{"id":7713,"date":"2025-12-23T12:18:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/?page_id=7713"},"modified":"2026-06-01T22:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:02:29","slug":"gigs-2026-part-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/gig-reviews\/gigs-2026-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Gigs 2026 (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I haven&#8217;t even decided on the format this year, since nobody&#8217;s reading anyway, I am tempted to strip it down to just the youtubes, setlists and external reviews photos, a database rather than my own work, maybe just a few comments if there are some remarkable things or emotions. I don&#8217;t know, it doesn&#8217;t take that much time or energy when there are no consecutive gigs, but not sure there is a point beside being an introvert who write things down. Which is OK, but sometimes I still want to get away from that, the end of 2025 is made of such contrasts and other old good times coming back&#8230;.Except I&#8217;m maybe 20 years older\/too old and have fucked up a lot of opportunities in the meantime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right, as I get into writing these reviews again at the end of the first week of February, I think I&#8217;ve decided I wouldn&#8217;t change the format much, maybe tweak it, keep it more factual, less descriptive or emotional. Is that a bit lazy? Possibly. I&#8217;ll just comment less, and it will feel less &#8216;lived in&#8217;, more of a repository, but hopefully still give the impression I got from the gigs. It starts with two no-shows on my part anyway, due to illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">28\/1\/2026 Tortoise, Trabendo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; A very random decision to go, made when chatting with Ben in the pub just before an Arsenal match. I have to admit I only knew Tortoise from reputation, don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve heard much from them. In the end, I fell pretty ill on the morning of the gig, puking from 5am to midday, so I was physically unable to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: There&#8217;s a couple. This sounds pretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TORTOISE - &quot;Layered Presence&quot; - Live Trabendo, Paris (28\/01\/2026)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3iuzQMcF_2k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/tortoise\/2026\/le-trabendo-paris-france-34e3167.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">30\/1\/2026 Ider, Les Trois Baudets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; one late-ish decision from the end of last year, as it was not sold out, and I figured I actually very much liked their latest album. Also the opportunity to check a new venue. As it is, while I was getting much better that Friday, I felt I was not yet quite fine enough to face going out in Paris, public transport, crowds, and standing for the duration of a gig. Probably a very wise choice, though maybe more of a regret for the gig than Tortoise. But let&#8217;s say that if I had to miss two gigs, these were kind of OK to miss. Being ill a week later would have been a catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp; none that I can see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: There ARE some, <a href=\"https:\/\/soundofbrit.fr\/2026\/02\/08\/photos-ider-silvestri-les-trois-baudets-paris-le-30-janvier-2026\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: spotted a couple there too. So here&#8217;s one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"IDER - Killing The Game (stripped) Paris 2026 01 30\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0TUzNkbOF0s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"KellyMoranParis2026\"><strong>Kelly Moran, Mains d&#8217;Oeuvres 3\/2\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; see Music Musings 2025, really. Quite fancied something different, and in a way I am glad this became again what it was initially meant to be: the first gig of the year. Piano artist, but this wasn&#8217;t a normal piano concert, a little more &#8216;electronic&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;doubt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: Unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: only found one video, but that will more than do and is very representative. The fact it includes Sans Sodalis makes it just right too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KELLY MORAN - &quot;Prism Drift&quot; - Live Mains d&amp;apos;\u0152uvres, Paris (03\/02\/2026)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t4_eto76Ehk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: just me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: a new venue, so I took a lot (too much) margin, as I was willing to check the totally unknown to me support (interesting description in the Main d&#8217;Oeuvres site) and this being in St Ouen was a very long trip, hell it&#8217;s further away than Hasard Ludique. I quite like the venue, local community centre really, lots of kids in the bar space before entering the small gig venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: Rosa Ansch\u00fctz. Just a German woman with a laptop and some sampling devices. And some background projections. Very atmospheric pieces seguing into each other, so just three very very short breaks to thank the (sparse) crowds during a 40 min or so show. She sings, sometimes sampling her voice live for re-uses, the sounds are varied, sometimes a little more rocking, I really like it and am going to check her recorded music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: I must admit I was vaguely hoping this would be a room with chairs, but no, it was all standing. To be fair Kelly Moran had to stand all the way too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: Not available. Unsurprisingly. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, if she would do normal piano stuff along with more modern stuff, but it clearly became evident from the set-up (see the video) that this was not going to be a piano concert, and that she wouldn&#8217;t be sitting down. As an introduction, she just said she would play pieces from her new album, which makes perfect sense, given on stage was just some electric piano with a tablet on top of it, and a laptop on the floor. So no surprise, the setlist came from that new album. Well the album is about 40 minutes and the gig lasted an hour, so maybe some pieces were extended, and also, the final number wasn&#8217;t on the album I think. It had some recorded rhythms\/drumming, and there is no such thing in Don&#8217;t Trust Mirrors. She only spoke at the start, and once in the middle, first explaining that she recorded her latest album using a prepared piano (putting metallic stuff in there), and that it being obviously something a venue with a proper piano would not countenance (as in &#8216;don&#8217;t mess with our proper classical pianos&#8217;), she sampled herself playing all the notes and various parts on that prepared piano and transposed them into that here electric piano (Yamaha with a blacked-out logo from what I could see &#8211; not sure why some dimwit before the gig talking to his mate was saying &#8216;oh look, this is a simple Casio keyboard, must have been provided by the venue&#8217; &#8211; the stand had a sticker with the venue name for sure, but the keyboard itself&#8230;.why would anyone think that?), and then reminded us she was from the US which is a shit show (&#8220;Fuck ICE, Free Palestine!&#8221;) and that on top of selling her latest LP, she also had several fundraisers for various causes. Anyway, so yes, I&#8217;m stripping down the reviews somewhat, let us just say I enjoyed this one, although having had to stand all the way due to busy transport, and during the gig, my legs in their current state were suffering. But the music was pleasant, and Kelly certainly has the classical musical background, which shows in the way she performs and the demure acknowledgment of crowds between the pieces and at the end just getting to the front of the stage and bowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: if I had been less tired (and didn&#8217;t hope to catch the very very end of the Arsenal match &#8211; I got home for added time (6min of it including a Kai Havertz winner), or with company and if this had not been at the arse end of Paris, I might have lingered on a bit, to help a good cause or two. But there, the idea of queuing at the merch stall and feeling awkward anyway did not appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"MewLondon2026\"><strong>Mew, Roundhouse, London 5\/2\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; the postponed gig from last year (more context there, I think), the final Mew show (or at least Mew with Jonas, I can&#8217;t envisage Mew without Jonas, it seems absurd, yet in some of the ways this was presented and the way it happened, you got the feeling the rest of them would happily carry on while he was quitting to do other things)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;I finally found <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@musictgc\/live-review-mew-roundhouse-5-feb-5079e51feaff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: There are (very few) in the review linked above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: You want the full gig? You can have it, in two instalments: main set and encore. I find it crazy that someone films the whole thing while at the front, and not even in a professional manners (you will have seen some of the &#8216;full gigs&#8217; YT videos I posted, this is something else, yet mostly perfectly watchable and a great witness to that final show). Only a few seconds missing at the start of each part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Main Set:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mew @ The Roundhouse London 5\/2\/26\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jBG3cIXn93I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Encore :<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mew Encore @ London Roundhouse 5\/2\/26\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i1CI5HXUZRE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: well, Ally was going to be there, but with him having followed them for about 20 years (and with backstage access), I knew I wouldn&#8217;t spend the gig with him, but I was early enough to finally spot him before the gig and be able to wave, and join him just after it ended for a short chat. I might have said it last year already, but it is always a pleasure to catch up with Ally, one of those people that make me feel happy about the world. BUT. Company was had during the gig: just before the support as I was standing there and still at the time trying to catch Ally&#8217;s attention, I turned to my left and who do I spot? Konrad aka Perry Groves from arseblog. We&#8217;d not seen each other for maybe 15 years, yet obviously recognition was instant so we had some great chat, and it was an absolute pleasure to spend the gig in his company, having talked life, Arsenal, people and a lot about music. When we joined Ally later, they both suddenly remembered all the times to, so it was a great mini Arseblog reunion in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: The Pale White from Newcastle. I think I&#8217;d heard of them. Classic Guitar\/Bass\/Drums combo, music kind of straight from the 70s, and haircuts possibly too. Not exactly my stuff, but they play competently, and I did enjoy the last few songs actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: On the left, maybe 6 metres from the fence? Decent view either way despite one or two tall people, thankfully, the stage is high enough there. And the sound was great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: it is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/mew\/2026\/roundhouse-london-england-534c6b65.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. And I said I wouldn&#8217;t go into a blow by blow detail. So maybe just mention a few highlights (you can get all the inter-song chats if you watch the videos as it is all there, no need for me to comment!). Slow-ish start for me (also I was slowly recovering but had a few very tense days, I was all over the place, so it was difficult for me to enjoy everything and feel free in my head, but I have to say bumping into Konrad made everything easier, like good things happening to me again naturally), with a first little highlight consisting of the classic Special\/Zookeeper&#8217;s Boy combo as on record. Things really started to get big with the fantastic Snow Brigade (you can spot Ally bouncing up and down in the video above), and I think from favourite 156 on, it was just absolutely brilliant and made me forget the pain in my head. Mostly the titles from Frengers (one of the best albums ever by anyone, no tracks to skip there) got me, but a few others did the trick too. Rows was naturally the end of the show, and I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d ever appreciated before how great (though complex) a song this is. The live versions of most songs really added something, the band was very tight, a classic example of a band that is great on record, but also live, with the live versions enhancing the originals. The encore with some classic early singles was a riot, and the show inevitably concluded with the somptuous Comforting Sounds, with a clearly very emotional Jonas during the second (instrumental) part of the song indeed. They all came to the front of the stage to bow at the end, and that was it. No more Mew (see the caveat, not sure what they will do, the bass player seemed to say they would see us again). I am glad and privileged I was there for that, all thanks to Ally mentioning Mew playing the day after The Raveonettes last year, a gig I would not have gone to if I had been able to go to the one in Paris. Sometimes (often, in fact, in my life), the best things always happen by serendipity. And for the second time in a month and half, a trip to London felt like a healthy regeneration for me. The enjoyable &#8216;three amigos&#8217; day with an Arsenal victory on Saturday (while, once more, randomly &#8211; though a less unlikely possibility, admittedly &#8211; bumping into at least three different people I hadn&#8217;t seen in a while, added cherries on top of a tasty cake). Sure, there was a Man U trip in the meantime, that was essentially depressing and led to the previous tough week, but for all I know right now, something very good may even have weirdly come out of that one. We shall see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"AAWilliamsParis2026\"><strong>A.A. Williams, Le Nouveau Casino 8\/2\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; Is a context needed? She has a couple of new tunes (maybe a new album later in the year), but I&#8217;d have gone anyway. Properly headlining this time also unlike two and a bit years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;SOV eventually came up with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/articles\/live\/2921\/a_a_williams_paris_nouveau_casino.