Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 - Corn Exchange, Cambridge, UK

Having missed my out on my trip to Dublin for numerous reasons, I headed up the M11 to Cambridge courtesy of National Express to see the Rats live.  The traffic was wild in Cambridge itself, making me half an hour later than expected.  So I  got my ticket from the box office, grabbed a pint at the bar and headed down the front to catch the end of Patrik Fitzgerald's support slot.  I can't really comment on his set, but from what I saw it was one man, a guitar and a sound box busking.

Anyway to the main event.  The Rats came onto the stage to the recording of the eponymous song and video, and then launched into Eva Braun.  From there on song after song followed with the audience in my section,  pretty much centre stage at the front, lapping it up.  Even in the distant balcony, there was a lot of clapping and cheering throughout the set, however it was pretty hard to see to far back on the flat floor of the Corn Exchange but each song was enthusiastically received so I suspect there were a lot of people behind me.  Less talk than expected between songs from Geldof, and they kept all the songs pretty tight, even with the Mary variation of incorporating Boom Boom and I Wanna Be Your Man.  An absolute barnstorming performance all the way through to the sax-less Rat Trap.

I was anticipating them returning to play Never Bite The Hand That Feeds, which I have never heard live before, but when they came back from the encore and Geldof told everyone to get their fucking cameras out, I knew it wasn't going to happen.   So the Rats rounded off the show with Having My Picture Taken, Diamond Smiles with a small break before closing with the eponymous song and Geldof with a towel over his head concluding a very energetic and engaging performance.

They played.
  • Eva Braun
  • Like Clockwork
  • Neon Heart
  • She's Gonna Do You In 
  • Someone's Looking 
  • Joey's On The Street Again 
  • Banana Republic 
  • She's So Modern 
  • I Don't Like Mondays 
  • Close As You'll Ever Be 
  • When The Night Comes 
  • Mary of the Fourth Form 
  • Looking After Number One
  • Rat Trap
Encore
  • Having My Picture Taken
  • Diamond Smiles 
  • The Boomtown Rats

Support: Patrik Fitzgerald

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dunno if doing this rite , watching the rats at cambs , was memorey jerking and bloody brilliant