The Chuckle Brothers, March 5 2011

You probably remember Chucklevision, maybe even To Me, To You - even if you don't you probably know the Chuckle Brothers. When i saw they were coming to play at my University, i joked with some friends about going. It wasn't until i was at the counter paying for tickets, i realised i was actually going to go. It still wasn't until i was sat in my seat waiting for the show to come on that it registered what i was actually watching. And i couldn't have been more excited. I grew up with the Chuckle Brothers, and never thought i'd actually be seeing them. The show was a Harry Potter rip off, the full title being "Barry Potter and his Full Blood Brother Paul in the Ghostly Shadows". I desperately wanted it to be good, but i wasn't expecting much. What i actually got was so SO much more.

Bits of the show were amazing, some bits got a bit old, and some bits were completely mind blowing. Call it a kids show if you want, literally anyone can enjoy this show. Some of the jokes could be seen coming from a mile away, others seemed completely improvised while they were going along. Most of the show was scripted, but that didn't stop them breaking away form the script, and even after playing the shows so many times, they still struggled to contain their laughter during some parts.

What i wasn't expecting from the show, was a musical. I was expecting jokes, i was expecting catch phrases, and i was expecting something to happen to the audience. All of this happened, we got blasted with water, we got rice thrown at us, we got every catch phrase we could possibly want but we also got a whole lot more.

What annoyed me about the show, though, was the magic. I'm not usually one to fall for slight of hand tricks and clever card games, but the magic tricks in the show were mind blowing. I still can't understand how they did some of them, and it's slightly annoying. Some of it, you could tell. Wands shooting out of sleeves, flowers coming out of the shirts, but a champagne bottle disappearing into a hollow tube? Mind. Blown.

While there did appear to be a little bit of filler in this show, they managed to bring it back and link it up to the story nicely for it to make sense. They also did a short bit using UV. I was so impressed with how they made it work, it was unbelievable. So easy to do, but so well executed. If you looked hard enough, you could just make out the people running around holding them, but you really had to try.

A group of 5 of us went to the show, but only 3 of us really got into the spirit of it. We joined in with the shouts, we pretended we had magic wands, and it was such a great show.

The further in the show got, the more musical it appeared. The highlight of the show, by far, for me was when they covered 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love' by The Blues Brothers. Despite Chucklevision starting in 1987, nearly 25 years ago, they still pull off the voices, still seem really excited to be there and seem to enjoy every minute of it. After the show, we wandered over to the stage door, and waited. After about 10 minutes, we see Barry leaving. We waited, and not long after, Paul came out too. We walked over, really nervous, as we'd all grown up watching these guys and loved them to bits, and were totally lost on what to say to them. I eventually plucked up the courage and asked for a photo. They were more than happy to have a photo with us, and even got one of their crew to take the photo for us. Best. Night. Ever. If they ever come near me again, i'm going. I'm definitely going.

Reel Big Fish 4th March 2011

I saw Reel Big Fish a while ago at the Junction and reviewed it already on here, so i'll keep thi one short. When i heard they were playing again, i decided i'd go. Ska music is such a happy genre, no matter how you're feeling it cheers you up. Unfortunately, due to some unforseen circumstances, i arrived late and missed the first support act. What i did manage to see, however, was a band called The Skints. I'm not sure what genre you would call them, but they're wiki page says "Reggae/Punk/Dub/Rock/Fusion". I have never seen a crowd of people more unsure of how to dance at a concert before. Turns out, they were really good. The music was such a bizarre mix, it was hard not to enjoy some part of it.

After that came Suburban Legends. They were with RBF last time i saw them, so i was really excited to see them again. Once again, they put on a very good show and the music was fantastic, but i think they were better first time around. The excitement was there, the music was brilliant, but something seemed to be missing. I'm not sure if it was because it was very near the end of a long tour and they were getting tired of doing the same routine every night, or i just remember last time being amazing. They had even started to synchronise some dances for them abdn to do whilst their instruments were not needed (which meant they were all very short dances). About halfway through the show, they threw a curveball into their set playing 'The Bed Intruder Song'.

They played several songs i'd already heard, and a lot of songs from their new album, which they claimed to have "Only printed 50 copies of". When they said this, i assumed it was a joke to get us to buy the album, i bought it anyway, but when i got home i checked it out and there is no record of the album i own. Weird. It's brilliant. By this point in the show, everyone was going kind of crazy and having a great time, unfortunately for a lot of people, a massively fat guy happened to be trying to start mosh pits throughout the whole set. I have no problem with mosh pits at shows, i do, however, have problems with a 400lb whale diving at me when i have expressed no interest in entering a mosh pit.

The great thing about music like this, is it's just so happy, that when people get into it, they REALLY get into it. They played 'high fives' to which everyone who knew the song exploded into dancing and high fiving everyone they could see. At some point, someone dressed as a tiger ran on stage and dived off into the crowd. Having missed the first support act, i couldn't tell you if he was from there, or if he was just someone they had to run out on stage at some point, but it was certainly a strange event.

