Back to the castle for our third gig of the summer

Yesterday we went back to Cardiff Castle for the second time in less than a fortnight, this time to see Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner on their joint 'Bowling for Bones' tour. There was additional support from American Hi-Fi. We arrived in time to see all three bands perform.

We had 'accessible' tickets this time so were on a raised area with seating some way off to the left of the stage. It meant we were near the castle keep.

Although being in the accessible area was helpful for Cathy, it was a lot colder than the previous gig we went to at the castle. And being on a raised platform meant the area was quite exposed. Cathy ended up putting on extra layers. It was quite a contrast to when we saw Garbage on the brink of a heatwave!

All the layers - including rain poncho!

American Hi-Fi were decent. They have a very early noughties pop-punk sound. I enjoyed their set. 

Frank Turner's set list included most of his faster, louder songs. He started with I Still Believe and played most of my favourite songs, finishing with Get Better. 

There were a couple of slower songs in the middle, like Wessex Boy, which he introduced with an apology for being from Southern England. He had previously expressed a love for playing in Cardiff and name-checked Clwb Ifor Bach as a "legendary" venue, that he had performed in very early in his career. 

Frank concluded his set by saying he had met a bunch of American tourists in the castle earlier who said they were in a band and so he had invited them to perform a set. He asked the crowd to stay for at least two songs. 

And then Bowling for Soup came on for the kind of mayhem they tend to bring to the stage. There are only two band members left from when we saw them play the Student's Union Great Hall 20 years ago, but we still got the full gamut of classics like Almost, High School Never Ends, Ohio, Girl All the Bad Guys Want, The Bitch Song and 1985. They also introduced their "most popular song" early in the set and played the theme song to Phineas and Ferb. 

I particularly liked their Cymraeg rebrand!

Music aside, there were lengthy, sweary, funny rambles in between songs, an on-stage giveaway of a signed guitar, a dragon, pyrotechnics and flame projectors. It was non-stop entertainment.

This was our third big gig in less than two weeks. It's been a hectic time but great that so many artists we like are coming to Cardiff making it easy for us to see them.

Garbage (thunder)storm the castle

Yesterday Cathy and I went to our second ever gig in Cardiff Castle. Three years ago we saw Bastille play there. This time we arrived shortly after a heatwave-induced thunderstorm.

We missed the opening act but we arrived in good time for the set from the main support band, Skunk Anansie. I even had time to buy a tour t-shirt and a decadent doughnut before the music started because Skunk Anansie were a bit late starting.

I really enjoyed their set. Although I said to Cathy that Skin, the lead singer, was in a totally unsuitable outfit considering the heat. She had to change out of her really heavy trousers after a few songs. 

Skin also went crowdsurfing twice, which impressed me. I discovered I liked several of the songs I didn't know more than the limited few I did know so I might well explore their back catalogue sometime.

The weather may have resulted in a few people not turning up as the performance area felt less crowded than I expected. I know it wasn't a sell out but I was pleasantly surprised at how much space we seemed to have without being ridiculoualy far back from the stage. 

Also, this is mega-gig week in Cardiff with massive concerts  every night at the Castle, Blackweir and the international stadium. There's obviously an upper limit on how many gig tickets can be sold in a week and it may be we have hit the upper cusp.

It was an interesting demographic in that the crowd seemed to skew more female. All three bands on the set list are fronted by women, which might have something to do with it. 

Garbage came on slightly earlier than expected, kicking off with the opening track off their latest album. They played several songs off that album (which I reviewed back in March) during the gig. I was surprised at some of them, including the gig finale when they played 'The Day That I Met God'. Amusingly, Shirley messed up the cue for that song and had a friendly go at Butch for leaving her hanging in an awkward silence. 

Garbage always used to be Shirley and three middle-aged dudes. Now it's Shirley and three old dudes. Shirley is still Shirley though, keeping time by fiercely stomping around in a circle during songs; amusing us with rambles and rants. 

