The new album won’t be winning any AOTY awards on the end of year write ups but is just a great fun pop rock album with one very needless guitar solo which oddly works very well. Might even be my top pick of the month.
Despite not being a huge fan, I’ve probably seen them 15-ish times over the years. Tonight was an acoustic and a Q&A thing. They did mention oddly quite a few times during the questions a gig they did at The Dubin Castle in 1995 which was the first time I saw Ash and also an unknown band called Placebo who were supporting. A band called Huge Baby were the actual listed band for that night who didn’t show but instead we got that excellent double bill.
They remain one of the nicest people in rock and very glad they’re still going and I’ve kind of grown up with them. I’ve been dipping into their stuff now and again since I first heard them which was on an early 90s thing called Naked City; some late night music/talk show on Channel Four with Caitlin Moran and Johnny Vaughan.
Really loved the whole evening. I got my CD signed on behalf of my mate that couldn’t make today but was there for The Dublin Castle gig with me over 28 years ago. Also, as I was wearing my Desperate Journalist hoodie it gave me an excuse to say a quick hello to their drummer who was in the crowd too.
Couple of interesting things - apart from their relationship stuff - was the bands low opinion of Dig! Lazarus! and Nicks thoughts on the Mark Mordue book. Dig! is one of my least favourite Bad Seeds albums (probably below even Nocturama) but I’d mainly seen positive stuff about it. Didn’t realise Nick had tried to stop the Mordue book being released, it was quite an interesting read.
Me and my mate saw Huge Baby a few times in the mid-90s. Once supporting SMASH (I won’t put the asterisks in between the letters as it’ll mess up the format) and definitely once again supporting Drive Like Jehu at The Garage in 1994.
Bumped into a bloke wearing a Huge Baby t-shirt who was behind the merch stall at a Shonen Knife gig about ten years ago and turned out he was a band member. Great guy and the pair of us oldies had a nice conversation about early/mid 90s bands.
It was probably the likes of me boring him with that Dublin Castle mention that slowed the queue down.
Usually I’d go for a pint after a RTE gig. I was completely soaked through last night and went straight home and had a biscuit and cup of tea before bedtime. rock n’roll.
I’m a big fan so really enjoyed it, thought the Q&A was interesting and good to hear the new songs live and think the new album’s one of their strongest, certainly more immediate than TOTI or Kablammo.
I hadn’t heard of her until a month ago or so. She was on the playlist on 6 Music recently during that 11pm show whoever hosts. They were playing a song of hers called 170. A song about someone claiming to be 170cm tall but Erhard isn’t having it; they’re definitely shorter.
Her stuff is often brilliant catchy moody bedroom pop but her style does vary but always fun. Kicking myself that I didn’t get into her earlier.
I went with the bloke from the pub and so I didn’t have to bore him about the gig during my post gig pint at his pub.
Was expecting a good gig but got a brilliant one. One of those where the artist, venue and crowd just clicked…but only because the artist was so great.
170’s doing the rounds I guess and so I’ll post this instead as a rough indicator of Erhard’s style. They’re currently on a UK tour. If they’re playing near you treat yourself to a great night out.
I saw her/them at Great Escape Festival in May this year, after really loving the Guestroom song, giving me great Albertine Sarge’s vibes.
But it was an outdoor venue and there was an unexpected (for me) queue to get in to see them, as people were foolishly wanting to just drink in the sun. So most of their set I was watching them from a queue, and then eventually got nearer to them for the second half. They were good but not as great as I was hoping, but I fully accept that might have been the chatty crowd helping to sway me that way!
I’ve realised recently that, for all I love loads of music and am always checking out new bands, I only go to gigs of people I know I like - I don’t really take chances on a whim. So earlier this week I had an urge to just see a band, which I never really get. Checked the listings, saw that these guys I’d never heard of were playing at the smallest/cheapest/dive-iest local venue and thought I’d give them a go
Well well worth £10 and an hour of my life in the end. Very Gilla Band indebted, along with a bit of Model/Actriz - visceral noisy post-punk with dynamic shifts that means tracks hit really fucking hard. Quite a lot of guitar work just based around making nice sounding walls of pedal noise rather than actual riffs, which I’m always in favour of. Got an actual little mosh pit going on as well
Big recommend from me if you can catch them on the rest of their next 10 or so dates. Feel like they’ll be back soon up a venue size or two, definitely felt like they were poised to get a lot more attention
(Also made me think I need to hit up Sneaky’s much more often, nearly always get into bands 6 months after they played there)
My advice is go to everything while you can. I did for years and years, saw at least two or three gigs a week if not more of smaller bands and never regretted it. Learned loads about music, got into loads of new genres and made new friends from it.
Now that I have a small kid I can’t do it anymore but I still get out for two gigs a month, just because I enjoy it so much. Go to gigs!
i don’t think i’ll ever have the capacity for that, always impressed when I see the dedication of a @BMS1 or @Icarus-Smicarus ! but I’m definitely pushing myself more now, and yeah these smaller gigs are just a lot easier to take a swing on a random weekday night given the cost/time investment vs getting to a big venue a city over
but yeah, gonna get to Sneaky’s as much as I can when the alternative is just snoozing on the sofa (as necessary as that is too)
rock n’roll.
