Enough of that though. Continuing on from yesterday’s list of albums that I listened to most last year, I thought it’d be interesting to try and get a list of the artists I saw live. This’ll be partly from memory and partly from Google Calendar entries. Numbers represent multiple gigs. And so…

• Dave Hause (2)
• Franz Nicolay (3)
• The Streets
• The Queers
• Dee Cracks
• Murderburgers (3?)
• Gogol Bordello
• Laura Cantrell
• Drive-By Truckers
• Frank Turner (2)
• Iron Chic
• Low
• Abigail Washburn
• Andrew Jackson Jihad
• Dananananaykroyd
• Yo La Tengo
• Bad Religion
• Cheap Girls
• Lemuria
• Flogging Molly
• Revival Tour (Dave Hause, Brian Fallon, Chuck Ragan & Dan Andriano)
• The Cat Empire
• Cake
• Lau
• Chris TT

Flogging Molly simply blew me away. Turns out they have one of the best live shows I’ve seen, if only because of the crowd. I have never heard singing quite so loud at a show. During one track, Drunken Lullabies I think, they drowned out the band. Part of me wanted to head downstairs and jump in the pit, but I’m happy keeping out of it these days.

The Cat Empire, Frank Turner, Drive-By Truckers and Lau all put on their reliably great shows. They’re all acts that I don’t think twice about before buying a ticket.

Seeing The Streets on their final tour was an eye-opener. For that one I was down in the pit because, to be honest, I hadn’t figured there would be one. However, Mike Skinner can really get the crowd going and we danced and danced for a couple of hours. Bruises and smiles.

The year was pretty muck book-ended by Franz Nicolay. In January I saw him play with Dave Hause and The Murderburgers at the City Cafe in Edinburgh. He then supported Frank Turner in May and played in Dunfermline again in November. The November gig was a bit strange as it was completely dead. I’m not sure if there were even half a dozen paying punters there. However, he and Chris TT are professionals and still put on a great show.

Low was great as it meant I got to bump into a friend before he left for Australia. Cake was great, apart from them rushing through The Big Single which ruined the encore. I really hope that Abigail Washburn and Kai come back again this year.

Ah, The Queers. I’ve been wanting to see them nearly a decade and finally, finally, I would. It was an all-day punkfest through in Glasgow with six or seven bands and The Queers on last. By the time Joe and co. took to the stage, a lot of the crowd were drunk and rowdy. The venue had a really low ceiling and people were bouncing off it and hanging onto fixtures. Then one of them held on a little too long and rigging started coming away. Naturally, the gig stopped as we held the offending bits of roof aloft until it could be fixed. The Queers came back on, we were warned that there would be no more crowd surfing tolerated, and five minutes later it was all over when someone went flying.

All in all, it seemed appropriate. I got to see them play a dozen songs or so, the other bands were good, and I left swiftly before the cops turned up.

So while I’ll be doing a lot more running in June than I did in May, I’ll also be doing a lot less gig-going. May was a bit mad for that as bands I like decided to all descend on Scotland in the same month.

Laura Cantrell

I’ve seen Laura play many times and it’s always enjoyable, but I suspect I’ll give her a pass next time. The best gig I saw her play was in Subway Cowgate where we were crammed in, standing on the benches round the walls and the atmosphere was thick. Sadly, that’s not been the case with the last few I’ve seen. It’s probably just a product of the fact that she draws a crowd of a certain age who aren’t too keen on whooping and hollering, preferring to sit quietly and applaud politely.

Drive-By Truckers

What I would term a “blank cheque band” as I would hand over a blank cheque to see them play. I’ve been following the band since ’04 (I think) and they were the first band I bought ear plugs before going to see. I was very glad of them in King Tut’s that night and I’ve been using them and singing along to the Truckers ever since.

It was a slightly odd gig as the support act had had to go home due to a death in the family. I can only assume that that’s why they opened with Putting People On The Moon and the set also included Cooley singing When The Pin Hits The Shell.

Frank Turner

I’m a late comer to FTHC so I figured I probably wouldn’t get to see the intimate shows of old, but he’s a veteran tourer and still plays small pubs. Even in Dunfermline. Unsurprisingly it was utterly brilliant and I was slightly hoarse the next day from singing along.

Iron Chic

Another fantastic TIOB show. Great band, lots of fun, and I couldn’t see a thing. We were so packed into the 13th Note that I was a few rows back and couldn’t tell you how many people are in the band (I now know it’s five). Picking up their debut full length is highly recommended.

Low

Ach, it was alright, but the highlight was bumping into a friend I haven’t seen in years and who’s leaving the country in a few weeks. We chatted so much we got told to be quiet. Which is fair enough.

