The Arkells
It felt like a warm-up tour for these guys who are playing hockey arenas across their homeland in the new year. By no means is this a bad thing, especially considering this was a few hundred person capacity room at the Hare and Hounds (for a tenner.) They seemed to play a lot of the new stuff which makes sense if you wanna polish it up, but completely omitting the debut, even in encore, seemed like an oversight for those there from the start. Michigan Left was the oldest track from their catalogue all night. Max does have the showman vibe yet still manages to have a few awkward moments within, not necessarily terrible but a little distracting in telling random stories or trying to hush shrieking Canadian female fans. "Represent our country respectfully." He also tried to win us over based on geography with a call for our best English accents on Leather Jacket (uh, English people don't have English "accents") and not pronouncing the city of Birmingham properly doesn't help. Using a bunch of other modern tricks, Max went into the crowd early to sing a song while stood on a stool (say that 5 times fast!) at the back, and the whole band returned later for an "acoustic" (though more like unplugged since they were still electric instruments) version of Book Club that was an unscripted request while the drummer tended to a broken snare with duct tape. There was, of course, some clap- and sing-alongs, as their brand of stadium rock is wont to have, and the crowd happily obliged on these. Now a staple of Foo Fighters shows, the boys asked for anyone who played guitar to stick up their hands. It wasn't exactly a stampede to get on stage but one woman did put her hand up and once she told them she didn't need their stinking guitar picks - she used her fingers - she played the part rather well, literally and figuratively. People's Champ was alright and a sign of where they have gone as a band with the chant-along accessibility and polished soar. They played a solid hour and some before faking the encore "we don't have anywhere to go" and bringing most of opener, Hagen and the Family, back onstage, minus Wonder Woman. They did a fan-voted cover "Theresa May stole it from Abba and we're stealing it back!" (I will put on record that I voted for Whitney.) The rendition was a bit of a hot mess, with Hagan forgetting some of the lyrics and everyone else trying to share mics, but it seemed joyous. After booting those guys back out I thought we might get John Lennon, alas it wasn't meant to be and I don't even recall at the moment the closer that took them minutes past curfew.
Joel Hagan and The Family
This was the only time I've ever queued at the Hare and Hounds at all, let alone down the stairs, out the door, and into the street. There must have been some anticipation for the openers, Joel Hagan and the Family, despite it not even being a fully sold out gig. The glitter on the faces of a large smattering of people stood in front of me was explained when this five-piece, all-male band took the stage with a bedazzled, glam rock singer plus a couple of female backup singers and dancers that were distractingly placed right at the front and ran around fake fawning and performing terribly choreographed dances. The crowd, old/young/male/female alike, ate it up and cheered and clapped along but my black heart remained stoic to this bashing over the head. The music was as you are imagining - upbeat, keyboard-heavy, with obvious electric guitar and bass solos. Joel did have a strong singing voice even if he dressed and spoke like a posh pirate. not too far off Johnny Depp who I channelled Keith Richards, but this seemed exactly like I wrote it - an homage to an homage.
No comments:
Post a Comment