Two nights at the Manchester Apollo
You don’t see a gig for ages, then you go to three in a week 
. Steph and I carried on our crazy gig-going week with two visits to the Manchester Apollo. I have to say, I prefer the Apollo to the M.E.N. Arena. It’s a smaller, more intimate experience and the decayed grandeur of an old theatre – turned gig venue gives it a great atmosphere.
The Fratellis – 19th February 2007
Band frontman Jon Fratelli seems quite modest, thanking the audience on the band’s behalf for their recent Brit Award and went on to say that they were unused to being so far away from the crowd. It’s not that long since they were playing clubs – in fact we missed a chance to see them at the Late Room before they were famous.
They were a lot of fun, projecting artwork and playing tracks from their debut album Costello Music along with some new material. Towards the end I was beginning to tire of the way that many of their tracks sound so similar, but they didn’t outstay their welcome.
They encored with a cover of Goldfrapp’s Ooh La La (which they had previously performed for Radio 1’s Live Lounge) and a message on-screen “Thank Fuck for the Fratellis”. Indeed.
Digression: I saw Goldfrapp at last year’s O2 Wireless Festival, where they were definitely one of the highlights.
The Kaiser Chiefs – 21st February
I’m not a fan of the Kaiser Chiefs. I basically went because Steph wanted to see them. When I hear them on the radio, I find their music brash and annoying. So I’m quite surprised to say that I enjoyed myself.
Those same tunes work very well in a gig – rousing, repetitive jump and clap and shout songs that got the crowd far more worked up than the Fratellis managed (the photos testify to this). Ricky Wilson knows how to work a crowd, and dived into them at one point. The security staff struggled to extract him and replace him on stage, but he kept singing all through it .
I won’t be going out to buy their Employment album, or their new album which is out soon. I do recommend seeing them live though.
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February 23rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
You lucky barsteward Katie won’t be happy you saw the Kaiser cheifs as well as the killers without us :oP The Kaiser Chiefs we’re excellent when we saw them in Leeds.
Totally agree about the venues The Manchester apollo it much better, really the M.E.N. was built primarily for sports and I think it shows.
I think the last gig I saw at the apollo was Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor is a big fan of Apple Macs by the way and their “all that could have been dvd” I think was produced on macs using final cut) it was up there with the best gigs I’ve seen and the slightly run down theatre setting of the apolo was perfect - they are playing again this Sunday but I missed out on tickets :o(
February 24th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Ooooh! The Fratellis! I bloody love that album! Jealous!!!
February 24th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
We tried for ages to get the Fratellis tickets on eBay. In the end, Steph managed to get some just a few days before (after I’d pretty much given up on it).
We paid a bit over face-value for the Fratellis, and a bit under for the Kaiser Chiefs so it worked out well.