On Friday I'm seeing a couple of bands who were pretty big in my impressionable youth, 1927 and Boom Crash Opera. A bit tame by some people's standards here, but I don't give a shit, I like them! Gig review to follow in due course.
The follow-up:
Being a double-header, each band had a set of about an hour, so a bit limited in the depths of material they could draw from, but both picked a good spread from their respective catalogues., although with an understandable emphasis on their best-known stuff.
BCO had the first set, but given the way they grabbed the audience, should have had the second slot to send us home on a high. Singer Dale Ryder showed his age a bit & strumbled a little bit on a few falsetto parts, but overall was in very fine voice and really brought the crowd into the show, especially on best-known songs "Hands Up In The Air", "Get Out Of The House", "The Best Thing", "Dancing In The Storm" and "Onion Skin".
On the flip side, 1927 were good, but just didn't have that "It" factor to really grab the audience. Frontman Erik Weideman is the only member of the original band, so in a way it's more like him solo with a backing band, rather than a "proper" 1927. They played, and Erik sang, really well, but there was a vibe that they were just there doing a job. The closing song in their set, "If I Could", was really the only one that brought the crowd to its feet, so would have been a good crowd-pumper if the sets were reversed....
I'd see the Crashies again in a flip, but to be honest wouldn't go out of my way to see 1927 again unless they were on a shared bill.