24th March The futures not looking great


When a concert starts off with possible the worst support act I have even seen / heard, one can only hope that things will get better. Sometimes they don't.Last night I had a jolly to the Manchester Academy to see Future Islands, an American synth pop band fronted by the wonderfully charismatic Samuel T Herring. 

Unfortunatly it was the right band appearing in the wrong venue. Horrible acoustics meant that from where I was towards the back, in order to avoid the Covid crush, I could hardly hear a word that was sung or to be honest spoken. Was the person on the sound desk deaf or was I just in the wrong part of the room?

Then people just insisted in chatting all the way through it, with the two women in front of me so lost in endless chatter I don't think they even realised there was a band on stage. Add to that the constant wandering back and forth either to get even more drink or as a consequence repeatedly have to empty their bladders, and I am convinded that 3/4 of the people there barged past me at some point in the evening.

Then to make matters worse two of my all time favourite FI songs were butchered into barely recognisable versions and as they broke into my absolute favourite, someone collapsed / feinted on the floor right in front of me. Cue security and paramedics, all of which meant that in the medical kerfuffal I missed most of the song in the process.

And then just when I thought things couldn't get any worse it turns out that Future Islands have just released a new series of dates including one right here in Nottingham in November which could have saved me the 100 plus mile round trip. All in all a disappointing view of the 'future' when what I was hoping for was something transcendent like this.

All that glitters is gold
Don't believe what you've been told
People lie, people love, people go
But beauty lies in every soul

 

People change
But you know some people never do
You know when people change
They gain a piece but they lose one too

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