Seth Lakeman
Seth Lakeman at the Manchester Academy 2 - 8th November 2008
Saturday night saw us down Th'Academy for another Seth gig, so here goes.
It was a bloody miserable night in Manchester, but we bravely took to the streets with Chilts and Jill after grabbing some food at the Eat-As-Much-As-You-Can-For-A-Tenner Chinese place in Stockport and drove to Manchester in T'Sambulance. Rain and wind were settled in as we parked up and walked round to the gig. We waited outside for Dan and Craig and went upstairs for a drink or two... I was on the Cola for the night. I managed to not buy anything, mainly due to the fact that I had everything I wanted that was on offer. We missed the support act, The Baskery, who were a trio singing country folk stuff. It sounded alright, but we were all settled, so that was OK. At this point, it all seemed not-too-busy, but that was just an optical illusion or just plain blind stupidity, as when we decided to wander in at 8.50pm (Seth kicked off at 9pm) the room was absolutely rammed. When I say "rammed", I mean "sardines" and it was hot and very sticky. We wandered in and just sort of stopped leaving me in a spot where I couldn't move a great deal, so that was a bad start.
The man himself came on stage accompanied by some "special effects" from the flashing lights, giving the impression of lightning as a backing tape made us think that it was stormy and rainy outside. They could have just opened the windows to give that impression! Then it was straight into "The Storm" and we were off. The band were tight tonight and they were playing really well. After the last Manchester gig, where the band were under the weather and not playing to full effect, Saturday was full of energy and played with a lot of gusto. Even Sean could be seen to crack a smile from the stage occasionally. There was yet another different drummer, as far as I could see, leading me to believe that Seth is trying to out-Tap the Tap with the revolving drummer stool.
As has been standard for the last year, it was a set that leaned heavily to the new album, which was fine as all the songs were welcomed with cheers and enthusiasm. They played my faves from the new album anyway, so that's me happy!
But, the gig was tainted a bit ("a bit", I say) by the fact that I was really uncomfortable where we were and felt out of it from our crowd. I was cramped up and kept getting ever-so-politely moved by some speccy twat next to me. I got so riled that I just had to go and move as I nearly had to tell him to "f*ck off" and slap him. I alerted Craig that I was off and I moved to the doors at the back. The venue seemed to have been over-sold as it was rammed right at the back and the heat was still hot back there. There were people leaving quite often and a few casualties of heat and booze were dragged out during the set. Very rock and roll.
Anyway, you couldn't fault the band's performance during the evening. They really did play it and the set flew past, ending 90 minutes later at 10.30pm with the excellent "Race to be King", which was fast and furious. Other highlights were "Solomon Browne", the cracking "Lady of the Sea" and "Kitty Jay" (both nice and fast) and "King and Country" sounding great (still no back vocals... tut tut). It was a great gig, marred by the fact that the Lakeman Band should now find a bigger room to play in Manchester, as the Academy 2 is a little small for them on a big night.
We didn't wait around at the end, due to it being cold and wet, so we set off on the journey to drop Jill and Paul home in Marple and then get Freda (who was looking after Sammo at ours) home to Brinny. An odd night all in all, but there you go. I was supposed to be back to the Academy to see Joe Bonamassa the next night, but he was feeling ill, so they postponed it... Don't know why I just wrote that, I just felt the need at the moment!
Seth's Setlist
- The Storm
- Hurlers
- King and Country
- Blood Red Sky
- Solomon Browne
- Riflemen of War
- Lady of the Sea
- Greed and Gold
- Crimson Dawn
- Haunt You
- How Much
- Take No Rogues
- Colliers
- Blood upon Copper
- Poor Mans Heaven
- Kitty Jay
- Mariners
- Send Yourself Away (Encore)
- Setting of the Sun (Encore)
- Race to be King (Encore)
Site Accessibility
© 2006 Graham T. Ebbrell