Supporting roles

God, it's tough being a support act. We were in Glasgow (at the O2 Academy, which despite being a great venue -- I guess some sort of 1930s music hall, I can't be bothered to Google it -- is stuck, at 10 mins from the city centre on what you would imagine to be prime real estate, in a creepy urban wasteland -- bizarro world).

Anyhoo... went to see The Walkmen, a New York band I've liked for a number of years. Only problem is, they were the support act, and as the support, you're always in someone else's shadow, aren't you? The stage isn't set up for you, the lights aren't set up for you, nobody in the audience could care whether you lived or died. You're crawling over someone else's drum kit just to get to the centre spot and you're tripping over someone else's cables just when you're starting to hit your groove.

Despite that the Walkmen managed to hold the filling crowd's attention better than most (except for the guy talking to his mate - or should that be, SHOUTING INTO MY RIGHT EAR - at full blast all the way through).

Having said all that, the Black Keys, who I hadn't heard of until two months ago, really blew the Walkmen out of the water. It's gotta be said. I don't think I would put the Black Keys on my hi-fi ever but that's the great thing about a show. It's the here and now of it. This White Stripes knock-off (the two guys at the back only came on for about three tracks - it was one guitar and a drumkit for most of it) really brought the roof down. Sold-out crowd were like kittens in their hands. The guitarist/singer is a serious operator with talent to spare. Great stuff.

Out into District 9 afterwards, had a pee in the open air and managed not to get arrested, like last time...