Monday 26 May 2008
Arrived at the venue at about 7:30 expecting to be able to walk straight in as the doors would have been opened at 7pm as advertised on the ticket and the email I got and the text message I got just in case I was in any doubt the doors opened at 7pm. So we all understand the doors will open at 7pm, right! Wrong!!! The queue was round the block and when we eventually got in the woman on the door said they hadn't opened till 7:40pm. How difficult can it be to let people into a venue on time. Have the venue not done this a thousand times before!!!
Ok thats that rant over with.
We got in and stood at the first raised area just beyond the top bar. It was me, my wife and middle daughter. It was my daughters first gig so she was pretty excited. We both got T shirts and a mug and some badges.
At 8:10pm the support came on. They are not the worst support I have seen and they did a cover of Ah Ha's take on me. The lead singer certainly loves himself. My daughter reall enjoyed them.
At 9:30pm Avril came on accompanied by dancers. I wont go through the whole set song by song as its already been done by others. Starting off with Girlfriend and I can do better. She was definetley holding back and I think (could be wrong though) she missed a few words out. She did get better but felt it wasnt her at her best and it was like she was a bit scared to strain the voice too much although she did belt some of the lines out.
I must admit that when I first heard over a year ago that she would have dancers on tour I didnt think it was a good idea. On the build up to the tour I began thinking that maybe the dancers would work! OMG was I wrong. The dancers were awful, my heart sank every time they came on. They used every cliche getto dance move in the book and someone needs to tell them break dancing was at its height two decades ago. The guys were actually pretty good at their stuff but I just wanted to cringe when they were on. As for Avril's "dancing", I love her to bits but she cant dance, at best it was some sort of weird marching stuff she was doing. She needs to lose the dancers and fast!! She doesnt need them, I always think dancers are there to distract the audiance from the star who has very little talent and Avril doesnt need that.
The best songs she did were when she was on stage just her and the band. She looked happy and did a few cartwheels on stage which was pretty impressive. She played the drums on Runaway and Mickey which was cool. The biggest dissapointment for me was that she only played an hour, I had expected at least an hour and a half but it was over all too quickly. My daughter loved every minute.
I know I have made a lot of criticisms but she was great and it was so good to see her live again after such a long wait. She is so much more animated on stage these days. I remember the first time I saw her back in 2003 and what a difference from that shy 18 year old who dared not move from behind the mic stand.
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Didnt get to the venue until about 8:30pm and was able to walk straight in. The support had just finished. This time as it was just me and a friend I went down to the main standing area and got as far forward as possible. Avril came on about 9:15pm and what a difference. She belted out Girlfriend and I can do better. For some reason the dancers didn't seem to bother me as much as they had done the night before (maybe Im getting used to them). Avril didn't seem to be doing the same amount of dancing with them and had cut out the stupid marching stuff.
The set was different this time. She played Hot, Losing Grip and I dont have to try. She was fantastic. It was so much better than the night before. The dancers came on halfway through and sprayed silly string into the crowd and threw out T shirts. The atmosphere was amazing, it felt like everyone was really up for it.
In the end she played for an hour and 15 minutes which was better.
Cant believe thats the first two gigs over with. Manchester here I come
