The Rats may have had a prolonged break between 1986 and 2013 but they haven’t wasted any time since they reformed.
With a full year of gigs and festivals in 2013 and another busy year in 2014 Bobs certainly getting his money's worth out of that snakeskin suit.
The venue may have only been a third full but you would have thought that it was a bunch of 17 year olds on stage looking for their first big break.
Everything that propelled The Rats into the spotlight all those years ago is still there and they put on a great gig tonight.
The energy, enthusiasm and the singers’ foul mouth were all there to be enjoyed and the majority of the crowd did just that.
The songs and the banter in-between pushed the theme that time may have moved on and we are all a little bit older but everything stays the same, and to be able to play a thirty year old song called ‘Someone Looking At You’ in an age when there are more cameras observing us every day they may have a point.
The music and lyrics of the Rats have stood the test of time and are still as relevant and vibrant as they have ever been.
It was a good night with a band and singer that still mean what they say and believe that things can still change. It's just a shame that there weren't more people there to listen.
THE return of The Boomtown Rats was so amazing I had to pinch myself.
After 27 years away, Bob Geldof himself told the Bournemouth crowd gathered on a cold, wet, windy night he didn’t think he could do it.
But he had rubbed down the fake snake-skin suit, gathered most of the original band and was good to go.
For 90 glorious minutes we experienced the full rage and anger of tracks like Someone’s Looking, I Don’t Like Mondays and Eva Braun delivered by an impassioned, slightly croaky Bob who danced and pranced across the stage waving lanky arms and legs around, looking a mere fraction of his 63 years.
Delivering the lines like poetry from underneath his long, silver, tousled hair, this was an intense and mesmerising performance that transported us back to our teens but also convinced us that the Rats are as current and fresh today as they have ever been.
The music still has a frantic immediacy and despite capturing the anarchy of the punk/new wave era, the band was ultra tight and the sound quality was excellent.
Most tracks were from the first three albums, including Like Clockwork, She’s Gonna Do You In and She’s So Modern, with one of the saddest and most disturbing songs being Diamond Smiles which in many ways mirrors the tragedy Bob |recently experienced with the death of his daughter Peaches: |he hugged himself as he sang |and its words certainly felt raw.
The entire band was smiling by the end, clearly loving being back. I predict that the Rats will be around for a good while yet.
2 comments:
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/leisure/reviews/11586930.The_Boomtown_Rats__O2_Academy/
by Allan Jones
The Rats may have had a prolonged break between 1986 and 2013 but they haven’t wasted any time since they reformed.
With a full year of gigs and festivals in 2013 and another busy year in 2014 Bobs certainly getting his money's worth out of that snakeskin suit.
The venue may have only been a third full but you would have thought that it was a bunch of 17 year olds on stage looking for their first big break.
Everything that propelled The Rats into the spotlight all those years ago is still there and they put on a great gig tonight.
The energy, enthusiasm and the singers’ foul mouth were all there to be enjoyed and the majority of the crowd did just that.
The songs and the banter in-between pushed the theme that time may have moved on and we are all a little bit older but everything stays the same, and to be able to play a thirty year old song called ‘Someone Looking At You’ in an age when there are more cameras observing us every day they may have a point.
The music and lyrics of the Rats have stood the test of time and are still as relevant and vibrant as they have ever been.
It was a good night with a band and singer that still mean what they say and believe that things can still change. It's just a shame that there weren't more people there to listen.
THE return of The Boomtown Rats was so amazing I had to pinch myself.
After 27 years away, Bob Geldof himself told the Bournemouth crowd gathered on a cold, wet, windy night he didn’t think he could do it.
But he had rubbed down the fake snake-skin suit, gathered most of the original band and was good to go.
For 90 glorious minutes we experienced the full rage and anger of tracks like Someone’s Looking, I Don’t Like Mondays and Eva Braun delivered by an impassioned, slightly croaky Bob who danced and pranced across the stage waving lanky arms and legs around, looking a mere fraction of his 63 years.
Delivering the lines like poetry from underneath his long, silver, tousled hair, this was an intense and mesmerising performance that transported us back to our teens but also convinced us that the Rats are as current and fresh today as they have ever been.
The music still has a frantic immediacy and despite capturing the anarchy of the punk/new wave era, the band was ultra tight and the sound quality was excellent.
Most tracks were from the first three albums, including Like Clockwork, She’s Gonna Do You In and She’s So Modern, with one of the saddest and most disturbing songs being Diamond Smiles which in many ways mirrors the tragedy Bob |recently experienced with the death of his daughter Peaches: |he hugged himself as he sang |and its words certainly felt raw.
The entire band was smiling by the end, clearly loving being back. I predict that the Rats will be around for a good while yet.
HILARY PORTER
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/leisure/music/11589850.LIVE_REVIEW__Boomtown_Rats__o2_Academy__Bournemouth/
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