Beta Band (Bristol Accademy tonight)

Anyone seen them?

Not 100% yet, but think I'll be popping over the severn tonight.

Though the new album's good, still not impressed as much as the previous. Should be good though

:mo:

 

You've got to go and report back. Lucky bugger, I'm jealous.

Only listened to the new album once so far. Nice vinyl, less convinced by the music. Need to spend more time with it.

-- Ian

 

Be not jealous Ian! A little closer to home for you is this fine evening's entertainment http://www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk/empire/gigs/peterandre.cfm

BTW I've been called sideshowbob a couple of time over the last week. Apparantly my big toes are larger than most's. I've had a taxi driver and several people I've never met before asking to see my toe! I don't think it's that "bad", but seems to amuse my mates! "size 7 feet, but needs a 9 to fit the toe in" etc...

 

Presumably you use your big toes to hold on to tree branches?

Thanks for the Andre tip, but this evening I discover I have a prior appointment drilling holes in my own forehead.

-- Ian

 

Peter Andre or "Big Pete" to those close, isn't until Sunday 11th July! Plenty of time to work out the dance routines!

Holes in forehead. The ear wax getting out of control then?

The toe jokes are quite funny. Been recieving txt messages at stupid O'Clock along the lines of "Big Toe was made for walking, and that's jus what it'll do, one of these days Big Toe is gonna walk all over you" Versions of Blue Suede Shoes, Cotton eye joe, And the current popular fav "Big Toe, Big Toe, wotcha gonna do! Wotcha gonna do when it grows on you"

Oh the whit!

 

Could be worse. Imagine if you had a Big Tone growing down there. You'd never get any peace.

-- Ian

 

After all the fanfare on here a while back and remembering that I liked the track from "High Fidelity" I went and bought "The 3 EPs" and was pretty underwhelmed

I've listened to it a few times now and, to borrow a phrase a Guardian reviewer used about the new Norah Jones album: so inoffensive you have trouble remembering whether you put it on.

Sorry - not my bag at all. I'm disappointed as I usually like that kind of thing.

Michael.

 

Oi, MO, report for duty at once. Did you go, or did you weasel out and watch Will Young vids instead?

-- Ian

 

Sorry Chief!

Yep, got there in the end. Was all a bit rushed and hectic. 3 friends were going and then others were then wont. Infact the guy who gave me a lift had to pull out when he got to the car park!

Ended up with a spare ticket which thought would easily be able to get rid of outside, but there was no queue, and no touts! And those who were at the box office were just collecting reserved tickets. Ended up just leaving the ticket with the box office dude and asking him to give it to the next person who tries to buy a ticket. He no doubt sold it and pocketed the cash though!

Onto the show......

Missed all but the very end of the support band. Not even sure who it was. Stood around admiring the venue, and drinking overpriced Carling. Considering the place is carling sponsored, you'd think you'd get a reasonable price rather than the usual £3!

Not a bad little venue though. Large enough to get a decent crowd in and, and small enough to keep it "intimate". The main standing area is lower than the bar area and there's a sort of fence to stop people falling or jumping. I thought they all looked like MOnkeys behind it, but the (beta) band made several "prisoner" comments. But did seem to also make random "oo oo ee ee ah ah" noises :MO!:

Before they kicked off their was a video. I didn't have my contacts in (made a curry earlier and chilli still must have been on finger tips! Burnt the **** outta my eyes and had to take them out again - which took ages as couldn't keep my eyelids open for long enough! :lol so couldn't really follow it, and there were subtitles on bits. I'll wait for the LTD edition 2CD version of the album with bonus tour DVD or something

They played MOst of the new album and quite a bit of the "old" stuff too. The four of them swopping instruments and changing about throughout songs. I wasn't really sure how they'd pull some of it off live, but they got it pretty much spot on! That vocal sound that's associated with them (well, by me at least) where there's the sorts off sync harMOnies and layering going on.

There was a bit of banter, "we got played in the caf on eastenders earlier YAY!" and some lighting and such, but as far as "a show" goes, wasn't as much as I'd have expected.

The crowd were pretty tame. Well, they're not exactly "rocking" enough to have mosh pit thing going on. But was a lot of head nodding and a few people bouncing about. And I of course had a li'l wiggle, though wasn't drunk enough to be able to dance (read as "wasn't drunk enough to forget I can't dance").

Well worth going to see if you like the songs. And impressive seeing how they pull them off live. But would have liked more of a "show".

I think the new album has a MOre solid constant sound to it which works well live. MOre of a constant riff thing which you can boogy too.

A very good night out! And possibly only dissapointment was they didn't play "Dry the rain"

 

Oh! And it was pissing down when we left! Was a huge rainbow that we seemed to be following all the way there. Was nice to just have a smoke listening to music and talking shit while driving there. Can't remember the last time I was in a car driving anywhere but a lift/taxi to work or the pub!

That Clifton Suspension looks impressive!

And best of all, we seen two horses rolling about on their backs in a feild like dogs do!

 

oo-er missus.

Ph-narr ph-narr.

Good writeup, I hope they play somewhere Londonish. Must dig out the new album tonight and listen to it properly.

-- Ian

 

Well, I've listened to it again and am really disappointed. Most of the songs are too fast to be the Beta Band, for a start. What happened to that stoner shuffle thing they do so well?

Maybe I'm not in the right mood for it. There's a couple of promising songs on it, must give it a bit more time, but The 3 EPs and Hot Shots II were obviously immediately great, so I suspect the new one isn't for me.

-- Ian

 

Thats a shame, I thought the 3EPs was great. I may give it a try anyway though, although I have been a bit disappointed with the follow ups to the 3EPs.

 

They're in the middle of a fairly extensive UK tour so should be playing somewhere London-ish. The cover on the new album looks cool, not heard anything of them for ages though, first 3 eps were OK at the time, recall the debut album being a bit of a let down...

 

I really hate it when a band doesn't play their most famous song

OK, I'm sure they get really bored of it etc. etc. but it really is part of the deal. I mean, it's like buying a book about da Vinci paintings and then finding no mention of the Mona Lisa

Some of the better gigs I've been to the band will play their "famous" song in a completely different way, like Radiohead doing an unplugged version of "Creep" which I thought was awesome (allthough you can't quite get the same intensity from a single acoustic guitar ).

Michael.

 

I must have about 50 versions of Coltrane playing My Favourite Things (no exaggeration), and they're all completely different...

-- Ian

 

I've been dissapointed with it too. It's not a bad album, just not as good as I'd have hoped. I suspect they may have made it with touring in mind. It's got MOre of a individual track thing going on. Not really sure how to word this.

Seems MOre straight forward too, though there are some pretty damn fine tracks on there.

It's improved with MOre plays, and I do like it. Just hasn't got the magic of some of their other stuff.

 

BETA BAND

Where: Carling Academy Brixton, London
When: FRIDAY, 02/07/2004 at 21:00


MORE DETAILS ABOUT THIS EVENT

9pm - 3am

 

Hooray! Cheers me old china.

-- Ian

 

Well, they were quite good on Later last night, I'm glad to say. Still not convinced by the record, but "Assessment" sounded like a good song live.

-- Ian