Monster Magnet at Southampton University

I went to see Monster Magnet at the Southampton University Student Union on Monday night. I didn't have high expectations because I only know them from one song released 12 years ago, but my husband was quite excited about seeing them and I figured I owed him after the Goo Goo Dolls.

The venue was essentially a big hall with a table off to one side selling band tees, and a "bar" selling room temperature cans of Fosters, Blackthorn cider and Coca Cola or bottles of Smirnoff Ice poured into a plasic cup...classy! It wasn't even that cheap at £3 per alcoholic drink and £0.80 for the coke. However there wasn't much separating you from the bands, the crowd wasn't that densely packed, you could move about freely and see the stage easily; it was probably one of best gigs I've been to for actually appreciating the music.

The opening act was a band called Seventh Void who seemed determined to make up for a lack of good songs or lyrics with volume. This tactic is used by many of the metal bands I've seen live, and I still don't see how it works in their favour to deafen their fans. (The amateur AV nerds running the sound system could have been at least partially to blame though.) I'd never heard of the band before and they weren't even billed on any of the promotional material for the concert, but after reading about them on Wikipedia I found out that two of the band's members were from Type O Negative, so it's surprising they didn't suck even more.

So as for the headliners, their songs did at least sound different from each other, and I could make out some of the words, but there was nothing that memorable except for the last song of the night, "Space Lord" which had a surprising number of the crowd singing along...clearly the only reason we were all there! The lead singer had an annoying habit of turning his back on the crowd and facing the drummer towards the end of each song, and there wasn't a whole lot of chemistry on stage. However, the band did have the most impressive collection of effects pedals I've ever seen, the sound check was probably one of the highlights of the night, watching them test each one individually.

Rating: 4 out of 10, entertaining enough for a Monday evening, but wouldn't pay to see them again.

Seventh Void - I want the Vaya Con Satan tee!

Check out the lead singer's pose - the wink and the gun x 2!

Oh how the mighty have fallen (OK they were never that mighty but he's sure hit rock bottom!)

Check out the rock angst!

The Goo Goo Dolls at the Brixton Academy

I saw The Goo Goo Dolls at the O2 Academy Brixton on Saturday night. I wasn't sure what sort of crowd to expect because none of the people I talked to before the show had heard of them. But the venue was sold out and there was literally a queue round the block to get in! This was the first event I'd been to at the Brixton Academy, and I'd definitely go back since it had plenty of bars and it was small enough that you could actually see the band from anywhere inside. The surrounding area looked fine regardless of what I'd been told about it beforehand too.

The band is currently on tour in the UK to support their latest album, "Something for the Rest of Us". I got the album a couple of months ago in preparation, and to be honest I wasn't that impressed. Each album they make is increasingly bland and they've almost completely lost touch with their alternative rock roots much like U2, Bon Jovi and Coldplay before them. There are some great songs on the album and I'm sure they'll make a killing selling them to TV shows like Grey's Anatomy to provide the soundtrack to heart-wrenching break ups. However it's never a good sign when the token songs they let the bassist Robby Takac take lead on are a welcome respite from the monotony of commercial love songs.

Despite all that I actually enjoyed the concert and I probably appreciate the album more after having heard it live. They are one of the few bands I've seen who sound just as good, if not better live. And the live performance added a rawness and volume which provided a much needed kick to their latest songs. They also acknowledged their past successes by covering most of their greatest hits including "Slide", "Black Balloon", "Dizzy", "Broadway", "Name", "Here Is Gone" (my personal favourite), "Better Days" (Merry Xmas everyone!), "Stay With You", "Let Love In" and of course "Iris", which according to lead singer Johnny Rzeznik, "they have to play." (Although he left it to the crowd to sing most of the words and had to pause at one point because the cheering was too loud for him to sing over!) I would have liked to have heard "Sympathy", "Naked", and "Long Way Down" too, but I'm not complaining because I expected the setlist to be much more weighted in favour of the new material.

Rating: 6 out of 10, enjoyed myself but wouldn't bother seeing them again unless they release some new material as good as the 90s stuff.

Johnny Rzeznik and Robby Takac (and random backing musicians)

"Black Balloon" with actual black balloons!

Robby Takac was over-excited throughout the performance.  Most of the time he seemed like a crazed fan who'd jumped on stage and was milking it for all it was worth before security tackled him!