Ian Hunter - Wednesday 29th June - Student Central (ULU)

The fantastic Mr Hunter - coming around again quickly on tour - and a new venue for me at the Student Bar / Hall of the University of London. As you might expect, it was pretty cramped on the floor. What you might not expect was the outrageous £6 for a beer - they are taking advantage of the audience demographic somewhat!

Ian was in fine voice and a decent choice of setlist made for a very enjoyable evening, even if the people near us decided that the quiet ballad of "Irene Wilde" was a perfect time to have a chat. The 2 girls from the support act added pleasant backing vocals to "I Wish I Was Your Mother" and the excellent Rant Band complemented Ian as always.

A really enjoyable evening.

Setlist
That's When The Trouble Starts
Once Bitten Twice Shy 
Fatally Flawed
When I'm President
Saint
The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin' but the Truth 
Morpheus
Just Another Night
Fingers Crossed
All American Alien Boy
Irene Wilde
All the Way From Memphis
Ghosts
Roll Away the Stone
I Wish I Was Your Mother
23A, Swan Hill
Bastard
Sweet Jane 
+
Dandy
Long Time
Life / All the Young Dudes / Goodnight Irene

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin - Monday 19th June - Boom Boom Club, Sutton Utd FC

A Monday night - never the best time for a gig, but this is one of my favourite artists and kind enough to play 15 minutes from home! Therefore on a very warm summer evening it was off to an indoor gig.

Unfortunately the venue was not as packed as the band deserve, but predictably we got a hot and sweaty romp through a mixture of Dan's material from across the years. I do get what he says about "New Is Good", but feel like the older material (especially Georgia Satellites stuff with which he made his name) is relegated slightly too much into the set and I would be among the minority who see him enough to recognise the more obscure material. Certainly by the number of GS T shirts in the crowd, and the fact that it's a venue he hasn't played before, I would have thought a few more well known older songs would have been appropriate.

That said, it was nice to hear Warner E Hodges take the vocals for "Don't Pass Me By".

Dan is legendary for cutting from the set any songs that are requested from the crowd. I am considering using this to my advantage next time I see him by calling for those I don't want to hear!

Anyway, all this is being slightly picky. As is usually the case, this was a great evening of Rock N Roll in suburbia and the merchandise stall seemed to be doing good business afterwards. Come back soon Dan.

Setlist anyone please?