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">goods<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: the photos were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/3211\/17843\/a_a_williams_paris_nouveau_casino_08_02_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there <\/a>a couple of days earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: Well, one of my usual sources put that very quickly online, and he has all the best songs, really. So I will post Pristine, but you can also check Wolves, Melt and Evaporate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A. A. Williams - Pristine - Paris Nouveau Casino February 8th 2026\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pWqoB5fTUDc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Patrice got Nick&#8217;s ticket as Nick had to be away. He turned up at Casino de Paris first (oops!), but still made it on time, thankfully!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: &#8216;Spotlight&#8217;. They probably started earlier than I thought, so I only caught about two minutes of their last song. Not sure I&#8217;d have enjoyed it very much anyway, only thing I noticed was that the sound was absolutely dreadful, but thankfully, that wasn&#8217;t the case for A.A. Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: pretty good, central, maybe five metres from the stage. The stage is well elevated, so it was practically perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/aa-williams\/2026\/nouveau-casino-paris-france-434bcb63.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. I&#8217;m keeping to my new shorter way, but what can I say? This came at the end of a frenzied week covering three gigs, one stand-up comedy show and a football match. I decided not to drink at all despite the temptation of a pint, but while I was feeling fairly tired, I was also feeling very well, the last few days did me a lot of good. We got old classics, the couple of new songs recently released, and A.A. used different guitars unlike last time (a couple of Gibson Explorers in the lot, including that from last time, but also another semi-hollow body (black) and a beautiful Fender Jaguar (black)), her band was the same as last time, she still didn&#8217;t speak much but maybe a little more than last time, couple of times to thank and say how much she enjoys coming to Paris (while still always looking very stern, not beaming), and mentioning the merch stand as it is indeed one of the essential sources of revenues these days. Highlights? That new song Wolves was superb (it was one of the first times they played it so she pleaded indulgence, but none was needed, it sounded perfect), and an absolutely breathtaking version of Pristine (unfortunately the video above doesn&#8217;t do it justice). The best songs on record are also the best song live, and yet, they are even more powerful there on stage. And so the finale of Melt then Evaporate was touching the sublime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: I wisely said no to going into the pub next door. I could have, it wasn&#8217;t that late, but I figured my mental balance needed not to prolong the night (I still didn&#8217;t sleep that well, but at least I could function to go to the physio the next day). I got home very very happy with an excellent week concluded by an amazingly powerful gig. I&#8217;ve come a long way in less than ten days, but I need to keep it all up, despite some big uncertainty factors. Nothing planned this week before Sunday&#8217;s football, helpfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"NightbusParis2026\"><strong>Nightbus, Pop-Up, 21\/2\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; Well, they made one of the very best albums of 2025, I was eager to see them live so jumped on the tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;I only had to wait a few days (while I forgot to update the site update pages) and the SOV <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/articles\/live\/2926\/nightbus_paris_popup.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">review <\/a>(unsuprisingly from Frank) is there, and perfect. With a little more and correct emphasis on the difference the instrumentation (as mentioned below) brings. Heh, I even get a mention early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/3617\/18179\/nightbus_paris_popup_21_02_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SOV <\/a>too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: I couldn&#8217;t find any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Frank (from SOV) was around, which I kind of expected as he&#8217;d written the album review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: Saturday, a bit tired, but felt a little stronger after a good run in the morning and less pain than previous times. So went for a couple of pints in the Black Sheep (which was quiet) before making my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: C\u00e9r\u00e9monie. French. Had no idea as I couldn&#8217;t find their music, but I got there shortly after they started (I thought I&#8217;d be later but there was no reason to stay in the BS). Synths and occasional guitars. Two blokes, one on guitar\/synths, one just, really, singing (through effects mostly), and a girl, on synth and voice, and who reminded me (maybe just the air of cool and the frizzy hair) of one from Erasmus. So I thought that was a fitting support for Nightbus (more on that later). The singing bloke was a little odd at times, spoke between songs, but sometimes got in the crowd, whether singing or not, just smiling\/waving at people (mostly girls&#8230;not what the crowd was mostly made of but who he smiled at), and couple of times he just lied down on the floor, once singing but another time just a few seconds at the end of the song, then left the microphone on the floor before getting back on stage. That&#8217;s for the weirdness, but I actually enjoyed the music very much, whether I can find it online or not. They had plenty of their (local?) fans, shouting &#8216;C\u00e9r\u00e9monie!&#8217; at some point. I had the chance to thank them and express my appreciation when they were finishing clearing the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: using the template established with Alexis at Basht., to the side slightly, very much at the front. Actually managed to be a little more central during Nightbus, so just absolutely perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: The setlist is not on setlist.fm as such but it features on the external review above, and is identical to the one from Rotterdam a few days earlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/nightbus\/2026\/vessel-11-rotterdam-netherlands-534a8f81.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nightbus are nominally a duo. I didn&#8217;t know quite what to expect but as the production sounded rather electronic on record, I expected something rather synth-oriented (but then I should know better, see bdrmm&#8230;although, well, bdrmm do have synths). So first surprise observed during the support : a drum kit at the back. And also a bass guitar standing on the side. I also admired one of the pedalboards on the floor. But anyway, once they&#8217;d set up everything, it was a huge surprise to not see a single synth\/keyboard (I think from one or two sounds maybe there was a recording at some point? Not even totally sure), less a surprise to see the aforementioned pedals (the singer&#8217;s) and another one for the main guitarist, as obviously a lot of effects would be involved. So yes, drums, bass, and guitars (two). And was it a more rocking gig than I&#8217;d expected? Not sure, the atmosphere felt pretty much similar. I had one extra pint when I&#8217;d arrived so I was just right for this gig, and all I can say is it sounded astonishingly good. Angles Mortz was played early on (well the first couple of tracks were in order from the album), but obviously with only one (outstanding) album to their name, and four other singles they nearly all play (one is not played, the only known-by-me track they don&#8217;t play is 7am from the album, not a big miss, that&#8217;s the one that&#8217;s maybe like the not very good ones from HONESTY, say), every song felt fabulous. The girl on drums played fantastically well, the bass player (with just the one multieffect Boss pedal) was cool too. We got treated to their first single (&#8216;anyone got the album? well this one is not on that, it&#8217;s our very first single, written when we were just kids), which sounded excellent too, a little joke about rain on stage as it was so hot there, and for the final song, &#8216;it sounds a bit like Joy Division&#8217;, not sure if it&#8217;s on the album, but as someone next to me correctly observed, the bass line is indeed very close to that of Shadowplay and the song sounded very JD indeed, but modernised. Perfect, really. Having checked the lyrics later, well the first few words are in fact the same, so it&#8217;s definitely a deliberate inspiration. And a good conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: straight to the merch to buy a T-shirt, and thank the band profusely. The Card machine seemed to struggle (wi-fi issue), but by luck I&#8217;d brought some cash (euros, didn&#8217;t think of bringing pounds), the price seemed cheap, not sure why she only asked for \u20ac20 when it was meant to be \u00a320 (which is already cheap for a T-shirt these days), but I insisted on giving 30, as it seems fairer and on account of them being so brilliant. We had one more drink upstairs with Frank and his friend C\u00e9cile (I think, I can easily confuse my C\u00e9ciles an my C\u00e9lines), talking music, football. We all agreed on tonight&#8217;s excellence and our equal surprise at the unexpected set-up (well not knowing what to expect, and it turning out that way). Then home, weirdly a little more drunk (2 IPAs it was after the BS Guinness), but then I&#8217;ve not really had many drinks even in February so maybe I&#8217;m just not used to it at the moment. I think this will probably be one of the best gig of the years all the same, very very happy with this evening!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"CoachPartyParis2026\"><strong>Coach Party, Supersonic Club 26\/2\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; I enjoyed the gig at Caf\u00e9 de la Danse in December 2023, done sober while preparing for the half-marathon, yet moshed a lot, they were great fun, so I thought I&#8217;d go again. No moshing possible due to my physical state this time, beers (but reasonable) OK, and a free gig to boot, so no hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;Benzinemag has got <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinemag.net\/2026\/02\/27\/live-review-coach-party-et-the-tommy-crystal-au-supersonic-paris-girls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: long time since I was at the same gig as Robert Gil? He was there, so here are his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.photosconcerts.com\/coach-party-paris-supersonic-2026-02-26-16063\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">snaps<\/a>. Maybe that was the place to be that night, not bar italia&#8217;s gig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: There are plenty of videos, from two sources. One has a much better sound, but maybe less stable image. I would normally post only one song, but unfortunately, that poster with the better sound got tricked into thinking the gig finished when it seemed to, or at least &#8216;Girls!&#8217; anyway (see the actual review below). And so the only full version is the other one. But because I am annoyed by the sound, I feel I still have to put one from him with the better sound (it&#8217;s still not fabulous, but I&#8217;m afraid no video from a Supersonic gig will ever be), and he has Georgina which marked the start of the best sequence of songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here&#8217;s Georgina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coach Party - Georgina - Paris Supersonic February 26th 2026\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/imt7d41bvIs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the full version of Girls! with the coda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coach Party \u00ab\u00a0Girls\u00a0! \u00bb Le Supersonic 26022026 Paris France \" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4fEZ74s3LkM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Nick, Ornella and St\u00e9phane. Patrice and Estelle were initially meant to come along, but decided to go for Bar Italia (it&#8217;s easy to opt out of free gigs, I have done it too, so fair enough!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: we wisely decided not to get in early, so meeting in a bar at 8pm (more like 8.30pm for me as I didn&#8217;t want to drink much) was the plan. One pint for me, a couple for most of the others, nice and sitting on a terrasse (not THAT warm though). Good to catch up as I hadn&#8217;t seen these folks in 2026 yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: first band was missed (nothing good according to the external review), so just The Tommy Crystal. They were advertised as French, but the singer was American. Totally meh and unremarkable for me. I mean, I wasn&#8217;t particularly bothered, but they didn&#8217;t catch my attention either while we were having a pint, they&#8217;re OK-ish, but it&#8217;s just pub music, really. Am I being harsh? I don&#8217;t know, they&#8217;re like tons of other bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Crowds<\/strong><\/em>: OK, I&#8217;ve skipped that old section this year, but I will make an exception. Because the surprise to me was that nearly all the OLD regular folks were there at the front. No indiegilles as he was at bar italia, but the tall guy, Robert Gil, a few more (some unknown), and one of the not so old guys who films a lot of gigs and had in fact a camera set up hanging from the lower ceiling, well neat! There were some young people of course, because it is the Supersonic, but still, very much all old at the very front and on the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: I managed to indirectly convince the others to join me fairly near the front rather than watch from the back. There were a few younger French people in front us, annoying but thankfully not too tall, one with a fucking backpack. My idea was to be close enough, but not risk being caught in moshing action. Of course, once I realised the make-up and position of the crowd (and density), I figured there may not be as much action as at Caf\u00e9 de La Danse anyway, and also that if there was moshing, unfortunately, it was more likely to be on our side (so we were on the left-hand side when watching the stage), but still, should be able to avoid most of it or retreat if need be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: it is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/coach-party\/2026\/supersonic-paris-france-1b4421e4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">available<\/a>. The Supersonic format with 3 bands, and the fact they have to clear up before the (paying) club bit starts later (can&#8217;t remember if it&#8217;s 11-ish or 11.30) means sets are often shorter than they would normally be, so I think we got treated to a few less songs than most other nights in the tour. But then, it&#8217;s free. Anyway, a second pint (so third on the night, the previous was straight on entering the Supersonic) was had just before\/at the start as I was feeling better than I feared, and it was still early enough. The bands always come from upstairs then gather on the side (the side we were) so we could see them, not only setting up their gear on the stage, and I gave Ornella the low-down on who was who, just as Jess came around and I weirdly said &#8216;&#8230;and the legend that is Jess&#8217; so she waved and said &#8216;Hiii!