Going to see Ginger Wildheart was my second trip to Manchester
this week. I was there for Guns N' Roses earlier. You can read that review by
clicking here. I was worried before GnR about travelling up to Manchester and
seeing a shit gig. That didn't even enter my mind when travelling up to see
Ginger. The main reason for me wanting to make that journey is because at the
end of last year, Ginger announced he was not going to be touring regularly for
a year or more. So, this little pre-Download tour was something I wanted to be
at. I also wanted to go because this is the first set of shows after 555% (the
triple album PledgeMusic project) album was finished and I wanted to see some
of that material live. I want to say a quick word about the venue which was
Manchester Club Academy. Really different room to Academy 3 (which I was at for
Dimmu Borgir) but I like it. Also, they charge £3.30 for a John Smiths. I don't
mind paying that for a good pint so I did. Venues that charge £4+ for a drink
will never see my money. Maybe I am alone in that, but Club Academy charge less
and that appealed to me when thinking of buying a drink. The next few were due
to getting a taste for Smiths. Club Academy - I am in favour.
The night was opened by Baby Godzilla. Ginger tweeted that you
don't want to miss them, and I managed to. That was a failure on my part. As a
result, I have no comment on them. The second band on was The Guns - a band who
I had not heard of before this tour. I listened to some of their stuff before
leaving and it sounded quite good. My post-show feelings were that musically,
they were really very good. I enjoyed their music and thought they had good
energy. I thought it was odd that the lead singer seemed to shit on the crowd
during songs and then give thanks afterwards. Perhaps me saying they "shit
on the crowd" is a bit excessive. Here's the thing though - I've not
really heard of this band and yet the lead singer says "I couldn't give a
fuck if you care about us afterwards". I thought the point of a support
band was to not just warm up the crowd for the main act but also to try and get
their music heard by a new audience. I'm not really into a band who says
repeatedly that they don't care if I like them. Maybe that shouldn't bother me
but it did. The singer also seemed annoyed when we didn't sing along with their
songs. Don't tell me you couldn't give a shit if I like you and then get pissed
when I don't sing your songs (that I don't know!) Seems like a quite odd
reaction to me - I'd hate to see how they'd act if they supported Motörhead!
Conclusion - musically The Guns were really good. I didn't like their general
attitude onstage though. One thing which did win me over slightly was during
Ginger, one of the band members (possibly all) were handing out free copies of
their album (or one of their albums) so I'm sure I'll give that a listen. That
is a really good marketing idea as far as I'm concerned.
After them and a relatively short change over time, it was time
for Ginger. There was a cheer from the crowd because something got set up
involving a traffic cone but I didn't see what was going on. Anyway, the band
came on and the gig kicked off with a song from 555% - Another Spinning Fucking
Rainbow. It was a superb start to the gig. The rest of the set was a good mix
of The Wildhearts and Ginger's other solo projects (Silver Ginger 5, Ginger
Wildheart etc). The next songs were Girls Are Better Than Boys, Mazel Tov
Cocktail, Anyway But Maybe and Sonic Shake. I really liked this strong opening
to the set especially considering the solo stuff I either hadn't heard live
before or hadn't heard that often. The crowd at this point had really filled up
and were in good voice.
The next song in the set was Taste Aversion, another one from
555%. I thought it was really good but after the song Ginger talked about
having a brain fart with the new material. I didn't notice! We also got to hear
Confusion from the new album which again was really good. What followed were 3
quick songs in a row - S.I.N, Very Very Slow and Suckerpunch. That was so good.
Very, Very Slow was played twice in a row which I really liked. I'm hoping
these three songs are run through like this again at Download. Following these
three was Sunshine From New York (probably my favourite from Chutzpah) and The
Hard Way. This was a superb end to the main set.
Before the encore, the crowd changed for Ginger and sang Don't
Worry 'Bout Me. I thought this was really cool. I remember this happening in
Southampton and London when I've seen Ginger previously and it was fun. The
first song of the encore was the last one from 555% and it was Just Another
Song About Someone. The set closed with 3 Wildhearts songs, Do The Channel Bop,
Can't Do Right For Doing Wrong and Inglorious. This was such a good end to the
set and left everyone in a happy mood when they left.
Overall, this was another superb showing from Ginger. I can't wait
to see his set at Download next weekend. I wish it was longer than 30mins but
that's better than no set. I've seen by looking at Ginger's Formspring that
there will be a Birthday show this year but there has been no indication of a
December tour. After the Manchester show, I really hope there is one. If there
isn't, that will really justify my decision to travel from Portsmouth to
Manchester to see a Ginger headline show - not that the show alone hasn't
already done that.
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