Gigs and Concerts 2004

One of my favourite venues hosted one of the most memorable gigs back in 2004 when American band The Polyphonic Spree holy-rolled into town. Ask anyone who was there and their face will erupt into a cheesy grin. The band, which numbered well over TWENTY people wore robes and appeared more than a cult than a band. Rumour had it they recruited new band members while touring! Filling out the pretty sizeable stage the band put on a remarkable show in that their feel-good happy clappy take on indie rock swept you up in a wave of euphoria. When the band disappeared off the stage momentarily, we wondered where they had gone. I felt a hand on my shoulder and when I turned there they were filtering through the crowd in a single file line from the rear of the venue. A brilliantly uplifting show!

Bloc Party were just starting to make waves when they played the Mandela Hall in celebration of their successful debut. I only remember enjoying the show, they’re one of those indie bands who struck gold on their debut and never came near it with anything else they put out.

Another hairy American rock band, in the form of My Morning Jacket played the Limelight. I’d their latest album and Jim James is possessed of one of the sweetest voices in rock music. When the band appeared on stage looking like a metal band, I couldn’t believe it. Even better they absolutely hammered it live bringing a heightened volume to their studio recordings. Jim looked like he might knife you yet sounded angelic.

Scottish indie greats Idlewild played the Limelight. They are a highly underrated band with a mass of brilliant songs and a great live band. Only seeing them once is a regret I have to admit. The legend that is Mark Lanegan played the Limelight in 2004, one of his many appearances in Belfast. This was my first encounter with Lanegan and he cut a mean figure as he clutched tight onto his microphone stand, eyes shut tight while THAT VOICE wrapped itself around you. He would do this odd spin/turn when he ventured to the back of the stage for a swig of water. It looked like his back was knackered such was his stiffness. He also bit the end of cigarettes to smoke them buttless. Back then you could smoke indoors, and he appeared to drag a whole cigarette in one inhalation.

I saw Muse in the Ulster Hall. Now, I know most people can take or leave this band, but they were putting on incredible shows in their pomp. Matt Bellamy is one hell of a guitar player, and they created an almighty racket for a three piece. Of course, their latter albums are pure muck and they’ve become so BIG and pompous I wouldn’t go near them these days.

2004 was my first time experiencing one of my favourite performers, the wonderful Rufus Wainwright. He’s one artist I would highly recommend going to see if you can. Always theatrical and possessed of one incredible voice Rufus always springs a surprise on his fans. On this night in the Waterfront, the band stripped down to some impressive lingerie for some numbers. Yep, Rufus too.

Rumour has it that Jason Pierce was so out of it and misplaced Lisburn for Lisbon when accepting the invitation to play Lisburn Island Arts Centre. I’m a massive fan of Spiritualized and idolise Pierce so to actually be stood, practically within touching distance of the man was extremely exciting. I was deeply envious of my fellow musicians Tracer AMC who got to support on the night.

Finally, 2004 saw one of those outdoor ViTal shenanigans at Botanic Gardens. The White Stripes were headliners with a supporting cast of New York Dolls, American folk/rockers Blanche, absolutely bonkers shock rocker Peaches and possibly some others that I have forgotten. My outstanding memories of the day are bumping into (and subsequently loitering around) DJ/Dance bod Phil Kieran and the sight of Peaches with her two backing dancers swaggering about the stage with strap-ons while shouting “Shake yer dix”. And with that endearing image I leave you for this blog….

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And So I Watch You From Afar

  This blog is going to be slightly different from my regular ones. What happens next in my musical journey is very much shaped by my dalliance with one particular band. I want to devote a blog to covering the good times I spent with And So I Watch You From Afar. To this day, ASIWYFA remain one of my favourite bands. The band have continued to be a presence on the live circuit and despite line-up changes still release intriguing and ever evolving music to tantalise. Through my association with Echoes And Dust website, I’ve reviewed several of their albums. I first noticed ASIWYFA when they played as support to We Are Knives, another Belfast band with incredible musicians. I didn’t know what to expect from them as their band name initially felt kind of pretentious, albeit the lyric from a Deftones song. It became apparent though, that the instrumental post rock the band were creating was right up my street. I’d been listening to the likes of Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky and ea...
Read more

And Now The End Is Near...I Did It My Way!

The second Team Horse release was a 5 track e.p. entitled 'Here Come The Hurricane', which was a line from a Simple Minds song, fact fans. I think Jim Kerr actually sings "Here Comes The Hurricane" but I liked the sound of 'Here Come' better. Feeling much more confident that there was an actual audience for this sound I really went for it again in terms of creating something downright nasty sounding. It was at this point in time I found out about a website called Echoes And Dust. They'd reviewed And So I Watch You From Afar and 'Gangs' had actually been selected as their album of the year. I figured I should send my CD to them for a review and lo and behold, the site's chief Dan Salter wrote some lovely words about the e.p. I didn't know it at this point, but this link would be massive in the reshaping of my musical 'career'. A fair amount of the songs I recorded over the years all pointed to one thing. Sometimes it would be blatant...
Read more
  Famous Acquaintances At the outset of this blog, I should issue an apology for the amount of name dropping that will take place. Ah sod it, these tales are the my claims to “fame” and I’m going for it! After the departure of Young Simon, myself and Al Brown continued as a two-piece. This was back in the days before you had The White Stripes, or Royal Blood and the plethora of minimalist acts that followed. Sure, there’s always been two-piece acts but we stuck out as an entity in Belfast as nobody else was doing it. We changed our name from Funksmith to Foam. This band name was Al’s idea and I don’t know how he came up with it, I just recall I liked it. It suited us. It was snappy. It just seemed to summarise so much about us. With the disposable income I was generating plundering night shift in a local factory I bought an Akai Sampler and we shared financial outlay on a new Fostex 8-track Multitracker. Or “Fosty” as it was known. Fosty has resided in my attic for 10 years and I...
Read more