Lightning Fryday Review

[paulwhite]

Lightning Fryday - Royal Festival Hall 01/10/04

My plans of seeing bravecaptain, SFA, Richard James and Zabrinski didn't quite work out, due to BC being on at around 7.30 the same time as Richard James, and train commitments meaning i couldn't catch all of Zabrinski but I got to see all of SFA and I think all of BC...

The Royal Festival Hall, is an excellent venue which you can seemingly walk into day and night and have a mill around. I got there early and managed to hear a bit of Richard James doing a soundcheck which sounded very good, and I'm disappointed I didn't get to see more.

At about 7.00, Gruff and Huw (of SFA) came on to the ballroom area, made some 'rock poses' and introduced the evening. They said who was playing, and then played a song telling us to go and see the bands who were playing elsewhere, before breaking out into an acoustic version of 'Fire in My Heart'.

When they had departed, I made my way up to the Chelsfield Room, where Martin was due to play. There was a lot of people already there, mainly sitting with a few fans standing at the front. You could walk straight in, so you could have seen bc for free if you lived near london.
On stage was an icelandic called 'Mugison', he was up there by himself playing guitar and laptop. He was very amusing inbetween songs, but unfortunately the songs weren't too good. He did get everyone to sing along to one of his songs, though. The crowd seemed very relaxed, and was very appreciative.
Martin came on about 7.45, a bit behind schedule. He was joined with a drummer, and had visualizations behind him to accompany the songs, which i thought was excellent, as to be honest watching a guy sit at a laptop isn't the most thrilling visual spectacle. I think the drummer really added to the sound, and the songs seemed much tighter than at Soton Joiners.
The set list was:-

All watched ober by machines of loving grace
I am a Lion
Big Black Pig Pile
Good Life
Flow Machines
Weaponized

Unfortunately, towards the end of Flow Machines and during Weaponized it was nearly time for the first SFA set and a lot of people started to walk out (me included), so i'm guessing that weaponized was the last song.
In all it was a very good set, i think i enjoyed it more as i knew the songs this time around. The crowd seemed to enjoy it as well, and it was a good reception.

After i (guiltily) walked out on BC, I made my way to the main arena where SFA were due to play their first set. I was seated on the front row just to the right of the stage. It was an excellent view and definately worth the £39 i forked out on it (thankyou ebay!).
Before they came on, and in the interval they showed some confessions from the Howard Marks confessional booth, with people admitting that they bought tickets and books on the black market, and that they dumped their girlfriend because they thought she looked like Shreks girlfriend (?). Howard just kept on saying it was alright, because there was no 'Evil Intention'.

SFA's first set was a mellow affair, with them playing a lot of songs of Mwng, and a few varieties such as Turning Tide and Down a Different River. The highlight for me was a stunning version of Presidental Suite.

The second set was classic SFA. Starting with Slow Life, there was a mad rush to the front. They played all the usuals (Do Or Die, Rings around the world, Golden Retriever). The crowd was absolutely crazy at the front, and sang and danced and jumped to nearly all of the songs all the way through. It was also very easy to try and get on stage, so the security people had a tough job and was probably a bit rough on the crowd. The highlights was Ice Hockey Hair, and Picollo Snare.
They finished on the Calimero and TMDGAF, with the usual techno finish. I left at this point, hoping to see a bit of Zabrinski not knowing that they were going to start right after SFA had finished. (in hindsight I think that some of Zabrinski were playing on stage with SFA!).
I only heard a bit of Zabrinski before having to leave for the train. They sounded very good, playing a few from their latest album, and the single Executive Decision.

In all it was an excellent evening of non-stop entertainment, and definately worth the ticket price.

pd

[discoRdance]

nice review. I wanted to go