Foo Fighters at T On The Fringe, 21 August 2007

I'm a bit of a Foo Fighters fan - not as much as I am a fan of REM, but I count myself as someone who will try to get to see them in concert if they're in Central Scotland. Well, last Tuesday saw Foo Fighters performing at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh as part of T On The Fringe - the major gig off-shoot of the Edinburgh Fringe. I travelled through to Edinburgh with my sister Mhairi, who was attending her first Foo Fighters gig, and my friends Kate and Ray. Kate had a ticket for the gig while Ray was going to go walkabout around Edinburgh catching some of the stuff at the Fringe.

Mhairi and I

Kate and I

Our first port of call was the High Street where everyday sees a large number of Street Performers and Buskers performing shows for anybody and everybody. I managed to get really lucky and see Gazzo - one of the best Street Magicians in the world - performing his show from start to finish. The great thing for me was watching Kate and Ray's reactions at the end of Gazzo's Cups and Balls routine. Great stuff and if he's ever in a town near you, try and catch his show.

Mhairi and Kate

We went to the gig in plenty time to see the opening act - Silversun Pickups. I had seen them previously on Later with Jools Holland and liked them there. Well, I liked them here, too and hope to try and find the time to go buy their album in the next day or 3. Next up was Nine Inch Nails - not my cup of tea, to be honest.

Silversun Pickups

One little annoyance about the day was the rain. It wasn't heavy, but it was there. Ach well - one of those wee things.

Kate and Mhairi keeping dry

Mhairi models her Edinburgh Fringe poncho

No, I'm not train spotting!

Kate doing her best to keep dry

As for Foo Fighters themselves, what a gig! Dave Grohl walked onstage alone and played a solo version of Everlong that ended with the whole band on stage for the finish and went into a rocking version of Monkey Wrench - my personal all-time favourite FF song. Suffice to say, my throat was somewhat sore after the first 2 songs! The new single - The Pretender - sounds amazing (can't wait for the album - out on 10 September) and they even repeated their cover of The Arcade Fire's "Keep The Car Running" that they had performed for Radio 1 the previous week.

Dave Grohl opens the show with a solo version of Everlong

For those that are interested, here's the setlist:-

Everlong
Monkey Wrench
Breakout
My Hero
Times Like These
Up In Arms
Learn To Fly
The One
Stacked Actors
DOA
Generator
This Is A Call
Best Of You

Encore
The Pretender
Keep The Car Running (The Arcade Fire cover)
All My Life

A great gig and I look forward to seeing them again.

Speak soon

The Cardman :-)

A Day At The Edinburgh Fringe

Those of you who have read my blog for some time will know that I try to get through to Edinburgh for the Fringe at least once during August. This year's trip was in the company of Kelsey who was staying with my Aunt Moira during her visit over from Utah. I thought she'd maybe like to see what the Fringe was all about, get to see some of the Street Performers and some parts of Edinburgh itself. Sadly, it didn't work out that well as it rained from our arrival just before lunchtime until around 6pm.

When we arrived on the mile, there were no buskers to be seen anywhere, which was a real pity. So, we made our way to the various places we had to go to so we could collect the tickets we had ordered for the shows we were going to see. The first one, to be honest, I thought Kelsey would not understand - mostly because it was about 3 of the shows that I watched as a very small child - Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley. The show was entitled "Trumptonshire Tales" and was hosted by Phill Jupitus along with Brian Cant - the voice of the 3 shows and a major part of my early childhood as he was also a presenter on Play School and Playaway. Luckily, Kelsey enjoyed it - but nowhere near as much as I did. The characters, the shows, the songs. Everything. Heck, Brian Cant even lead us in a singalong! An ambition from when I was a child finally fulfilled - in my early-30s!!! I want to do it all again!

After the show, we waited outside just in case I had the opportunity of a photo and an autograph or 2. Well, I was really, really lucky - I got to meet both Phill Jupitus, officially one of the nicest people in all of entertainment, and Brian Cant, which was a real bonus as, apparently, he wasn't feeling too well that day. Gentlemen both and they were both willing to spend some time answering questions, do autographs and have some pictures taken - even if it was raining! Thank you both.

Me meeting Phill Jupitus

I got to meet Brian Cant!!!

After Trumpton, it was time to go and see Gamarjobat from Japan. A mix of mime and physical comedy, I had seen clips of these guys on YouTube and was really impressed with what they did. The show - during which not a single word is spoken - was entitled "Rock 'N' Roll Penguin" and that's what the first half was about - the 2 of them being dressed up as over-sized penguins in a rock band (and these guys can play!). It doesn't sound much, but there was too much in this part of the show for me to remember. Really really funny. The second half saw them come out in their suits and my personal highlight came at the very end this part. Remember the old gag of walking behind a low wall as if there was a flight of stairs behind it? Well, these guys have taken that to a whole new level. I have seen people doing this gag as if there was an escalator behind the wall/screen, but this was on a whole different level. Brilliant! If you ever get the chance to see these guys live - GO!

Meeting Gamajorbat after their show

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)