Weekly > Features
My Life’s A Blur - Part 3
A train at just gone six in the morning gets us back into Leeds in time for my Mrs to get back to work today and I dive home to grab an extra couple of hours sleep, shattered I’m out cold before my head has barely touched the pillow.
I wake around lunchtime and while I’m not fully revitalised I do feel ready for the final leg of this weeks gigs, it’s a shorter journey to Manchester and after the previous two nights I’m really looking forward to tonight’s gig.
Which under normal circumstances (ie not involving Blur) would be a little strange really.
Strange because it’s at Manchester Evening News Arena and I really don’t like arena / stadium gigs that much. Added to that I don’t expect any changes to the set so you’d think I’d be fed up of seeing it wouldn’t you?
With most bands I would, but Blur have always had a degree of a rough edge to their polished live sets if you scratch beneath the surface, no two gigs are ever the same and such is the buzz of their live performance that I’d happily go to a gig of theirs 365 days a year.
Tonight backs up my point, with a sold out arena they ramp things up again. The lighting rig behind them is perfect for She’s So High, Girls And Boys takes us to a bouncing disco heaven and Tracy Jacks proves why it’s a much under rated album track.
Blur are clever enough to know that with the tickets hardly being cheap for tonight’s show that the crowd are here to party like, it’s 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2003! So while they do throw in more obscure tracks like Oily Water and a fantastic Trimm Trabb that is made all the more special by the lighting tonight, it’s hits, hits and more hits that they deliver throughout the set.
So joining the likes of Girls and Boys in the set you get Tender, End Of A Century, To The End, Country House, The Universal, For Tomorrow, There’s No Other Way, Chemical World, Beetlebum and Popscene.
Weblinks
Add to favouritesParklife is an obvious highlight tonight as Phil Daniels bounds on stage for the first time on this tour, Song 2 with it’s slow drum build up is phenomenal and Sunday Sunday is a speeded up exercise routine for us at the front, with the latter two different and tweaked from when they were around the first time.
So what does the future hold for Blur? Well I guess we don’t have the answer to that yet and with a few dates left over the next few weeks I’m hoping that they aren’t building towards a farewell at a festival, if they do ever decide to end it for once and for all it should be announced and in front of their own fans so that we can give thanks and say goodbye.
Personally I think they will carry on, the reception for them on this tour has been phenomenal and they genuinely looked overwhelmed by the warmth thrown back at them from the crowd, a tear from Alex during The Universal at Wolverhampton certainly suggested that this was an emotional return, not a fond farewell…I hope!
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Comment Permalink | marco_69 said:
Interesting review Kev. I might even dig out my old Fred Perry T Shirt and go and see them.
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We waffle on enough without letting you lot do it too. Comments are limited to 300 characters.
Try and keep on topic if you can and no insulting the contributors. All hate mail can be addressed to Kev.