Justice Tonight - Scala, London

Unbelievable show tonight at Scala, a benefit for the Hillborough Justice Campaign.

I grabbed tickets as soon as I heard Mick Jones would be headlining playing his first set of Clash songs since he was booted from the band in the early Eighties.

Show started with set from The Farm, who I didn't know much of apart from their set-closing 'All Together Now'. They were soon joined by Mick Jones on guitar and singer/songwriter Pete Wylie who led the combo through a brisk set of his songs.

This led to The Clash portion of the show, kicking off with the 'Train in Vain' and the crowd not unexpectedly goes wild. Quickly followed by 'Stay Free' and 'Bankrobber' with Holly Cook helping on vocals. The guests continue with Richard from Hard Fi providing great lead vocals for 'Clampdown'. 'White Man (in Hammersmith Palais)' with Peter Hooton from The Farm delivering a great vocal with help from the whole audience? The only real misstep was 'Should I stay or should I go' where Rex from the Rotten Hill Gang seems to forgot the words so Hooton and Wylie step in.
 
The Farm/Mick Jones combo then leave the stage to make way for Primal Scream, complete with Paul Simonon on bass (subbing for Mani who's busy with The Stone Roses reformation) who blast through 'Rocks' before being joined by Mick Jones on guitar for a mini-Clash set kicking off with 'Jail Guitar Doors' quickly followed by a cover of Vince Taylor's 'Brand New Cadillac', before Paul puts his bass down for Guns of Brixton. The Primal Scream combo (and sadly Simonon) exit as quickly as they came on. Leaving the stage for Mick Jones to bring things home backed by The Farm as they run through 'Armagideon Time' and end the set with 'London Calling'. The encore is 'Janie Jones' and Reprise of The Farms 'All Together Now' before the whole night comes to a close with BAD’s 'Rush'.

The Primitives - Scala, London

Dragged my buddy Vaughan along to see The Primitives at Scala for the Fortuna Pop labels 15th birthday celebrations.

Having never seen The Primitives in their heydey I was excited to hear the bands jangle-pop live. Unfortunately it's a sound that does come across as very dated.

Still it was cracking to hear songs like "Really Stupid", "Through the Flowers" and of course easily their finest song (and not surprisingly tonights show-closer) "Crash".

Wilco - The Roundhouse, London

Great show from Wilco at what is becoming one of my fave larger London venues. Good to hear a fair batch of new album 'The Whole Love' live, but I'm a real sucker for old-school alt-county Wilco (circa 'A.M.') so it was a fantastic treat to hear "Shouldn't Be Ashamed".

Art Of Almost
I Might
Ashes of American Flags
Bull Black Nova
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Side With The Seeds
One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)
Shouldn't Be Ashamed
Born Alone
Jesus, Etc.
Capitol City
Handshake Drugs
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Standing O
Impossible Germany
Dawned On Me
Encore:
Whole Love
A Shot in the Arm

The Jayhawks - HMV Forum

Very excited to finally see one of my all time favorite Americana bands play live. Given the Mark Olson left the band in 1995, and remaining founding singer/songwriter put them into hiatus in 2005 - it did seem like something I'd never be able to experience.

Bu here I was with around 1500 of the other roots-rock faithful to finally hear Mark Olson and Gary Louris blast through a set comprised primarily of their landmark early-mid Ninties releases 'Hollywood Town Hall' and 'Tomorrow the Green Grass'.

Understandably the band didn't touch any material from the albums released post-Olson's departure, save for the wonderful 'Tampa to Tulsa' from 'Rainy Day Music' - sung by drummer Tim O'Reagan.

We also got a healthy preview of material from the forthcoming album 'Mockingbird Time' which sees Olson recording with the group again for the first time since 1995.

One minor criticism would be the state of Olson's voice, which was always slightly rugged, tonight was very worn - possibly not helped by the fact that he'd already played a full 45 min opening set accompanied by Ingunn Ringvold.

That quibble aside, a fantastic show, and if this re-union isn't a one-off event and turns into a full-blown reconciliation, then it would be good if they started including more material from the great later-Jayhawks releases like 'Smile' and 'Rainy Day Music'.

Full Setlist:

1. Witchita
2. Two Angels
3. Real Light
4. Red's Song
5. Nothing Left To Borrow
6. Closer To Your Side
7. Two Hearts
8. Settled Down Like Rain
9. Take Me With You When You Go
10. She Walks In So Many Ways
11. Blue
12. Nevada, California
13. Run Away
14. Miss Williams Guitar
15. Black Eyed Susan
16. Bad Time
17. Waiting For The Sun
18. Up Above My Head

19. Over My Shoulder
20. Tampa To Tulsa
21. High Water Blues
22. Clouds

23. Hide Your Colors
24. Sister Cry

Weezer - Brixton Academy

Justin and I nipped down to Brixton to catch Weezer at their only UK show. Despite being one of my fave bands for the best part of two decades, I've been becoming progressively less interested in each new Weezer album since the "Red" album in 2008. So I wasn't sure what to expect from this one - would they want to promote their latest album 'Hurley' and play mostly that? I know they embrace their old stuff, but they usually bill these as "Memories" shows and play the "Blue Album" or 'Pinkerton' in their entirety.

