With some trepidation, we went to Alexandra Palace to see Razorlight. I'd heard that they are a great live band, but had never seen them before. However, Ally Pally is not exactly the best place to see a band for the first time, such is the difficulty in getting up there, the lack of atmosphere, and the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry would be there.
On arriving at the venue, we had a spare ticket to shift - in common with many gigs at Ally Pally, touts has fistfuls of tickets that they couldn't sell, so weren't looking to buy any at all. We went into the venue, and caught Jon Spencer coming on stage. He had his Blues Explosion with him, but they weren't specifically listed on the bill - something of a comedown.
Jon Spencer played a short set, but that meant it was crammed with the highlights of their material, a good set indeed. The band did struggle to fill the cavernous venue, and I felt that they weren't too interesting to the majority of the audience, but I thought they were great.
Ah, the audience. Average age about 15, and the gig was described by Noel Gallagher the following week as being "like a fookin' Youth Club". There were hundreds of teenagers there, probably the fact that it was the day before Good Friday helped that.
On stage after Jon Spencer, there was a big clock counting down to Razorlight's entrance. We waited, and about 5 minutes before the clock expired, a clown came onto the stage. Yes, a man dressed as a clown. At a rock concert. It was a complete joke, and the bloke proceeded to try to "whip the crowd up" into a pre-Razorlight frenzy. As if the band couldn't do that themselves. Eventually, they came on to more screaming than I've ever heard at a "serious" gig.
Razorlight's first few songs were good, and they sounded excellent - but the screaming and fainting all around us was too much to bear!! It seriously was like a school trip, and the first time at a gig for lots of over-excitable girls. I retired to the bar, and re-emerged into the main hall a few songs later. The place was still no better, so we left about half way through Razorlight's set, in search of something a little less like Nickelodeon.
The band sounded great, but everything else about the gig was awful!!
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