Still catching up with the gigs from what is now four years ago. What this process is teaching me is that I really need to be more prompt with these reviews. It’s amazing how much you forget.
This was an early anniversary celebration for me and Geth (those who (a) attended our wedding in November 2012 and (b) have a particular niche music awareness may remember that we did our first dance to Carter USM’s ‘And God Created Brixton’).
Berries were the support act. I don’t really remember anything about them, sorry!
There’s no setlist on setlist.fm for this particular show, but the one listed for the Sheffield date is near-identical from my memory.
As is typical for Jim Bob gigs these days, it was a great mix of Carter classics and solo stuff. Geth and I had really been enjoying the recent solo stuff (‘Battling The Bottle’ and ‘The Summer of No Touching’ are big favourites of mine) so it was a constant vibe. We stood on the balcony platform to the side of the pit (I can’t do pits these days!) so the view was slightly blocked, but that didn’t spoil a thing. (Geth afterwards: ‘that was the best gig I’ve been to all year, and I could only see his feet’.)
Other than the abovementioned, my highlights were ‘Bloodsport for All’ (though, this being late 2022, my mind did wander to the question of whether the ‘God Save the Queen’ reference should be changed to ‘God Save the King’) and ‘Prince in a Pauper’s Grave’ (my all-time favourite Carter song).
It was a great night and definitely up there with the best of 2022. Jim Bob is playing Newcastle again this spring and I’m sort of tempted!