Bo! Mister R's Munchen Glad Back

Exclusive-ish to No Rock, our Munich correspondent Mr R reports back from the Manic Street Preacher's Munich gig:

it was fooking freezing out last night, i got to the venue at about 7pm, admittance was at 7:30, thought i was going to loose a toe or something, but just in the nick of time, we were let in.

the support were readymade, a band from wiesbaden that i had heard of, but not heard yet, but had been informed that i should probably like them. and it's odd that i lived in the city right across the river for 9 years and never knew that there was music of possible interest from so close.... oh well.

they weren't bad, really, a good opener for the manics. 4 piece guitar band, the drummer was absolutely wild. imagine animal in short black hair about 6 ft tall in all white with a red star on the t-shirt, and you've got him. hands flying everywhere, the muscles in the face constantly moving in all sorts of contortions. he would have fit into system of a down quite easily like that. the bassist had a sort of dirty blonde brad pitt look, and not in a good way. the lead had a white shirt and a thin black tie, like he was trying to be in a blues brothers type band, no hat though.

as i said, not bad, really heavy guitars, like thick molasses, and while the lyrics where in many cases rather melancholy, neither the style of music nor the voice gave it the needed melancholic touch... i wouldn't necessarily go to one of their own tours, but if they were supporting a band i wanted to see, i
wouldn't go "oh my god, not them again". this seems, to me at least, and i am trying to finds ways to disprove this, the state that german music is in. just not quite there yet, needs an extra kick or something, that little spice that makes a dish from bland to delicious is missing. but cheers to jonathan who last night gave me a list of german bands to check out! as it is, one of them just appeared on my amazon recommendation list today...

while the stage was being rearranged, a red hot chilli pepper mix was played. lots of people swaying while watching the stage.

nicky's mic stand was covered in turquise and neon-pink feathers. he wore a leopard print hat and a long white jacket for most of the show. at somepoint, the hat came off, and big grandmom sunglasses with red frames appeared and a scarf around the neck. he was so pale and with the black eyeliner, when the light hit him right, he looked like a ghost. and the way he moved about the stage, it looked like he was floating at times...

as you know, i've never been the wild manics follower, so i didn't know even half the songs that were played... but nevertheless, i enjoyed everything, they sang well, even though james appoligises for having a cold and not really reaching the high notes ("i sound a bit like joe cocker, eh?") but here's the set list:

Motorcycle Emptiness
You stole the sun from my heart
Everything Must Go
There by the grace of God
Found That Soul
Tsunami
Ocean Spray
Kevin Carter
Life becoming a Landslide
Slash and Burn
Stay Beautiful
Faster
Roses in the Hospital
Motown Junk
Little Baby Nothing
Suicide is Painless
The Everlasting
You Love Us
Design For Life
If you tolerate this ....