After their set, we waited around and Reel Big Fish came on. Starting out with Sell Out, the whole crowd screaming, dancing, jumping around, it was crazy. Once again, whale boy barges his way into the crowd and starts ruining peoples fun by crushing them, but by this point people have just started pushing him back. Unfortunately, after a few songs, i was starting to feel a bit ill. I'd had hardly any liquid all day and eaten just before the show, which is never a good combo. Thankfully, the Junction is quite a small venue, and even right at the back you still have a really good view of the show. As i was expecting, RBF played a wonderful show, blasting out a mixture of their own songs, some covers and throwing in a little bit of crowd banter here and there.

One of the moments that really stuck out, was when they played on of their songs in different styles. They played the same bit of it as a country song, a dance song, a heavy metal song, and it was absolutely brilliant. If playing venues the size of the Junction for their 20th anniversary tour gets to the band, they don't show it. They come on stage with such joy that you'd think it was their first show. If they tour again, i'll go, and i strongly recommend everyone else do the same.

The Blanks Feb 17th 2011

If you've ever watched the show Scrubs, you're probably familiar with Ted Buckland, and his band 'The Worthless Peons'. What you may not be aware of, is that they are a real a cappella band called 'The Blanks'. When i saw they were playing so close to me, i decided i should definitely go, but had absolutely no idea what to expect. There are no instruments, i'm not really sure what the music is like and i'm not sure what to do while i'm there. Do you dance? Do you sing? I thought these questions alone were enough to allow myself the evening out.

We got there and, for the first time ever there was no barrier to the stage, we were asked to stay a foot or so back, but really we could go wherever. Almost everyone at the show was there to see 'Ted' from Scrubs, and when i young, skinny guy came out a mumbled his name, nobody really got excited. His opening was awkward, during his first song, nobody was really sure if he was a joke, and everyone was just talking amongst themselves. It was a small show, and you could hear people just laughing at him. I felt sorry for the guy, his music was like nothing i'd heard before, half of his lyrics weren't even words, just sounds, like scat singing. I'm still not sure what genre it would be, but i've never seen someone turn a crowd so fast. He was only on for about 35 minutes, and when he came on, nobody cared, people were laughing at him and i'm surprised he continued. I loved it. It was weird, it was different and to go on, alone, and play this music, the guy had some stones.

After his first song, i was clapping like a madman surrounded by people clapping because they felt they should. I was in the front row, making more noise than anyone else, i was loving every minute. Nobody else seemed to understand what was happening, this was different, there was no set genre and nobody was really sure what to make of it. After 3 songs, however, everyone in the crowd was cheering, singing along to the choruses and realised that different music can be good. Unfortunately, i still didn't know what his name actually was, and was really hoping he'd mention it again. As his time ended, he walked off and said "So i'm Gideon Conn. If i do another tour, should i book a show in Lincoln?" to which the crowd, who, not half an hour ago were mocking this weird new guy suddenly erupted in applause and cheering. It was miraculous. He left, and came back for an encore. I'd never seen a support act do an encore before, i'd never heard any crowd cheer enough to warrant one, it was almost surreal. He played a few more songs, and said he'd be selling stuff in the lobby afterwards, and by this time i'd already decided i needed to buy his CD.

At around 9 o'clock, the lights went down and on walked The Blanks. Their album, 'Riding the Wave' has been out for a while, and they played almost all of it. I'd heard this CD a while ago, and they were amazing. It was definitely a 'show' and not a 'concert'. Amongst the songs they produced comedy sketches, had a little back and forth with the audience, and were generally very entertaining.

There were a few things that surprised me about their show, though. Firstly, i know much of the audience was there because it was 'Ted from Scrubs', however i would've assumed they would want to bury that link a little bit and push the band as themselves, especially as only one of them is a regular cast member. However, they kept throwing in references, and somewhat milked it for all they could. Second, Sam Lloyd, AKA 'Ted from Scrubs' never once said "By the way guys, i'm not actually called Ted", which i definitely would've done if had a role on a TV show and then had people screaming "I love you [character name]" whenever they saw me.

The majority of their show was the music they had performed either on the show, or on their CD, which i suppose is because as their first UK tour, they probably realised people probably were only really going to hear the songs they already know. These were good, and it's wonderful to see a band playing songs with no instruments, using only their voices and their bodies.




However, in my opinion, the best part of the show by far was when they played different songs. They played a montage of songs including 'Forget/F*** you', 'Barbra Streisand', and 'Dynamite'. It's also wonderful to see a group of four middle aged men singing 'Teenage Dreams' a song by a young, good looking 20-something. After playing a series of these and some unrelated holiday songs, they decided to finish up with an a cappella rendition of 'Hey Ya' by Outkast, which was surprisingly good.

After the show, however, they were having a meet and greet with the fans. So, thankfully was the wonderful fellow from the start of the show. I don't buy many CD's, but i was so taken with this guys music that i gladly bought his CD, got it signed and thanked him for coming to us. I felt a little bad that there was such a massive queue to meet The Blanks, and he was just stood around waiting for people to buy his stuff, but people kept trickling over and he seemed to be doing alright. After queueing for a while and waiting for autographs and photos, someone came out and told us the The Blanks "would not be signing autographs this evening" as they had a very early start the next day. This caused a slight stir, until he continued with "so it's photos only today guys, sorry". I'm not sure how much longer signing a couple of pictures would take, but they sat around and had photos and a quick chat with everyone who came down and were all really friendly.