The Vaccines - Speakeasy Bar, Belfast 26/03/2011
Its been a few months since I've seen the GBOL perform live, and I'm really impressed how much they have improved and how tight they have become in such a short space of time, just wish i had been down earlier to see their full set!
To the bar!!!
So i'm sipping on my pint having a wee look around the place and trying to take in the atmosphere, and it dawns on me, this is a really strange mix of a crowd! it ranged from your generic teenage scenester to the 50 something year old Buzzcocks/SLF fans, to the extremely drunk father and son who were just lapping up the beer and the atmosphere.
Almost exactly 9 o'clock on the button, The Vaccines take to the stage. (Twitter never lies!!! haha) Without any messing around they get straight down to it, no introductions, no banter, just music. Now to be perfectly honest this gig was a bit of a slow starter, with the first couple of tunes drifting by without really leaving a lasting impression on anyone, except the 20 or so die hards at the front. It wasn't until they played "Post Break-Up Sex" that anyone else really started to stand up and take notice, from here on in the vast majority of the audience were singing along and seemed to be more "up for it". My attention once again drawn to the father and son, both singing their hearts out, and was quite amuzed by the fact they are singing the lyric "what do you expect from post break-up sex" to each other, haha.
A couple of songs later The Vaccines break into, "If You Wanna", this gets the best response so far and sparked the audience into mass hand clapping, with frontman Justin Young pretending to pick off members of the audience with his guitar as if it was a gun! Following this they played another crowd pleaser "Blow It Up", again with the hand clapping and sing alongs "blow, blow, blow, blow it up", and I begin to realise why there are older punks in the crowd, as these tunes really do resemble those of The Buzzcocks etc. circa 1979.
This is the point where the gig changed entirely for me, as my friend drew my attention to something at the right hand side of the stage, "look at the hack of the bassist"! For the rest of the gig, the vast majority of my attention was focused on this guy! Eyes glazed over, looking like a lost puppy and from my own experiences, that we'll not get into now ha!, had the look of someone who was "whiteying" and trying his best not to be sick haha!!! Not very often you can say this, but for me the bassist stole the show, and he didn't even mean to do it, priceless!
The highlight of the gig was without a doubt "Wreckin' Bar" but to be fair, this was to be expected, such a great tune, pity it's so short, at just under one and a half minutes long, it's over before you know it.
The Vaccines didn't go to the bother of doing an encore, Young just said "this is the point where we pretend to leave the stage and get you to cheer us back on" and played another tune! They finished off their set with Norgaard with Young getting in amongst the die hards at the front and getting his shirt ripped off in the process!
So, all in all a very good gig, I'll definitely be getting my ticket when they come back to grace a Belfast stage again and really hope it's sooner rather than later!
Highlights:- The drunken father and son singing their hearts out, and the Pete Doherty-esque Bassist, we salute you!
Lowlights:- Headliners on at 9pm, whats that all about?
Review:- Decky Savage
