02/05/18 Leeds First Direct Arena

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by starfucker

Well, that sounds like potentially the best three song acoustic slot ever! Faster, Can't Take My Eyes Off You and Stay Beautiful. Holy trousers! Cannot wait for the footage of this!

I'm a liiiiitle bit jealous

[starfucker]

Originally Posted by Routine Builder

You'd nearly swear they're touring generation terrorist at this point...

GN'R support on JDB's mind perhaps?

[Repoman]

Well, that was fab. If you really have to go to an arena then Leeds is the best of a bad bunch. Nicky and James in chucklesome form. Let Robeson Sing killed the set again and Tsunami really should bow out. People Give In sounding better and better every time I hear it.

[everlasting]

Great gig last night. I'm tired and have a sore throat right now from singing and shouting but the new material all sounded fantastic live, especially Heaven and People.
I'd say I was about 5/6 'rows' back from the barrier, the crowd around me and my brother seemed a little stale I thought, some people didn't sing a single word or move an inch until Design ended the set. I kept watching a small group of people just in front to my right, they were all jumping about and embracing one another and singing along, I wanted to join in. Tried jumping to a few songs for a bit but nobody else around me moved an inch so I just settled for rocking away in my own little world
James and NIcky were both in a good mood although I did catch Wire pulling some 'miserable' faces during Heaven, I kind of thought at the time maybe he was expecting the crowd to be into the song more - my brother on the drive home said he loved Heaven and said it sounded like the entire venue was singing along.... I know I was, I love that track!
I think James fell over (was bound to happen one day) but I'd taken my eyes off the stage for a split second and looked up just as he was staggering back up. People were laughing as was James, and he said at the start of the next song "That hurt!". Hopefully there's some video footage online soon as I know a couple of people were filming in front of me. I got some really good photos and recorded one decent video of the banter between James and Nicky before they broke into 4ever Delayed, will upload tonight.
Overall, 9 / 10 from me.

[mishima]

Gig was great. I enjoyed the set even though it was probably the most schizophrenic one I have ever seen them play. Some of the more peculiar choices probably would have worked better in a smaller venue rather than an arena. I thought Tolerate sounded amazing, it had a bite to it that it hasn't had for years.

Very much approve of Wire's trouser choices and do hope James hasn't any nasty bruises from that fall, he wasn't even doing his one legged spin at the time! Roll on Cardiff.

I'm off to the polling station.

[sculptureofabloke]

Decent performance from the lads again, but the main thing I took from last night was the reinforcement that they’re just not an arena band anymore. I thought from the off that the venues were on the optimistic side, I expected there to be plenty of space but I’ve never seen owt like it at a Manics gig. Turned up about 10 minutes before they were on and walked straight to barrier level with screen on left. Walked straight there, no weaving between people or owt like that, literally straight there. Never mind swinging a cat, I could’ve swung a fucking tiger, I’m not even exaggerating. I expected space but fucking hell, I spent half the gig scanning over the audience and empty spaces in shock.

Hilarious bit when James went to side for Your Love Alone solo as he likes to, looked up to see nobody, brief look of bewilderment on his face before he buggered off back to middle. I was genuinely concerned that how empty the place was would affect their performance, that Wire would throw a strop and they’d get stuck in second gear, but to their credit they didn’t let it. Nice to see Stay Beautiful acoustic again. Resistance has grown on me, like People Give In a lot more live than on record.

[Politico]

Really enjoyed last night. Thought they sounded fantastic. Hilarious when JDB took a tumble!
Think they are in a bit of a quandary with the venues. I'd say there were about 4500/5000 there last night, which is obviously about one third of the venue. Problem is the step down is the 02 Academy which is about 1500, so I suppose they haven't got much of a choice. They can hardly turn down £45 x 3000 just so it's busy! Everyone's got to get paid!

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Politico

Really enjoyed last night. Thought they sounded fantastic. Hilarious when JDB took a tumble!
Think they are in a bit of a quandary with the venues. I'd say there were about 4500/5000 there last night, which is obviously about one third of the venue. Problem is the step down is the 02 Academy which is about 1500, so I suppose they haven't got much of a choice. They can hardly turn down £45 x 3000 just so it's busy! Everyone's got to get paid!

Think it’d have made sense to do Manchester or Leeds, not both. Easy enough to get home from either side especially with the earlier finish. Wasn’t at the Manchester one but I wonder if last night’s and Manchester’s attendance combined would’ve amounted to a sell out in Manchester, I’m not sure it would!

[hummingbird]

Did James trip over his guitar lead? Aww

[JimmiB]

Enjoyed it last night. Didn't go to the front for once and just stood a little back. As arena's go, Leeds is my favourite - the sound was 100x better than Manchester. I could actually hear vocals and lead guitar. And standing, you can't be far from the stage even if you tried.

As for the gig, well I liked the varied set. Both Distant Colours and People Give In sounded huge, and I loved Forever Delayed. I know people would like to see the back of some songs, but there's no denying (from my vantage point) that You Stole The Sun and Tsunami go down well. Everything Must Go too. So I'm happy to see them stay. Masses was brilliant too.

So all in all I'm happy. Can't wait for YNot and hopefully a theatre tour later on.