&#8217;, heh. Anyway, they started with the great opener from the new album, Do It For Love to set the tone. They all looked on form, but the smaller stage and venue this time gave everything a different feel. Obviously, they&#8217;ve also grown tighter, but as I mentioned the gig-specific timings issue above, there was not much time for inter-song chat, even allowing for the fewer numbers. So today, we only got a few thanks, and great to be here, &#8216;Salut Paris!&#8217; as an intro, and a couple of &#8216;Mercis&#8217;, and &#8216;Nous sommes Coach Party!&#8217; but no pleasing attempt at French speaking from the drummer this time. So it all felt just a touch less fun than last time. The smaller stage also means there was no risk of Jess getting lost and finding herself too far from the microphone and having to rush back for her next line like I remembered in the most amusing moment at Caf\u00e9 de la Danse. I wasn&#8217;t completely in party mood, though I was well enough and happy to be out again as I hadn&#8217;t been for a while with people from our group. So after a few songs to warm up, what felt like a perfect mid-gig set of songs happened (looking at the set list, it was still already just the first half): Georgina (the best song from the Caramel album, possibly one of their best at all), Nurse Depression (a brand new single off-album), followed by classics All I Want To Do Is Hate (that got a massive reception and people starting to bounce about and jump up and down if not quite moshing) and Micro Aggression was as good as you can get in a gig like that. Absolutely top highlights of the evening, superb! After that, there were good moments, but it never quite reached the same heights for me. But then, it didn&#8217;t need to, I was more than happy with the gig already. With my shorter reviews not going into details, I won&#8217;t have much more to write, everything rolled easily around, there was even one properly quiet\/slow(ish) number that felt like a welcome respite, not boring at all, and they finished with the lead single from the latest album : Girls! Madness in the moshpit there, I was sorely tempted, but I managed to take one step back and not get stuck in (again, it may not have been total mayhem moshing, but that&#8217;s as good as it got). A superb way to finish. In fact, just as Jess looked up at the mixing desk to see if there was still a little time left, she got the thumbs up and I was wondering if they were going to add another song, but no, they just extended Girls! for another mad minute or so, so that everyone could dance and shout together &#8216;Where the fuck are my Girls?&#8217;. Even Ornella, who wasn&#8217;t won over with the band\/general performance (the sound at Supersonic rarely being great probably didn&#8217;t help) enjoyed that one. A perfect way to finish this short-ish set, full of energy and fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: as the band got through the crowds towards the bar\/merch stall perhaps (that was on the other side, I&#8217;m never sure and didn&#8217;t see it), I got the chance to congratulate and thank them for this excellent gig before we all made our way out. One last beer? I decided for no, sticking to my two or max three beers initial decision despite the good feeling, partly driven by the need to sleep and some work commitments the next day. So home safely before midnight, a very good evening!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5\/3\/2026 Sorry, Trabendo  &#8211; postponed to 18\/6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">11\/3\/2025 Meryl Streek, Point Eph\u00e9m\u00e8re, cannot go, work gets in the way, well it was, but now this one is postponed too, to 27 October,  so only one gig in March, and that&#8217;s not even in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"TheOthersLondon2026\"><strong>The Others, The Grace, London 20\/3\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; The Others resurfaced a few years ago and are on their third album in that second phase already. I missed the opportunity of a gig last year, I think, but on the bandcamp news I got wind of this one for the twentieth anniversary of the release of their second album, Inwards Parts, so thought: &#8216;why not? sounds great&#8217;. Venue in Islington so convenient too. A Friday too, which was fairly handy (could take just the one day off, or work from remote, home in the morning, train in the afternoon), and with some added bonus of an Arsenal Women&#8217;s match the next day, early kick-off too (12pm), very very timely, as it was suggested by a friend as possibly the last match she could attend before an operation. A possible extra bonus came with the League Cup final involving Arsenal on the Sunday, but I couldn&#8217;t get a ticket, so cancelled the corresponding hotel nights and this was just the one-nighter after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp; we&#8217;ll see, but I doubt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: there are a few, from a couple of sources. And as it was the only gig in March, let us post a few indeed. First, for quality, this guy has a few songs with a better sound and image than the other source. Unfortunately, he mostly has bits of the second set, and even there, not the best ones. So here have the only song he filmed from Inward Parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Others - Desolate (live at The Grace)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vw9ulCCUhSE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This other one has two versions of the full set, well more or less the full set (just some cuts during the first couple of songs). This one has been changed to B&amp;W and with a sligthly improved sound, but from the same account you can check the coloured one. It has a strangely long running time despite having most of the same source, but jumps back to the first set early in the second set, and that is why. The better sound is the reason I put the B&amp;W one here. However, despite this saying &#8216;entire&#8217;, it is actually missing the first three songs of the second set, which is a real shame. So do check the full colour version, two long videos then, but it covers everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cInward Parts\u201d entire concert The Others\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0Ij_oTo08Dg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now, because you might just want to sample that and don&#8217;t have the passion to sit throught a full Others set you weren&#8217;t at and without a perfect sound, here&#8217;s just the finale with This Is For The Poor. Same account, but the colour version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cThis is for the Poor\u201d The Others\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p7AlnL-jdvc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And as a bonus, from the first poster, something from the support band!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bless - Skeleton Dance (live at The Grace)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rvETSQDS6-A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: just me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: well, 7pm doors, I decided I&#8217;d be in for 8pm more or less. No idea about the timings, but there was a support band. On arrival, I see &#8216;The Others on at 8.30pm&#8217;, thought that was a little early, but it didn&#8217;t come to that. Anyway, so straight to the venue, a very nice small room upstairs of The Garage at Highbury Corner. Straight to the bar at the back while the support had already started, I ordered a Guinness. Slow-pouring machine. So when I went back for a second one later (as the support was still going), and as two were already on order from someone else, and I could see the barmaid, on her own at that stage (co-barman who served me earlier was temporarily away), struggling and agitated by the slowest beer pump ever, I decided I&#8217;d order an IPA instead. Knowing it might be slightly dangerous but hey-ho. I knew by then, that feeling good, in a small venue (advertised for 150 people, but it feels less than that, it wasn&#8217;t completely full anyway, far from it), with good music, I risked drinking a lot more than I had planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: BLESS.  Never heard of them obviously. And I liked them a lot. Great energy, excellent rock music, and a very charismatic singer, interacting with the crowds in an excellent and not contrived way, kind of visually a cross between say, Liam Gallagher, Ian Curtis and Mark. E Smith? Sounds odd, but various parameters at play. Either way, I thought they were very good, and got lucky I could thank them in-between the sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Crowds<\/strong><\/em>: kind of varied, so obviously not all from the initial Others fans&#8217; set. Obviously, with all sorts of memories from The Others&#8217; original forum and community, various 853 Kamikaze Stage Division folks, I wondered if anyone I knew from back in the day would be there. I&#8217;d say possibly, but I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d have recognised anyone or vice-versa. There was a bloke, I wondered, could he be Joel (who was also another Arsenal fan on the forum so local)? Didn&#8217;t definitely look like him, and he was with friends, and seems like he&#8217;d disappeared just at the end of the gig, so by the time I felt confident\/pissed enough to possibly ask, he was no longer seen (and anyway the name Joel only came back to me later, for some reason I was fixated on &#8216;hugo&#8217;, though there may have been another forum member called &#8216;hugo&#8217;, vaguely rings a bell). Anyway, so yeah, mostly old-ish people, but then even the teenager from back then would be nearing 40 so&#8230;.but this guy definitely looked older (to me) than Joel would have been. Some people age faster, but honestly I had no basis for thinking it was someone I&#8217;d met. Just the idea appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing<\/strong><\/em> <strong><em>location <\/em><\/strong>: such a small venue so no bad view, no issue even commuting to the bar during the set, though I think I got most of my drinks during, only one after or rather at the start of the encore, see later. Five in total? Think so, we&#8217;ll see when I get the bank statement&#8230;.I wasn&#8217;t front\/front as I still don&#8217;t think moshing is wise (though the moshing seemed fairly reasonable today).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: It is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/the-others\/2026\/the-grace-london-england-43492fcb.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. No surprise, as it was announced at the start of the gig, or even before the gig in fact in the e-mail: the second album in full (although with one alteration in the order, leading single Truth That Hurts being played as penultimate track rather than first, possibly due to logistics, unless it&#8217;s to have it nearer the end as a single. And then a mix of tracks from the last two albums. Anyway, while I said it might be hard to recognise old folks from back in the day, the three main Others, aka Dom Masters (vocals), Johnny Others (bass, mostly but also guitar when they added some musicians), and Jimmy Lager (guitar&#8230;and lager, sort of) really haven&#8217;t changed that much and are perfectly recognisable. Same haircuts too, none for Jimmy, and the Robert Smith-ish nest for Johnny. The attitudes haven&#8217;t changed either, a very charismatic but fairly messy and clearly inebriated Dom, Jimmy probably fairly pissed but not looking it at all (as our conversation at the end seemed to hint, by admission, not in any obvious way in the conversation itself!) and Johnny, deadpan, but also still appearing like the &#8216;reasonable&#8217; and responsible one. When they get onstage to a delirious reception, Dom immediately mentions the after-party in Islington something (weirdly I don&#8217;t fully register, it&#8217;s like the Town Hall, but not quite, something with a similar name structure [on checking the video, I can see he said Islington Townhouse, which a quick research suggests is a pub near Angel rather than a mistaking Town for House), but I know it wouldn&#8217;t be sensible to go on until 2am anyway) before they start playing. So just the three and a drummer (who wasn&#8217;t the original one, but I can&#8217;t quite remember the original one, mind!). It&#8217;s a joyous mess in front of the stage, Dom does the show, but it&#8217;s actually still pretty tight musically, and Johnny&#8217;s bass for Why Should I Try? in particular is truly impressive. All the songs come back to me with the lyrics, so easy to sing along, that second album was really great. I remember around the time of those first two albums, Dom was being mentioned (NME or MM I guess) as a possible future heroin casualty, so it&#8217;s great to see him and them going on and looking good. But yeah, Always Be Mine is still a favourite of mine, Watch It is fantastic, but then even the lesser songs on the album go down as well as the beer. There&#8217;s a change for a couple of songs as Johnny moves to guitar and a different bass player comes in, and