A nice game of "work out the England Under 21's team" was accompanied by a few drinks and then, donner kebab later, we headed to the venue, where we'd just missed the support act. Ah well.
Anyways, it was good that Carlos Puyol could take time out from stifling Spanish forwards to kick off his UK tour in the less than palatial surroundings of Manchester Academy 2. I know I bang on about how crap this venue is, but I don't like it.
BEN KWELLER..................CARLOS PUYOL.............
Anyways, on with the show. And a very good show it was too. He rattled through a nice mix of old and new songs which kept the crowd entertained throughout. Kweller was like a whirling dervish on the stage, switching between guitars, and getting down and dirty on the electric piano.
The highlights for me were Penny On The Train Track, This Is War and The Rules, with a wonderful solo version of Thirteen tossed in for good measure. Kweller certainly was on top form and seemed to be having a great time and it was a great time that was shared by all.
My only complaint would be that his band, and thus some of the tunes, were a little too workmanlike. This isn't to say that they weren't good, just that on occasion the vibrancy and edginess of some of his songs from the record was lost. At times it could almost have been any of the recent singer-songwriters up there such was the slight middle of the road twinge given off.
Still, this was only a minor complaint and certainly didn't spoil the evening in any way. If you get the chance to check out Kweller on his current UK tour, you are in for a treat indeed.
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