[relic]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

Think it’d have made sense to do Manchester or Leeds, not both. Easy enough to get home from either side especially with the earlier finish. Wasn’t at the Manchester one but I wonder if last night’s and Manchester’s attendance combined would’ve amounted to a sell out in Manchester, I’m not sure it would!

OK if you live in Manchester or Leeds. If you're travelling in to either of them from 30 - 40 miles away then the extra miles are the difference between driving home and booking a hotel.

[Jimi A]

Thanks for yet another ace gig last night guys. Was really nice seeing you all down the front.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by relic

OK if you live in Manchester or Leeds. If you're travelling in to either of them from 30 - 40 miles away then the extra miles are the difference between driving home and booking a hotel.

Yeah, course. I was just meaning more that with em both being big cities quite close to each other I’d imagine fans from either side, in between or thereabouts would be willing to travel to either but maybe not both. Feel like these last couple of gigs I’ve been noticing less familiar faces than I’m used to seeing. Heh, that’s the thing when you’re so absorbed in a fandom, even when you don’t know people to talk to, you end up knowing of them, you see someone in Leeds and think oh I saw you in Llandudno last night. Maybe it’s just me but it does seem to be happening less, and I suspect the number of people willing to go to multiple gigs may have been on the decline too. Course some of us would be willing to do two arena gigs within 50 miles of each other and I’m picking a number purely out of thin air, but I wonder if we’re even talking 1% of the audience now.

I thought the Everything Must Go anniversary tour was sensible to drop Manchester rather than do both Manchester and Leeds, especially seeing as we had Liverpool too. Much better turnouts for that, too.

[Jimi A]

Here's a few of my photos, in case anyone wants to see.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

I really enjoyed last night and Leeds is as close to a hometown gig as I'm ever going to get (no one really plays in Wakefield and the one gig venue that showed promise has closed down already). I like this arena more than most as well, as although the room is quite wide, the standing area isn't very deep. We went to see The Killers there last year and even when you're about half way back in the crowd, you're not far from the stage. Less good for seating though, I suppose, as there's none round the sides near the stage like at traditional shaped arenas, so you're never going to be that close wherever you sit.

The crowd round me (to the left on the barrier) were in strong voice for the acoustic section; honestly, out of all the gigs I've been to on this tour so far, Leeds was the most vocal, even though the venue wasn't remotely full. I guess that says more about the crowds in general, but there were definitely people jumping about in the middle on the first few rows too. I didn't get pushed about once though; in fact, the only venue where I did was Manchester. So much room at all the other venues, it was actually nice to stretch my legs backwards whilst leaning on the barrier. I guess crowds generally are getting older at Manics gigs (I include myself in that); obviously, there'll always be some new fans coming into the fandom, but I would say there aren't as many as there was a few years ago. Usually there are new influxes of young fans who start queuing etc. but that doesn't seem to happen as much nowadays (different people have joined the groups who queue over the last few years, but I don't think most are new fans).

I agree with others about arenas though; they just don't suit them anymore. They just about got away with it for EMG20 and you could understand the decision behind that, because of how huge that album was for the band, but it made little sense for this tour. What worries me slightly though is they will have made more money on ticket sales doing this than filling smaller venues, so I really hope that doesn't influence any future tours now that live music in general is so lucrative. I would never miss a tour regardless of venues, but you do lose something in arenas compared to academy-sized places. I've enjoyed the gigs I've been to, but the gigs have definitely lacked atmosphere and tbh, even the band took a couple of gigs to get going. Newcastle they didn't seem that arsed, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt with that being the first night of the tour and they had done a lot of promo that weekend.

Anyway....tbf there was plenty of banter between James and Nicky last night; Nicky basically broke James' heart by informing him of Gibson filing for bankrupcy. James joked that Nicky was obviously lying to him, like he did when they were 5 and Nicky promised he would pick James for the football team, but never did. Nicky later said he did pick him and James was a "lying fuck" And oh god, James fell backwards over an amp at the start of Tolerate! He was walking backwards and I could see he was rapidly running out of room, but assumed he would realise that in time (he's a pro right?! It's only us mere mortals that do such things ). Then it all happened in slow motion. Luckily he was ok, so I don't feel bad laughing about it Surprised that doesn't happen more often with all his spinning on one leg though!

I do think the setlist order might not work well in getting the crowd going either. After the acoustic section, the momentum from You Love Us and Walk Me To the Bridge is kind of killed by Hold Me Like a Heaven, then the crowd generally seem to like Tsunami, but then are deflated again by Let Robeson Sing. Horses Under Starlight...I'm not really sure that fits in anywhere tbh. I feel like they have left that one in out of spite; fans moan they don't play enough b-sides, so they play probably the most random one they've ever made and leave it there for the whole tour It also seems a bit random mostly always playing There By the Grace of God and Forever Delayed; I can understand one or the other, but I was surprised they've kept both in. Acoustic Stay Beautiful is always good fun though and James was right in calling us children, because there is a weird glee in shouting "Why don't you just fuck off?" no matter how old you are.

I'll share some photos shortly; need to sort out Llandudno as well, as this has been my only free day at home all week (bliss!).