The Barfly Gig Report

[poetress]

I assume this is the place for such things

OK, I’m writing this in my lunch hour at work after only 3 hours sleep so it may not cover everything/make sense

Just wow! The band were amazing The venue was tiny (stage was about 12 people wide!) and I got front row pretty much in front of Steve. We had a LAR banner (pics will be provided later ) which we held up to greet the band when they came on stage.

And they were just setlist was the same as Eurosonic but in a different order (the actual order escapes me except they opened with Blood & Earth and closed with Home).

And Steve looked like he was having so much fun He said he was having a blast. Lots of talking between songs, thanking us for keeping the faith and thanking people for travelling. And he welcomed us all to 'the dark side'

Oh and So Sad was really heavy live and Bring Me Down was just beautiful - those two tracks stood out for me.

And after the show the band came down to the bar and I got to chat to Donneye and Magnus and Keith and (of course) Steve. they were all really lovely

Oh, and Steve had the words to Home up on stage and I managed to steal those at the end of the gig

It was just a fantastic night and the band rocks!

I will come back when I have more time and have had sleep and give a more legible report.

poetress x

[geo]

♥
So glad you guys had a good time, and sounds like the band did too.

youseesaf posted the setlist at pfww:

Blood and Earth
Alone
Heaven and Hell
Away From Me
Running
Truth
Bring Me Down
So Sad
Home

[rougevelvet]

Sam, so great to hear from you, look forward, with envy, to hearing more!

Everyone I've heard from non forum too, sound like they had an amazing night.

[kabloomyamy]

They sounded reakky good. Very loud. Couldn't really hear Steve singing all that well a lot of the time... there was a lot of "pointing up" for volume and asks for the bass to be turned down and the mic (and keys and cello) up. the bands had to walk through the right hand side of the crowd to get to the stage... right by me and Robyn <3 Tiny venue and no venue. Crowd was brill.
Steve was so nice afterwards though... met him and told him how good it was to see him on stage again... he thanked everyone for their support as he was leaving I called him over to say hi to Jenny (she didn't want to bother him and she was stuck in london as she had missed her train bless her) and he came and said hi, gave Jenny a kiss on the forhead. Told us about when he'd met Morrissey with impersonation. SO funny CLASSIC moment I will never forget!!

[rougevelvet]

I guess that's often a problem with small venues, getting the sound right. Well, I'm sure they'll have plenty of gigs in which to perfect that. ...by the time they get to Oz they'll be purrfect

Thanks for the mini review.


BTW would love anyone to post gig reviews, pics etc to LAR @ LJ too, as not everyone on LJ is actually on either PFWW or H&H forum.

[stellar]

Just cross posting pretty mush from PFWW for now as I am SO tired.

Just got home. Will try to post a longer and more coherent review tomorrow as I've had very little sleep. Really enjoyed the gig - they sounded so much better than in the recording from January. Steve's mic could have done with being turned up a bit, but he looked happy and confident fronting the band. The venue was really small, packed and totally intimate. It felt really special. Steve had plenty to say between songs, most of which I've forgotten for now.
There are going to be loads of photos uploaded, for those who weren't there, and apparently someone filmed a couple of songs (not me, lol) so hopefully they should make it onto Youtube. I got to meet Steve afterwards, he signed a poster for me, as did Keith the drummer, and also got to witness the 'Morrissey impersonation' which was beyond awesome. No idea how he got onto the subject of Morrissey though!

More coherent review about the music - tomorrow.

[bellatrix]

I will try and be coherent, though it will probably only be a mini review :-)

Firstly the venue. I linked the mini virtual tour somewhere, but nothing can prepare you for exactly how small the barfly actually is! We began the evening in the bar downstairs, the guys were soundchecking and being such a tiny venue we could hear it.

The upstairs is probably best described as the size of a shoebox... and I'm not joking ;-p Amazingly intimate, no barrier and the stage was only a couple of feet high. We arrived upstairs just as the support band, Sweet Sweet Lies began. I've not heard of them before, but I urge everyone to check them out - they were amazing! The singer has great presence, and they seemed really chuffed to be there, and that loads of people turned out to watch them.

