Live : The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Birmingham HMV Institute June 14 2011)

Being a bit old i don't go to that many gigs these days and have not been to a proper gig in a sweaty crammed room as opposed to stadium rock in a giant arena or something (i jest i haven't been to any of them either!) for some time. I keep meaning to change this state of affairs but procrastination and laziness get in the way...

However when my current favourite band The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (which i'll shorten to POBPAH here after as i am lazy) came to town i decided to go and see them. I knew i would regret it if i didn't, just as i regret not going down to London to see The Orchids earlier in the year.

I've never actually seen my "favourite band" live before (though for some reason have seen The Farm), obviously that could never happen now with Nirvana and Brighter for various reasons, and as i said above i regret now not going to see The Orchids so the fact i was going to see POBPAH added to my anticipation. I did feel a bit nervous though. What if i was the only old person there in a sea of hipsters? What if they weren't quite as good as the uber-awesome they were going to be in my dreams?

Why did i worry? POBPAH exceeded any expectations, they are just brilliant in every way. There were quite a few people there my age and even a few old punks... and plenty of hipsters too natch.

As they played through the songs i love like "Come Saturday" i was overcome with a feeling of happiness and contentment, and left with joy... and tinnitus. Yes it a bit loud but i decided to refrain from asking them to turn it down a bit (would have been a bit of a faux pas). There was plenty of fuzz noise and distortion, Peggy's keyboards were a bit hard to hear as were Kip's vocals at times but the band were tight and full of energy.

The support acts were quite good, Rogue States are a local band and are promising, their singer needs to stop shaking his sweat everywhere though. I've not heard of Fanzine before but am a fan now for sure, great indie pop noise.

I so hope POBPAH come back again soon. I'll take a proper camera with me too, my camera phone could only manage the below: