GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN
Who
I looked around the room and finally was able to reconcile the arena where The Supernaturals had put on one of the greatest shows I'd ever seen to the worst crowd reaction ever with the place where Nine Black Alps had kicked off my year with a violent slam pit! Once again they had the free Bluetooth and the bar was labelled up as Academy 2. It was also interesting to be able to peer down onto the main Academy stage and to see how far back it extended when empty. The DJ played Waving Flags by British Sea Power (twice), a fascinating cover version of Kokomo and quite good music all round before support act Misty's Big Adventure took to the stage. Their first song was just drawling vocals but when it finished a strange blue thing with pink hands extending from it appeared onstage and started dancing. In reality it was a guy in a full body costume with blue make-up on his face but it saved this band from mediocrity! Suddenly the pace picked up and we started to enjoy it, largely because the costumed guy was dancing so insanely to it all and seemingly having the time of his life! It was also amusing that the band acted as if he wasn't there as his face paint started to sweat off and he pretended to cry during the slower songs. Perhaps the highlight was when he jumped into the audience and started dancing wildly in random people's faces, making his way around the venue. You just can't beat an imaginative gimmick! Otherwise it was a pretty good affair, with the girls in the band doing some harmonising and play-acting along with the lyrics. They also made few apologies for doing a long set, pointing out that The Bluetones had no intention of coming onstage earlier anyway!
After this we went back to the quieter bar, which others had started to discover and I got more blue shit to drink, thinking it had possibly made me imagine blue dancing things on the stage. By the time we went back towards into the room I felt quite drunk and the place had really filled up. It is always a surprise to note the enduring popularity of those Bluetones! In fact we could barely see what was going on as the band took to the stage and launched into Talking To Clarry, a song I'd forgotten about entirely until I'd picked up Expecting To Fly to prepare for this show! Proceedings reached an early peak with the eternally lovely Bluetonic, then Cut Some Rug before the lull of a few b-sides. Nevertheless it was nice to know all the tunes from the album, even though a large part of me was now just waiting for Slight Return. They gave it its usual introduction, saying it was the one we'd been waiting for, and they seemed quite happy to stoke the idea that this is the highlight of their career. A lot of people seemed to know the words to everything and, indeed, maybe I enjoyed Putting Out Fires more than all those singles! There was very little showmanship, just the simple delivery of the tunes from the original band members with a low-key banner behind them. We wondered if the group spend their time plastering when they aren't onstage, or if The Bluetones is still a full time career for them. I was a bit worried about the time as they accurately reproduced the overlong last few tracks of the album, but fortunately there wasn't a strict curfew of 10pm in effect and I needn't had worried. Mark made some jokes about further "cash cow" tours to follow and how strange it was to play all these songs after so long and how much his voice had changed. In fact I booed when he made a reference to their new album next year!
The encore was of particular interest when it became apparent that they'd be sticking rigidly to the remit of it being The Expecting To Fly tour. This meant no If..., random cover versions or Solomon Bites The Worm but as they always play them anyway I found the heckles for them to be tiring! By now I'd made the decision not to give them another ounce of applause until they'd played Marblehead, which was my way of discouraging them from self-indulgence! After an unknown b-side and a bit of shouting for it from the crowd they launched into the whole point of the evening, a rendition of Marblehead Johnson at long fucking last! I was very happy to hear it, even though it was pretty short, making me think that I'd had respected their other songs a lot more if they hadn't turned this into The Holy Grail by not playing it. No doubt they wanted us to forget it by continuously omitting it, but the opposite had happened! So well done Bluetones, it's about bloody time! Next up were more b-sides I didn't know, plus The Simple Things which I'd heard before. It made sense to stick to the oldies, and nobody else quite seemed to appreciate what a monumental event their playing of Marblehead Johnson had been! Plus the final tune Are You Blue Or Are You Blind? is always particularly excellent and rounded things off nicely, especially as it had slipped my mind. They didn't seem to be in any hurry to kick us out for a club night, showing that the short set was the choice of the band and wasn't out of necessity, so we hung around a bit longer. Gradually the place was transformed into a club around us and I was relieved to have finally got The Bluetones out of my system. Now I've seen them play Marblehead Johnson hopefully their evil spell over me has finally been broken after a hefty four live viewings... We shall see!
Mark: 8.0/10
The Bluetones
Support
Misty's Big Adventure
Where
Birmingham Academy 2
When
12th December 2008
Price
£14.00
Who with
Claire
Position
Towards the back
Comments
In a similar vein to Primal Scream, seeing The Bluetones was more motivated by giving me something to do rather than an insatiable desire to watch them again and it once again felt like I was re-enacting the last day of Leeds 2000! This was billed as the Expecting To Fly tour and, despite it being a random time for the band to celebrate their debut, it was a positive sign that it wouldn't be a self-indulgent show full of new material. I heard Expecting To Fly several times to prepare and was surprised that time had treated it so kindly, with Mark Morriss's pearls of wisdom all sounding rather sweet, almost inspirational! On the day itself I was on a Britpop high after obtaining tickets to see Blur at Hyde Park and had fairly high hopes, especially as each time I watch The Bluetones they seem to get better! I'd also recovered from being ill with the usual winter diseases that hit me and, thanks to the doors opening at 6pm, had to make preparations to travel straight from work to Birmingham in the cold and rainy weather, just about having time to swallow a KFC and a McFlurry! I purchased a second ticket on the door for a friend which looked like it had been printed on toilet paper, ignoring the touts on principle, even if maybe I could have got it for cheaper. The Academy 2 had changed again, this time it opened out on the main Academy, leaving us room to hang around away from the loud music, resist the merchandise and to discover a second bar away from the crowds. Admittedly it was all a bit quiet at first, perhaps nobody had looked at their ticket and realised it would be starting so early?
Setlist
Talking To Clarry
Bluetonic
Cut Some Rug
Things Change
The Fountainhead
Carnt Be Trusted
Slight Return
Putting Out Fires
Vampire
A Parting Gesture
Time & Again
Expecting To Fly
Marblehead Johnson
Colorado Beetle
The Simple Things
The Devil Behind My Smile
Are You Blue Or Are You Blind?