Betweeen the support and LAR we had about 45 minutes, so after a much deserved drinks / bar run most of us spent the time clowning around, so there may be a few odd photos lurking!

The main event - LAR. Oh, my, god - does that man have stage presence or what? The band looked really in awe of the situation at first, but they soon settled in. We had a decent spot a few rows back in the middle, but for the first few songs I think a few technical issues prevented us from hearing much of the vocals. That was soon sorted though :-)

Steve interacted loads with the crowd, I was really surprised how comfortable he looked fronting the bad, as Stellar says. The 'welcome to the dark side' comments were much appriciated by a large segment of the crowd!

Songs wise - I forget the set-list order, but I think we all would have loved more than 9 songs! Bring me down was simply stunning, really emotional and heartfelt. I got a little teary at that..

Home is just love and So Sad - as Sam says it is so heavy live! Brilliant.

The crowd were so alive and energetic, singing along and screaming.

Afterwards they all came downstairs, I got a hug, my (stolen from the stairwall) poster signed and a picture of myself, Emma and Steve. Oh, and I (or we, as it will get uploaded when a certain loveable mod sends me the photobucket link) have a photo of the banner Sam made, will all of us around it. A family photo of sorts, of those who could make it.

My favourite gig ever. So imtimate and special, and spent in the company of awesome lovely friends
xxxxxxxxx

[zvezda]

As I've just said on pfww, I'm still (uncharacteristically) fumbling for words that will encapsulate just what an amazing experience it was. Right now I can only speak from the heart and talk about the emotions:
the pride at seeing Steve finally back where he belongs - and with a fantastic new band who deserve to be huge;
the excitement and delight at finally meeting some very lovely ladies from the forum;
the rising anticipation as the day progressed - as we tried to distract ourselves with a walk around Camden and a very odd museum exhibition!;
the pleasure at chatting to Steve and Laurie (who is so sweet and friendly) outside the bar before the gig (thanks Sam for giving me the heads up on that one!);
the warm glow when Matthew (from LAR's team) hugged me and said what great work we'd done to support the band;
chatting with the lovely Donneye before and after the gig and seeing him change from reservedness to smileyness after a job well done!;
holding zee's hand during the gig;
cheering at Steve's exhortation to the Dark Side!;
loving and laughing along with his banter - he was so clearly enjoying himself!;
feeling tears prick my eyes when Steve sang the line "please take this away from me"
delighting in hearing us all sing along to "Bring Me Down";
yelling the words to "So Sad" and punching the air all the way through;
drinking from Teh Can (of Red Stripe) from Teh Man that Robyn so kindly claimed for zee;
really feeling the love in the room (as Steve himself said) - what a fantastic, supportive crowd it was;
talking complete fangirl rubbish to Steve afterwards, having a photo taken with him (thanks Matthew!) and him drawing me his famous bunny rabbit!; and
playing the Eurosonic gig in our room on repeat as we tried to come down from the most amazing night.


Edit: I was so tired last night this stream of consciousness is all I could manage to post! I hope it still gives a flavour of how special it was and what a brilliant time was had by both band and audience xxx

[bellatrix]

I have no idea where this fits, but the family photo (which will be on my faceboook, along with the rest) but for now



edit: its tiny.. will try and fix in a minute!!!

[bellatrix]

[zvezda]

^ beautiful <3

[geo]

gah! Stella, I want to glomp you all.
...gahh! (that's all I got)
♥
You all look amazing!

[pixiecullen]

picture of the set list:


picture of the lyrics to Home:

[chelikans]

I am completely and utterly jealous of you all, but I am happy to know that the gig was a success and that you guys got to meet Steve (especially happy for Zee).

Can't wait until I myself am posting my own LAR Gig Review :-)

[NiLah]

^^ Bloody hell, I think I'd get confused by those lyrics too I dislike having to sing songs where there's such a sentence theme...my brain just can't do it...