The set list was a mix. They didn't play any of the poppier songs off Beautiful, but I was stoked to hear them play 'Control' from Not Your Kind of People. The old tunes were the bangers though. They gave 'Stupid Girl' a bit of a refresh and 'Only Happy When It Rains' was joyous. The singles off Version 2.0 are all strong songs and play well almost 30 years later. I was surprised they omitted 'Queer' from the set list and I was expecting them to play 'Witness to Your Love' but that didn't feature.

Overall, though, they played a cracking set. The new songs sounded better than I expected. I can tell Shirley really likes 'Chinese Fire Horse'. An unusual inclusion was 'It's All Over Bar the Crying', off the fourth album, Bleed Like Me. Shirley said they has never played it live before this tour, but she's a slightly unreliable historian. I enjoyed hearing it anyway and, of course, I sang along. 

Unusually, there was no encore as they played right up until the allotted curfew time. I quite enjoy the pantomime of cheering for a band to come back out but it didn't happen. It's hard to just turn the house lights on in an outdoor venue so they put up a message on the big screen about the exits. The castle keep glowed red and moody as we left.

Post-script

I know what you're thinking. How decadent was that doughnut? Well! Judge for yourself!

Album of the Month: Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light

I have tickets to see Garbage at Cardiff Castle this summer, which has prompted me to give a serious listen to another CD I got for Christmas, the album they released last year.

All being well, the castle gig will be my fourth time seeing Garbage after their debut album tour in 1996, and tours celebrating 20 years of their debut album in 2015, and 20 years of their second album in 2018. I blogged about the 2015 gig when I was clearly underwhelmed, judging by my gig review. I didn't blog about the 2017 gig, which was in the cavernous concourse beneath one of the stands in Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol.

More recently I "rediscovered" them when I got their 2-disc Anthology and then went on a buying spree of special edition re-releases. After I posted about the Anthology I even bought the 2-disc version of their first 'best of' that I had decided not to buy way back in 2007 (and blogged about not buying it!) It was cheap on eBay, so why not?

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light was a gift from my sister-in-law, Abby. It's got a striking cover, with a glowing octopus. The lettering is on a plastic sleeve that slips off the digipak, leaving just the octopus in all its cephalapod glory.

There are some recent pictures of the band inside the album sleeve. Shirley's got a blonde look now.

It's kind of fitting that Abby bought me this album because she was there when I first heard the band. I remember hearing my first Garbage song playing on a car radio. It was a sunny day and Abby was driving us somewhere around Newport Road in Cardiff. The band were brand new and were being profiled on a radio station and the track they played was Stupid Girl. I was instantly struck by their sound, went out and bought Only Happy When it Rains on a cassette single and that was the start of my fandom.

30 years later, listening to this album made less of an impact. There aren't many of the gut-punching power riffs that drove their debut album forward, and barely any of the catchy melodies that featured on their second or third album. The songs all run into each other and are a bit samey, both in tempo and style. 

Looking ahead to the summer, I'm sure some of these songs will be on the setlist in the castle. I'd guess they'll play the opening track, There's No Future in Optimism, the liveliest track, Chinese Fire Horse (Shirley's astronomical sign and a sweary angry warning not to disrespect her), the slightly bouncy Love to Give, and the closing track, The Day That I Met God. (That final track feels like such a Shirley song I would be amazed if they didn't play it.) 

I also wouldn't mind hearing them play the biting R U Happy Now. It seems increasingly relevant singing about the liars in power given how out of control the American president, and by extension, America, seems right now. However, there are four tracks in a row starting at track 3 that feel like filler tracks and that section of the album drags.

Overall, despite repeated listens, I don't feel many of the tracks have stuck in my head. I'll find out in the summer whether the new tracks will have enough live oomph to hold their own against the classic songs. 

Details

Year of release: 2025

Tracks: 10

Favourite track: Love to Give 

Track to skip: Have We Met (The Void) - the fourth track and the most filler of the filler tracks.