then they finish with the always epic Probate. I can&#8217;t remember if in Paris at Le Triptyque it was the first time they had played that, but definitely one of the first times, before the release of that album (checking it now, yes quite a few months before, in July 2005), and 21 years later, it still sounds as good. For the second part of the set, they are seven on stage (quite a feat!), adding an extra guitarist (so that&#8217;s three, Jimmy takes it easier by then and sometimes just drinks his pint) and a keyboardist. Seven on that small stage, fair play. And you know what? There&#8217;s a fair amount of very good songs in the new ones too! Funnily enough, Dom&#8217;s got a big notebook with coloured post-its, explaining that there are two colours, one for the 5th album, one for the 6th (makes me realise&#8230;hang on, what was the third album, did I miss one? Nope, I have it, it just escaped my attention because for some reason it didn&#8217;t make it onto my iPod when I checked and it was sort of not a fully formed album &#8211; the official version only on bandcamp might have appeared much later, and included some demos, from 2013, so neither in the first phase, nor in the second phase, just kind of inbetween, when they still existed but maybe weren&#8217;t much active, as there is no album 7 years each side of that one), and that he needs to read the book for the lyrics otherwise he won&#8217;t remember. And so yeah, for most of the rest of the show he performs with that book in front of his face. Highlights are a very melodic Everything You Say, and later For The Living and Met You In A Bar (played in succession), but the rest isn&#8217;t too bad either. Weirdly, on the setlist, I see a song mentioned (Monotony) that I don&#8217;t find on any album [Got it! Must have been deciphered from the setlist, so it must have read &#8216;Menotomy&#8217; for &#8216;The Battle of Menotomy]. So yeah, What Is Right For You (from the 5th album then) concludes the show, Dom thanks us once more, mentions the after-party again, and that seems to be it, after all he&#8217;d said it would be the last song. An encore? Seems uncertain. They all come off the stage and some non-live music even starts playing. I go to order one last beer, thinking I can afford to stay around the place for a bit as they are still serving, but hang on, there&#8217;s some activity on the stage, even though Dom has picked his backpack (with the precious lyrics book now back in), seemingly ready to leave (I am assuming he won&#8217;t do much stage clearing, just as he appeared on the stage from nowhere, while Johnny and Jimmy were seen in the room beforehand). Yep, a few words, instruments are picked again, Dom said they&#8217;ll play one more, the choice is obvious, perhaps it was the plan all along, at least depending on mood or atmosphere, and all that is good enough, so, of course, back to just four of them&#8230;.This Is For The Poor. (OK maybe it could have been Stan Bowles too, now I think of it, but I suppose this is more their real signature song). Pandemonium and happiness all around, as Dom sings, still with his bag on his back! Legendary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: I go buy a nice T-shirt at the merch stand (it was the plan from the start, depending on the enjoyment but I had little doubt, just didn&#8217;t want to buy it before the gig, so that I didn&#8217;t have to carry it around), hang around the room, pretty pissed by then, not really a chance to talk to strangers, but I get the chance to chat with Jimmy, tell him I&#8217;ve come from Paris just for this (the match the next day and at some point the possibility of the final were truly by-products as I had booked for this gig back last year already!) as I had only seen them over 20 years ago and thoroughtly enjoyed it. He said &#8216;oh nice, I&#8217;m a bit pissed now, but do get in touch via [Cunt]book, I&#8217;m on that!&#8217;. I am briefly considering whether I should go to the after-party at all, but given the early kick-off tomorrow, I decided to stick to the &#8216;being reasonable-ish&#8217; option. Johnny is briefly seen too (Dom probably left already), so a quick thank you to him, and when I say it&#8217;s been over 20 years he said I should come more often (not that they are playing that often anyway, maybe that&#8217;s their second or third gig in three years? and not sure there were many before), in his very deadpan way. So yeah, I leave, not sure what time it is, not that late really, go back to the hotel on autopilot. Next morning I feel a bit rough but actually not that bad after a surprisingly good night (I say surprisingly because normally I don&#8217;t sleep well after more than 3 pints or so these days), but all is good, a beautiful day in North London, a 5-0 easy win for the Arsenal Women, in great company with friends (I delay drinking beer until after the match though), and then a few drinks in a pub (in fact, I added an extra and modified my train at cost by an hour as I was having too good a time). Shame I couldn&#8217;t stay for the League Cup Final (I mean I could, but didn&#8217;t have a ticket, so decided to save on the expenses, especially after all that late train booking costing a lot), but once more, I&#8217;ve just had a couple of fantastic days in London. The last three gig-related stays have proved to be amazing. I just resisting going to see the Manic Street Preachers for my Birthday the following week, to save a bit of money, but I admit it was a tempting proposition. Not sure when I&#8217;ll be back now, with no match ticket (bloody ballots), and no planned gig for now. Weirdly, a gig I would have liked to see was Better Joy&#8230;..playing the same night in another part of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1\/4\/2026 Test Plan, Supersonic, I didn&#8217;t go, mix of tiredness, work to do, nobody else going, and having seen them in that place\/format before, maybe they&#8217;ll have new tracks, but in the end, had to make it easier, this was announced late so a bit last minute too, probably wise to miss out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;La\u00ebtitia from SOV was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/articles\/live\/2946\/test_plan_paris_supersonic.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/3794\/18342\/test_plan_paris_supersonic_01_04_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">same<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: not yet, may not be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: not on the usual site, but the SOV review above has it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"StellaDonnellyParis2026\"><strong>Stella Donnelly, Hasard Ludique 2\/4\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;I wasn&#8217;t entirely sure of it initially, but knew Beno\u00eet was going early on and on re-listening to the album at the end of the year had no doubt. More surprised Nick joined in, but he admitted he wasn&#8217;t sure why either and that it may have been something decided at another gig while drunk, heh. Anyway, from a week that could have been four gigs, I rescued only one, and that was always going to be the one (the first was an opportunistic freebie as Ale couldn&#8217;t go but for a band I didn&#8217;t particularly cared about, the second a band I&#8217;d already seen in the same place, love them, they did play some new tracks (see above), on an evening when I needed to save energy, and the last one another band I&#8217;d already seen, and whose album I was unimpressed with (though it looks like they played a fair amount of good &#8216;oldies&#8217; &#8211; not that old), at the same arse-end of Paris as tonight, and with Alessandro not making that one either, so I couldn&#8217;t muster the energy despite big company there, but the decision was made on the Tuesday anyway), with Stella, all the way from Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;well, I found <a href=\"https:\/\/brisesonique.blog\/2026\/04\/05\/report-concert-intime-de-stella-donnelly-au-hasard-ludique\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: included in the review linked above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: I see on YouTube something coming up tomorrow (9\/4) so we&#8217;ll see, maybe the full gig? Doesn&#8217;t look like it, just three or four tracks, I&#8217;ll check the quality. In the meantime, you can have the beautiful solo Boys Will Be Boys. [11\/4 : yes that other one has three songs, I will post it below, if only for the second song, Baths, that features the beautiful backing vocals mentioned below- and it includes the above mentioned song as last one, so I am removing the video I had originally posted as there&#8217;s no need to have the song twice and the sound here is as good if not better-though the filming isn&#8217;t, as only a very big close-up on Stella]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stella Donnelly live at Le Hasard Ludique in Paris\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3E2S_rcEkSA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Nick, Patrice and Estelle, Beno\u00eet, Romain and Mrs Romain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: a fair few met earlier for food (I might have done if informed in due time), I didn&#8217;t particularly intend to be before 9pm (Stella on at 10), both to have less people on transport (sound strategy, I managed to get a seat all along on the three lines), and so rest, and as not bothered with support, and to avoid the temptation of too many drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: two bands, we caught the last title of the second band (Winter McQuinn), having decided to go for a pint on the stairs down towards the tracks when Beno\u00eet arrived shortly before the second band were due. Not memorable, some old rock&#8217;n&#8217;roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: not very close, just by the first entrance of the gig room maybe a few metres ahead of that, but this stage is so well designed we had a good view (apart from not being able to see the drummer &#8211; a drummer Nick thought was a bit &#8216;behind&#8217;, I thought he was OK, though not spectacular, but I guess not seeing him doesn&#8217;t help).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: it&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/stella-donnelly\/2026\/le-hasard-ludique-paris-france-1b76f960.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Having delayed that review for a few days, I don&#8217;t feel I will write a long one. I&#8217;m really going towards short impressions rather than detailed gigs and commenting on every word uttered. But when Stella takes to the stage (electric guitar in), with three bandmates (another girl on guitars\/sometimes keyboards and backing vocals), a bass player (also sometimes on backing vocals) and the never-to-be-seen-by us-drummer, she is certainly all smiles and happy. So yeah, this is not going to be a particularly intimate, acoustic gig (not sure why I had that idea, somehow I think of her as an Aussie Jade Bird, but she is very different, as is the music), and it&#8217;s all fine. I&#8217;ll come back to that idea when mentioning the midset bit. Classic start too with the opening song from the new album. After that opener (which was of course prefaced by a joyous &#8216;Bonsoir Paris!&#8217; (or was it just &#8216;bonjour&#8217;?), she says they are all very happy as it is the last night of the tour and she really loves Paris (don&#8217;t they all?), and that they can relax now and that her and Ellie (I think that was the name) can finally wear those shirts they were meant to wear (nothing really special about Stella&#8217;s I thought but what do I know, while Ellie&#8217;s a nice red sort of tie-dyed), while &#8216;these other two [making a sweeping hand gesture towards the bass player and the drummer] are always fashionable&#8217;, cue gigles. The setlist goes along nicely, everything&#8217;s quite good (Nick is still not converted by the end of the gig), and there&#8217;s only a few very noticeable things. First, for me, when Ellie does backing vocals, it just works so well and enhances all the songs where it happens. Her voice is great, and you know, I&#8217;m a sucker for harmonies (partly why I booked a ticket for The Magic Numbers in October after all). She gives a shout out to the drummer, with a little interesting anecdote: he was actually in the support band (though I think I misunderstood, a little research later suggested she was the support for another Australian artist that night) when she last played at Point Eph\u00e9m\u00e8re (2022 it seems, I wasn&#8217;t aware of that gig or missed it for any reason, maybe it wasn&#8217;t put forward to me on Songkick if she wasn&#8217;t the main act) and that she liked him so much she asked him to play for her. Another notable moment is when Stella mentions: &#8216;for those who have come here for sweet love songs, well this is the only one we will play, so treat yourself now&#8217; (not the exact words, but that&#8217;s the gist of it), &#8216;but this is a bit embarrassing as this is about a vibrator!&#8217; before playing, well, I don&#8217;t even remember what song this was[the youtube checks tell me it was Mosquito]. To be fair, as I might have mentioned in music musings, I like her music but there are only a few songs I specifically remember from her catalogue. Still, this bit of comment was more in the spirit of Jade Bird indeed. Speaking of which, that midset bit. When she mentions a song she doesn&#8217;t really like to sing but feels she really has to, because the way this world is at the moment, I correctly guess it is &#8216;Boys Will Be Boys&#8217;, and made myself the comment that this is a lot about Trump and &#8216;Fuck Trump!&#8217;. While I hardly notice initially that all her bandmates have left and this will be played solo (but not acoustic), this is still a great song, and Stella on her own works very well too. And guess what? Just after she finishes the song, she just says&#8230;&#8217;Fuck Trump!&#8217;, so yeah, I was very much in tune! After another solo song, there follows a second classic from her first album, the title song &#8216;Beware Of The Dogs&#8217;, with  the full band. I think (see below) that the two classics from the first album were by far the musical highlight of the evening. So yeah, while the voice is very different, the characters totally unmatching and no acoustic guitar in sight, in a way, this is the &#8216;Jade Bird&#8217; part. To be fair though, I think for me the whole association was mostly with solo artists I discovered during COVID lockdown, so associated in phase more than in musical style, although I guess there are some commonalities, and I&#8217;m sure she will have done solo gigs, just like Jade Bird has done band gigs. Anyway, I digress. In one song she has fun, having asked the audience for the name of a French beer she could have been named after, she replaces &#8216;Stella&#8217; with&#8230;..