Super Furry Animals @ Barrowlands

With the idea of putting a bit more mass on my skinny frame, I've been taking a weekly circuits class over at the nearby naval base. Nothing luxurious here folks - I'm talking equipment circa WWII and lots of naval dudes admiring their tattoos (oh yes, there are anchors!) and biceps in the mirror.

One can't help but get the impression that they do, in fact, want you as a new recruit.

But these able seamen take their classes seriously, so no going through the motions on this circuit. So when the second day syndrome kicks in, you certainly feel it.

Which is all a long way of saying I wasn't feeling particularly up to this gig by the time I got home from work. But it's amazing what a few pints and the rock can do to alleviate pain.

SFA have been doing their thing, seemingly always just under the mainstream radar, since the Brit Pop days and are still putting out quality tunes. I always dig their live shows - always effortlessly and unpretentiously quirky and fun.

A taste of their more recent material below:

Update: a great review from one of Fi's mates can be seen here. Couldn't agree more.

Mon the Park

Pollok Park that is. What more can you ask for - forest, old stuff, coos. I guess others agree as it has now won Britain's Best Park 2007. Choke on that Hyde Park!

Dragonlance Trailer

Hmmm, looks a bit cheesy to me. And straight to DVD which never used to be a good thing, but I suppose that is where the money is at these days. And I know I'm going to have to see it regardless!

Broken Social Scene @ The Arches

I'm a few weeks back from a short but sweet trip to Canada where the main event was the Chaiton-Murray wedding which turned out to be a particularly brilliant party.

But one unexpected consequence of making this trip would be that I would miss two shows I would have never otherwise missed. Seems as though some of Canada's indie rock royalty decided to descend upon Glasgow over the course of only a few weeks, so I ended up missing Feist at Oran Mor (which according to the review was stunning) and my beloved Stars at King Tuts.

Luckily we managed to catch Broken Social Scene who are on the road as a relatively reduced 6-piece touring the Kevin Drew solo album (but still playing the BSS classics). Excellent as you would expect. And who was there on guitar duties? None other than Bill Priddle who was in Treble Charger back in the mid-90's. Not doubt I was the only one in the room who would have known or cared about that, but my inner 18-year old self was well impressed. A little classic TC anybody?



Easily the best night you could ever ask for on a Monday!

Chicken Run

So it's been six months since my last post. Blogging seems a bit out-of-date these days what with the rise of social networking sites (I'm looking at you Facebook) but hey. Sometimes it's nice to do more than tag photos and try to add "friends".

But where to begin? It's been a pretty eventful time since April and all, but why not focus on the here and now. For example, my commute to work this morning. I've been in my fair share of traffic jams since embarking on my daily cross-country journey, but today's jam had the most bizarre explanation thus far.

Now, I normally hate roadside gawkers, but I can safely say I was one of them today.

And I thought the last one was strange enough!