[boc-l] HW: Birmingham Town Hall 25.xi.2019

[Jonathan Jarrett]

 	Dear all,
 		  I was at the Birmingham gig, as threatened; I wore my 
Nethawks shirt (well, Big Mike's, but it's mine now) but didn't find any 
of us except Nick on the merch stall. Still, it was a good performance. I 
thought the mix was a little unsettled till the jame section of 'Flesh 
Fondue' and for me it really only took off with 'Born to Go', but after 
that I knew I was watching the real band all right. The new material held 
up OK, especially in its breakdown sections, but seemed hard for them to 
integrate -- you'd be freshly thrown into deep space and then the second 
guitarist (whose name I couldn't catch) would pull out the acoustic and 
competely change the mood, so that they had to gather everyone back on 
board again. It's weird how even after this long touring, Hawkwind only 
seem to plan a setlist as an organic whole about a third of the time.

         Still, no complaints from me about what was in that setlist! I'm 
sure it's been recorded elsewhere already, and I didn't write it down so I 
won't try and replicate it, but I enjoyed the 'Born to Go' (of course), 
the 'Silver Machine' and despite its repetitive lyrics, the new '65 
Million Years Ago'. The visuals left me feeling very sorry for the 
brachiosaurs, too. Visuals in general were very good; my favourites 
probably the break-dancing astronauts, but among many. I don't yet have 
the new album, and it wasn't on sale -- and I didn't even get a t-shirt 
because not enough cash, and had been expecting card sales by now... -- 
but it's on order now, I'm looking forward to it. (If anyone feels like 
picking me up a tour shirt and trusts me to refund them... or even prefund 
them, get in touch!)

 	The support band, probably best not described in detail; my 
partner thought it was a music teacher convinced he'd trained the next 
singer-songwriter sensation and determined to stay aboard. The venue could 
also have done with maybe having more than one working beer-tap in the 
main bar on a night with two rock bands playing. But the actual Hawks, on 
good form and great to see them again. I hope everyone else is having a 
good tour too! Yours all,

Jonathan

ObLP: My Dog Popper - _668: Neighbor of the Beast_
-- 
        Jonathan Jarrett, Keighley and University of Leeds
     "Says not the Wise One, `When two men cannot agree over
      the price of an onion, who shall decide what happened
     in the time of Yu?'" (Kai Lung, reported by Ernest Bramah)