30/05/19 Liverpool Eventim Olympia
 

Walked past that place thinking it was a Bingo hall instead!!

I am expecting it will be a different sort of gig, but really happy Liverpool left later in the tour. At EMG Echo Arena there were still a few tweaks to be ironed out over the forthcoming shows.
So Manics at their most gelled on tour coming here.
If no tickets get ready to laugh but I think I can do this one than last date.

Couldn't be arsed trying for the Dublin show - it's cheaper to go to London/Liverpool/Munich/Berlin these days than travel 3 hours up the road.

As a matter of interest - is the seating option in the Eventim Olympia just general admission? I had a quick look at booking tickets for it but the Eventim website just says "Lower Balcony" on the form, no mention of a seat number.

I've no idea, but biz-fucking-milla I got a ticket! Standing (Well leaning really) and hopefully not too near the stage as everything sounds out of tune at that volume and gives me "He's not even playing it right!" feelings.

EDIT: best sister in the universe have ticket!

Tickets now my Sister finally remembered to pass them to me!
Standing Stalls.
Do know from unavailable tickets for sale it's going to be sold out.
Roll on when they reveal the merch!

Even more happy I got tix for this gig. Couple of days before the final, the city will be buzzing:cool:

selling 2 x STANDING for this will take £60 for the pair

Has anyone received their tickets for this gig yet? Still waiting for mine and starting to get a bit anxious.

I'm sure it might have been LaEX who had a similar problem resolved by tweeting and messaging the ticket company's social media pages.
Hope something gets sorted.

Gigs & Tours have been useless. A week to go and they claim they have not received the ticket stock yet, and claim they do not know when they will. Their excuse has been 'we deal with tickets for thousands of events':mad::mad:

Have you got the date you applied? This is really shit of them.

My G&T ticket was a printout - check your account online (apologies if you didn’t pick this option)

Haven't got mine yet either. Not worrying till Thursday which will be 7 days before. Usually turns up by then where you will find they were printed weeks ago

Is there any club night happening?!

What an ace venue... loved it :D

That was the best I'd ever saw them from the five times I've saw them.
Queued for ages and then found my tickets weren't for balcony so I had to join another line.
Decided to have a cig down the road first before joining this other line and thought this was really hilarious queuing for ages only to be in the wrong line. .
However my laughter about this was delayed somehow until I spoke to someone at the end of the queue.
So question of "Is this the line to the stalls?" came out as "haha Is this HaHaHa the line to the stallsHAAAHAHA" but the thing was that last laugh was my realisation the person was wearing combat fatigues, white shirt and hair and beard Gold Against The Soul and thought I was laughing at him?
They anyway sent me to the wrong line, but I still joined the right one and got print off with barcode scanner and passed.

Sorry to see Gwenno already playing by time I got in. Did find a spot leaning against a barrier and I looked behind at the table at two unhappy looking middle aged couple and mimed to them Can you see? They couldn't so moved closer to stage. I got 8 or 9 rows of standing in front of stage. Amazing the space you can get on the floor when you stand on the spot and openly talk to yourself. So it was a beautiful sway as Gwenno played.

I wanted a balcony thought I was getting seated but no matter I did it. That was the most fun I've ever had at the gig. I thought of people on feet all day in work so is going to a gig as audience a job? Have I got it the wrong way? What could then employee do if wages hadn't been in yet (but got 20p in change instead of ten by kind bar tender coke drank before headliner) and do at a gig?
I did dances need to practice. Well I say dances they were just jumping up and bouncing on heels.
During You Stole The Sun From My Heart people around me realised if they were going to hear my screamed rasping atonals during the chorus they may as well join in.
Tsunami great to jump to.
Lead guitarist frontman ultimate showman really makes the audience sing the words through glaring. I got him back.
During right after My Little Empire and direct after the line "My Royalty/It does not exist" I held two thumbs out over my head on the beat, nobody else did a thing for this line.
Expressions were able to be read and I got a split second creased then serious from him.
I did tire myself out and not deal-breaker, I had a great night and this was probably one of their greatest tours, but they played Gun's 'N' Roses (see can't even get the spelling of name right) .
La Tristesse Durea was my smoke break. Gave up a really good spot for it. Unable to return so from the stairs at the exit was blinded by the lights of their finale.

