Our summer of gigs continues with Counting Crows

You wait ages for your favourite bands to tour and then they all decide to tour at the same time. This was gig 2 of 3 in a fortnight for me and Cathy, after seeing Garbage a week ago, and with another gig coming up at the weekend. 

This time we were off to The Beacon in Bristol. It was the first time we had been to the former Colston Hall since their big refurb and name change when they wanted to distance themselves from the historical baggage of links to slave trader Edward Colston. 

We were sat right at the back, in the penultimate row of the third tier. We were so high up we had a good view of the lighting riggers. I've sat right at the back of a few venues and the Beacon definitely has the best views from that sort of seat. It didn't feel dizzyingly steep either. 

After a forgettable support singer, the band came on. 

This was billed as the "Complete Sweets" tour. We were expecting them to play most of their latest album, which was released in two parts. Instead they played mainly their classics. Most of their debut album August and Everything After got an airing along with various singles. I'm not complaining although they didn't play my favourite song off the new album, 'Boxcars'.

There were also a few covers. I have heard Counting Crows play 'Friend of the Devil' so many times now it feels like it's their song (and I sing along). They also did a cover of  'the 1' by Taylor Swift. It didn't feel like there were a lot of Swifties in the audience but everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

The camera on my phone isn't good enough for pics from up in the gods, but they look colourful at least!

And so, after an enjoyable night, we are now gearing up for gig three of our summer run of gigs!

More covers

A while back I did a post about cover versions of songs I liked. Here are five more, including a cover of gone-and-long-forgotten boy band Five.

Foo Fighters: Band on the Run
Radio One are celebrating their fortieth birthday by asking loads of contemporary bands to cover songs from the past forty years. There have been some really good ones and a couple of days ago it was the Foo Fighters covering the Wings classic. And, boy was it good. I'm guessing the BBC will release the tracks on a celebratory album at some point. And I might just have to get a copy.

Terrorvision: Get on Up
I've never heard this on tape, but it was the last song of a brilliant gig Terrorvision did at The Bierkeller in Bristol on the tour promoting what turned out to be their last album. The original is, of course, by Five. I keep hoping Terrorvision's version will turn up on a posthumous release sometime (they've already had three come out!).

Tori Amos: Smells Like Teen Spirit
Take a grunge classic. Transpose it to piano. Hear it sung by Tori Amos. You can imagine how powerful this cover is.

Lily Allen: Oh My God
This is from the Mark Ronson album 'Version'. If you haven't heard it yet find someone who's got a copy and borrow it. What producer Mark Ronson has done is ask a whole bunch of people to cover various songs. I'm not a huge fan of Lily Allen, but I do like the Kaiser Chiefs, and the combination somehow just works. Other tracks I really like on the album include Amy Winehouse singing 'Valerie' by the Zutons, and a cover of the Smiths classic 'Stop Me'.

Hootie and the Blowfish: Please, Please, Please, Let me get what I want
Speaking of Smiths covers, this one from H&tB's collection of unreleased and live tracks is pretty good.