&#8217;Seize!&#8217; (as in &#8216;1664&#8217;) to much laughter. She admitted laterwhen I asked after the gig that it was indeed someone from the crowd that suggested it. At some point she kind of asks for requests, well not really, more that she asks what people want to hear, and to some say, &#8216;yes you&#8217;ll hear that later&#8217;, or &#8216;nope, that&#8217;s not in the set&#8217;. So I already know midset-ish that we won&#8217;t get something like Watching Telly from the first album (despite it being one of my favourites). The surprise is that maybe, while the second album is mostly left out (only two tracks, and regretfully none of them among my favourites from that, Lungs missing for instance), it is the first album that has most representatives (seven songs), while the latest album only accounts for five songs. And shockingly, for an album where I marked six songs as &#8216;favourites&#8217;, only two of these were played, the aforementioned Standing Ovation, and Feel It Change. Although I&#8217;m not always sure about these marks on quick listens, as her stuff is sometimes a little uniform. The one I know I am really, truly missing though, is the one I put in my best of 2025, the wonderful Year Of Trouble, that, as I told Beno\u00eet later, starts kind of like a &#8216;normal&#8217; SD song, but then reaches new, beautiful levels. So when the end of the gig comes, while we are getting close to 11pm, I&#8217;m kind of hoping there will be a short encore, despite absolutely no hint of it. Judging by the shouts and people waiting and waiting, I am not the only one. But while there&#8217;s a bit of a wait, the PA music eventually starts to play again, the lights come back on, and so no encore. It&#8217;s an odd one, I only had a couple of pints pre and during gig after all, so can&#8217;t talk of alcohol being a factor (though having gone for a run midday, fatigue made it hit harder), I did enjoy the gig very much, maybe for the atmosphere, the happiness displayed on stage, and yet, you could argue she eschewed most of my favourite songs, so the setlist wasn&#8217;t quite to my taste. But, and it&#8217;s not the first time as regular (none&#8230;) readers of these reviews will have noticed, sometimes a gig is good without having the best songs. Obviously, once more, I am aware that it might have turned a very good gig into a great gig, but I was still happy to be at this one having giving the others a miss that week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: as we had stayed in the room while the non-encoring band had already decamped, I happened past Ellie on the way out and back to the bar, so got a chance to thank her and express my admiration in particular for how her backing vocals perfectly chimed with Stella&#8217;s main. After the beer, we managed to chat with Stella briefly and have a big group photo, which was nice! She was all giggles and happiness again. Oh, and now that I think of it (writing the stuff above I think the beer I had forgotten was the one just before entering the concert room), we may have had two pints rather than one afterwards, so four in total rather than three, might explain why I was slightly more drunk that I thought (weirdly, or not, the last one was at my instigation, as I was feeling good and thinking there was enough time to get the last train anyway, so might as well enjoy the moment, something I haven&#8217;t always done lately). Anyway, we had a good time chatting over that extra beer with all our group (bar Romain and Mrs who left after the gig, and Estelle who had to leave as a bit under the weather) before heading home, later but merry. That&#8217;s what I call a good gig and an excellent evening!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3\/4\/2026 HighSchool, Hasard Ludique<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;gave it a miss, see above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;not sure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>:same<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>:maybe but dubious<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"DeadletterParis2026\"><strong>Deadletter, Trabendo 8\/4\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d have gone on my own, especially after having listened to the second album. But I did enjoy the first gig, Nick and Jed were going and I hadn&#8217;t seen Jed in a long time, I had enjoyed the gig last year (or was that two years ago? Yeah, probably, that Achilles injury sometimes feels like a lost year, mostly) and that album was still sort of good enough to keep me interested anyway, if not excited. So I thought &#8216;why not?&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinemag.net\/2026\/04\/09\/live-review-deadletter-et-bleech-93-au-trabendo-paris-exigeant-jusquau-bout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Benzinemag <\/a>has the review and I think it&#8217;s fair and pertinent. SOV will presumably have it too as they have the photos, but it&#8217;s not up yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/3307\/18125\/deadletter_paris_trabendo_08_04_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">There<\/a> from SOV. But Robert Gil has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.photosconcerts.com\/deadletter-paris-trabendo-2026-04-08-16086\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">some <\/a>too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: Three different sources, but I&#8217;m not quite finding a full song filmed that does it for me. Except, maybe..the excellent It Comes Creeping, so have it here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Deadletter - It Comes Creeping @ Paris Le Trabendo 08\/04\/2026\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/akhIBNXBmDQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Nick and Jed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: we agreed to meet at 7.30pm outside Porte de Pantin, Nick was there first, having already ordered a pint and chips&#8230;.for Jed, who turned up last. It was a nice balmy evening, so we decided to stay out there for another pint rather than check the support, and once at the Trabendo, well, have another one on the outside bit there too as you can, rather than get in for the end of the support slot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: Bleech 9:3. Don&#8217;t ask, didn&#8217;t hear a second of their stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: to the right of the console. We tried the left, but there were far more tall people in the line of sight. Our side, and just at the edge of the step there, the view was close to perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/deadletter\/2026\/le-trabendo-paris-france-34f258b.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. I think we timed things well as we only had a few minutes to wait before the lights went off and some classic film music from Ennio Morricone started playing (think it might have been the same last time around?). A standard set start with the first couple of songs from the new album got things warmed up nicely (these are two of the better ones from that) before the first big highlight\/singalong with Mere Mortal, the three of us really enjoying ourselves. There ARE good songs on the new album, like (Back To The Scene) Of The Crime, but it&#8217;s just that they are not particularly memorable, I find. That album really is a &#8216;good album, but no properly cracking tunes&#8217; type. So when More Heat comes next, it&#8217;s instantly another highlight. In fact, all throughout the set, it&#8217;s the older stuff that makes a difference (see that gig review above, they are now more of an albums band than a live band, maybe not quite, but the energy is not the same: and you can tell, because even though the singer (Zac) makes a few incursion into the crowd  for singing and does the odd crowdsurf or two, he doesn&#8217;t end up shirtless during the encore as he did at La Maroquinerie (though, to be fair, the venue itself does not tend to get as hot as that). The Sax touch is really nice and maybe more subtle now, and when the sax player is not using his main instrument, he contributes to the rhythmic session hitting the cowbells. But talking of rhythm, I am actually impressed with the drummer. I only realise seeing him on stage that we had spotted him before the gig (basically: there are not two people with a Brazil football shirt in the venue tonight), though he is wearing shades for the whole of the gig. He really keeps it all ticking fine together, at times it&#8217;s nearly trance-like, superb drumming. Nearly all of the new album is played, but still and again, the old songs shine the best, Deus Ex Machina is another highlight, albeit in a more theatrical\/less in-your-face way than the others from that album. It Flies is another hit, maybe only the title song is what&#8217;s missing from the first album tonight, but it doesn&#8217;t matter. We also get treated to their first (I think?) single, the excellent Fit For Work. There&#8217;s still time in the main set for the best song from the new album (the superb It Comes Creeping, where the drumming comes to the fore again), before closing with another decent one from there: Frosted Glass, still however leaving the impression that it&#8217;s all become a little more sedate than it used to be. An encore? Of course, we know it because there is time, and I fully expect Binge to be played. I say there is time, but clearly not that much as in fact they are back on the stage barely after leaving it: blink and you&#8217;ll have missed them being off at all. And they start with, of course&#8230;.Binge! Cue pandemonium and sing-along. Well the sing-along to us may sound like it&#8217;s only comind from us three, but I assume it&#8217;s there near the front too. In fact, when I mention to the sax player that it felt there was less singing along, he said that no, it was quite fine. Which makes me think that it&#8217;s just the acoustics and that you can&#8217;t feel it from the back-ish, one step up where we were, but that you can hear it very well from the stage. And so Jana from Francis Of Delirium was probably telling from her onstage experience rather than being defensive last time, fair enough! An older song follows, Hero from 2022, which I&#8217;m not familiar with and feels kind of so-so before the set is concluded by another song from the new album rather than an old classic: Cheers! It&#8217;s a good one mind, so decent finish if not completely spectacular. To be honest though, at the end of the gig, I don&#8217;t feel frustrated. I was not going to mosh so not looking to sweat things out, and the new album being what it is, it ought to have been expected that things wouldn&#8217;t be as full out than they were at La Maroquinerie. I think it&#8217;s the advantage of going to gigs when you expect something overall rather than just a specific song or two (and they did play nearly all the best anyway!), and why I am wary of going to see bands just because I very very much love one of the songs anyway. So far this year, I may not have seen that many spectacular gigs, I have limited my attendance, and not for fitness reason mostly, and yet, I feel the overall quality of concerts has been very good! This belongs to the first half of the table no doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: I had wisely declined a pint during the gig itself, but with time allowing, the atmosphere and weather still good on a warm mid-week outing, I decided that a last one would be fine. Totally forgetting that it was making it 4, not 3, despite my initial intention of just 2 max, possibly 3. Not dissimilar to last Friday then, and similarly I postponed the running by a day, which proved a wise decision, both physicaly and mentally\/work-wise. Anyway, so we stayed out there. First me and Jed spotted the drummer (sans shades) and so had a quick chat with him, I really wanted to congratulate him as I felt he made everything tick during the gig. Nick joined us once he&#8217;d checked the merch stand, we then bumped into the sax player, who happens to be from Brighton, not Yorkshire at all (anyway he said they had all met in London), and told us this was much better than Maroquinerie for him, especially as he had a sore throat then which made playing the sax a real ordeal! So yeah, cool chat around a pint, as the main room was closing and everyone was being slowly chased out, the bass player, and the singer appeared, and Nick went to talk to the latter while Jed and I stayed put &#8211; I didn&#8217;t feel I had anything particular to say and didn&#8217;t want to be a star-ligger. Nick was desperately trying to cadge a cigarette from any randoms but couldn&#8217;t. Think he was getting pretty pissed (not simply pissed off by the failure) at this point. Time for the long walk back to the metro, I felt OK, but time running out and lots to do the next day, I very wisely again declined the offer of another pint outside the metro station. I would have at the weekend, but not then. So yeah, another good one, I&#8217;d say they played nearly all the good stuff, it&#8217;s just that all the good stuff happens to be &#8216;not on the new album&#8217;, and a great evening altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"ChalkParis2026\"><strong>CHALK, Trabendo 11\/4\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; I discovered them late-ish, but their EPs and singles appealed to me, a lot of energy with some music I liked. I actually booked this before the album was released, but I liked the album very much too. Not necessarily an ideally timed gig, and on my own, but the good thing of &#8216;on my own&#8217; is less pressure to drink. Although as you will see, a little drink wouldn&#8217;t have gone amiss, if I could have afforded it, but I decided I couldn&#8217;t that evening, as I had planned to go for a long run the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/articles\/live\/2953\/chalk_makeshift_art_bar_paris_trabendo.html\">SOV<\/a>, who else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/3771\/18063\/chalk_paris_trabendo_11_04_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ditto<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/em>: I am very very oddly not seeing anything. I&#8217;ll try harder because surely there must be videos. There certainly were a lot of people filming with their phones! [26\/4 : nope, still nothing so I am giving up]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: nothing, straight to the location, and not early either. I felt rather tired, and with the planned run the next day,  didn&#8217;t want to drink, or stand up for too long so didn&#8217;t go in early. Directly into the room despite the nice enough weather, but found a great spot by the fence at the back, perfect view. It didn&#8217;t look too busy when I arrived, and was pretty clear between bands so I could have been near the front, but as I wouldn&#8217;t mosh, in the end I thought it was the right decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: Makeshift Art Bar. I had no idea who was supporting, and not sure I&#8217;d have had taken the time to listen. But. I arrived just for their last number, a long enough one, and I really really liked it, so will have to investigate. Also, while the sounds coming out of it were absolutely not Cure-like, it&#8217;s difficult for me not to like a band that has Fender VI. So yeah, one song was enough to get me very interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Crowds<\/strong><\/em>: looked extremely varied, or at least as varied as a practically white-only crowd can be. All sort of ages\/genders\/styles, etc. Mostly oldies at the back, more on that anon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing location<\/strong><\/em>: as stated above, right at the top fence (so technically further than for the previous gig with Deadletter), but left-side when watching the stage. Perfect view, really. And sound not too loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: naturally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/chalk\/2026\/le-trabendo-paris-france-634e42cf.