The Streets Live :: Wessex Scene Online

The Streets Live

16th November 2008
Christopher Megginson

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Nov 08 - The Ghost Frequency Live
Nov 08 - Foals Live
Nov 08 - Cyndi Lauper, Southampton Guildhall
Oct 08 - Subhumans Live
Jun 06 - The Streets live at Soton Guildhall

Mike Skinner & Co live it loud and large at Southampton Guildhall, 13th Oct 2008

Following the previous days frantic and desperately disappointing attempts to bring down either the postal service or a ticket vendor (which I shall not give the dignity of being named here, because, any publicity is... etc.) due to a monumental mess up regarding my ticket to see Foals... (“well sir it has been recorded that the tickets were delivered.” “YEAH... TO THE WRONG ADDRESS!!!”), I was offered immediate consolation as the Mike Skinner’s genre spanning, all conquering bandwagon ‘The Streets’ rolled into town to dry my eyes (mate)... And then some...

Quick mention of the support act ‘The Metros’, who I personally was impressed with. While overall being fairly one dimensional and unimaginative, it just so happens that that one dimension was ‘lad rock’, which perfectly suited the atmosphere inside the Guildhall, and rather successfully whipped up the crowd into a beer soaked state (the roadie who came on after the metros was pelted with a half empty bottle for his troubles). However I fear that they may fall into the trap of being no more than a support act, lacking the depth and variety required to rise to anything more.

Now (if I can digress a little), all too often I have come away from concerts/gigs feeling rather flat because the headlining artist has tackled the delicate balancing act of the “pre gig music mix” and rather shot themselves in the foot by playing far superior songs to their own through the amps, and in fact just made the audience wish they were at some other gig (Pigeon Detectives played Arctic Monkeys, for instance). There was a moment at which I feared The Streets had done the same, as the familiar Tennessee warble of Caleb Followill blared out through the guildhall, prompting a mass sing along to Kings Of Leon’s “Sex On Fire”. In fact, this was a stroke of genius, it was that bit extra needed to really get the audience really up for The Streets experience... or it could be that I’m reading too much into it and that Skinner just happens to like Kings Of Leon of course...

Either way, half way through this sing along The Streets minus Skinner bounded onto the stage, and launched into the title track from their new album “Everything Is Borrowed”, Skinner rapping/singing the first few lines from backstage before producing himself before the assembled throng. The throng, naturally, ‘goes crazy’ and The Streets are quickly into the swing of things with “Don’t Mug Yourself” and “Has It Come To This?” proving to be huge crowd pleasers, the first of the real sing along choruses of the night.
I’ve seen The Streets live once before (when they supported MUSE at Wembley stadium, if you’re asking, and if I’m bragging), and what’s struck me both times is that, whatever you think about their music or their style (which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea) they are just here to have fun, to, as they put it, “Turn Monday into Friday in the space of one night”, and this attitude is tremendously infectious. Case in point:
Skinner encourages random audience participation through the night; “when he plays the piano, everyone get low” and “when he [the drummer] stands up, everyone look at someone they don’t know, look in their eyes and say I love you”. This all sounds rather bizarre I’m sure, but as far as I could see everyone around duly obliged and everyone was having a good laugh.
The set rumbles through The Streets’ impressive back catalogue, including “It’s Too Late” and “Never Went To Church”, and then came a surprise with a cover of the Glasvegas hit “Daddy’s Gone” which brilliantly fitted with the assembled demographic, with a great number of the crowd, especially those of us at the front, singing along to every word.

Somewhat predictably (though I don’t mean that in a derogatory way at all) the über-anthem of the lonely or recently broken-up, and almost without a doubt The Streets’ most famous song, “Dry Your Eyes Mate” is saved until the encore and it is definitely worth waiting for. Returning first with their inaugural album opener “Turn The Page” with its upbeat synthesized strings and following this with the aforementioned showstopper, and then the real fun begins.

Somewhere in-between this and the final song (forgive for not remembering exactly, is “I was having too much fun” an acceptable excuse for memory loss?) Mike Skinner ‘parts the waves’ of the crowd in what would prove to be a doomed attempt to run down the middle. Granted we the crowd create a suitable runway, but this gap vanished the moment Skinner entered the crowd as he was mobbed by his adoring fans. The look of horror on his face as he struggled his way back to the stage was summed up by his worriedly hopeful sounding shout of “Is everyone still alive?” (‘Just about’ was my personal answer).

Well if there was anyone on their last legs, it must have seemed to them that The Streets were intent on finishing them off, closing with “Fit But You Know It”, which caused a suitable frenzy to end the “Friday” night.

As I said before, it was all great fun, I would definitely recommend it. In summary, to quote the final song, “I reckon about an 8 or a 9.”