Posts Tagged “British Sea Power”

Mar 10 2008

British Sea Power 2008-03-01, Bottom of the Hill

Posted by: dave in concert, tags: bottom of the hill, British Sea Power, noise pop, uk, uk indie

I saw British Sea Power on their first US Tour (at least in the South) back in 2004. It was a really fantastic couple of weeks where I got to see Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Dresden Dolls and Vienna Teng all in 8 days. (lots and lots of driving happened). I saw them at a tiny place, my former favorite now long gone venue, Echo Lounge in Atlanta. Usually when you see a band 4 years later, they’ve moved up and on to bigger less intimate sorts of joints. Thank you Noise Pop! They’ve got a really good tendency to put bands in small venues that they’d otherwise have outgrown and this was one of those kinds of shows.

I said back then when I first saw them that it was difficult to really evaluate a band’s live performance when they only have on album of recorded material and handful of singles that you may or may not have heard. Generally they struggle to fill a full headlining set, and usually it’s just regurgitating the album in a random order and that’s that. The show I saw in 2004 was that sort of show, and I’ll be honest it wasn’t that great. I’d coerced a friend into going with me, under the premise that “oh they’re cool they’ve got a couple songs that sound like Coldplay but with some actual rock”. And of course I got a really weird show that bordered on schizophrenia I suppose with a lot of songs sounding very harsh and thrashy. I have a recording, but due to some equipment trouble it’ll never see the light of day.

Flash forward to now: I think their live show has matured quite a bit. They’ve got a lot more material, so they can put together a much better setlist with some variation but keeping a solid groove going. I really like their latest album, I think without a doubt it’s their best yet, so I was glad to see a lot of the songs from the album show up, especially The Great Skua which I think may be their best song. Waving Flags is a close second, because I’m a sucker for a drinking song I suppose. There’s just really a lot of good stuff and I’m happy to hear it in a show. I missed their Open Season tour also, so it’s double nice to see a good handful of those songs sprinkled in. What I didn’t necessarily enjoy, were some of the more “epic” songs. I’m willing to admit that it’s just me, and that other people really like it, but the downside of Noise Pop is that they fill the bill with a couple of local bands, and unfortunately a lot of those local bands are nowhere near the same kind of music you’re waiting to hear… and they’re not good at warming up the crowd and really it just wears you out. I really liked Colourmusic a lot. The other two opening bands, I’m sorry you just weren’t my bag. Unfortunately, the 3 opening bands meant I’d been standing roughly 4 hours before British Sea Power even got on stage, and by the time their set was halfway over I kinda wanted to go home and pass out. Kudos to Bottom of the Hill for running a tight ship and having a real quick 15 min set change between openers and a pretty short set from each of them, but really, after Carrion it was around 1AM and I was in the process of tuning out. I’m sorry, it’s me not you. The curse of Noise Pop I suppose. (true story: I bailed on Feist at Bimbo’s a couple of years ago in the same situation after there was some horrible equipment trouble and the speakers went out halfway through her set… I know I’m a wuss and this was before she got all itunes famous so I should have stayed and all that blah blah whatever).

So yeah, long epic songs at the end of a set at the end of a long day and a longer night, was not a win for me. Still, on the merits of the rest of the show, A+. I really enjoyed it. They’re a fantastically entertaining band, and if the show had been 2 acts shorter I’m sure my attitude would have been better.

setlist: