We also went to see Midlake in concert on Friday night, which gave me an opportunity for a nostalgic re-visit to the Bristol University Students' Union, the gig being in the Anson Rooms on the first floor. Good to see the adjoining Mandela Bar hasn't changed at all since my student days nearly 20 years ago, still being a dingy and featureless dump (but in an endearing sort of way).
Anyway, Midlake's tour is in support of their third album The Courage Of Others which was released a couple of weeks ago and which I haven't got yet (the second one being released as far back as 2006), though I will be rectifying that as soon as possible. They've obviously decided that the folky intimacy and intricacy of the records wouldn't translate well to the stage, so in a live setting they're a much looser, rockier proposition, and this is in no way a bad thing - the lengthy guitar "exploration" which resolved itself into the intro for a driving, rocked-up version of their best-loved song Roscoe got by far the biggest cheer of the night (here's a broadly similar version - minus intro - from Berlin a week or so ago). As you can see from the hastily snapped iPhone picture below, at one stage there were four guitarists and two flautists on stage at the same time. Now that's rock.
I should add a quick word in praise of support act Sarah Jaffe who, in a pleasing departure from rock gig tradition, was also quite good.
2 comments:
I'd forgotten how every SU in the 80s had something named after Nelson Mandela. Durham had a Mandela Ballroom.
I think it was the law for a while back there. Warwick used to have one as well, though I think it's called something else now - probably something painfully post-modern and ironic like the Bruce Forsyth Bar.
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