Never mind the case of “the dog that didn’t bark”, this was the case of the tickets that never were. I mentioned to my brother back in September that I had booked to see The Charlatans so he did the same and we planned to go together. Come the night, come the email search and guess what – no tickets. No mention of tickets. Nothing. Nada. Tumbleweed.
God only knows what happened but I can only think I must not have “hit the tit” to complete the sale. But we jumped in a cab anyway and (thank God for Twitter) managed to pick up spare face value tickets. The night was back on track.
This was the second gig for us at the new Tramshed venue and already it’s turning into a favorite. It’s big enough to get some class bookings (as evidenced by Public Enemy and The Charlatans) and small enough to easily get up close to the stage for a bit of a mosh. Two bars and short queues. A good sound system. Top hole old boy.
The night started with a very Welsh sounding “Yukatan” who make great, fuzzy, dreamy shoe-gazey sounds – excellent stuff
Next up were Frankie and the Heartstrings.
They make what I would call Steve Lamaque music – if you ever listen to the evergreen DJ’s late afternoon show on 6 Music you’ll know what I mean, foot-stomping indie, great for a party if a bit bloke-ish. It took a few tracks but I warmed to them and by the end of their set they had the audience firmly on their side
Then, running a little late by my reckoning (if rumours of a ten thirty curfew for the Tramshed due to it being in a residential area are to be believed) it was time for The Charlatans.
I’ve always liked the Charlatans but mainly for their singles output – I was never a big follower of their albums. The growth of streaming however means I listen to a lot more albums in the full as it were. The Charlatans’ new album “Modern Nature” was an eye-opener for me. In all the Tramshed set included five tracks from Modern Nature and they more than stand up for themselves against the older more well known tracks. This is a band who after a couple of decades in the business and after a couple of tragedies that would stop must in their tracks are still making great vibrant music and not retreading old sounds.
Tickets for the gig became a must buy for me based on their new work just as much as their older hits
For all his years fronting the band, Tim Burgess looked a little uncertain to begin, mumbling “getting there, getting there” after the first couple of songs. But the audience were with them all the way and the hall was soon jumping – particularly when “North Country Boy” was rolled out.
From the new album they played Talking in Tones which Burgess has described as being about the sad passing of their drummer Jon Brookes of a brain tumor and of how they still feel his presence.
One of my favorite tracks So Oh – a song that’s a dream of summer written in the winter came next.
Driven on by the tremendous throbbing bass playing of Martin Blunt this set was all killer and no filler. It played out in waves, peak followed by calm followed by peak.
One definite crescendo was the gospel tinged “Come Home Baby”, a song which highlights the beautiful keyboard playing of Tony Rogers
My missus was thrilled that the set included her current favorite “Emilie” – a song inspired by Tim presenting an award to Dionne Warwick and written as a response to “Walk On By”
The Charlatans are one of those bands where you don’t realise the outstanding back catalog until they start banging them out. So of course the new crowd pleaser “Let the good times never end” had to be included. But so too did the classic anthems “Only One I Know”, “Just when you’re thinking it over” and “One To Another”
By now obviously the crowd was at quite a pitch of moshing and the band seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves with Burgess even pausing to capture the bouncing crowd during the epic encore of “Sproston Green”
A fantastic gig and a memorable night – that’s two from two for the Tramshed. I only hope they can keep this up as we’re back there for New Year’s Eve – let’s hope that’s as good a party!
Eat see hear Cardiff 