British Sea Power / Milk and Biscuits

Last night I went to see the quintessentially British - British Sea Power at Norwich Waterfront. This was the 9th time I have seen them live with the first time being supporting Pulp 11 years ago. During this time I think they have become one of the finest live bands going, one of the greatest bands to have come from the UK in the last decade or so and also one of Britain's great underrated bands.

They started the night by doing a short 'quiet' set themselves. I saw them do this once before in 2005 at Nottingham Rock City. It was good then and it was good this time too. They even did a cover of Pavement's 'Here' which is one of my favourite songs of all time. I was pleased.



The support band then came out and they were called Milk & Biscuits from Brighton, they consist of members of other bands such as Brakes and Field Music. They reminded me a little bit of Misty's Big Adventure as they were fronted by a man who if he wasn't onstage you would assume was a bit of an idle down and out and he was flanked by two women. Musically they reminded me of Misty's too with a lot of Belle and Sebastian type twee combined with some heavier moments sounding not unlike The Fall. They were OK but 5 songs were probably enough.



British Sea Power then came back to the stage for their main 'loud' set. The set was as expected quite heavy on the excellent new album - 'Machineries of Joy' - but also included lots of debut era and 'Do You Like Rock Music' songs too. Surprisingly they pretty much ignored 'Valhalla Dancehall' though they did play 'Mongk II' near the end. The band were really on form as they always seem to be when I see them live and it was noticeably louder than any time I remember seeing them live before too. They started surprisingly with the rather punky 'Remember Me' and a totally different set sequence to previous venues on this tour. One of the mid-set highlights for me was the psychedelic 'Bear' from the 'Zeus' EP and later on the raucously delirious 'Spirit of St Louis' where brothers Yan and Hamilton held the audience spellbound with their fantastic stagecraft.

The crowd annoyed me somewhat though. I remember the early days of British Sea Power gigs when they would be pretty riotous with crowd surfing/stage diving etc, and some excellent mosh pits. These days it seems pretty tame which is fair enough, they're not really a band for the kids anymore, but when a bit of moshing broke out last night a woman next to me who looked like she read The Daily Mail and heard about "The British Sea Powers" on Radio 2 once because of that 'Waving Flags' song, started giving everyone dirty looks and telling people off. She also spent the entire gig with her fingers in her ears. There were a few others of those sorts about and they should really stick to Mika and The Feeling gigs.



During the encore there was some nice bear action (Polar and Grizzly types) including them dancing on stage and skilfully playing air guitar and drumming, then roaming through the crowd in the encore. The foliage was also nicely lit up with fairy lights however I was disappointed that there were no real onstage antics like you sometimes get with British Sea Power. All in all an excellent night.

Quiet Set:
The Land Beyond
Come Wander With Me
Here (Pavement cover)
Salty Water
What You Need the Most

Loud Set:
Remember Me
Apologies To Insect Life
K Hole
Bear
Spring Has Sprung
No Lucifer
When a Warm Wind Blows Through the Grass
Machineries of Joy
Please Stand Up
Monsters of Sunderland
A Light Above Descending
Waving Flags
The Great Skua
Mongk II
Loving Animals
Carrion
All In It

Encore:
Spirit Of St Louis
Lately

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.