lördag 29 Mar 2008, 13:20

Fri 28 Mar – British Sea Power

I had a great time at this show as the lads from Brighton (by way of Cumbria and greater Manchester) performed the entirety of "Do You Like Rock Music?" as well as material from their prior releases at Louisville's Phoenix Hill Tavern in front of around 300 locals. The main room at Phoenix Hill Tavern is arranged with the stage facing the side of the long hall–it's intimate to say the least. BSP opened their set with Atom, and before long had played all the singles from DYLRM? (Waving Flags, Canvey Island). An interesting choice I felt as those are the tunes I expected them to play later in the show. Perhaps my favorite song was the instrumental, The Great Skua. Other highlights were Spirit of St. Louis (you could tell they were excited as the next night's gig was to be at St. Louis), No Lucifer, Lights Out for Darker Skies.

BSP, in short, are phenomenal in person. Despite the snarly staff at PHT –which hasn't changed in 30 years. I actually got to meet guitarist Noble at the end of the show by the merchandise table and enjoyed a brief chat with him and another fan named Pat who had traveled from Indianapolis to be part of the Third Batallion. I learned from Noble that the skua is a big nasty bird. I also learnt something about Scapa Flow (mentioned in Carrion) from him and I find that the more I delve into BSP lyrics the more satisfied I am that these guys are special. I only wish I'd read more of their blog and site and about them in advance of my brief and unforeseen opportunity to converse about birds, I might've mentioned our Falls of the Ohio being a tertiary and contemporary migratory crossroads for birdlife (in lieu of Thunder over Louisville) and this being where Audubon did much of his best work (albeit some of it butchery).