Weddings, Parties, Anything - The Astoria 2, London

What a fantastic Anzac-Day treat with one of my favorite Australian bands, extending their 10 Year Anniversary of their break-up Reunion tour, to one show outside of Australia - and it's in my town of London!

The Astoria 2 (previously known as the Mean Fiddler) holds around 1,000 people - and while the show wasn't a sell-out, there was a good 700 or 800 fans who came to bid the band farewell (as this is theoretically the last show of their reunion tour) .

It's always tough when you see a band you love reform, time and your memory plays tricks and you tend to remember them being a lot tighter, rocking a lot harder, and telling much funnier stories between songs. We'll no such problems happened with WPA - they were without a doubt in as good form as I can ever remember seeing them - in fact I suspect they were much tighter and more rehearsed or "match fit" as frontman Mickey T would put it.

So the playing was tight and the song selection outstanding. Kicking things of with an unexpected but appropriate cover of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town" - which was less 70s rock anthem and more 30s jig. All the band "classics" are present and accounted for: "Away Away', "Ticket In Tatts", "Sgt Small", "Luckiest Man" , "Roaring Days" and a fitting for Anzac Day "Scorn Of The Women".

The many covers WPA have made their own: "Grey skies over Collingwood", "Rosy and Grey", and a fantastic "Streets Of Forbes". Swill from The Men They Couldn't Hang joined the band to duet on "Industrial Town" (which the Men covered on their ace 'Domino Club' album). Fittingly enough, the show closed with a spine-tingling "For A Short Time".

Jason Isbell - The Borderline, London

Keen eyed-readers may remember my brother Andy is a hardcore Drive-By-Truckers fan, and we even took a trip to Bilbao in Spain to see them play last time he was in town.
So it's hardly a surprise that when Andy's next visit coincided with a London show for former DBT guitarist now solo artist Jason Isbell - we'd be there with bells on.
It was actually a very packed Borderline for a Monday night, and Jason with his new band The 400 Unit ripped through a set drawn predominantly from his debut solo CD 'Sirens Of The Ditch'.
Opener "Chicago Promenade" set the scene, and not having heard a lot of his solo album I thought the more acoustic "The Magician", played late in the set was a standout.
"Dress Blues" - from his solo album but well known as an anti-war MP3 hosted on Neil Young's website - is a fantastic song, and got as great response. As did a countrified cover of Talking Heads "Psycho Killer". But the real highlight was hearing some of Jason's Drive By Truckers songs: "Danko/Manuel" and "Goddamn Lonely Love" from 2004's 'The Dirty South', together with "Outfit" and "Decoration Day" from 2003's 'Decoration Day'.