The combination of good songs and the general sense of them being mates and having a ball playing songs for a living, is exactly what I imagined being in a band would be like when I was young. It’s the greatest compliment that when I see them play, I get exactly the same buzz as I do when I listen to Teenage Kicks.

Tonight was a rescheduled gig, after Andreya hurt her back. As their show involves jumping around a lot (or like tonight, being dropped by the crowd when crowd surfing!) It was an understandable cancellation. Luckily, I could still make the new date. I would have been gutted if I couldn’t

Entering the stage to the music of Harry Potter, they played a mixture of songs from In My Head and their 2019 E.P. She Says. It’s probably the first tour when they’ve had enough songs to cut some from the set list. This meant favourites such as Computer Love were dropped. But the set list contained enough of the more dancy In My Head Tracks with the more mature writing of She Says. The set list worked for this old man. There was enough pauses to give me a chance to catch my breath from my dad dancing (what do you call dad dancing when you’re not a dad?)

Generally, I don’t find German a particularly nice sung language and this is despite some the best choral music ever written being German. But I always look forward to Gurr singing in German. My none existent German means the songs are stripped of meaning and they work simply on the pure exuberant energy of Andreya and Laura. It’s Gurr at the rawest and best.

As always, there was a lot of chat. Tonight, mainly about Happy Potter and the lack of German wizards. But they mentioned they had been using the train for this tour as an alternative to driving. It’s nice to see bands thinking about the environment and trying to make sure they enjoy the experience of touring.

Hopefully, they will hit the U.K. over the summer. I don’t want to have to wait another year before I see them play again.

Support tonight was from Wych Elm, a Bristol band who I saw a few weeks ago. Tonight, the sound was better and the singer’s vocals clearer. She also seemed to attack the vocals of Susan Smith (?) more than last time, giving it an edge I felt was missing from their last performance. They still sound like Goo / Dirty era Sonic Youth, which isn’t a bad thing. But they will have to find something a bit more distinctive as they don’t have Thurston to lift their songs to the level of being special. However, saying this, what they do, they do well and I will happily watch them again.

Artists I liked

Spring King, Fizzy Blood, Nadine Shah, Ezra Furman x2, Abjects, Colleen Green, Hookworms, Soliloquy, Protection Spells, The Orielles x2, British Sea Power x3, Gurr, Mr Ben and the Bens, The Lovely Eggs, Matt Emery, Poppy Ackroyd, The Blinders, The Solo Collective,

Artists that were okay

Blushes, Alice Phelps, Tiny Leaves, Bennet Wilson Poole, Grawl!x, Penelope Isles, DunningWebsterUnderwood, Phobophobes,

Artists I won’t be going out of my way to see again

Cozy, Zkeletonz

Best Gig

It was a good month for gigs. British Sea Power are always good value. Ezra Furman played a fantastic two hour set at the Lexington. But I’ll have to give it to Nadine Shah at the Roundhouse. She stepped up to the occasion and proved that she can play any size of venue

Best new artist

There wasn’t any outstanding new bands this month.

Albums of the Month

• Twin Fantasy – Car Seat Headrest
• Silver Dollar Moment – The Orielles
• Basic Behaviour – FRIGS
• Resolve – Poppy Ackroyd
• This is Eggland – The Lovely Eggs
• Microshift – The Hookworms
• Transangelic Exodus – Ezra Furman

Best photo

Artists I liked

Otoboke Beaver, Gurr, Fable, Gabrielle Aplin, Dead Pretties, Aldous Harding x3, Pins, Dronningen, Rose Elinor Dougall, The Avulsions, Tired Lion, Byrde, Pumarosa x2, Life, Dream Wife, The Kills, Public Service Broadcasting, Gold Class

Artists that were okay

J.W.Paris, Yon Aka, Molly, Emme Woods, Fazerdaze, Bite The Buffalo, ILL, Flamingods, Slotface, Kane Strang, Hey Charlie, Olympia, Puma Blue, Our Girl, Abattoir Blues, Hazel English, Emily Barker, Education, Mata, Like A Motorcycle, Locks

Artists I won’t be going out of my way to see again

Skott, Dream Nails, Cherry Glazer

Best Gig

May is Great Escape month. With my poor blogging, I didn’t keep track of the bands I was seeing as well as I should have, so the number of bands I saw this month was much larger than recorded. Few new bands stood out. But there were some excellent highlights this month with a number of my favourites such as The Kills, PSB, Pumarosa and Aldous Harding. I think The Kills was probably my highlight of the month.

Best new band

Gurr

Albums of the Month

• Parasite (EP) – The Coathangers
• The Witch – Pumarosa
• Party – Aldous Harding
• Popular Music – Life

Best photo