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">available<\/a>. Writing nearly a week later, much later than I normally do, but with the Sunday run, then some mad days at work, I&#8217;ve not found the time and energy until today. So memories have faded a little, but thankfully I took some notes that allowed me to insert (post main-writing) missing bits I deemed significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between bands music started with the familiar before veering into the unknown, and at five past nine, lights dim, band comes on, sound appears, and they start with the album&#8217;s opener, Tongue. The singing is more screaming for this one, and heavy effects are injected into the vocals. Both band members (there is a drummer added to the line-up, another physical job there too!) sport guitars for that one. The lead singer is already shirtless, you know there&#8217;s going to be a lot of energy deployed on stage, and it&#8217;s unlikely to be a very long gig because of that. Throughout the evening, the lead singer mostly is without guitar (I think there&#8217;s only one another song near the end where he plays it), while the other guy (sporting shades) alternates between guitar and synth\/samples\/pads, but is also perpetual movement. The singer goes into the pit several times (it starts as soon as the second song, which is also the second on the album, the excellent &#8216;Pain&#8217;), while the guitarist only does one more quiet foray. Anyway, that&#8217;s for the practicals of the set-up, the third track from the album, Can&#8217;t Feel It, follows (think it may have been the first single off the album, I certainly got it long before the LP&#8217;s release), not my favourite, but it&#8217;s very recognisable and popular and gets the band further into dark moods. The set is mostly based on the album (and the only  two tracks not played from it were among the very few I had not marked as &#8216;favourites&#8217;, so we got some treats from the Conditions EPs (all three of them), but One-Night-Eight-Zero is the next remarkable track, a lot more peaceful in mood. The moshpit is alive and very very mobile at times throughout the set, and I&#8217;m quite glad I settled in my comfy place for tonight. Especially as my legs end up hurting a bit (though thankfully it&#8217;s of little consequence the next day) even without moshing! Highlights for me include Afraid, and the excellent quasi-disco\/normally danceable I.D.C. It&#8217;s noticeable though (for me, or at least I felt this way) that the heavily treated vocals are not just a gimmick but also a reflection on the singer&#8217;s not particularly great\/melodic voice. Somehow it sounds a little more off-key than on the album, although it doesn&#8217;t distract from the actual sounds and the energy in the music. Mind you, from a distance, the singer reminds me a little of Declan Rice, which feels a bit confusing (Arsenal played shite and lost earlier in the day). Oh yes, I nearly forgot to mention, but halfway through the set, he dons those big metal-studded (or thus-looking anyway) gloves, similar-ish to the ones on the sleeve of the album. And never leaves them after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> B\u00e9al Feirste (that is the penultimate track on the album, not the last) concludes the set in perfect fashion. I am reminded very strongly of Underworld&#8217;s Born Slippy(.nuxx, of Trainspotting fame) just as I was on listening to it on the album, and  on seeing some of the older people dancing on their own at the back, lost in the music (there is some dancing below throughout the gig too, beyond the actual moshing of the mostly younger lot closer to the stage), I realise where the older folks in the audience may be coming from: that era\/those feelings around the release of Trainspotting. Anyway, it&#8217;s a finale in two parts, while there has been barely any word said between songs, just a few &#8216;Merci Paris&#8217; (fairly understandably, given the energy and intensity of the set), the singer says a few words in the middle of the song  before they restart it. I had forgotten that this break actually also more or less happens on record &#8211; not with spoken words, but kind of an actual break in the song, so briefly wonder if it&#8217;s just another song that sounds pretty similar during the first few seconds of that second part. And then they leave the stage. They&#8217;ve played a full hour, it sounded like a fitting end, so I am not even certain that there will be an actual encore. But it&#8217;s not long before they reappear(though I think at least a minute more than Deadletter earlier in the week), and as the setlist (see the link above) does not mention the encore, I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s because it&#8217;s easy for them to remember what they will play, but it could well have been just an extra gift to a crowd demanding more. Either way, it&#8217;s another stomping number, the fabulous Conditions from that first EP. And yeah, that also works as a finale, carrying similar vibes as just before, with extra crowdsurfing from the singer(previous incursions he had stayed on his feet) so I am not suprised when they don&#8217;t play another song in that encore, the intensity is still so high it feels like it lasts longer than it actually does, and by 10.10pm, after the same delay in light then music we had with Deadletter (but even less expectations of extra I&#8217;d say), it is all over indeed. So maybe from my favourites Velodrome wasn&#8217;t played, but it&#8217;s actually not missing at all. The only thing  that was missing was maybe on my side, to be less tired and\/or have a drink of two which would have allowed me to get into it a little more. As it was, I witnessed an excellent gig, great energy, but I didn&#8217;t perhaps completely feel part of it on the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-gig<\/strong><\/em>: straight home, no stop at the merch (there was a decent T-shirt, but nah and didn&#8217;t want to hang around). And with the early finish and decent connection, I was home just after 11pm, which, for a gig at Trabendo, is rather good going and what the doctor ordered really! So I ran my 16km very well the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"TheTwilightSadParis2026\"><strong>The Twilight Sad, Trabendo 27\/4\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;they finally released a new album, following other circumstances, etc. so, back to two members, went on a tour to go with it. That was booked before the album&#8217;s release (but on the back on an excellent single released some time ahead), although the album itself, despite the rave reviews, relatively underwhelmed it. Good, but not the monumental massive fantastic thing reviews hinted at. Happy to see them headlining though, having only seen them as The Cure support a few times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;we&#8217;ll see, I expect something from SOV certainly (the editor was there), though I was mildly surprised not to see anything on Benzinemag (now two days later, they are usually very quick). [Still nothing a week on, so maybe not][6\/5\/2026: they took their time, but finally, about ten days later it is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/articles\/live\/2963\/the_twilight_sad_for_marcy_paris_trabendo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there<\/a>!]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: they usually come out on SOV some time before the reviews, but nothing yet, so wait and see. They did <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/956\/18075\/the_twilight_sad_paris_trabendo_27_04_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appear <\/a>a couple of days before the review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube: <\/strong><\/em> there&#8217;s another poster from further back with some of the new songs and Vtr, indiegilles only has one song, but it&#8217;s a great one and with better quality, so here&#8217;s Videograms that concluded the best part of the concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Twilight Sad - Videograms - Le Trabendo Paris - 27\/04\/2026\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j8ugqswXh4Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: nothing, both Nick and I were intent on not drinking, and not knowing the support when we made our decision, decided we&#8217;d not get in early, and if we had a drink, maybe just one in the outside bit of the venue. Which is exactly what we did, having met at 8.15pm outside the metro station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: For Marcy. Only got the name in the afternoon, after the meeting decision, and a very quick and superficial to the only thing I found, a You Tube from their set supporting the Twilight Sad just the day before, still wasn&#8217;t minded to get in early for them. So no idea really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Crowds<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;unlike for Chalk, mostly fairly old, I&#8217;d say. Possibly far more men too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing Location<\/strong><\/em>:same as for Deadletter really, so a very good view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: surprisingly not on the usual website. It might appear with the SOV review if ever it happens. So have the one from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/the-twilight-sad\/2026\/le-botanique-lorangerie-sint-joost-ten-noode-saint-josse-ten-noode-belgium-6b4cb2de.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the night before<\/a>, which I think was very similar if not identical. [Well it is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/the-twilight-sad\/2026\/le-trabendo-paris-france-3b4fa824.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here <\/a>now, and indeed identical]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the support had finished a little before 8.30pm, the stage seemed all ready by twenty to nine already, so I wondered if an earlier start than 9pm was on the cards. As a Cure track  (Another Journey By Train, B-side of JSET if you don&#8217;t know), started playing, I thought it would make sense for them to play The Cure just before they got onto the stage. And indeed, that was in fact cut short, and at ten to nine, the lights dimmed and the band came on. For this tour, on top of James and Andy, we got the ex-bass player from Primal Scream, and a studio-but-not-only drummer who&#8217;d previously played with Mogwai among others. More on them later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The start? A track from the new album, but not the opening one, that was played a lot later. The first few tracks felt like a warm-up, OK, but not really impressive to me. But then something happened. First, that single released before the album, Waiting For The Phone Call. It starts with an electronic beat, quite different, more danceable, and then explodes into life, with some fantastic work from the drummer among others. It&#8217;s the first big highlight that makes me go &#8216;wow!&#8217;. And that&#8217;s only the starts of the magic. Because what follow, the core of the gig is the best part, by far. Starting from Vtr and ending with Videograms (essentially my two favourite songs from the previous album), via another favourite of mine from their third album: Last January. When we eventually get back to the new album after five consecutive highlights, it all feels a little flat again to me. I haven&#8217;t listened to it enough perhaps, but my impression, live, here, is that it is &#8216;lighter&#8217;, in the music at least if not the lyrics, and so we lose the intensity that the previous sequence offered. Thankfully, after only a couple of new songs, we get back to It Won&#8217;t Be Like This All The Time, with another great: I&#8217;m Not Here, and this reinforces my conviction that despite what everyone says, it is still their best album. An old classic follows, back to the third album, There&#8217;s A Girl in the Corner (Robert Smith once covered it on record on a double A-side release from the Twilight Sad), where Simone, the bass player, plays keys instead of the bass, and this pushes her slightly more to the side of the stage, so that she is, at this point, pretty much &#8216;a girl in the corner&#8217;. Her presence is really discrete throughout, you can barely see her face, just the shape of her hair, and in fact the bass is not very much put forwards, there&#8217;s only a couple of songs when you can really hear it make a difference during the golden sequence for instance (The Arbor most noticeably), and maybe one or two songs near the end, less so. Cat the drummer, on the other side, is much more prominent, but always perfect in the way she hits everything, playing hard when she has to, and not so much when she doesn&#8217;t need to, making the transitions between the quiet moments and the heavier ones pretty much seamless and perfect. Back to Fourteen, is, amusingly (and on purpose? maybe\/probably) played just before the two tracks we get tonight from their debut&#8230;.Fourteen Autumn and Fifteen Winters. There is not much inter-song chat from James, a few mercis as normal, the expression of some amazement at the big turnout : it&#8217;s amazing, it&#8217;s a Monday and you&#8217;ve all come to see us, a bunch of miserable bastards. Later