Oh…my…Lord

The only words I can come up with to even remotely express how great, how majestic, and just superbly wonderful Faithless were last night. We went to the NIA, which none of us had been to before, seemed quite a nice venue, without the ridiculous lines for things of most places.

The opening act, Infadels, were ok, some nice beats, but they really need to decide what style they're going for. Warming the bass player up before the gig starts could be an idea too. He was practically asleep for the first half of their set, then woke up and was suddenly the best thing in the band.

Half hour or so sat around after Infadels finished, then Faithless come on. They get a much better response, just playing an instrumental track. Then Maxi Jazz comes on. Wow. I've never seen a crowd so completely in the palm of someone's hand before he's even said a word. They start off, and after 3 tracks, not the usual "save the best tracks for the encore", we had Insomnia. Incredible. The crowd went absolutely nuts.

Faithless kept their big, crowd-pleasing songs spread out through the set, which made it rather more even than your usual live show, although it made sure that nobody dared go to the loo.

One small quibble, the back-up singer, can't remember his name, is good, but he's no Maxi, and whenever he was on there was a slight feeling of "You're not bad, but not who we came to see". Sorry mate, but not quite there yet.

Brilliant show, but was kind of short, starting 7:30 ish and finishing about 10:45, which sounds ok, but Faithless didn't actually start till 9.

Also, getting back to Leam at 11 on a tuesday night is kind of a hassle, especially when none of you really know where you're meant to be going and you have 2 times for the last train (both were right, just one was from New Street and one from Moor Street.) Why exactly does Birmingham need 3 major stations in the centre? Especially when New Street is actually HUGE!

After an after party, kind of, ended up getting home at 9 this morning. Now have to somehow find the time to eat, sleep, watch the football tonight, do 101,000,000 things around Leam, and do some work for the Russian exam tomorrow (or at least learn how to use the dictionary).

: 27 Apr 2005 15:41 |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem