Bearded Theory - We are in you! 
We had a wander from our campsite to the woodland stage earlier and saw our first band of the day - Native James. Had no idea what to expect so saw them totally blind. Didn’t even read about them.
What a treat. 8.5/10 would watch again.
Nu Metal heads will love these. Great sound, vibe and stage presence.
Last night’s bands were Big Special and Lambrini Girls.
Big Special’s recent rise has been meteoric, we first saw them supporting John Grant in Manchester a couple of years ago. They’ve played world festivals and supported the likes of Pixies, Placebo and Sleaford Mods. A post punk duo from Birmingham UK bring the energy, join the crowd and get lots of crowd participation. Black Dog is one of my favourite songs of theirs 
Next up were Lambrini Girls performing a main stage headline show for their first time. If peppering political songs with sarcastic humour is like sticking a sparkler in a little cake then the Lambrini Girls’ show is like a whole fireworks display in the cake factory. Strange, dangerous, exciting, tearing through a laundry list of social ills. Our 4th time of seeing them.
There are some amazing bands there! I love Lambrini Girls, I wonder if they’ll ever make it over to Asia.
I hope you get to see them one day.
Yesterday we were lucky enough to see about 9 bands with 7 of them full sets.
Adult DVD - Electronic punk with indie vibes. They brought the rave and the party at 12 in the afternoon. WOW! They would have been more at home with an 11pm slot.
Westside Cowboy. My 2nd time of seeing them and I’d definitely see them again. Last time they were a support band this time a 40 minute slot at a festival, next I’ll see them on their own tour, they’re that good. 
Girl Scout. Stockholm indie rock with attitude. They were on before a highly anticipated band so we saw them to get a good vantage point. Not bad but I wouldn’t go out of the way to watch them again.
The Molotovs. I’d heard big things about this band so was eager to see what the hype was about. They’re very influenced by 80s Paul Weller bands The Jam and Style Council but with more edge, and a glampunk bassist. Possibly the most photographed band of the weekend, got on the rail and couldn’t see the band for photographers for the first 2 songs. 
Next we saw a couple of songs by a band called:
Sir Chloe. They caught our ears when passing their stage. Will check them out on Spotify, interesting garage grunge sound.
Good Health Good Wealth. We checked out these because they were on before a band we really wanted to get a good view of. We weren’t disappointed. Was getting sounds of The Streets from them. One to watch out for with a great song about kicking alcohol addiction.
Chalk. Their debut album Crystalpunk has featured heavily on our playlist since its release earlier this year. I danced and headbanged a fair bit to these. Fans of NIN, Leftfield, Health and Scaler should enjoy these.
The Damned. They came on stage and said thank you for coming, we formed in 1976 to save the world from shit music. 
They had a fairly decent set, interacted with the crowd a lot and gave us a 10 minute rendition of Elouise. A decent nostalgia trip.
Lastly
Skunk Anansie 
What a frikkin powerhouse Skin is. They played for almost 2 hours and not once did I get bored or feel like dipping out even though I was bursting for a pee. She came into the crowd to start a pit and I videoed it. Awesome performance.
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Last night I attended the For The Girls Tour! Thanks to bad planning, insane traffic and a line that was dumb long the group I went with missed the first two performing artists, Laila! and Mariah the Scientist, but was able to catch Kali Uchis from the beginning! We were quite literally the farthest away from the stage, but that also meant we were the highest!
She put on a great show from start to finish. The stage was terrifically designed, her assistant dancers were on point, and her voice was like honey! Her performances of “telepatía”, “Moonlight”, “Loner” and “After The Storm” were fantastic 
Upcoming international band gigs.
June - Sannguisugabog and Peeling Flesh
After discovering PF on YT they have been a high rotation staple. Sannguisugabog after hectic as im looking forward to this heaps.
October - Lorna Shore, Acacia Strain and Organectomy.
I wasn’t expecting this at all. Been hanging out to see Lorna Shore since I first listened to them. Dont know much Acacia Strain but ill look into them too. Organectomy face melting goodness to also home town band.
Just wanna drop the list of bands (and 1 comedian - Stewart Lee) seen at Bearded Theory Festival.
The whole festival was amazing and 1 we’ll definitely return to.
The 29+1 is a decent amount for 3 days and 1 night, and most were full sets.
Native James
Big Special
Lambrini Girls
Adult DVD
Westside Cowboy
Girl Scout
The Molotovs
Good Health Good Wealth
Chalk
Sir Chloe
Los Bitchos
The Damned
Skunk Anansie
Beans on Toast
Henge
Warmduscher
Katacombs
K.O.G Soundsystem
Stewart Lee
Heartworms
CMAT
Pixies
Lawnmower Deth
NewDad
Lynks
Scaler
Basht
One Eyed God
Garbage
Fat Dog
Photo of Joe Love from Fat Dog
Tonight we bagged ourselves tickets for this. Twickets is a godsend.
It’s sold out and the queue is stupidly long because everyone who has bought tickets arrived 2 hours before the doors open. We’ll probably miss the support which is a bit disappoint. I reckon she could have sold out this venue thrice over.
Her influences are NIN and she is from California.
Welcome to Manchester Sofia Isella
Sofia Isella was great last night. The crowd was made up of predominantly young women from the alt rock scene, who did A LOT of screaming. She doesn’t use a band yet but sings over her own recorded production, she occasionally plays a guitar but only minimally. She wears clothing to avert the gaze of men and usually covers her visible parts - hands, arms and face with dark makeup to appear dirty. Judging by the crowd and general behaviour last night she’s the hottest ticket in town. For what she does I’d give her performance 4 stars out of 5, it’s packed with emotion and talent but for me it needs a band behind her to take it to the next level. I’m sure she’ll resolve that when her audience grows. When she crowd surfed during the encore I was the envy of about 2,000 people, because she held my hand for around 30 seconds This was my 2nd time of seeing her after seeing her at Leeds festival last year.
Seb Lowe was the support and though I thought I’d miss his performance because of queues I managed to get a good vantage point 2 minutes before he came on. He’s an acoustic guitar player from Greater Manchester, he has quite a few political songs in his set. He mostly plays them in a style of Ed Sheeran’s - You need me, I don’t need you. And he’s added a violinist to his show since I last saw him about a year ago at Neighborhood Weekender Festival in Warrington. He’s playing the same venue in November as the headline and I’m tempted to go.
All i can say is fuck that was brutal!
Peeling Flesh tore the damn roof off the place! Watched so many stage divers barely miss the ceiling! Hella hectic show! Ended up running into a couple of the band members early morning.
And now for the bad I missed Sanguisugabog
My anxiety just got way to bad! Which sucks but im stoked I saw PF live. Didn’t do merch either the line was hectic long.
Good times where had hecticly tired still have 3 1/2 hours before I fly home. Looking forward to my own bed.
Seen skunk anansie live several times, will always prioritise their gig over most others. She’s incredible.
They played here a couple weeks back and I was supposed to go with my son but ended up babysitting his son and he took his mate instead. Kinda spewing but hate Sunday night gigs
Yeah this was a sunday night gig too.
Missed a good show, kinda kicking myself now for not just staying on. It is what it is.
Lorna Shore in October!
Last night I got to see Echo and the Bunnymen for the first time as they supported My Chemical Romance at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium.
The crowd were a bit flat as everyone was there for the main attraction, so I’d like to catch them at their own show one time. Killing Moon was the highlight.
My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade 20 year anniversary world tour. Anfield Stadium, Liverpool.
We paid a premium to be in the front standing area but it was sooo worth it.
I dragged out and dusted off my inner emo for this show. I wish I’d worn black instead of tie dye but then I would just have blended in with 90% of the crowd. Most of the crowd would have been a glint in the eyes of their parents when this album was released haha.
They used 2 stages for the whole 2 hour show. Main stage was used for the entirety of the album and the B stage which was more central for people in the cheap seats was used for the 2nd part of the show. We had a great vantage point for all of it. 
The main show had sooo much pyro. I imagine the conversation went something like “How much pyro would you like Gerard?” Gerard “YES!” Literally everything was on fire at some point and made me worry if it was MEANT to be on fire. The only comparable pyro I’ve ever seen at a show was for Rammstein. There were lots of theatrics for the first part of the show too. They nailed it!
We went into a moshpit for 2nd part of the show, just for a minute or so, it wasn’t a brutal pit, just friendly and pushy. I got a few good pics and a couple of short clips for keepsake. Overall a great solid show - 9/10 
Anyone seeing one of the 3 shows at Wembley next weekend are in for a treat.
Yesterday I saw The Big Moon for the 3rd time. They’re a great first course on a 4 band bill. Indie psych rock, a bit like HAIM with an edge.
Next up came Pale Waves, the 5th time for me and 3rd in the past year. I love their cover of Zombie and Jealousy is an absolute pop-rock banger.
Next were Skunk Anansie. 2nd time in the last 6 weeks. Bloody hell, the more I watch Skin and the more I love her. It left me kinda worried they’d be a hard act to follow and if I’d enjoy Alanis as much as SA.
I needn’t have worried. Alanis was a flawless queen. I don’t need to do anymore gigs ever again because I’ve just witnessed the best one ever. 11/10
Absolutely incredible. Jagged Little Pill is in my top 10 most listened to albums of all time and probably in the top 10 favourites too, and to see and hear those songs performed with perfection that I’ve been listening to for over 30 years was spellbinding. She’s actually better live than recorded. I can not believe I’ve waited so long to see her. Utterly spine tingling.
Sober gigging is soooo frikkin awesome 
So much so that I’ve just been unadulteratedly YOLO and bagged tickets for The Pet Shop Boys and Scissor Sisters tomorrow 
Happy for you that you’ve seen all this live music and that you’re happy seeing it sober! You @RaggedTrouseredPhil and everyone else on this thread! There’s a great sober world out there. Nobody ever really realizes how great it is till they start experiencing it for themselves.
Thank you so much
Music has always been a big part of my life. There’s a huge drinking culture within it, though. Drugs too. I’m super grateful to have been able to disassociate them, because giving up live music was non negotiable.