All fears were quickly forgotten when the band took to the stage and launched into their very first single "Undone", quickly followed by "My Name is Jonas" and "El Scorcho".

It was fantastic to hear all your favorite Weezer songs getting blasted out live. A few things struck me during the show.

Firstly it seems Weezer have a refreshing attitude to live performance, treating it as a "show" with a focus on entertaining the crowd by playing what they want to hear, rather than whatever their latest release might be. As a result the setlist was wall-to-wall Weezer classics, with only "Pork & Beans" and "Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" (both from the "Red Album") as anything post-2001.

Another thing was how front-man Rivers Cuomo is getting stranger and stranger. Odd stuff tonight included smashing a ukulele during the first song, nerdy/weird between-song banter (lots of references to "the gods of rock"), and a sweet impromptu song about London/Brixton as part of the intro to "Islands in the Sun".

Being a connoisseur of cover versions - it was also great to see a couple featured in tonight's show - a fairly straight reading of Wheatus 2000 hit "Teenage Dirtbag" (which they apparently started covering as everyone confused Wheatus and Weezer, so assumed it was their song anyway), and a main-set closing take on Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" which Rivers introduced as their favorite British song by their favorite British band.

Lastly, it seems somewhere in the last 20 years Weezer turned into a pretty serious rock band. They rock very hard.





Full Setlist:
1. Undone - The Sweater Song
2. My Name Is Jonas
3. El Scorcho
4. Holiday
5. Pink Triangle
6. Susanne
7. Island in the Sun
8. Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus cover)
9. The Good Life
10. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
11. Say It Ain't So
12. Tired of Sex
13. You Gave Your Love to Me Softly
14. Pork and Beans
15. Across the Sea
16. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
17. Only in Dreams
18. Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover)
Encore:
19. Hash Pipe
20. Buddy Holly

John Cougar Mellencamp - Hammersmith Apollo

Went along with Justin, Nick and Sarah to check out the John Cougar Mellencamp show at the Hammersmith Apollo. The show was billed as "an evening with..." and actually did a pretty good job of melding JCMs contemporary folk troubadour material with his more popular rock/pop stuff from the 80s and 90s.

Kicking off promisingly enough with "Authority Song" from 1982's 'Uh-huh', the first part of the show saw the band playing more acoustic based instruments, which suited the more recent folky material like "Death Letter" and "John Cockers", although it was good to hear "Check It Out" recast in this folky mode as well.

This led into a short solo acoustic set which featured a great version of "Save Some Time To Dream" from latest album 'No Better Than This', and an acapella take on "Cherry Bomb" that featured more crowd singing that JCM.

The band rejoined briefly for a few songs, including a nice-bluegrass reworking of "Jack and Diane" that was an early highlight. Solo versions of "Jackie Brown" and "Small Town" followed, before JCM was joined by a fiddle and accordion player who took over for a lengthy coda.

This gave some time for the rest of the band to switch to electric instruments, and return to the stage to blast through rockin versions of "Rain on the Scarecrow", "Paper on Fire" and "Crumblin Down". Before the show closed on a massive high-note with "Pink Houses" and "R.O.C.K in the USA".

Strangely, despite still having a little time left on the curfew - the band didn't return for an encore, which was disappointing as it was really with the last few electric songs that the band really started to take flight.



Full setlist:
1. Authority Song
2. No One Cares About Me
3. Death Letter
4. John Cockers
5. Walk Tall
6. The West End
7. Check It Out
8. Save Some Time To Dream
9. Cherry Bomb
10. Don't Need This Body
11. Easter Eve
12. Jack & Diane
13. Jackie Brown
14. Longest Days
15. Small Town
16. Rain on the Scarecrow
17. Paper in Fire
18. Crumblin' Down
19. If I Die Sudden
20. Pink Houses
21. R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

Ryan Adams - Barbican Theatre

Took my work buddy Vaughan to see Ryan Adams at the Barbican Theatre. It was a solo acoustic show - one of only a handful across Europe as Ryan's "return" to the music industry after a 2 year hiatus.

As even occasional Ryan Adams fans know - he can be very much a hit-and-miss proposition in concert.

Fortunately, this was practically my dream Ryan Adam's show.

He was engaging and fun, really seemed to be enjoying himself. The setlist could have been ripped straight from my ipod playlist "RAdams faves". You'd think it would be hard to top kicking off with 3 in a row from 'Heartbreaker', but he managed it with the encore by dipping back all the way to Whiskeytown (first time he'd played them in 10 or 15 years?) for '16 Days'.



Full Setlist:
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)
Everybody Knows
If I Am A Stranger
Firecracker
My Winding Wheel
Invisible Riverside
New York, New York
Ashes And Fire
Let It Ride
Desire
The Rescue Blues
English Girls Approximately
Blue Hotel
AMY
Encore:
16 Days
Two
This House Is Not For Sale
Stop