the front row of the “normal” seats (not the doctorate chairs but right behind them) and I could have got some beautiful shots from that position. Oh well, maybe next time I’ll remember.
I’ve been real lucky lately regarding concerts. Almost every one I’ve been to has been great, as opposed to last year when I had some big disappointments. Either I’m getting better at picking them (and people who offer me the tickets –as was the case this time– too) or I’ve just has plain dumb luck. Either way, let the good times roll! :-)