NOTE: The London O2 article is here.
Just back from the Birmingham show, and it was the best yet. They did the same set as in Manchester as far as I remembered it, so The Pass and Middletown Dreams were reinstated. There was a little more improvisation, too, and the band seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Here’s the setlist as I remember it:
Part 1
- Subdivisions
- Big Money
- Force Ten
- Grand Designs
- Middletown Dreams
- Territories
- The Analog Kid
- The Pass
- Where’s My Thing? (with drum solo)
- Far Cry
Part 2
- Caravan
- Clockwork Angels
- The Anarchist
- Carnies
- The Wreckers
- Headlong Flight (with drum solo)
- Halo Effect
- Wish Them Well
- The Garden
- Dreamline
- Drum Solo
- Red Sector A
- YYZ
- The Spirit of Radio
Encore
- Tom Sawyer
- 2112 Part I: Overture
- 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
- 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
The LG Arena also gets the current Gold Star as the best venue. OK, it’s not cheap, but the food is good for the price, and everything runs efficiently. Mind you, the Arena itself is bloody miles from the car park, but the weather today has been fantastic so the walk was enjoyable through the huge complex and past the lake.
Here’s a selection of pictures I took:
Once more, my agent had got me a decent ticket.The only bum note – well, notes, really – were the facts that someone who was about 7 feet tall was right in my line of sight,and he insisted on videoing parts of the show on his Blackberry; the group in front of him spent almost the whole three hours arms raised doing that thing with the index and little finger sticking up (what DOES that mean?); and someone somewhere behind me spent the whole show shouting loudly at his mates (and I mean really shouting). But I suppose they were enjoying themselves, and being quite tall myself I tend to get lucky when it comes to having taller people in front of me.
But I can’t blame my agent for all that. The crowd was loud, and that’s what bands want. I’m sure it loosens them up
Next stop, Sheffield on Tuesday. Let’s hope the Sheffield lot put on a better show than last time, where they were the worst crowd of the tour.
NOTE: The Sheffield write up is here.