Abigail Washburn

A recommendation from Kas and yet another good one. The man has good taste. It was quite a journey to the gig as it was the Sunday after Sandy’s stag do. Drove from Newtonmore to Edinburgh to drop off JT, then back home, napped on the sofa for a few hours then back into Edinburgh in the evening. This woman is just wonderful and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing her play on a regular basis.

Andrew Jackson Jihad

The Jihad! 13th Note, singing along, having a ball.

Oh, and these things are awesome.

I initially found it a bit terrifying that this was a ten year anniversary tour for Wheatus’s first album. Surely it can’t be that long since I was in second year of university? Apparently so. The curse of one hit wonder groups is that people will turn up to their gigs for that one song. They have a following but only for a singalong for a top ten song from the audience’s youth. Thankfully, Wheatus seem to have avoided that to a great extent.

They’re definitely a band without pretensions. At the tail end of MC Frontalot’s opening set they came on to help him with a few songs. After that was done, they simple stayed on to do their own set. No walk-off, no being fashionably late, just get on with it. Straight into banter, straight into having the crowd on their feet and jumping. From the first verse of Hump ‘em, Dump ‘em we sang like it was our last concert ever. And by “we”, I mean just about everyone.

And that’s what I was referring to when I wrote that they’ve avoided the curse of the hit single. Their other albums after the first didn’t perform well at all, but the people who turn up to the gigs know them as well as the first. Just as the last time, it was an all request show so we shouted, chanted and cheered for our favourite songs. No-one, not a soul, shouted for Teenage Dirtbag. Fair enough, we all know it’s coming, but not even those who were blind drunk destroyed the illusion.

When it did arrive as the last song of the set we belted it out like it was a decade ago and we were at the union with cheap, watered down lager, sticky floors and pool tables that weren’t level.

While looking for this video, I came across a version done by Girls Aloud. Somehow (gee, I wonder how), hearing the song being sung by a group of not unattractive women doesn’t quite have the same meaning of the nerdy original.

On Friday I nipped through to Glasgow to watch Yo La Tengo at the ABC. I own about half a dozen YLT albums but I’ve never managed to get into them all that much. It’s great background music but if you asked me to him a tune I wouldn’t be able to. I’m still not sure I could do that, but after seeing them live I have a much better appreciation for what they’re about.

Beautifully crisp, clear bass riffs came booming out of the stage and were the backbone of some stunning guitar wailing. Really epic music that leapt between styles all night. We got some feedback heavy rock ‘n’ roll, doo-wop, straight up jazz, slowcore and some amazing crescendos.

I bumped into Calum of Meursault (and ex-HMV pal) at that gig and found out that they were having a single launch party at the Bowery on Saturday night. I haven’t seen the guys play in about a year and they sound very different. Much, much tighter with some astonishing drumming from Fraser. They were supported by Neil’s other band, Withered Hand, who were incredible. Given the folk-punk kick I’m on at the moment they really did it for me. Must pick up the album. The third band on the line-up was Jesus H Lizard whom I’d never heard of before but, again, a really great sound came from the front. I couldn’ t see anything so just closed my eyes and marvelled at the harmonies.

Sunday was always going to be special. Sunday was JoCo day number one! I laughed so hard, I arrred! like a pirate and I mumbled my zombie chorus. Brilliant! And I’m off to see him again tomorrow. Huge success!

As seems to be the way, I’d arranged to something else on the second day of the seminar and this time my intention was to either get out on the bike or do some decent running. There was also the small matter of going to see Dananananaykroyd in the evening. During downtime on Saturday we were chatting about what I could do today and I decided it would be on foot and it would be some off-road running.

Not wanting to go too far, I opted to head for the Lomonds and take in both West and East summits. Unfortunately, the weather had something against that and it was blowing a gale while lashing down for a couple of hours after I got up. However, I decided that shouldn’t stop me so I set off anyway.

Sad to say, I only managed the first summit. As I crested West Lomond the wind really picked up and I didn’t even pause at the trig point. Once over the summit I tried to contour round to see if East was a possibility. The driving wind and rain coupled with 20 metre visibility turned me back.

Lunch at the Pillars of Hercules was lovely as always. Since there were no seats inside I sat under the porch, wrapped in a fetching red blanket.

I decided to skip the gig. I was feeling quite tired and really didn’t fancy driving into the centre of Glasgow, making my way out to Oran Mor, watching a double support act gig and then driving back across. Starting the week on precious little sleep isn’t the best way to go about things.

Ah well, I’m sure I’ll see them at some point in the futre.