Aqualung

Last weekend (Sunday) we went to see Aqualung at Richards on Richards. It was hard going out on a Sunday evening when we usually like to relax, but worth the effort. Gigs at Richards usually tend to be good because it is a very small venue and you can easily get really close to the stage.

The support was a girl called Sara Bareilles. She rocked! Her voice was strong and perfectly pitched, and her songs had catchy melodies and wry lyrics. The audience took a while to warm up to her, but I was really into it. This was one the best supports for me in a long time. I am looking forward now to when she releases her new album.

Aqualung came on around 10ish and played for about 75 minutes. Although their songs were of course slow paced in general, they came over more in your face and loud than I had expected, which was interesting. Lots of squealing, distorted guitar! They were workmanlike to begin with (as was the audience, which wasn't the biggest crowd we've seen), but after a few songs the lead singer started talking to the audience and things warmed up a bit. He was soft-voiced and well-spoken (quite posh actually), and with a very dry wit which made me smile a few times. Their set was a fairly even split of tracks from the new album "Memory Man", and old hits which of course went down well. A lot of the new tracks were pretty good, and probably persuaded me that I should buy the new record. All in all, it was a great evening of music - Richards came up trumps again :)