You jammy sods!

Gig absolutely bombed.Genuinely spent most of it cringing at the lack of atmosphere and general stagnancy.It was just...sad.Nicky begging people to ‘pretend it’s 1992 and we’re in King Tuts’.James doing sleepflower acoustic and trying to get the half full arena crowd to do the chorus alone and there was just...nobody really singing it.The most singularly soul crushing moment of my Manics career.Sums up the gig.When even ADFL doesn’t feel euphoric it’s devastating.

Sadly I have to agree with the previous post. That was a dull insipid performance. Not helped by 1/4 full massive venue. Why not play a smaller venue, that way you can try and create an atmosphere?? It is pretty embarrasing when James misses lines hoping the crowd will fill in for him. It did not work tonight.

Set list was pretty poor in my opinion. There was no decent banter or interaction from James and Nicky. They were very much going through the motions. Merchandise was extortionate.

I recently read a newspaper interview with the Manics and I couldn't stop thinking that they now vote Conservative. Tonight was a very Tory performance.

That's a shame! The Holy Bible gig in the Barrowlands was bloody immense. Might put it as my number two. Let's hope for a winter club tour!

Erm What?

I'll second this and add a...what the fuck?!
It's all very well not enjoying a performance but it's another thing to go saying batshit crazy things like this.
Also - citation needed. What interview?

Yeah.

The big disappointment I had with the gig was in how little James contributed. I remember seeing the Manics for the first time and, in between frantically jumping around, being absolutely amazed with how this one guy could fill the room almost single-handedly with his lead, rhythm, and incredible voice. His guitar playing was incredible - so complex, detailed, and crisp and full-sounding.

Tonight though, James barely touched his guitar, and either resorted to falsettoing on or skipping the more difficult lines altogether. It was brilliant when he hit that high note at the end of the Motorcycle Emptiness middle-8 in full voice, but that was the only vocal he did all night that was really impressive. In terms of the guitar, it was just sad to see Murray taking over lead duties on songs like No Surface All Feeling, and relegate James to something of a second guitarist in his own band, only to be wheeled out for the occasional backing chord and solo.

And, christ. All the backing tracks. If you can't play it live, maybe just play something else instead, and I'll put the CD on myself when I get home.

And Horses Under Starlight. Fair enough, play an instrumental track. But, if they must play an instrumental track, why not one which showcases how far they've come as musicians, or, at the very least, one which is actually good? That slot in the setlist could've gone to The Vorticists, You Know It's Going To Hurt, Dreaming A City, Manorbier, etc, but instead, they went for the blandest instrumental they've ever done. All it did was kill the (already weak) atmosphere. Blarg.

I appreciate that the Manics are getting older and it's getting harder for them to put on an intense show, but maybe the way around that is to split the performance up into two sections (like they did for the EMG and THB shows), or to use the traditional trick of doing encores. Better that than half-arse it for the whole show.

Maybe phasers is thinking of the Guardian article with the misleading headline criticising Corbyn? Nicky would never vote Tory but I believe he has an immense distrust of Corbyn and McDonnell.

Dear lord,the backing tracks for HMLAH and People Give In were cranked up so loud I had to leave my spot to stop my ears bleeding.Clearly cranked up to make them sound like the arena anthems they were written to be but the point is the *audience* should have been singing the ‘woahs’. Horses Under Starlight was a car crash.

Can anyone explain what was going on with Wayne Murray a)being louder than James b)doing unnecessary backing vocals c)in general on Dylan and Caitlin?I thought he was miming to the Anchoress’ voice at first but I actually have no idea.

I was at Newcastle, definitely going to avoid arenas in the future. Even most of the people right near the front had lots of personal space. And not that many people seemed to even recognise all the songs.

Oh, and also I still have tinnitus, bit worried the shite sound system at the arena has done permanent damage :/

I did notice James using a throat spray several times, I wonder if he's not feeling 100% for this tour?

Thanks for the reviews guys. It's quite sad to hear forum stalwarts having these experiences! Glasgow is normally a good place for them as well. Without being critical of the band, it is just an age thing? Or is it bad booking and going for arenas? Bit of a bummer all around.

Earplugs are your friend. I haven’t done a gig without earplugs (apart from once when I forgot them and boy, did I regret that) since the PPF tour in 2005 when I had ringing ears for 3 days after the Leeds gig. I don’t know how so many people don’t wear them tbh; I find it too painful without them now.

My ears are still ringing from the PPF tour.

Shame to read some negative reviews here about the gigs and serious lack of atmsphere, it seems the venues are too big sadly to sell out for our boys now :( I guess the new songs aren't connecting much at all with the crowds who half of which probably didn't buy the album yet? I've watched some more videos on Youtube and James has handed more guitar duties to Wayne Murray which is pretty baffling.

Roughly how many where there last night? Looked pretty full from photos although I’m aware it wasn’t the full arena set up.