he mentions a cousin who lives in Paris and is in the audience, but that&#8217;s about it before the final words before the final song, take care of each other and other thanks again. Just before that, so that second song from their debut, it&#8217;s And She Would Darken The Memory, which follows a &#8216;quiet start\/crescendo\/amazingly loud and powerful intrumental finish&#8217;, which sounds pretty much like it should be the end of the set, and I expected it to be (at some point I thought he&#8217;d said it was the last song, but clearly not). There is still time for a final number, and that is, this time, also the closing track from the album. Again, it starts fairly quiet and without drums, so I feel maybe it is a bit underwhelming for a finale (though I don&#8217;t know that it is at that moment), but in the end it does follow a similar path as the previous song, and so the finale perfectly fits an ending to the show. A quick look at the watch at this time (I noticed Nick checking his several times before, to my surprise) says it is already 10.20pm, so I figure that if ever there was an encore, they&#8217;d have to come back quickly and play a short-ish song and no more (I am guessing curfew is 10.30pm here). But unlike for Deadletter or Chalk (which both finished earlier than that), there is no illusion to entertain and the lights come back on very quickly. It&#8217;s been very nearly one and a half hour of a pretty intense concert though, and I didn&#8217;t get bored really or very little (unlike Nick it seems). You could argue that, due to the similarity in construction, they could have split the final song from the rest of the show, play it as en encore, and in fact, some sort of logic would have suggested TV people (last on the album) played last in the main set, with &#8216;Memory&#8217; as an old classic encore, but it&#8217;s not the choice they made, and, personally, I don&#8217;t think the show suffered from it, even if I&#8217;d say it confused the ending to some extent. Nope, really, a very good show, worth the admission price if only for those five songs in a row just before the middle of the set. I think I&#8217;ll listen to the new album a bit more when I have time (I am so far behind my listenings at the moment) to see if I like it more, but I&#8217;m glad I went to this gig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-Gig<\/strong><\/em>: straight back, and luckily, despite the works, there were still a couple of RERs left running when reached Gare du Nord, meaning the journey wasn&#8217;t extended by another twenty minutes or so, so home before 11.30pm, perfect!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"TheMardousLondon2026\"><strong>Battle, The Mardous, The Water Rats, London 8\/5\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; not sure why Battle followed me or instagram, so I followed back, remembering the good tunes. Though I see they followed me after the gig when I mentioned the gig, so maybe they unfollowed, or maybe it was just a suggestion at the start. Either way, they announced their first gig in 19 years, a couple of weeks before it. Not sure that would have been enough to get me to London, despite me looking for some London trips in the absence of football tickets. However, seeing that The Mardous supported, it was a no-brainer. On a Bank Holiday, pre-weekend so no day off to take. More about the Mardous later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;very very much doubt I find one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: same. My one or two far too shit for inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube: <\/strong><\/em> unfortunately, I can&#8217;t find anything from the Mardous&#8217; set (I&#8217;ll spare you my poor quality snippets, I think).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dustin&#8217;s  Bar Mitzvah posted an excellently assembled video of Flags (and that&#8217;s the only trace I can find of the set on YT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dustin&amp;apos;s bar Mitzvah - Flags. 08\/05\/26\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f0w0F4dlwJM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I can also only find one song from Battle, unfortunately not Tendency, so you&#8217;ll have Demons (originally on Break The Banks)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Battle - Demons (Live at Water Rats, London 08\/05\/2026)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4tiWCCHAasA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: no-one. Although, arguably after their gig, Ross from The Mardous for the other gigs and the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: where do I start? Actually, it wasn&#8217;t long. Smooth train ride to London (not so smooth going to the station, but plenty of margin), check-in, a little rest (most needed especially after the morning run), debated whether to get some food, but in the end wound up in The Water Rats pub bit a good 45 minutes before doors, so simply had a couple of pints of Guinness as starter. A good idea. Heard some of the soundcheck, thought The Mardous would be last to check, didn&#8217;t recognise the music first (I knew they&#8217;d play new songs), until the first notes of You See Right Through Me started. And there I was ready to get in, there was a bar inside, open and there I saw Ross, big hug, he kindly offered me a beer so we had a good chat already (while Ben was still checking stuff with this guitar on the small stage), of the good old days, what we&#8217;d been up to, etc. He told me he had worked in the Water Rats, and that it was Dave from DBM who suggested they&#8217;d join them on that bill. Anyway, I won&#8217;t relate all the conversations, even though, somehow, the evening was mostly about those conversations, with him and others. While he went to get ready, Ben made an appearance in the room, guitar in hand ready to re-join the stage. So I shouted &#8216;Ben!&#8217; and he turned, another hug, we had a short chat, but it was great to see him, still the same, hair maybe a little greyer, but looking in fine form. Told me I hadn&#8217;t changed at all, which was nice, but really I was just glad to catch up with them even before the concert. I didn&#8217;t immediately recognised Stevie, not that he had changed at all, but simply the fact that I had had less chance to socialise with him back in the day, coming as he did later in the history of the band when Lewis left (funny because we seem to all mostly remember that Batofar gig -or was it another boat along the Seine in that area &#8211; an evening I seem to remember a lot for great chats among their other gigs, while I remember the gig less itself, or maybe because I thought it was on another boat, though it may have been the one where Alex was there as extra guitarist? more on that later). Anyway, good pre-gig throat lubrication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: well, technically, The Mardous were the support band, so not really sure how to turn this review. Maybe an anti-chronological one, starting with the last band? Even though I was pretty drunk by then? I, well we missed the start of the Battle gig, while chatting with Ross, Donna and Darren out there, but Ross had the good sense to say he&#8217;d like to see them (so did I but I didn&#8217;t dare cut the conversation then) especially as they had them on the bill. So I missed Isabelle being played. Again, I knew they&#8217;d play a few new songs, and in fact I barely recognised any. The album I had being unimportable on iTuned, I only found it back late, listened, liked a couple of tracks (they did play one or two of the main ones there), and while the Back To Earth EP has the best tunes in my opinion, they eschewed two or the three best there (despite playing most of it), so the music was good, but nothing really getting me going, especially (or even?) in a fairly drunk state. Until the first notes of Tendency (their mega hit, well, sort of) from that EP, which was great. There was one more song to close the set, and also at the back not such a brilliant view, so I can&#8217;t say whether I really liked the gig or not, but the setlist made it a little frustrating anyway. So yes, for that we were really at the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before them, Dustin&#8217;s Bar Mitzvah were less of the traditional indie band, far more punk though of the same era. Reminded me of a few other bands, very raw but really great and deadpan too. I enjoyed this set pretty much (vaguely recognised a couple of songs, but this time I only had one 3-track single from them), thought the main guitarist was excellent (not the lead singer who was playing the guitar too and doing his stuff very well too), and it all went down as well as the beer. We washed the whole of this as I don&#8217;t think I went out of the room between The Mardous and them. Yes, it&#8217;s an absurd reverse review. Ordered a pint at the bar after them, well actually that was a round from Darren who Ross had introduced me to just before, along with his wife Donna. Darren is a QPR fan who&#8230;saw John Jensen scored, as he pointed out, knowing it would be a fact that amused me as a Gooner (the stuff of myth if you don&#8217;t know as he wa signed on the back of a tremendous Euro 1992 tournament, but in the end scored a single goal for The Arsenal, at Loftus Road indeed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing Location<\/strong><\/em>: near the front with not many people for The Mardous, in front of the bar during the busy Dustin&#8217;s Bar Mitzvah set. Not much further but in a more packed room with less stage view for Battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: The Battle one is actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.setlist.fm\/setlist\/battle\/2026\/the-water-rats-london-england-137495ad.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">available<\/a>! The others not so much, didn&#8217;t think of asking The Mardous for there, despite the number of new songs making it impossible for me to properly reproduce. But yeah, under this section, I&#8217;ll just talk about The Mardous&#8217; gig. What is there to say? The real Mardous trio (says Ben) is back, so just Ross on the right (sporting some nice Black &amp; White checkerboard Vans), with a Gretsch bass guitar these days, Ben on the left (Telecaster), sporting a Blue Sweatshirt with &#8216;Jazz&#8217; in a white cloud background, and Stevie behind the drums, with a kind of French T-shirt. No, not really just horizontal stripes, white and navy (or black), the navy stripes being thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They room is not busy but they seem to be happy to be back playing there (I think Ross mentioned they&#8217;d played another gig before, so unlike for Battle it was not quite their comeback gig), starting with a couple of pretty good new songs already. But there&#8217;s a few oldies too, was You See Right Through Me the first that was played? I wasn&#8217;t too drunk by then but taking all in, my chronology gets a bit muddled either way. Perhaps it was their hit Revolution Over The Phone, great as ever. It&#8217;s really good to have them back. And it&#8217;s a marvel to have Ben playing guitar in this own inimitable way, the way he always did. I can&#8217;t describe it, but I just like the peculiar way he holds his guitar and plays (with) it. They are back, definitely back. A few more new songs, and then Ross says there&#8217;s only a couple of songs left and will play an oldie. I&#8217;m very close to shouting &#8216;Another Einstein!&#8217;  but refrain, maybe not drunk enough or too self-aware. But you know, it is actually the song they play next so I&#8217;m very happy with this. One last song, and thanks (there is not much talk between songs, just a few quips and jokes and Ross stating how nervous he is to be playing these brand new songs) and it&#8217;s over way too quickly. I&#8217;m sure there will be more gigs, I might not travel over for all, but it will be good to hear more of the new stuff and hear it becoming familiar too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-Gig<\/strong><\/em>: just after the gig, lingering about, I got a chance to talk a little more with Ben, even if it was pretty short again. He was just picking his stuff, helped by his lovely wife before going off. I mentioned it was good to have him back and the bizarre and brief recollection of the extra guitarist (whose name escaped me then, but Ross later reminded me was Alex) so he said that wasn&#8217;t the Mardous, it didn&#8217;t happen. Him and Stevie are now completely off the booze, so difficult to hang around I guess (I&#8217;m guessing the fourth member short era (and subsequent split?) might have something to do with it from a performance point of view? I&#8217;d never ask anyway). And fair enough, it brought back memories of Ben being quite heaviily pissed indeed and possibly a little aggressive with it at times. Nothing specific, but yeah I could see how it made sense. I was eventually joined back by Ross at the bar, so we shared a few more drinks and conversations, meeting other people (like Darren and Donna, mentioned above, Donna also directed me towards some Cuntbook (yeah, that&#8217;s the facebook nickname with me and a few others) group called Gig Life Crisis, I think that&#8217;s after we talked about various festivals, Rockaway Beach was mentioned &#8211; Jez goes every year, I&#8217;m mean to go there som time), she mentioned other ones for good causes too, so I checked that and joined the next day. Later on, after the Battle gig, and after D&amp;D had left, we stayed outside with Ross and had a good chat with a couple of other lads (one I&#8217;d briefly been introduced by Ben earlier), I&#8217;m afraid I couldn&#8217;t easily remember names by that stage, so they&#8217;ll have to excuse me. I remember they mentioned they played in a band (or separate bands), maybe I&#8217;ll get a chance to see them again and speak, while more sober. Ross took a selfie with me as we exchanged phone numbers (he forgot to send it later, and I didn&#8217;t want to remind him when we had a brief exchange by messages the day later). At this stage, I had also refused a pint, or two, took deliberately long to finish mine (was it number 6 or 7? Either way biggest session in ages), and decided, with reaching about midnight, that now was a good time to leave if I wanted to more or less keep my wits about. So we hugged goodbye, I&#8217;m sure we&#8217;ll catch up again, I got back to my hotel on autopilot, and slept rather well. All things told, after so much booze, it was an unusually peaceful night&#8217;s sleep, proof of a very good and satisfying evening. Sure I was a bit hungover the next day, but actually not so bad, and after an extra nap I could afford in the morning, the travel back went very well. Just took an extra day to recover properly, predictably. It&#8217;s great to see friends again. The Mardous are back. Until next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"TheItchParis2026\"><strong>The Itch, Hasard Ludique 28\/5\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0I liked the singles I got last year very very much so booked this as soon as it was available, not even depending on the album. As it is, the album is abolutely brilliant, my favourite of 2026 so far I think, so this is a gig I was immensely looking forward to. Thought I&#8217;d be on my own but instead convinced Patrice to come just the day before as he lives not too far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:\u00a0SOV were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/articles\/live\/2974\/the_itch_paris_le_hasard_ludique.