Another weekend, another road trip! This time it was just a couple of hours eastwards to the coast, and the place where I had most of my childhood seaside holidays. Despite having gone for a week every year for 5 or 6 years, I can't remember if we ever went into the Spa, maybe once for a puppet show or something?! So this was a trip down memory lane with a tweak, for me.
It's interesting, seeing bands at different sized venues, at different stages in their life-cycle, as it were, and of course different genres have different attitudes to queueing, I think. A few years ago, the secondborn and I went to Leeds to see Friendly Fires, touring their second album, at the O2 Academy. We'd been to a few pop-punk gigs at the Academy, where queueing had started at lunchtime or earlier, and I'd been to see Muse at Wembley, where the queue had started the night before, they were big enough to warrant televised main-stage sets at Glasto and Reading, and it was a Saturday, so we'd expected a few people there at least in the afternoon, but we arrived at 12.30-ish, and no-one else rocked up until nearly 5pm. It was similar for Royal Blood, we got into Bridlington about 3, parked up, found the queue by half past. The queue consisted of 5 people before we got there, and stayed that way until we went for coffee about 20 to 5, until 5pm when my friend messaged from the queue saying 'I'm here, where are you?!' But Royal Blood are doing their second full tour of their first album, and yes they've blown up massively over the last few months, winning awards from NME and the Brits...
We wanted to be at the front for this one, either right at the front or at the back, because for those who aren't familiar with them, Royal Blood are heavy rock and there's always going to be moshing and crushing. Stringent ID checks were in place, with names on tickets and valid, up to date, official photo ID required for the lead ticket-holder in each group, as an effort to combat the ridiculous touting that happened on RB's last tour, which sold out in milliseconds and tickets on resale websites at massively inflated prices within minutes, seemed to work but it leaves people who buy tickets fully planning to go to a gig, who then find out they can't go for some reason, stuck with tickets they can't use or sell on. It's not perfect, but it's a start. We got in quickly enough though, and got our spots, and waited for the opener...
Mini Mansions are a three-piece, the side-project of the bassist from Queens of the Stone Age, Michael Schuman. There's something a bit Supertramp about their sound, and the on-stage set-up is interesting, with keyboards and drummer (the aforementioned Mikey Shoes) both standing with microphones, and the bassist free-rangeing about the place. Usually I listen to supports at least a little bit before going to a gig, I hadn't got round to it with these guys, I wish I had because I might have got more into them. But I found them not all that engaging, they seemed to be 3 very competent musicians playing the same music at the same time, but not *together* as a band, not connecting with each other or the audience all that much, perhaps because of the static nature of the two vocalists' instruments? I don't know. It definitely took half the set before they seemed to even acknowledge each other. I'm listening to their music now, though, and I can see why it didn't grab me live.
On to Royal Blood then. Chest-rattling, headbang-inducing, melodic but heavy rawk. Done very, very well, by one bloke on drums and another with a bass and a fearsome array of pedals. They were brilliant; energetic and connected-seeming despite being half a stage away from each other most of the time. They opened with a B-side, which had a low reaction from people who've only heard the album, so it didn't really kick off until the second song in, but then it was clear that it was
going off, as the phrase goes. The singing along with guitar lines was really cool to hear, and seemed to make Mike smile. I love watching people playing instruments, specially as I'm trying to get better at bass myself, and this was no exception, as bass and melody came from the same instrument it was a real treat to see, if somewhat intimidating! Come the end of the set, Mike and Ben both gave their own style of audience appreciation, which was warmly received.
The crowd were as energetic as expected, but sadly the people just behind me and the daughter and practically-son-in-law were, there's no other way to put it, dicks. I have zero, and I mean
zero problem with the usual squashing and pushing you get in the pit at rock/punk/pop-punk gigs, but I object heavily to actual intentional harm. The woman behind Jev was running her elbow, hard enough to hurt, up and down his spine, the only reason must have been to get him to move off his barrier spot. You know, if you want that spot, you just have to be in the queue at the right time. He was also struggling with being crushed as he couldn't brace himself in the same way as I could, because he's very tall. Aby, who is a seasoned barrier-hanger, felt like she couldn't enjoy the band because she was too busy protecting herself. About 4 songs in, they gave way to the abuse and headed to the side.
I stayed put, but was also struggling to enjoy myself because the guy behind me was, it seemed, deliberately rubbing his penis against my arse in the guise of jumping along with the songs. I've been to gigs before, I've been on the barrier, and just behind it, I've jumped around along with the rest, I've had that thing of having to jump because the crowd were squashed against me. I love all of that. I've never had a boner pressed against my bum, until Saturday night. I don't know about anyone else, but there's nothing at all in the terms and conditions of buying a ticket that says that I relinquish my right to not be sexually assaulted. Not only that but the feeling of casual ownership and entitlement to my personal space was exacerbated by having two arms practically resting on my shoulders for an awful lot of the gig, in fact that was just as discomfiting as the other thing. As well as just being inappropriate in any situation, it stopped me from jumping up and down and enjoying myself because I sensed that when I did jump, it was increasing the enjoyment behind me. I've talked about this on a Facebook group for fans of the band, and I'm now encouraged that if I mention it to staff I will be taken seriously, I wasn't sure before if the attitude of 'you're in the pit, get over yourself' might prevail but hopefully not. Though attracting the attention of the stewards when I just wanted some water didn't go so well anyway!
I did enjoy the gig, but I could have enjoyed it that much more. I could have seen more of the actual performance and not been so uncomfortable, but someone chose to make it their mission to act in ways that made it hard for me to do so. It's not right, it's not acceptable, your sense of entitlement is way out of line. I hope next time you do it, you're reported and nicked.
