Live Review: Carl Barât – Yardbirds, Grimsby

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Revive


Photo By: Marc Whiffen

A freezing Thursday night in Grimsby, this doesn’t sound the most desirable destination for a gig, but with The Libertines legend Carl Barât in Town, Yardbirds in Grimsby was the only place to be.

The gig was part of the Revive Tour which saw Music Venue Trust team up The National Lottery to get bands back into grassroots venues. Grimsby Town centre was buzzing beforehand, you could tell just by the look and style of people as to which ones were heading to the gig, this on top of a few tickets trading hands too.

It seemed a really low key event with a lot of people not even knowing it was taking place, despite this, Grimsby’s indie glitterati were all there in attendance, these included members from local bands Orphan Boy, The Brightlights, So & So’s, Mint and The Brookes. Everybody in the audience was there for one thing too, it looked like there were no hanger ons with everybody there being big fans and just wanting to get stuck in.

Carl Barât took to the stage with his band which included Liam Gallagher‘s bassist and ex-Babyshambles Drew McConnell. With no messing around they smashed straight into the Dirty Pretty Things classic ‘Deadwood’, which showed Barât’s intention that this was going to be a no-bullshit, full-on Rock ‘n’ Roll show…

Photo By: Marc Whiffen

The Libertines were one of the main bands who added fuel to the indie revival in 2002, and the first two tracks from their debut album ‘Up The Bracket’ came early in the set with ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Death on the Stairs’ separated by The Jackals tune ‘Glory Days’ and new Barât solo track ‘0.5’.

Usually when a band or artist plays new tunes it kills the mood a bit but Carl Barât‘s new solo tunes which included ‘Run Run Run’, ‘Warholes’ and personal favourite ‘Oh Shit’ kept the pace alive among the classics and although they are new, they felt familiar and kept the audience in the palm of his hands…

Photo By: Marc Whiffen

The darkest and heaviest section of the set came with Dirty Pretty Things ‘Gin and Milk’ and The Jackals‘ ‘Victory Gin’ being played in a row, this also showed how tight the musical connection between the band is.

Arguably, the biggest The Libertines track ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ created the biggest mosh-pit so far in the set with all in attendance singing every word back word for word, with extra shouts of ‘Let Me Go’. A break before an encore followed, giving everybody some time for a breather and a quick run to the bar.

Barât and his band brought the set to riotous and sweaty end with three massive hitting tunes, ‘I Get Along’, ‘Bang Bang You’re Dead’ and ‘Time For Heroes’, with ‘Time For Heroes’ stealing the craziest mosh pit title from previous ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’, this even saw some fans trying to crowd surf across the intimate audience, it was a shame the set was over as the crowd were hungry for more but Carl Barât had given more than enough to everybody and this was reflected in the smiles when the gig was over.

As far as grassroots venues go, Yardbirds had gone through a big makeover and expansion, this in time will hopefully have Yardbirds and Grimsby on those medium-sized venue tour posters sitting alongside the likes of Rock City, The Leadmill and The Engine Shed. I’d go as far as saying that the whole set up is much better than most of them venues too, everything from the bar to the toilets just seems hassle-free. It’s an exciting time for Grimsby with Yardbirds and also Docks Academy.

Photo By: Marc Whiffen

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