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there<\/a> (though surprisingly not Franck).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>: From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundofviolence.net\/multimedia\/photos\/3950\/18526\/the_itch_paris_le_hasard_ludique_28_05_2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SOV <\/a>too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube:<\/strong><\/em> can&#8217;t find any, sadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: Patrice<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: a very very hot day in Paris. I was on holidays, intending to get a few early drinks to get in the mood. As Patrice could be in early too, we decided to meet up at about 8.15pm at the venue. I had suprisingly no transport issues (despite advertisement of trouble on Line 6, so was even a little early). We had a couple of beers by the tracks, which was actually cooler (the bar area itself was climatised so fine), before heading back upstairs to notice that support was actually just DJs so maybe not worth getting in for. We weren&#8217;t sure of timings, I initally thought 9.30pm for the band, fairly classic there, Nick had said probably 10pm. Either way we went on the outside bit at the front which was a lot lot warmer than down the tracks, too hot in fact. Got in to order a third (I think), sat on the tables indoors in the cool for a bit.  Patrice spotted the band getting inside the concert room (itself not climatised so back to hot), so could they actually be about to start? Wise to get in, and indeed, because as we entered the room, 9.45pm, they started!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: casablanca drivers, but not quite, just two of them as a DJ set (I had tried to listen to some of casablanca drivers&#8217; stuff, it sounded OK), so yeah, there was support, but we didn&#8217;t attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing Location<\/strong><\/em>: this was sold out, then not, not sure what the logistics were, but it wasn&#8217;t even busy when we got it and never got very busy so far far far from sold out. Meaning we could also be pretty much where we are. Could have been closer to the stage, but we were dead centre, good views everywhere, space to move and dance, very very fine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>: not on setlist.fmn but it is on the SOV review linked above. Where do I start? Where they started. Not with the brilliant opener Space In The Cab, but intriguingly with the title track from the album, It&#8217;s The Hope That Kills. I thought the it all sounded a bit thin initially, we noticed they were talking to the mixing desk making frantic gestures, so there might have been some issues (someone said later the usual guy was on holidays), so I was briefly fearful it wouldn&#8217;t live up to my expectations, but thankfully, either I got used to it or it improved, because after the first few minutes, it was just the predictable brilliant show. 4 people on stage today. Simon the lead singer (mostly just singing, sometimes working the synths, or the cowbells), Georgia on drums to the right of the stage (so that&#8217;s the core duo), one guitarist on the left, and on synths\/keys and mostly bass another guy at the back. Can&#8217;t Afford This was next, followed by Aux Romanticizer (still reminds me of some Yard Act stuff, live as well as on record). Not my favourite songs, but live they worked perfectly and like Drugdealer a little later made me realise, live as well as on the album they offer a balance to the whole thing that would not be there if it was just banger after banger. And you could still dance to them. Before the first highlight, the fantastic Ursula. Never Change is another superb song, live just as enormous as on the album, easy to shout some bits back at too. A lot of dancing was had, girls and boys alike, a good time being had by all including yours truly. Before the gig, as Patrice had mentioned that for all the electronic stuff (not really his kind of stuff), the lyrics were very good and reflective of the times, so I mentioned that early single called The Influencer, so I was very glad they played that. I think I sometimes Simon said it was their first time playing in Paris, but I might have misunderstood or maybe he just meant headlining, because I know they played before Stereolab some time ago, a gig I nearly went to just foro them. All throughout the musicians were clearly enjoying themselves, and I very much liked Georgia&#8217;s very metronomic drumming. I think the SOV review mentions &#8216;march-like&#8217;, and that&#8217;s really my kind of beat and it worked very well there. Her shrill backing vocals (the guy at the back was doing some too on some songs) were perfect too. They only released their debut recently, yet still managed to treat us to a pretty good new song. Simon played the bass for that one, explaining that there were normally actually five of them on stage but their usual bass player was away at the wedding. It was never going to be a long set, but when the album closer (again, just perfect album closer there, less danceable but perfect in that position) Switch It Off was introduced I thought &#8216;surely this is not the end yet&#8217;?. And indeed at the end of it, Simon announced they had a couple of songs left to play. No More Spechgesang was next (very LCD soundsystem-like, this one?), with Simon taking the cowbell to the front and hitting it repeatedly. Again, not my favourite song as such, but it just worked perfectly and you can singalong, etc. And so the last song? Well, quite naturally the album opener at last. Space In The Cab is just fabulous, whether it&#8217;s played first or last, it&#8217;s a fantastic dance number. Just under an hour of show, but it was all perfect. Oh yes, as mentioned in the review, there was an amusing moment when Simon said he got the song order slightly confused (no idea what it was meant to be) and so that was disturbing his bandmates. The heat was mentioned too, because it was fucking hot in that room, so I can&#8217;t begin to imagine what it was like on stage, with the spots etc, even though it was mostly cold and sparse lighting. One regret? Yes, maybe, I wish they&#8217;d played Pirate Studios, as it was the only song from the album they didn&#8217;t play (the only other song I know from their repertoire they didn&#8217;t play was Co-Conspirator but I could live without that one), and it&#8217;s one of the best. But then, the setlist was well balanced and constructed, modified order or not, and it was a fantastic gig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-Gig<\/strong><\/em>: I dwelled a bit in the rapidly emptying room, it really wasn&#8217;t busy, and since there was no merch stand, maybe it was the best chance to talk to the band. As it is, I managed to briefly thank both Simon and Georgia, telling them how much I loved the album and how much I loved the gig. Back to the bar, let&#8217;s have another drink. We went outside to drink it, the band weren&#8217;t far but I didn&#8217;t dare go in for a selfie, though I think Patrice nearly nudged me into it. So just had a good chat with Patrice, in slightly cooler evening temperatures before deciding what to do next. A bouncer said they were closing in 10 minutes, I assumed it was just the outdoor bit, we checked the closing time: midnight. Early-ish but then it was only Thursday, and it was still just getting to 11.30pm when this was said, so surely, juste one more drink indoors before leaving would be perfect. But to my big surprise, the barmaids say they were already not serving anymore. That&#8217;s a bit silly. Especially considering the very few people left, surely there was time for another round before closing at midnight? Anyway, so we had to  take a decision. While we did, the band were gathering their stuff and about to leave, Georgia the only one who had managed a change of clothes, so I just asked Simon where next? And he said they were just going home to London. I said I&#8217;d just be there on Sunday for the Arsenal parade, and Patrice asked Simon if he supported Arsenal, he shrugged (not mentioning whether he was supporting someone else (Tottnum maybe? :-O) or not into football, but pointed at the keys\/bass player, saying &#8216;I&#8217;m not but HE is&#8217; (I have since seen vids for another gig where he wore an Arsenal top), so we had a very quick chat about the upcoming Champions League final and parade before saying goodbye and safe trips. What about us? One last drink still seemed like a good idea with the mood, so we just went next door for a final pint (where I switched to beer after having actually had cider all evening), sitting at a table outdoors and chewing the fat. Very nice. Until I realised that we were still at the arse end of Paris and that I wasn&#8217;t actually certain I could get the last train home. So I kind of rushed that last pint, said goodbye and left after we paid. RATP app actually told me I couldn&#8217;t get the RER. It even told me I ought to get a night bus already. I really wasn&#8217;t keen on that, so managed to work out that I could just about catch the last Line 4 train at Montparnasse. It&#8217;s a shit long connection with lots of walking (unike line 6 but none was left, so I did have to run a bit once there, but I made it with a couple of minutes to spare. I briefly considered dropping off at Denfert thinking if the last RER is a bit late I might just catch it, but it was an improbable gamble, so I stuck to Line 4, even knowing it meant half an hour walking at the end. But that was fine. Got home just a bit before 2am. Late but then I didn&#8217;t have to work the next day, and that would leave me just enough days to recover before the parade in London on Sunday (thankfully had already made up my mind to watch the final at home and sober given the opposition). So a great gig from a fabulous band, a nice evening out, but the real madness happened on that Sunday with the parade in London. Different story but that made it an incredible week, despite the heat for most of it that stopped me from doing all I had intended to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">10\/6\/2026 Nightbus, Le Popup<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube: <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Crowds<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing Location<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-Gig<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">13\/6\/2026 Sugar, Elys\u00e9e Montmartre<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Context:<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>External review<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Photos<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>YouTube: <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Company<\/strong><\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Pre-gig<\/strong><\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Support<\/em><\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Crowds<\/strong><\/em>:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Standing Location<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Setlist<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Post-Gig<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">18\/6\/2026 Sorry, Trabendo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">18\/6\/2026 Purity Ring,HERE at Outernet, London &#8211; couldn&#8217;t miss after Paris cancellation a few years go, so&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">26\/6\/2025 The Cure, Marlay Park, Dublin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">30\/8\/2026 The Cure, Rock en Seine, Saint-Cloud<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">15\/9\/2026 Metric, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Salle Pleyel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">25\/9\/2026 Lime Garden, La Maroquinerie<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1\/10\/2026 The Magic Numbers, Petit Bain<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">21\/10\/2026 Teenage Fanclub, Petit Bain<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">24\/10\/2026 Blood Red Shoes, Trabendo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">27\/10\/2026 Meryl Streek, Point Eph\u00e9m\u00e8re<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">31\/10\/2026 Fat Dog, Elys\u00e9e Montmartre<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">12\/11\/2026 Kiwi Jr., Hasard Ludique<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I haven&#8217;t even decided on the format this year, since nobody&#8217;s reading anyway, I am tempted to strip it down to just the youtubes, setlists and external reviews photos, a database rather than my own work, maybe just a few comments if there are some remarkable things or emotions. I don&#8217;t know, it doesn&#8217;t take &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/gig-reviews\/gigs-2026-part-i\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gigs 2026 (Part I)<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1722,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7713","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"OllieRoo","author_link":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/author\/admin9036\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I haven&#8217;t even decided on the format this year, since nobody&#8217;s reading anyway, I am tempted to strip it down to just the youtubes, setlists and external reviews photos, a database rather than my own work, maybe just a few comments if there are some remarkable things or emotions. I don&#8217;t know, it doesn&#8217;t take&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7713"}],"version-history":[{"count":185,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8428,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7713\/revisions\/8428"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}