Katatonia / Swallow The Sun / Long Distance Calling gig

This was fairly good. I got to the front for Long Distance Calling but after a couple of songs I decided it wasn't that interesting and that the sound, which was pretty awful at the front, might be better at the back. It wasn't. I found them competent but they drag the tunes out for far too long. People tell me that's what you're supposed to do with 'post-rock', but I think that's a poor excuse. And I hate the pretentiousness of labelling something 'post-rock' or 'post-metal'. Post as a prefix means 'after', but rock is still here. It's as if someone is claiming this is the 'new' music that is universally replacing the old, which is far from true. Anyway, I'd recommend Long Distance Calling for listening at home when doing something else but that's about all.

Swallow The Sun came on and were immediately hampered by both guitars being almost inaudible from where I was, and the bass being far too loud. Luckily this was rectified by the second song and they played a decent setlist. Most of the people in the audience seemed to look clueless throughout so I suppose it was mainly Katatonia fans in the audience this time.

Then Katatonia played and... they were ok too. I don't know if it's my age or the fact that I've seen most bands several times but I don't find most gigs exciting any more. I do find it disappointing when bands like Katatonia leave out huge swathes of their back catalogue however, the most notable omission being them not playing 'Murder' at the end any more. There was plenty to sing along to and they always perform well but as someone who thinks their new album is disappointing and their old albums are better, it wasn't terribly thrilling.

And that was it... apart from ending up in the Rescue Rooms where some DJ was playing... something... and a couple more drinks were had. And then home.

celebrity

I forgot to add that for much of the gig yesterday I was stood next to Martin Powell, of Anathema / Cradle Of Filth / My Dying Bride 'fame'. If I was a little bit cooler / more confident / more of an idiot (delete as applicable) I would have said, "hey, you're the guy from Cryptal Darkness aren't you?" This would have earned me extra Underground Metal Points, but alas, t'was not to be.