Going live

I'll reflect on the three concerts I went to this summer - Springsteen at Hyde Park, Blur at Wembley, The Strokes at All Points East.

I paid near enough to £100 for each of them. I'd say they were all worth it, in as much as the feeling you occasionally get from live music is precious and priceless, and I experienced one or more of those moments on each of those days.

The acts I saw:

Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, The Chicks, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Steve Davis (DJ), The Selecter, Paul Weller, Blur

The Lazy Eyes, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Be Your Own Pet, The Walkmen, Angel Olsen, Amyl and the Sniffers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes.

Frank Turner, an artist who I'm not a big fan of and have not enjoyed live before, I really enjoyed this time. His bonhomie and enthusiasm carried the day. During The Chicks set I was stressing about phone reception and meeting my friend so they seemed good but I'm afraid they didn't get my full attention.

Springsteen and the E Street Band are one of the major musical forces in history and they didn't disappoint. It is a thing to marvel at - men in their 70s going full whack for 3 hours. Despite it being a finely honed machine, it still feels raw and reel. Real sounds, real sweat, real emotions.

He played Badlands then Thunder Road then Born in the USA then Born to Run. You just couldn't top it. Singing every word of Thunder Road at the top of my lungs, unembarrassed, 1000s of people doing the same. Pure joy.

Blur were only three days later, a tough act to follow. I was conscious that this was the second show they booked, that the hardest of hardcore Blur fans would have booked for the first one, the day before. I knew Wembley on Day 2 wasn't 100% full, and I could see it, I knew that the first time I saw Blur, in 2009, was untoppable, and I was setting myself up to be a tiny bit disappointed.

The Selecter were good, got a decent number of people dancing. Weller, the British Springsteen, if you will, was good, almost great - he played everything you'd hope but then finished with Start and Peacock Suit, rather than, say, Town Called Malice and Broken Stones, which would have been 100 times better, but that's just personal.

And Blur ... who I've now seen playing to huge crowds three times. I wonder at how emotional their music is now. I'm not sure that's what would have been predicted 30 years ago. I also wonder at how vast their ballads have become. To The End, This is a Low, Tender, The Universal, those songs have grown and grown with time. There's something about Damon Albarn's voice, what it aspires to, which is so surprisingly perfect for stadium gigs. 

Even Parklife was great. Under the Westway came into its own. They played two songs from the new album, which hadn't come out yet. Knowing how good the album would be, they showed some restraint not playing more of it. What a great band they are. I was not disappointed.

I've also now seen The Strokes three times at massive outdoor gigs (Benicassim, Hyde Park, Victoria Park), without them really ever being the reason I was there. They're a puzzle, those Strokes. I didn't enjoy them this time. I was worn out, I was alone, the sound was muddy. I left halfway through, correctly calculating that I would hear the rest of the set just as well as I walked back, out and round through Vic Park, and indeed that they would get to Hard to Explain just as I was walking parallel with the stage outside the fence.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who'd played just before on the other stage, were great, and I thought to myself while Julian mumbled away, "surely the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the bigger band now", "are the Strokes still fit to headline anything?" but, when you look up the stats, the Strokes are still massive, the streaming numbers on songs from their (excellent) last album are great, and so, fair play. And indeed, I don't think, when I concentrated, they were doing anything wrong that night. Just the sound was bad. And he mumbles. And they don't surprise. And if a band's been going for over 20 years, and they're headlining not for the first time, then I think the sound being bad is kind of their responsibility.

Anyway, i was there for the Walkmen. I wasn't going to go initially. Then the Walkmen were added to the bill late on. The Walkmen, one of the finest rock bands of the century, returned from their extreme hiatus this year, and wouldn't you know it, their London shows were in the week I was on holiday.

So, when The Walkmen were added to The Strokes/Yeah Yeah Yeahs APE bill late on, I decided it was worth £90 to hear 10 songs by them in an afternoon,  and if i couldn't find anyone, I'd go on my own.

Indeed, I persuaded myself when talking to a couple of people on the tube on the way back from Blur. as, when they said they were going and they hadn't heard of the Walkmen, I told them they were better than the Strokes. Which they are. But there we go. The Strokes are The Strokes. 

The Walkmen played at 5.30. They went down well, the drummer drummed like a motherfucker, Hamilton Leithauser sang like a demon, gave great chat. It was worth the money to be there and hear them and watch them. All the Hands and the Cook. We've Been Had. The Rat. Angela Surf City. Heaven. I wondered not for the first time how come the Strokes still carried so much weight and the Walkmen were a beloved little footnote. Hard to explain.