Again, glad I went hope to afford accommodation etc to travel around watching the band night after night.
Made it home before midnight as well before writing post.

Arguably one of the greatest reviews on the site.

Reads like an Allen Ginsberg poem.

A storming gig in every respect. Crowd were up for it even at the back. YLU was one of the most ferocious I have seen. Loved the venue too. Security didn't stand for any nonsense either, some one threw a pint over the crowd at one point and they were very quickly shown the exit.

Bit miffed that we missed most of Gwenno's set due to the late opening and queue faffing. On the way home today, we stopped off at Port Sunlight and spotted her in the cafe of the Lady Lever Gallery with friends/family.

Another thing about the Liverpool gig was that it was the first gig in years that I have not been bothered by people around me loudly discussing their latest Ikea acquisitions or whatever. People were actually paying attention to the band!

Thanks for liking and reading my post. I forgot another thing! His Lifeblood quip he used as a scripted spontaneous ad-lib (I've used them myself so I recognise them in plain sight!) was abandoned by me leading a six or seven second cheer once the very name of the album had been mentioned.
Nicky did shoot a look like "Yeah didn't see you on that tour!" and James line mouth of served.

I mostly enjoyed this one, although some utter drunk knob who arrived behind us from about Motorcycle Emptiness onwards kind of pulled me out of the moment. He was overly aggressive jumping and stumbling around all over the place, continuously shouting for You Love Us and Motown Junk and after La Tristesse he was shouting in my ear “That was La Tristesse!!!” as if everyone in the venue didn’t know. But the real final straw was him shouting something like “He’s dead, he’s gone!” about Richey when James was talking about using one of Richey’s old guitars. Bear in mind I was in the centre of the barrier directly in front of James and this guy was behind me and my husband. James heard him and looked less than impressed and said something about the guy getting overexcited. I mean...urgh. Why would you do that? Just fuck off. You’re not funny or clever.

The venue was nice inside, but is in the arse end of nowhere compared to the city centre, so not the most convenient to get to. The venue staff were very lax letting everyone in as well. They didn’t let standing in until after the balcony and think it was about 7:20pm by the the time we got in, so no wonder those towards the back of the standing queue missed some of Gwenno. Some of the ticket scanners weren’t working too and wristbands seemed to be an afterthought when we got inside. So not the most organised entry I’ve ever experienced.

As for the gig itself...apart from the aforementioned knob, the crowd were mostly decent. SYMM felt particularly poignant too. One thing I’ve noticed on this tour though, is that because a large chunk of Truth is quite introspective and calm, it makes everyone kick off even more in the second half of the set, particularly Motorcycle Emptiness and You Love Us. There’s been a sudden surge to the second row of boozed up blokes around this section of the set, who can’t seem to control their moshing or flailing arms. Obviously you expect some pushing and jumping around etc. and that’s fine, but it’s tipped over into being disruptive and annoying for those around them on more than one occasion. At least in a usual setlist, they can spread the crowd favourites out a bit more.

Also, sorry but Sweet Child O’ Mine is a waste of a song to me, as was Umbrella. Their second half choices are limited on this tour purely because it’s an album gig, so I would rather they had stayed away from cover versions tbh.

Edited to add, I couldn’t stop laughing at James’ story about when he and Sean were young, Sean took apart James’ keyboard to make it sound more like Kraftwerk and James asked Sean if he was able to put it back together and Sean was like “No, it’s fucked” and they had to throw it away. I think this gig was the closest I’ve ever been to Sean and I could see him pissing himself laughing and turning and nodding to the rest of the band/crew to say “It’s true” :lol: